You And What Army?

CNN Interviews Trump Supporter Who Threatens Taliban-Style Takeover to Reinstate Him: 'There's Millions of Guns Here' https://t.co/OY3h1af6EZ

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) August 23, 2021

The Taliban; sure. First question: do you have Taliban money?

GRETCHEN PETERS: They're awash with cash. The Taliban has been earning far more from trafficking drugs and other illicit activity, ranging from extortion rackets to timber trafficking, artisanal mining, kidnapping schemes, for almost two decades now. And so they clearly have been earning more money from all these activities than they needed to run their insurgency. And so they're very well funded.

MARTINEZ: In 2009, you estimated that the Taliban was getting 70% of their funds from opium. Has that changed over time?

PETERS: Well, it's important to state that there are more than one Taliban. So certain factions of the Taliban, particularly the ones that are down in Kandahar and Helmand and the drug-producing areas out in the south and the west, are probably making the vast amount of their funding from the drug trade. Other factions, like the ones located in the east and in the southeast, don't have so much of a revenue stream from narcotics specifically, and they tend to make their money in other ways - from extortion, from kidnapping, from timber trafficking, a wide range of activities.

The Taliban's been making mad money for two decades now.  What have you and your buddies done the past two decades, besides play "Army" in the woods on the weekends?  Or drink beer and talk about your guns?

The Afghan government collapsed so completely the head of government fled the country within hours of the U.S. announcing its withdrawal was almost complete.  Most of the Afghan soldiers either surrendered to the Taliban or joined them.  Do you expect that to happen with U.S. armed forces, as well as local police departments and state police?  Do you expect all heads of government, from D.C. to the 50 states, to flee the country at once, leaving you in charge?

You ready to fight that insurgency for 20 years, like the Taliban did?  You ready to go up against the helicopter gunships?  You got "millions of guns"?  The military has millions of rounds, and they deliver them from airships and helicopters and jets.  You gonna shoot down a jet with your guns?

Go back to playing Army in the woods with your buddies.  You won't get hurt that way.