Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - The Taliban Take Over Explained by afghani insider Ali M Latifi

Episode Date: August 20, 2021

Join us this week for our exclusive Patreon clip as we talk with Afghanistan based journalist Ali M Latifi!

What up people, Shultz here and you guys are about to listen to a clip from our weekly Patreon episode. If you want to sign up to our Patreon, support the flagrancy, support what we are doing, completely uncensored, flagrant content, you go to patreon.com slash flagrant2. With no more interruptions, here is the exclusive clip. Apparently there's something going down in Afghanistan. I don't know. People have been talking about it a lot. So we figured why not talk to a journalist who's actually on the ground? Okay.

We've got boots on the ground or sandals maybe in your case. We have with us journalist, scholar, and verified Twitter account. The only reason I replied, Ali Latifi, okay, who is in Kabul right now. He is in Kabul right now. He is looking at our set. The only thing he commented on was the gold AK-47, so no shit is going down in Afghanistan. Somehow he's smiling, and he is cheerful,

and he looks like an Afghan George Lopez. Welcome to the show. Um, uh, welcome to the show. So obviously we have so many questions. Please tell us just right now. You are, uh, you were born and raised in Kabul, correct? No, I was born in Kabul. I was raised in California.

Okay. So you're born in Kabul, raised in California. We have so many questions, but I just want to start breaking this down. Please give us an understanding of what life was like under U.S. occupation, and then what has changed in the last couple days. So again, everybody listening right now, he is in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban have just taken control of pretty much the entire country. They've taken control of Kabul. They're

operating and controlling the media, any military forces and everything that's going on. So one, what was life like during U.S. occupation? during US occupation? It's okay. It's a country of like, and I know it's kind of a cliche, but it's a country of like really, really large contrasts, right? Yeah. So, you know, you will see a fancy high rise building, you know, there's one across from me that has a dome on it that looks like the US Capitol. You know, there's a new steakhouse and like sports lounge that opened up only less than a year ago, that they both cost like $2 million to build. But then at the same time on the way there,

you see homeless heroin addicts, you know, just on the street. Or when, like in winter, when it rains, you know, I live in like the downtown commercial area above these two big banks. But when it rains, unless a car like literally backs up into the entrance of the building i can't get out because the water will be up to my knees um so so it it it's very there has been a lot of change and a lot of advancement obviously since the taliban but also that doesn't mean anything right because the taliban came to power in 1996 after a civil war and before that was the soviet occupation so everything was destroyed so when in 2001 when the u.s started their occupation um there was nothing it was it was literally zero right so if you go from zero to one or zero to ten or even zero to like 30 or 40 it's still a huge improvement you know right right um and so

that's really what it was like because you know you would go places where the nearest hospital was like 40 kilometers down an unpaved road right you know uphill um so if you were poor, what would you do? Right. Or if your school was like that. So there are rich people there. They were living good lives. They were eating at steakhouses, et cetera. But they're incredibly poor people as well.

So that discrepancy in wealth is very difficult. I think most Americans right now are watching what's happening and they're going, how the fuck can a terrorist organization, because that's how we see the Taliban, right? We just, we hear Taliban and we're like, oh, it's no different than ISIS, no different than Al Qaeda. Like we think they're all synonymous, right? And so forgive our ignorance if we don't understand if it's more of a political motive there,

what's going on. But how can a terrorist organization, right, of a bunch of dudes, right, just, it seems like running around in the back of Toyota Tacomas, take over an entire country in a few days. Can you explain how that happened? And if that is what happened? It happens because of poor planning from the U.S. side and the Afghan side. It happens from corruption on the U.S. side and the Afghan side. It happens because of a really smart, astute Taliban that took advantage of a situation. It happens because of a peace deal that Trump signed with them that emboldened them and made them feel, I mean, they were victorious, but it solidified their idea of victory.

What was the peace deal that Trump signed? So in 2020, on February 29th, 2020, Donald Trump signed a peace agreement. Very important. Black History Month leap year. Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban that basically said they were supposed to leave in May of this year. They mean the U.S. The U.S., right. Sorry. The U.S. was supposed to leave in May of this year. And part of the agreement was that in exchange for that agreement, the Taliban would not attack U.S.

or foreign soldiers or targets of any kind. And that the U.S. would agree to draw down their forces to 100% and allow, push for the Taliban to have 5,000 of their prisoners released. So that was, you know, like the Taliban, let's be honest,

were already winning militarily even before that. But this just, this was like the icing on the cake, you know, this set it for them. And they were like, look, we got an agreement from the US, you know? I mean, it seems to me, it seems to me that agreement is just here's the keys it's your country now that's exactly that's that because because then then then you know they were meeting

with other countries in the past because in 2011 obama approved for them to go to doha to have like a political office right where they were supposed to discuss peace yeah and ever since they first got there they were having like secret meetings with westerners and with regional countries and um Europeans and all of this but uh it wasn't like it was never like you know fully formal and recognized and made public. It was still very hush-hush. Right. After the peace deal, the Taliban went on a world tour.

Yeah, they were emboldened. Yeah, and they were everywhere. And they were going on this diplomatic mission and assuring different countries that when we come to power, like they told China, you don't have to worry about the Uyghurs. Even though they consider themselves to be an Islamic movement, they turn their back on the Uyghurs. They told Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, we won't let these armed groups from your country into our country. They told Russia, you don't have

to worry about those Central Asian armed groups. You don't have to worry about those Central Asian armed groups. You don't have to worry about Daesh or ISIS. So they made all these deals with all these other countries. And so now all these other countries are supporting them becoming the reign of power, the ruling party, because it's beneficial for these other countries. Ah, so the way the media is portraying this back home is that the Taliban like just completely rinsed the Afghan national forces at ANF it's called. All right, guys, we're gonna take a break from this exclusive Patreon clip because I got to tell you about the best bong in the business, the best way to smoke your weed, your CBD shit. I don't even know if people are smoking tobacco

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that you can find the whole episode at patreon.com The Afghan National Forces at ANF it's called? Exclusive Patreon clip that you can find the whole episode at patreon.com. The Afghan National Forces at ANF it's called. ANSF. ANSF. Right. And, but in reality,

there was no pushback in reality. This was the agreement. It was once America's out of here, we're taking over and everybody knew that. So we're pretending as if there was some war going on the last few days when it's all bullshit. Everybody knew exactly what was going to happen. Part of it. I mean, there was a war and there was a pushback,

but the pushback came from security forces that had already been suffering for so long and didn't have the support that they needed. You know, I've been saying this everywhere. I've been reporting on this since 2011. I've been going to the provinces. I've been meeting with people. I remember meeting police and soldiers who had to buy their own boots.

You know, I remember talking to police and soldiers who said they didn't have food to eat, who hadn't been paid in months in some of the most dangerous provinces in the country. You know, and then also they're serving areas where there really isn't necessarily much development or advancement. And, you know, like there, there were cases where, where soldiers would die and their family would have to go and get the dead bodies somehow and either bring them on the back of a taxi or get one of the private airlines to allow them to charter it for free. So they had no loyalty to the ANSF because the ANSF... The government was super corrupt, right? Right.

And so they weren't getting... They were asking for weapons. They weren't getting it. They were asking for support and backup when they came under attack. They weren't getting it. There were instances before in the past when provinces were about to fall, but the people around the president were lying to him and saying like, oh no, it's not that bad. And only when it was teetering on the edge did he find out the truth and then do something.

Let me ask you a question real quick. You talked about how there was a lot of corruption and the US.S. Biden in a speech yesterday said they were funding the Afghan military. What was happening to the money? Do you have any idea? Obviously, they didn't get it. There was corruption. Where was it going? Do we know? everything was contracted out to all, you know, like people within the Ministry of Defense and within the Ministry of Interior were corrupt. You know, they from the top were skimming, they were making deals with their friends, and getting cuts themselves, you know, and finding like the cheapest sort of alternatives or the easiest alternatives, like there was investigation. or the easiest alternatives. Like there was investigation. So there's a U.S. body called the CIGAR,

the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. And they basically have for the last almost decade have just been going and just evaluating all of the spending in the U.S. And they found that they spent something like tens of millions of dollars on camouflage uniforms that do not suit the Afghanistan environment at all. Do you get what I'm saying? They were made for a jungle scenario or something. Yeah, like for Vietnam, left over from the 70s. Yeah, yeah, like Vietnam or the Amazon or something. So this is interesting.

So there's all this corruption that exists within the regime and power that the U.S. is backing. And because of that corruption, the people of Afghanistan don't feel any loyalty, right? Yeah, very little. They feel very little loyalty. So they're like, I'm not going to risk my life fighting for these people that aren't even taking care of us, especially if they're out of here and I'm no longer going to be getting paid.

Like, it's one thing if you're getting stipends, you're getting food, they're keeping you alive. But if the U.S. and the people that are essentially backing the NSF are saying we're out of here, then they're like, what the fuck am I fighting for? Taliban showing up to these districts with pictures of them standing next to like foreign officials, including the U.S. officials and saying, well, you know, we're going to get the country in a few weeks anyways. And they already promised us this district. So you might as well just lay down. Oh, my God. So they're going to these places.

These are like remote villages. They're not having access to the Internet. They're not watching fucking CNN. Exactly. And they see a picture of the taliban guy next to zhiji ping or the taliban guy next to like the british crime or something like that and they're like oh i guess the taliban is ruling we don't even need a fight we're just gonna walk up this is fascinating none of this is being reported over here by the way yeah when you said that we were

losing over there essentially the taliban like was winning militarily in my mind i was like really i always thought we were kicking the shit out of these people over there and a taliban like was winning militarily in my mind i was like really i always thought we were kicking the shit out of these people over there and they were just kind of like scattered and uh if you were kicking the shit out of them if you were kicking the shit out of them there would be no reason for the u.s to have this visa fiasco where they set up these visas to get interpreters who worked with the u.S. military out, and then later journalists and prominent women and human rights workers and all of that, which I kind of have to say is,

like, that whole program was a lot of bullshit. Yeah. You know, like, it was just super convoluted. It didn't make any sense. You know, people couldn't get direct contact. Like, I imagined it would be like a portal or something right like remember when you used to apply to university like there was a website where you submitted all your documents and you went through all all this

bs you know just just I thought it would be something it's nothing like it's just like a website that says do this do this do this but it doesn't tell you how to do it. And it doesn't specifically tell you who to get in contact with or how to ask questions. There was nothing like that. Right. And then you had people who, you know, let's say they worked with the US 10 years ago or five years ago, and they have to find a US citizen, like the highest ranking US citizen they were in contact with to vouch for them. And so when they would find these people, they would be like, yo, I haven't worked for these people in years. I don't even know if I have the authority. Plus, I don't know who I'm supposed to send this letter to or how I'm supposed to do it.

So there's nothing clear about this. And at the same time, like I said, like if they were kicking the shit out of the Taliban, then why did you need to make these? My parents be so mad and cussing like why why did you need to make these these stupid visas that you know like right essentially left thousands of people stranded in and gave them false hopes right