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6:00 am, January 24th, 2026 - 25 comments
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Open mike is your post.
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Step up to the mike …
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360928156/nurses-and-doctors-tears-ed-goes-code-red-four-times
Nationals New Zealand
Simeon states this is 'unacceptable'. For whom- the staff, patients, or his ego?
I cannot figure why Trump would want to take the credit for his military in Afghanistan when they were even more comprehensively beaten there than in Vietnam, Syria, Libya, Yemen, or Somalia.
Last week they lost in Iran without even trying.
Great to see TACO rights icing the US in the world. Overdue.
Rightsizing
Unless it’s the icing on the right
If these stories are an indication, then fury is mounting fast in Britain and elsewhere and rightly so:
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cdxjjwjvkkzt
I hope Starmer has finally realised he is not dealing with a sentient human being, but rather an abysmally ignorant and deranged specimen… a former draft dodger who has never lifted even so much as a finger in defence of his country.
Nor has any member of his family line served during the last c.150 years.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/02/12/president-bone-spur-has-no/1724792007/
They were operating as a support for Afghan forces from 2014, they could have kept that going for decades, but Trump negotiated with the Taleban a withdrawal (which Biden went along with).
This is now happening in Ukraine, Trump ended USAID (which supported energy infrastructure), transferred air defence systems funded by Biden to the Gulf and has refused to supply new funding for Ukraine – the EU has had to buy the US weapons to continue with support.
Also, no real effort to block sanctioned oil, or the supply of Iran drones, not even missile parts from within the USA.
Don't bother trying to pretend that the USA won in Afghanistan.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48638262?seq=1
The EU has been the main source of Ukraine's military support since mid last year. With real thanks to the efforts of Biden though who led support from the start.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/09/04/europe-is-now-ukraine-s-main-source-of-military-support_6745030_4.html
Trump is getting no respite across the MSM for his shaming of countries whose servicemen and women fought and died in Afghanistan. Good job.
It is a fact that the Taleban could not hold a provincial capital, even after the Afghan Army was the prime force in the regions. It only took the force at Kabul to arrive and help to drive them out.
That, despite all these mistakes
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-did-the-us-lose-in-afghanistan-a-new-book-explores-decades-of-mistakes
Ukraine is going the way of Afghanistan because Trump wants to reprise his peace deal move – that time though the Kabul government was shut out of talks. This time Zelensky is involved and determined to prevent the same thing happening again. And so does EU/NATO – thus Trump's attacks.
And their failure to take note of the ill-fated outcome of previous outside military adventures in Afghanistan, plus the all too familiar inability of many western nations to learn from past mistakes. This is covered well by David Loyn in his book Butcher and Bolt – 200 Years of Foreign Engagement in Afghanistan. https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/butcher-and-bolt-9781409060291
OMG looks like they are holding every town in Afghanistan just fine.
It was worse than the fall of Saigon.
Top work on your facts though.
I stated the facts, you just adopted Trump talk method.
1.They had the Taleban out of power permanently with the Afghan forces in the provinces.
2.Anytime the Taleban took a provincial capitol, the American forces leave Kabul kick them out then go back their base.
3.The chose to not afford the Kabul base.
4.Instead Trump chose to do a deal with the Taleban, without Kabul government input.
5.Biden mismanaged the withdrawal.
What has 3, 4 and 5 to do with military defeat? They just chose, to not afford the Kabul base and instead leave.
Top work on confusing provincial capitals with Kabul.
Will you couch Americans leaving NATO with a military defeat by Russia?
You do seem to confuse political calculus with military matters.
Sad, but one ray of hope for the world right now is that Trump tries to topple the Iranian regime and completely fucks it up, with the rest of the world sitting back watching. Unfortunately the rest of the world (as in us) will have to sort out the resulting mess.
Winston Peters exhalting the US withdrawal from the World Health Organisation as is simply hypocritical when Trump has formed an explicitly globalist challenge to the UN in the Board of Peace.
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/unelected-globalist-bureaucrats-peters-welcomes-u-s-decision-to-withdraw-from-who/
And the WHO and UN are way more internationally accountable than Trump's unelected dictatorial Board of Peace.
The world can now reasonably fear a full withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations by the end of 2026. It's no longer a small step.
Without that massive US funding for the UN itself, the UN would be close to collapse or there for specific extremes like the Red Cross.
The 3 November US mid-term elections may generate a stronger Congress to keep him in better check, but I doubt it.
Trump has shown with full control of all arms of government, he could comfortably lose Congress and continue with the same shrinking diplomatic ambit, and just keep moving and breaking things.
The USA giving up its UNSC veto, hardly.
It's of no use now to any of the nuclear powers or the permanent members.
Hard to see what Winston Peters was trying to achieve – perhaps he was just trying to highlight the lack of any comment on from Seymour or Luxon . . .
Right, because the whole system should revolve around your one issue.
And when it doesn’t, sulking is the only appropriate response.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Sorry, Weka.
I'm happy to apologise, admit that I crossed the line, and take responsibility for trivializing an important issue.
thanks RP, appreciate that. It was also going to derail someone else's post, which tends to make the mods tetchy.
In times of depressingly peak political shit, does anyone retreat put the blinds down and pull out The West Wing Season 2?
In line with the above subject matter… this podcast is an essential watch. Brilliant summation of Trump by Scaramucci and what will happen to him:
In regards to Peters comments about the US withdrawal from WHO – I found some interesting contrasts with Winston's previous statements. Also demonstrates what a weak PM Luxon is.
Winston smears a WHO – along with the credibility of the government
Worse than George Forbes? Winston Peters’ latest cheap shots at the World Health Organisation proves he is a liability—and Luxon is too weak to do anything about it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joehendren/p/winston-smears-a-who-along-with-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web