Goodwill Drying Up for Jacinda Ardern?

Not so long ago, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern supplied funding to a drug rehabilitation programme run by people affiliated with a criminal gang known as the Mongrel Mob. The sum involved was $2.75 million.

Now she's funding humanitarian work in Afghanistan. The Taliban have thanked New Zealand for the support. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/449619/new-zealand-gives-3m-in-humanitarian-assistance-for-dire-afghanistan-situation

This latest throwing good money after bad comes just as New Zealand is in the strictest Covid-19 lockdown in the world, despite no-one being in hospital or even dead from the Delta said to be rampaging across the country.

Now people are not so happy with her. This may be going too far, especially as small businesses have less support this time round, they're facing extinction.

Taliban in Control

When things happen they can happen really fast. The Taliban have taken effective control of Afghanistan. In scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon in 1975, the US are using helicopters to ferry its staff to the airport and an escape from the US embassy. It is reported that the Taliban have even more territory now than when they last ruled the country. This has got to be humiliating for the United States.

Give credit to the Taliban fighters. As a force they're highly mobile with their little motorcycles and Toyota trucks. I noticed that on those motorcycles they go two up, one guy on the back with a rocket propelled grenade, the other guy in front with an AK47 strapped to his front. If they need more firepower they call up the Toyotas with heavier machine guns mounted on the back. They're coordinated through the use of walkie talkies. In this way they can very quickly change their point of attack. The opposition forces are almost always hunkered down in their bunkers. 

Afghanistan - The Taliban Won

Here's a rough guide to what is going on currently:

Official: the president and his tireless staff are working night and day to bring a satisfactory resolution to the conflict.

Translation: we're out of here just as soon as we find a safe haven somewhere not Afghanistan.

Official: we still have many regional capitals loyal to the administration. We supply them by air as the roads are blocked.

Translation: the only place the government has control is Kabul and that won't be for much longer. The president of Afghanistan is really just the mayor of Kabul and maybe then not all of it.

Official: we are retraining police

Translation: the police deserted their posts and ran away. When they ran out of money they gave themselves up so they can get paid again. As soon as they have enough money, they're running away yet again, except to another country altogether just like their bosses.

Official: the Taliban have taken some cities

Translation: the local administration simply raised a new flag and started taking calls from the Taliban who are all related anyway, their daughters are married to these blokes.

Official: this will all be over soon, we are meeting with the Taliban and these talks incorporate the UN and its agencies.

Translation: the Taliban are saying about time to surrender and they've just about run out of patience. Total capitulation of the Afghan government isn't far away.

The Taliban Won

Those old enough to remember the Vietnam War will see similarities with the current US 'drawdown' in Afghanistan. In Vietnam the US were all positive talk and spin leading up to the end, until we saw the last helicopter leaving the US Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), and film of the US Navy pushing helicopters into the sea from the decks of aircraft carriers, to make way for more helicopters arriving with people evacuating.

Does anyone think the Afghan government will last more than a year? The President of Afghanistan is basically only the mayor of Kabul. The Afghan military will readily don whatever uniform they're paid to wear. Those areas the Taliban are seizing, in reality it is just the areas putting up new flags as they switch allegiance. 

The US lost another war. Face the facts.