On Afghanistan, it's also probably worth noting that the Taliban may not have a lot of attention to spend on squeezing Americans, given that they're fighting a war with ISIS-K now that they're the ones running the country[1]:
"Amaq claimed that seven bombings were carried out on Sept. 18 and 19, with the final explosion occurring outside of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad. Other jihadists have assaulted the Indian consulate inside the city in the past, but there is no indication in Amaq’s reporting that the diplomatic location was deliberately targeted on this occasion."
"The so-called caliphate’s men previously controlled a number of districts in Nangarhar. The Islamic State even seized ground in the Tora Bora Mountains, which were once home to Osama bin Laden."
...
"The Islamic State remains opposed to the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate. The group’s leaders claim that only their would-be caliphate is a legitimate government."
It seems like the Taliban has its hands full trying to fend off competing Islamist caliphate ideals, most notably in ISIS-K. I think that it resulted in the US and other NATO forces getting an unintended advantage of being able to continue the evacuations of Americans and others stuck in Afghanistan. The Taliban seems to mostly but not entirely consist of Pashtuns, who represent the largest plurality of Afghans. ISIS-K seems to be a combination of Dari speaking ethnic Tajiks of Afghanistan and a handful of Tajiki extremists from Tajikistan, but with a few Turkic Islamists(Uzbeks, Uyghurs) allying with their cause. They seem to be attracting extremists who feel the Islamic caliphate ideals of the Taliban is too moderate, comparatively speaking. The Dari speaking Afghans are ethnically Tajiks(similar to the Tajiks of Tajikistan, who speak Tajiki, a language similar to Dari and Farsi). The historical boundaries of Khorosan Province consist of a mix of Iranian peoples(Including Persians and Tajiks) and Turks, which seem to be the ethnic makeup of ISIS-K. It kind of makes sense why ISIS-K's goal is to take over Central(who are mostly Turkic and Iranian peoples) and South Asia under one caliphate. In comparison, the Taliban are mostly Pashtun nationalists and they've limited their caliphate ideals to within Afghanistan.
In any case, this mess could've been avoided had we not pulled out in the manner that we did, and pursued short sighted policies in Afghanistan over the last year and a half, spanning the past and current Presidential administrations.
"Finally, the US passed a grim milestone this week when the number of deaths from COVID-19 exceeded the 675,000 dead from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. We can quibble about the importance of the number. On one hand, the Spanish flu killed a larger percentage of Americans since the population of the US was about 103 million at the time compared to 330 million in 2020. It’s also true that the COVID death toll would have been much higher without a hundred years of advances in medical technology. Ventilators have saved a lot of lives over the past 18 months."
Interesting. Per annum COVID-19 deaths amount to 450k/yr, using the past 18 months of fatality stats. As for the common influenza, it averaged out to 36k/yr. Based on these statistics, it makes COVID-19 12.5 times deadlier than the common flu.
I've heard a few epidemiologists mentioning a little while back that more uniform obedience to the COVID mitigation measures and getting vaccinated, would've kept the death toll around 100k or in the low 100k range. I'm not sure how accurate this is, and I'm not a health expert. But I think we can safely assume that a large percentage of these COVID-19 related deaths were due to elective decisions of careless and cavalier disregarding of pandemic mitigation guidelines and restrictions, as well as refusing to get vaxxed. Given the 1918 Influenza pandemic lasted about 2 years, I'm thinking that barring the unforeseen(deadlier and more transmissible variants), the increased number of vaccinated Americans will probably slow the fatality rate down from 450k/yr, and having a death toll in the upper 700k to lower 800k is probable.
On Afghanistan, it's also probably worth noting that the Taliban may not have a lot of attention to spend on squeezing Americans, given that they're fighting a war with ISIS-K now that they're the ones running the country[1]:
"Amaq claimed that seven bombings were carried out on Sept. 18 and 19, with the final explosion occurring outside of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad. Other jihadists have assaulted the Indian consulate inside the city in the past, but there is no indication in Amaq’s reporting that the diplomatic location was deliberately targeted on this occasion."
"The so-called caliphate’s men previously controlled a number of districts in Nangarhar. The Islamic State even seized ground in the Tora Bora Mountains, which were once home to Osama bin Laden."
...
"The Islamic State remains opposed to the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate. The group’s leaders claim that only their would-be caliphate is a legitimate government."
[1] https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/09/islamic-state-bombs-taliban-convoys-in-eastern-afghanistan.php
It seems like the Taliban has its hands full trying to fend off competing Islamist caliphate ideals, most notably in ISIS-K. I think that it resulted in the US and other NATO forces getting an unintended advantage of being able to continue the evacuations of Americans and others stuck in Afghanistan. The Taliban seems to mostly but not entirely consist of Pashtuns, who represent the largest plurality of Afghans. ISIS-K seems to be a combination of Dari speaking ethnic Tajiks of Afghanistan and a handful of Tajiki extremists from Tajikistan, but with a few Turkic Islamists(Uzbeks, Uyghurs) allying with their cause. They seem to be attracting extremists who feel the Islamic caliphate ideals of the Taliban is too moderate, comparatively speaking. The Dari speaking Afghans are ethnically Tajiks(similar to the Tajiks of Tajikistan, who speak Tajiki, a language similar to Dari and Farsi). The historical boundaries of Khorosan Province consist of a mix of Iranian peoples(Including Persians and Tajiks) and Turks, which seem to be the ethnic makeup of ISIS-K. It kind of makes sense why ISIS-K's goal is to take over Central(who are mostly Turkic and Iranian peoples) and South Asia under one caliphate. In comparison, the Taliban are mostly Pashtun nationalists and they've limited their caliphate ideals to within Afghanistan.
In any case, this mess could've been avoided had we not pulled out in the manner that we did, and pursued short sighted policies in Afghanistan over the last year and a half, spanning the past and current Presidential administrations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/world/asia/who-isis-k-afghanistan.html
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-afghanistan-islamic-state-group-fd3061845f328cbac4ec5eab066482a8
"Finally, the US passed a grim milestone this week when the number of deaths from COVID-19 exceeded the 675,000 dead from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. We can quibble about the importance of the number. On one hand, the Spanish flu killed a larger percentage of Americans since the population of the US was about 103 million at the time compared to 330 million in 2020. It’s also true that the COVID death toll would have been much higher without a hundred years of advances in medical technology. Ventilators have saved a lot of lives over the past 18 months."
Interesting. Per annum COVID-19 deaths amount to 450k/yr, using the past 18 months of fatality stats. As for the common influenza, it averaged out to 36k/yr. Based on these statistics, it makes COVID-19 12.5 times deadlier than the common flu.
I've heard a few epidemiologists mentioning a little while back that more uniform obedience to the COVID mitigation measures and getting vaccinated, would've kept the death toll around 100k or in the low 100k range. I'm not sure how accurate this is, and I'm not a health expert. But I think we can safely assume that a large percentage of these COVID-19 related deaths were due to elective decisions of careless and cavalier disregarding of pandemic mitigation guidelines and restrictions, as well as refusing to get vaxxed. Given the 1918 Influenza pandemic lasted about 2 years, I'm thinking that barring the unforeseen(deadlier and more transmissible variants), the increased number of vaccinated Americans will probably slow the fatality rate down from 450k/yr, and having a death toll in the upper 700k to lower 800k is probable.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-die-flu/#:~:text=The%20CDC%20estimates%20that%20an,people%20died%20from%20the%20flu.