June 22, 2022

"Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people..."

"... and wounding many more, according to a regional official.... This comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report in May. It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cutting off international funding."

 CNN reports.

40 comments:

Iman said...

Grimresting…

Krumhorn said...

Afghanistan is one of those shithole countries that Trump mentioned.

- Krumhorn

Bob Boyd said...

CNN said there was an earthquake in Afghanistan. Huh. I wonder if it's true.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"This comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger"

I'll bet most people as well as most people on this blog are probably unware that Afghanistan is among those countries that are really really well suited for growing wheat. It's a belt that runs roughly from the Turkey and Ukraine, down to the fertile crescent, and East to the Indus river valley and a little bit beyond.

Really really good for growing wheat, that is if the farms weren't growing poppies, which incidentally is very very taxing on the soil and really leeches nutrients (good quality opium poppies need a lot of nutrients). In other words lots of nitrogen rich fertilizers like urea and ammonium nitrate (also handy for IED production...figures) are needed to restore the soil.

Famine...because they grow poppies, which are sold in their final retail form to San Franciscans. Clown world. If I were king for a day I'd send Chesa Boudin to Kandahar and force him to eat poppies all day for the rest of his life.

Dude1394 said...

Nice, Biden runs out on the afghanistan people, abandons americans, blows up some civilians on the way out and then decides to punish the people of afghanistan by starving them to death with sanctions.

Hell of a plan.

Mark said...

Taliban running the country as well as expected. It seem like the 6th century maybe isn't the best time to base your system on.

But I am sure for some it's all Biden's fault.

Dave Begley said...

Serious question. How many people will die because of Joe Biden's intense stupidity and exceptionally bad judgment? How many will starve? How many lives are worse off because of Biden's insane policies?

There was a story in the local media that people in Iowa are pawning their personal property in order to buy gasoline. Gas!

I just finished watching "Ozark." Great series. How many Americans are dying from drugs because of Joe Biden's open borders?

wendybar said...

Biden doens't care. Why should he? He doesn't care about Americans either. As long as the Bidens are making buck..he doesn't care.

Robert Cook said...

"Nice, Biden runs out on the afghanistan people, abandons americans, blows up some civilians on the way out and then decides to punish the people of afghanistan by starving them to death with sanctions."

Yep, compounding the punishment we have baselessly imposed on the people of Afghanistan for two decades (under Bush/Cheney, Obama/Biden, Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris).

gilbar said...

So, the famine is the US's fault, for sure;
The quake, they're still working out.. Probably global warming

gilbar said...

Famine...because they grow poppies, which are sold in their final retail form to San Franciscans

Our Chinese Masters are working on fixing this. Because of Fentanyl, organic heroin is on the way out

gspencer said...

"This [earthquake] comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger"

Allah's angry, not enough jihad killing. "We must do more killing of infidels. More, more, more."

mikee said...

Is the CNN reporter on site, not reporting on Taliban atrocities to maintain the "prestige" of access to the country? If the CNN reporter is on site, how and why does anyone believe the reporting?

J said...

How has the Afghan tribes strategies been working out the last two thousand years?A little rough on the kiddies,what?

Narr said...

BION the USG and FJB are not responsible for the well-being of Central Asia's most benighted hillbillies.

Bob Boyd said...

almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger

They aren't going to be the only ones, the way we're headed.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1538657800473063425

Ampersand said...

It's striking that a 5.9 earthquake can be so devastating. I've been in at least 4 stronger quakes in California, and the death toll has been low.

n.n said...

A premature withdrawal a la Iraq 2.0, billions in state of the art military "housewarming gifts" or just gifts that preceded World War Springs (WWS), with American, Afghan, et al collateral damage.

tim in vermont said...

Good thing we pulled the rug out from under all of the Afghans who supported us, and seized Afghanistan's foreign reserves. Joe Biden is a walking master of disaster. Why would any country who might have any kind of streak of independence from US policy trust their reserves to the vagaries of US administrations? Who will be our next enemy, or worse, which friend will we betray next?

Before anybody tells me that Trump planned a withdrawal too, he didn't plan a pell mell withdrawal with no consultation of the military or our allies, and didn't plan to give up Bagram, It's gone to the ChiComs, it turns out. All so he could make a speech on the anniversary of 9-11.

Kevin said...

It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cutting off international funding.

Power was seized by terrible people.
Assets were frozen in response by good people.

Just another day in the news business.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Ampersand,
After the bad quake in Bam, Turkey some years ago, I spent a fair bit of time looking at cheap ways to add resilience and toughness to mortar, using recycled plastics. The problem in much of the world in a quake is collapsing stone / brick walls.
As you might expect, though, this is a very difficult problem to solve, not really amenable to a technical solution, no matter how eco-friendly.

Michael K said...

Cook:
Yep, compounding the punishment we have baselessly imposed on the people of Afghanistan for two decades (under Bush/Cheney, Obama/Biden, Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris).


Yeah, we single handedly pulled them back to the 7th century. Except of course for the AK 47s.

Jake2356 said...

How can an earthquake "wound" people? Weird word use.

Kay said...

Pulling out of Afghanistan is the only thing Biden has done that I like. It’s not enough to get me to vote for him or to vote in the midterms, but it’s something.

Chad Brooks said...

I'm curious. The map shows that the quake affected a large area in Pakistan but there are no reports about that country. Why not?

Robert Cook said...

"Yeah, we single handedly pulled them back to the 7th century. Except of course for the AK 47s."

No, we invaded their country and killed or maimed many of their people. We committed a crime against them...for 20 years.

effinayright said...

Fred Drinkwater said...
Ampersand,
After the bad quake in Bam, Turkey some years ago,
**********

Bam is in Iran. Been there, pre-earthquakes, in late 1973. It had a restored citadel outside of town that was quite striking. I think the earthquakes took it down.

p.s. a long time ago in NH I had a supervisor named.....Fred Drinkwater.

Joe Smith said...

It's too bad one can't select the actual people killed.

You know, direct the earthquake energy to kill only terrorists and assholes.

Maybe the CIA is working on that one...

Joe Smith said...

"This comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger"

An old man and old woman got married and went on their honeymoon.

They were in bed getting ready to have sex for the first time and the old woman said, "I should tell you I have acute angina."

The old man says, "I hope so. You sure don't have cute tits."

Try the veal...

Mr Wibble said...

It's striking that a 5.9 earthquake can be so devastating. I've been in at least 4 stronger quakes in California, and the death toll has been low.

Shitty construction/materials, and that area is very mountainous.

Jim at said...

But I am sure for some it's all Biden's fault.

Maybe you could tell us who cut and run from Afghanistan before we assign blame.

Owen said...

Fred Drinkwater @ 11:19: “…The problem in much of the world in a quake is collapsing stone/brick walls.” That was the first thing I thought of. A kind of horrible “force multiplier” for the Richter scale.

Maybe the solution is tents?

Ray - SoCal said...

Perhaps we can get Russia to invade them,

so we will send Billions in Aid.

For some reason this half the population has hunger issues, sounds like a scam trying to get more US Aid. And based on the US history in Afghanistan carpet bombing the place with aid since the US invasion, this sounds like a good bet.

But then there was Somalia, where after the US left, the aid mostly stopped. Black Hawk Down had a huge impact on the need to use US forces to save the world. 9-11 ended that, which became a war on terror we had to fight around the world. The forever war in Afghanistan ended the popular support for use of US forces. And now we have Ukraine, where US forces are not used so no US blood being shed, but a massive amount of aid.

Sebastian said...

Seems unfair for Allah to punish Afghans for Joe's misdeeds.

Avian said...

A snakebit country as we would say in the Ozarks. Haiti too...There is no answer.

Owen said...

Maybe the best we can do with foreign aid is nukes coated with $100 bills? Simultaneously satisfies the hunger for vengeance and the urge to ease the suffering.

Maynard said...

I was in San Jose, Costa Rica during a 5.8 earthquake that did almost no damage. They developed rigorous building codes a few decades ago because of earthquakes.

Their high rise buildings are steel and mortar. You need a concrete drill to hang a picture on the wall.

Michael K said...

No, we invaded their country and killed or maimed many of their people. We committed a crime against them...for 20 years.

We had a pretty good reason to invade but I agree on the 20 year silliness.

The Godfather said...

I thought it made sense for the US in the Carter Administration to support the anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan, and later for the US in the Bush 43 Administration to try to deny an Afghan sanctuary to the perpetrators of 9/11. I thought it was wonderful that women and children in Kabul had several decades of decent treatment. But we did not then and do not now live in a world in which developed countries with liberal values can impose those values on countries dominated by indigenous radicals. If the current Afghan Government asks for US Government help, we ought to ask, What's in it for us?

Zev said...

Lucky for them they have a super-competent govt now to help.