In honour of wabbit I bring Wikipedia
“According to Vice News, the gun trade in the area was affected by Taliban and was forced to go underground.[3]”
Sure, but multiply that by 1000 or 2 and the numbers add up
If the Taliban turn up on your doorstep and say "We want 1000 AKs in a month " who’s going to say no?
The whole place would get their arses into gear or get their noses cut off
You could buy a Chinese AK on gun broker
Does that mean your ganja business is being supported by the PRC if you buy one?
Considering how many AKs China sells around the world, to folks like Iran, it is totally predictable that many will end up in places like Afghanistan, or Somalia or whatever
That’s a totally different thing to China supporting the Taliban
But let us take a moment to reflect upon the origins of the Taliban, AQ, and IS
Did you read the article? Still, it’s Wikipedia.
"A wide variety of firearms are produced in the town, ranging from anti-aircraft guns to pen guns. Weapons are handmade by individual craftsmen using traditional manufacturing techniques, which are usually handed down from father-to-son. Guns are regularly tested by test-firing into the air.[1] Darra is controlled by the local tribesmen.[2] The town has certain special laws compared to the rest of Pakistan. Most of the people here make or sell just one thing, i.e., guns, while the second largest business of the inhabitants is transport. Manufacturing of heavy ammunition, however, has been closed down.
Tourism is not advisable because tribal police (Khasadar) visit the market to check for any local rules and law violation. Foreigners without permits are taken to secure places to avoid any mishaps.
The Darra arms trade first fired up in 1897 and became popular with the Adam Khel Afridis.
According to Vice News, the gun trade in the area was affected by Taliban and was forced to go underground.[3]"
What’s your point Joe
Please be susinkt
Show me an AA gun produced by these people. There’s one street.
Vice News.
Kinda the point of the movie “Lord of War”. The five (semi)permanent members of the UN Security council, the people who are supposed to police this, are also the world’s top arms dealers.
Does it matter if China is giving them weapons(and more importantly ammo) or if they are selling it to them for those sweet Opium profits? Either way they are fueling the conflict.
Yes the US trained AQ, and the Taliban, and the various resistance groups that are fighting the Taliban… all in the name of spreading freedom and democracy against Communism.
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Kinda backwards there. The US trained and supplied the Mujahedeen and one of the many groups that made up the Mujahedeen was the Taliban.
The Taliban was a more minor player in those days with a smaller membership. It was Pakistan that played kingmaker to the Taliban by hiring the Taliban in the mid 90s for protection to protect a new trade route. The money being made by playing gate keeper caused the Taliban’s ranks to swell and allowed them to corner the market on legal and illicit trade.
Al Qaeda was a foreign Mujahedeen satellite and was never a major force in the Soviet-Afghan fighting. From the beginning, bin Laden hated the US and spread the belief that Jews and Christians were actively conspiring to destroy Islam and urged people not to work with the US. Al Qaeda’s training mostly occurred in Pakistan and hinges on the implausible stories generated around a former Egyptian intelligence officer who enlisted in the US Army named Ali Mohamed. Much of the stories and rumors about him were assumed by people who did not have first hand knowledge of Mohamed and further in the media where things get even further from reliable or accountable facts.
Many of the claims made by and around Ali Mohamed simply don’t add up. Among claims around made about him are claims that the US trained him to be “Special Forces” (American Green Berets) and at Fort Bragg trained him in assassination, hostage taking and passenger airplane hijacking in the mid to late 80s, for example; highly dubious to say the least.
During the Afghan-Soviet conflict there were never very many foreign Mujahedeen fighters, playing only a very minor role throughout. Al Qaeda as set up by bin Laden didn’t train in Afghanistan, they trained in guerilla fighting in Pakistan and their training manuals were attributed by the rumor mill partially to Ali Mohamed without evidence. Ali who had been tossed out of a CIA asset program in 81 as highly unreliable was later assumed without evidence in these rumors to have been working for the CIA all along.
We trained some Mujahedeen guys and some Mujahedeen guys went on to joint the Taliban. Some Taliban guys went on to join Al Qaeda. Only 2000 foreign fighters were involved in the Mujahedeen. Al Qaeda was made up of foreign Afghan fighters. The likelihood that any considerable amount of training for Al Qaeda came from directly from the US government is very, very low.
I didn’t say they trained UBL, they trained AQ. UBL was in Peshawar fighting the Soviets from 1979, with MAK under Azzam. Azzaro and MAK were definitely funded by the CIA.
When UBL assisted Azzam(or his car just blew up of its own accord after the two split), he successfully turned the US trained MAK guys into AQ.
He himself was able to tbe the gray man until around 1996, after he had already done a lot of damage.
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Sorry, man. I have a tendency to get carried away.
I apologize for calling you stupid. It was rude, unbecoming and I’m trying to grown up right now and it’s stressing me out.
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Fake it til ya make it…
One of these days but in the meantime I’ll settle for a tall martini and a general garnering of contempt from my peers.
It’s literally passing out guns.
I read a rumor that President Ghani fled the country with $160 million in cash. President in exile isn’t such a bad racket, I guess. It’s not like he can lose an election in exile. Plus whatever else he’s got squirreled away in accounts that’s a pretty nice haul.
I was reading a book where the SAS was training guys up over there as well.
And maybe had more of a hand in that?
I am still trying to remember a book I read about 10 years ago.
But I vaguely remember the Laurence of Arabia thing sort of started the SAS.
Show me an AA gun in the hands of the Taliban that isn’t Soviet era or before
Here’s how it went
The Talibs rocked up to the town in their hummers and said
“You guys work for God now. We’re taking you and your gear and we’re setting you up in some bombproof caves. Say no and we will rape your children add enslave your wives”
Besides, weren’t we talking AKs?
Whilst I agree it was in China’s interest to see the western democracies, and specifically the US, bogged down in Afghanistan , they don’t want a well armed militant theocracy on their borders especially as they are currently genociding brother believers
Until I see some evidence, I don’t buy the Chinese arming the Taliban argument
IRL the guy in the picture is the local mayor posing for the cameras
(I made that up)