RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-kabul-airport-explosion-11629976397

More than 100 people were killed, including at least 13 U.S. service members and 90 Afghans, at the Kabul airport Thursday when two blasts ripped through crowds trying to enter the American-controlled facility, disrupting the final push of the U.S.-led evacuation effort.

A suicide bomb attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate was followed by an assault by gunmen, officials said. Another bomb attack took place nearby, at a hotel outside the airport, officials said. Eighteen U.S. service members were injured, the Pentagon said.

The attack marked the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2011, and came just five days before the Biden administration’s deadline for the complete military withdrawal from the country. The military expects more attacks, Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie told reporters.

President Biden on Thursday evening said he was heartbroken by the violence and vowed to retaliate for the attacks, while promising to continue evacuation efforts.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Mr. Biden said in remarks at the White House. He said he had instructed his national security advisers to develop response plans to the attack.

U.S. officials attributed the violence to Islamic State’s regional offshoot. Islamic State claimed responsibility in a report posted by its Amaq news agency.

The Taliban are a sworn enemy of Islamic State, and shot dead one of the group’s top leaders in Afghanistan hours after taking over the Kabul prison where he was held. The two Islamist groups have fought each other in Afghanistan since 2015, particularly in the eastern part of the country. As recently as Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman told Iranian state media that Islamic State no longer existed in Afghanistan.

“We strongly condemn this gruesome incident and will take every step to bring the culprits to justice,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17680/europe-afghan-migrants

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has estimated that up to five million people will try to leave Afghanistan for Europe.

“I am clearly opposed to us now taking in more people. That will not happen under my chancellorship. Taking in people who then cannot be integrated is a huge problem for us as a country.” — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

“As minister of the interior, I am primarily responsible for the people living in Austria. Above all, this means protecting social peace and the welfare state over the long term.” — Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.

“It is clear to us that 2015 must not be repeated. We will not be able to solve the Afghanistan issue by migration to Germany.” — Paul Ziemiak, general secretary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

Afghan criminals, including rapists and drug traffickers, who previously had been deported to Afghanistan, have now returned to Germany on evacuation flights. Upon arrival in Germany, they immediately submitted new asylum applications.

“Our country will not be a gateway to Europe for illegal Afghan migrants.” — Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi.

“We need to remind our European friends of this fact: Europe — which has become the center of attraction for millions of people — cannot stay out of the Afghan refugee problem by harshly sealing its borders to protect the safety and wellbeing of its citizens. Turkey has no duty, responsibility or obligation to be Europe’s refugee warehouse.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Taliban conquest of Afghanistan is poised to trigger an unprecedented wave of Afghan migration to Europe, which is bracing for the arrival of potentially hundreds of thousands — possibly even millions — of refugees and migrants from the war-torn country.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, expressing an ominous sense of foreboding, has estimated that up to five million people will try to leave Afghanistan for Europe. Such migration numbers, if they materialize, would make the previous migration crisis of 2015 — when more than a million people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East made their way to Europe — pale by comparison.

Since 2015, around 570,000 Afghans — almost exclusively young men — have requested asylum in the European Union, according to EU estimates. In 2020, Afghanistan was the EU’s second-biggest source of asylum applicants after those from Syria.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/talibans-regulations-women-ashlyn-davis/

Conventional media have put all their resources into whitewashing the brutalities of the Taliban and giving them an image makeover, so as to make them acceptable to the modern world and perhaps win these mountain savages a seat at the United Nations. They tell us that Taliban 2.0 is a whole different entity and is not comparable to the Taliban that had wreaked havoc in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. After all, the Muslim group has promised to honor women rights and allow them to continue to work as usual. Little girls could receive education as well.

We are a little confused by the Taliban’s commitment to permitting girls to go to school, because quite recently, Taliban jihadis were going door-to-door hunting down girls as young as twelve years old, to take them as sex slaves. We have learned of a woman being lashed for wearing revealing slippers and another burka-clad woman being shot dead for not covering her face enough. And these atrocities have happened under the rule of the moderate, women’s-rights-acknowledging Taliban 2.0.

Leaders of the Muslim outfit have clarified their views on women’s rights in the country: “The rights of women will be under the Sharia law,” affirmed Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, during their first press conference since conquering Kabul.

And what are the rights granted to women by this esteemed Islamic law? Let’s look at the “rights” Afghan women enjoyed during Taliban 1.0 from 1996 to 2001; or shall we call them impositions?

Women were not allowed to walk out of their homes without a burqa covering every inch of their skin, including their feet, hands and face. Most women during that period opted for the shuttlecock burqa that covered them from head to toe; there was a little gap for the eyes, but with a net or mesh covering the gap so that their eyes couldn’t be seen. It was mandatory for every woman to be accompanied by a male family member – a blood relative – while she was out on the street.

No man should be able to hear the footsteps of a woman, hence, high heels or any kind of footwear that produced a sound while walking were banned from use by women.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/08/women_and_girls_hardest_hit_in_afghanistan.html

For Afghan girls and women who must remain in Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter what the USA does now.  What the USA did is the issue.  

Many voices are sounding off on this reality, but their words do not matter much to everyday women in Afghanistan.  It is all sound and fury now.

Had the government of Ashraf Ghani and the army of Afghanistan stayed in place and continued to operate and govern after the U.S. military pulled out, Afghan women and girls might have had a chance, might have had futures, even if fighting with the Taliban continued.  Now their prospects and even their lives are over.  Oh, sure, many will live on, but their lives will be torturous.

It seems President Biden just waved his hand and said get our troops out of Afghanistan now.  Did he understand what would happen to girls and women in Afghanistan with that directive?  When he chose to “go to zero” suddenly, pulling our military out completely, did he even consider Afghan girls and women?   Doubt it.

Why?  Aren’t the Democrats always hyper-focused on the plight of women?  Did Biden have room in his heart only for American women? 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9925153/Thousands-desperate-Americans-allies-scramble-Kabul.html

By Sam Baker and Chris Pleasance for MailOnline and Elizabeth Elkind, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com and Wires

 US airlifts more than 19K in 24 hours as desperate Afghans cause a STAMPEDE at the airport amid fears of an ISIS-K attack
Desperate Afghans waded through sewage at Kabul airport today in a last-ditch effort to escape Taliban rule 
Evacuees said they had been attacked by the Taliban and prevented from getting to Kabul airport 
The reports emerged less than 24 hours after President Biden said the Taliban needed to let people leave  
Fears are growing that crowds could try to storm the airport or that opportunistic terrorists will launch an attack – fears that will only grow as troop numbers dwindle
Those not already at airport now have little chance of escape, as Taliban stop all Afghan citizens reaching it
Members of the GOP said on Tuesday night that Biden has ‘blood on his hands’ because of who is left behind 
Taliban has warned President Biden that there will be no extension to the August 31 evacuation deadline
US evacuated 19,000 people from Kabul, across 48 different flights, over the last 24 hours, White House says 
Two Congressmen who travelled to Kabul to witness the chaos say: ‘We won’t get everyone out on time’
Pentagon commanders have also warned of Islamic State-offshoot called ISIS-K who are targeting planes
Afghanistan’s former interior minister claims he Taliban are killing innocent children in power consolidation

Thousands converged on Kabul airport on Wednesday in a desperate bid to leave Afghanistan amid reports the Taliban are stopping westerners getting in, less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden said he would only pull troops by August 31 if the insurgents allow safe passage.

The U.S. has ramped up its airlifts and has evacuated 19,000 people in the last 24 hours and has already started pulling out military forces with just six days until the deadline, which Biden has promised to stick to. 

But the Taliban has ignored the president’s threats and is beating up people trying to leave, according to reports, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said there isn’t enough time to get everyone out.