Loading ...I thought that al qaeda, ISIS, etc., were just generational phenomena that would fade as younger people found better opportunities, but this has made organized terrorism a credible industry again. If the Taliban are smart, they’ll cut deals with China for infrastructure projects that will provide diplomatic backup and be a means to launder opium revenue, all while being a friendly host for terrorist training. They don’t even have to be overt about it. They can just say “train at your own risk” and act a little miffed when US cruise missiles wreck a few hundred bucks worth of tents every now and then.
Does China roll the dice now and bet that Taiwan will fold as quickly as the American-backed Afghan government? Do the Taiwanese have any confidence now that the US would come to their aid? I suspect that nothing we’ve sold the Taiwanese will be worth a damn within 24 hours of the missile barrage China would send. Does Taiwan even have a modern, competent defense, or were they assuming US forces would be spooled up within hours
2011 was the high-water mark (sorry about the pun, Mr. bin Laden) for America in central Asia and the momentum carried for several more years with the disabling of ISIS, but this seems to be a turn in the meta-narrative. Imagine if Rome had trained an army in a frontier region for years and it surrendered to a band of barbarians in a matter of weeks. There would probably be some heads lost, but fortunately for the empire, it wouldn’t have been memed on social media around the world within hours.Fr