Let's talk about 3000 headed back over there....

RantWoman does not know where to start about everything to do with US troop withdrawal--after TWENTY years there--from Afghanistan so RantWoman is going to start with this BBC item that came to RantWoman via Twitter.

BBC segment on Anisa Shaheed, female journalist who won't give up

No, the video is not entirely accessible. The interview audio is in one of the languages of Afghanistan and there are subtitles in English so some readers many need sighted help.

On a more military-oriented note

Beau of the Fifth Column on what are 3000 troops doing back in Afghanistan

Think of the women. And read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. And then what?

RantWoman is fascinated by Beau of the Fifth Column. Okay RantWoman is so relieved to hear someone with a Southern Accent who is not spouting utter nonsense that she is going to listen to what is here and see who else has anything to say about Afghan internal politics. RantWoman also notes that Beau of the Fifth Column says he started his Youtube / social media presence at the request of public school teachers wanting to living up the teaching of history.

Neither of these pieces in any substitute for a full-scale rant and the best RantWoman can do tonight:

Afghanistan, for all its tribalism has been defeating would-be foreign occupiers for centuries.

The US  got all upset when the then Soviet Union  now Russia invaded Afghanistan. RantWoman means to go look up why the USSR invaded but thinks the why had something to do with propping up a Communist leader.

For the Russians' trouble they got the same thing the US got from Vietnam: a lot of returning troops with PTSD and serious opium addictions. They also inspired the US to team up with Middle eastern partners to create the Taliban, rabidly Islamist opponents to the Russian-back regime.

RantWoman should go look up what made the Soviets/ now Russians pull out, other than collapse of the Soviet Union under the weight of its military engagements. When the Russians pulled out the US secured an invitation from the new government elected with a new Constitution. There was also the matter of Afghanistan serving as safe haven for Osama bin Laden of 9/11 fame.Oh, and there is a geopolitics of Conoco Oil pipelines angle too. Again, RantWoman should look up the details. 

RantWoman went so far as to summon this Soviet Afghan War Wikipedia page--which she would still fact check with other sources, but says more than enough.

Maybe the details are unnecessary though:

--Think of the women, to say the least RantWoman is not overflowing with confidence that the possibility of more US airstrikes will keep girls in school and save woman from attacks on the street.

--There are plenty of Afghans who have risked their own lives and put their families at risk by serving as interpreters, translators and culture brokers for the US military and other arms of the US presence. Media reports are that their evacuation and processing as refugees is at about the same level of care and responsibility as were Iraqis who served in similar roles. In other words, lousy. 

So now what?