#Afghanistan Reconstruction

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Wednesday that would require the Pentagon to return a portion of its enormous and ever-growing budget to the Treasury Department if it fails another audit in the coming fiscal year.

The Audit the Pentagon Act, an updated version of legislation first introduced in 2021, comes amid mounting concerns over rampant price gouging by military contractors and other forms of waste and abuse at an agency that's set to receive at least $842 billion for fiscal year 2024.

"The Pentagon and the military-industrial complex have been plagued by a massive amount of waste, fraud, and financial mismanagement for decades. That is absolutely unacceptable," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement as he unveiled the bill alongside Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

"If we are serious about spending taxpayer dollars wisely and effectively," said Sanders, "we have got to end the absurdity of the Pentagon being the only agency in the federal government that has never passed an independent audit."

In December, the Pentagon flunked its fifth consecutive audit, unable to account for more than 60% of its $3.5 trillion in total assets.

But congressional appropriators appear largely unphased as they prepare to raise the agency's budget to record levels, with some working to increase it beyond the topline set by the recently approved debt ceiling agreement. Watchdogs have warned that the deal includes a loophole that hawkish lawmakers could use to further inflate the Pentagon budget under the guise of aiding Ukraine.

Late Wednesday, following a lengthy markup session, the House Armed Services Committee passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which proposes a total military budget of $886 billion. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was the only committee member to vote no.

A huge chunk of the Pentagon's budget for next year is likely to go to profitable private contractors, which make a killing charging the federal government exorbitant sums for weapons and miscellaneous items, from toilet seats to ashtrays to coffee makers.

"Defense contractors are lining their pockets with taxpayer money while the Pentagon fails time and time again to pass an independent audit. It's a broken system," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a co-sponsor of the new bill. "We need to compel the Department of Defense to take fraud and mismanagement seriously—and we need Congress to stop inflating our nation's near-trillion-dollar defense budget."

"Putting the wants of contractors over the needs of our communities," he added, "isn't going to make our country any safer."

If passed, the Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023 would force every component of the Defense Department that fails an audit in fiscal year 2024 to return 1% of its budget to the Treasury Department.

A fact sheet released by Sanders' office argues that "the need for this audit is clear," pointing to a Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq report estimating that "$31-60 billion had been lost to fraud and waste."

"Separately, the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that the Pentagon could not account for $45 billion in funding for reconstruction projects," the fact sheet notes. "A recent Ernst & Young audit of the Defense Logistics Agency found that it could not properly account for some $800 million in construction projects. CBS News recently reported that defense contractors were routinely overcharging the Pentagon—and the American taxpayer—by nearly 40-50%, and sometimes as high as 4,451%."

Further examples of the Pentagon's waste and accounting failures abound.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office released a report concluding that the Pentagon can't account for F-35 parts worth millions of dollars.

Earlier this week, as The Washington Post reported, the Pentagon said it "uncovered a significant accounting error that led it to overvalue the amount of military equipment it sent to Ukraine since Russia's invasion last year—by $6.2 billion."

"The 'valuation errors,' as a Pentagon spokeswoman put it, will allow the Pentagon to send more weapons to Ukraine now before going to Congress to request more money," the Post noted.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a supporter of the Audit the Pentagon Act, said Wednesday that "taxpayers can't keep writing blank checks—they deserve long-overdue transparency from the Pentagon about wasteful defense spending."

"If the Department of Defense cannot conduct a clean audit, as required by law," said Wyden, "Congress should impose tough financial consequences to hold the Pentagon accountable for mismanaging taxpayer money."

[myfaveficrecs]

Remember This?

Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Reader

Word Count: 2,011

Warnings: Smut, unprotected sex, dirty talk, mentions of injuries/medical procedures

AN: I am dipping my toes back into the writing world for @roosterforme​’s #love is in the air tgm challenge. My song is, “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men. Hopefully this isn’t a flop! Happy Valentine’s Day! XOXO

You enjoyed your job immensely. Helping people had always been something that was extremely important to you, and you were lucky enough to be able to do what you were passionate about. You finished medical school 3 years ago and now you were employed at your local VA Hospital part time, your other half being on base with your husband, Bradley. You had been high school sweethearts and you were still going on like it was your honeymoon.

You were overjoyed when you learned you were going to be able to help soldiers from all branches from all over the country. You helped veteran soldiers with rehabilitation mostly. Post war injuries that needed extra help and attention when they were able to come back home. 

Bradley and his squadron were all in the Navy. Fanboy and Halo had done 3 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan while Bradley had done 2 recently. Hangman was almost killed in combat 4 days before he was due to come home from his last deployment. The others had thankfully come home in one piece, only minor scrapes and injuries from their time overseas. Bradley hadn’t been as lucky. 

Bradley had been shot once in the chest inches away from his heart, and shrapnel had sliced through his face, neck, and arm. He was lucky to be alive but thankfully the doctors he had were good at what they do. They were able to save his life but not without complications. He had severe nerve damage through his left shoulder and bicep and his collarbone had been shattered and completely reconstructed. When he was sent home, he started showing up to the hospital you worked at for his physical therapy, often riding home with you at the end of the day.

You had just finished with a patient when you were heading to your office, passing by the nurses’ station on your way. You dropped the patient’s chart off at the desk but before you could start heading in the direction you desired, your charge nurse, Rebecca, stopped you with a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“You have a visitor.”

“A visitor?”

“If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”

She just shrugged her shoulders noncommittally with a smirk, walking away from you to continue your filing.  Looking at your basket you noticed you had no patients waiting and walked to your office wondering who could be waiting for you.

As soon as you walked into your office your face broke out in a large smile. You knew it was your husband without a doubt. His 6’1” frame standing in front of your large window overlooking the city, broad shoulders, long legs, tight little ass, and hair with perfect curls for pulling.

“Well, this is a pleasant surprise.” You smiled while shutting your door, taking off your lab jacket and throwing it over the back of one of the chairs in your office. He turned around quickly and smiled at you, holding his arms open wide for you to walk into, bringing you into a warm and tight embrace.

“Yeah, I had my last appointment today and thought I’d come up and see you.”

“How’d it go?”

“Good. Almost as good as before.”

“That’s awesome, honey.”

“You don’t have any patients do you?”

“No, I think my next appointment is in another 45 minutes, why?”

With a mischievous look and a flick of the lock on your door, Bradley looks towards your desk and says, “Hey Alexa! Play my baby maker playlist.” You couldn’t help but laugh, burying your face in his chest as “I’ll Make Love to You,” starts to echo in your office.  

“Haven’t heard this song since the night before my last deployment...you remember that night?” He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at you.

“Of course, I do! But Roo, we can’t do that here!”

“We can. I locked the door. C’mon baby, I thought we could celebrate a little early.” He could see the slight crack in your resolve and pounced on the seconds of vulnerability, the pride. “Besides, Rebecca is probably listening right outside the door right now anyway.:

Close your eyes, make a wish And blow out the candlelight For tonight is just your night We're gonna celebrate, all through the night Pour the wine, light the fire Girl your wish is my command I submit to your demands

Bradley wrapped one hand into your hair, gently pulling your head back, tracing his nose up your cheek. Pulling back slightly he hovers his lips over your own, a little quirk to his lips when he pulls millimeters away when you try and connect. Once, twice more before he lets out a breathy chuckle at your frustration, finally crashing his plush lips to yours in a passionate kiss. His other hand pushing into your lower back and pulling you flush against him, swaying to the harmony of the song. When he pulled away you were both breathless and dizzy. Desire had pooled in your core, and you could feel an impressive bulge digging into your stomach. “You gonna let me love you like it’s that night all over again? Right here, right now?”

He didn’t give you any time to respond before he crashed his lips back onto yours once again. This time the kiss was all tongue and teeth. He loved to bite on your lower lip when you kissed, and it always managed to send shivers down your spine. As soon as you let out a moan, he knew he had you right where he wanted you and he smiled against your mouth. He quickly picked you up, digging his hands underneath your ass cheeks and plopped you unceremoniously on top of your desk, pushing everything out of his way to give you enough room to lie down. Your movements were frantic, knowing time was limited, ironically the same as the night before he left. 

I will do anything, girl you need only ask I'll make love to you Like you want me to And I'll hold you tight Baby, all through the night I'll make love to you When you want me to And I will not let go 'Til you tell me to

Bradley was usually a rough lover, but he always managed to make you feel loved and protected, no matter what you were doing, and the sex was no different. His touch held a tenderness; a reaffirming touch that he would always be there to care for you.

You quickly pulled his shirt off of his broad shoulders and pulled it up over his head to reveal his chiseled chest and abs. Reaching up you pulled Bradley down toward you, kissing over his scars from the old wounds, shrapnel, and surgeries. This was something you always did, letting him know you were thankful he was alive and in your arms. The reminder that he was still beautiful in your eyes.

Girl relax, let's go slow I ain't got nowhere to go I'm just gon' concentrate on you Girl, are you ready? It's gon' be a long night Throw your clothes (throw your clothes) on the floor (on the floor) I'm gonna take my clothes off too I've made plans to be with you Girl whatever you ask me, you know I can do

Bradley pulled your hair and moved your head back far enough to stretch your neck long, licking a broad stripe and ending with a quick nip underneath your ear. You let out an obscene moan making him pull back from you and stand up as straight as he could while leaning over your desk for support. “You gotta be quiet, baby.” He practically ripped your scrub pants and panties off of you in one quick pull, your shoes flying off along with them from the force of his tug. He placed your feet wide along the edge of your desk, opening yourself up to him. “Fuck Y/N…you’re already soaking wet.” 

“I’m always wet for you, Bradley…now are you just going to stare or are you going to make love to your wife?” 

I'll make love to you Like you want me to And I'll hold you tight Baby, all through the night I'll make love to you When you want me to And I will not let go 'Til you tell me to

Bradley’s demeanor instantly changed. His eyes quickly shot up to yours, narrowing into slits. He clenched his jaw making it tick, and he snapped his belt open, never once taking his eyes from yours. The intensity bringing a new wave of slick rushing out of you. There was no reply from him, his face telling you everything you needed to know. He was most definitely going to love you, and he was going to make sure you remembered it. 

Pulling his jeans and boxers down just below his ass, his erection sprang free. It was long and thick, steadily leaking drops of precum. He wrapped his hand around the base, slowly stroking upwards, giving you a show. With a smirk he wrapped his hand around your thighs, pulling you down until your ass was flush with the edge of your desk. 

Baby, tonight is your night And I will do you right Just make a wish on your night Anything that you ask I will give you the love of your life, your life, your life

No warning was given before he thrust into you in one slow and measured thrust, filling you to the brink, and trusting your body to accept him as it has hundreds of times before. Your eyes rolled back in your head and your mouth opened wide to let out a sound you had never heard yourself make before, not that you could bring yourself to care. 

“I said,” he pistoned into you quickly, “be quiet. You don’t want those coworkers of yours getting too curious, do you?” You shook your head, biting your lip hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to muffle your noises. Bradley set a punishing pace knowing time was not on his side. His hips quickly meeting yours, the sound of slapping skin loud enough to echo throughout your office over the music. He pushed your scrub top up and over your breasts, pulling the cups of your bra down, and started to roughly caress your breasts with his left hand, his right holding tightly onto your hip to keep you from scooting across your desk from the power of his thrusts. The cold metal of his wedding ring made your nipples harden to tight peaks, the sensation running like a lightning bolt to your clit. “Fuck…Roo…please.” 

He didn’t need to ask what you needed, knowing your body better than you did after all of these years. He quickly put his body flush with yours, chest to chest, intertwining your hands together beside of your head, and slammed his lips onto yours once again, tongues battling for dominance and attempting to muffle the noises trying to escape. The new angle caused him to move even deeper inside of you, completely bottoming out. The feeling of being so full and the delicious friction his pelvis was giving you by rubbing against your clit sent you over the edge. 

I'll make love to you Like you want me to And I'll hold you tight Baby all through the night I'll make love to you When you want me to And I will not let go 'Til you tell me to

You arched your back and wrapped your legs tightly around his waist. The tight fluttering of your walls sending Bradley into his own orgasm, giving a growl you felt deep within his chest as he released himself inside of you. The sound of your intercom on your office phone went off, Rebecca’s voice floating through the room. “Your last appointment of the day just cancelled. See you tomorrow, Dr. Bradshaw!” 

Both of you were still breathing heavily, interlocked together to the point you couldn’t tell where you began, and he ended. “Thank God because I don’t think I can walk after that.” 

You both broke out into laughter, ready to go home. Bradley knew he had that record on the bookshelf in his office...round 2 is exactly what the doctor ordered.

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[mightdeletelater]

I spent 15 hours, across three days, watching and taking notes on the legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel. 

South Africa's case was a temporal snapshot that lay the weight of decades of historical context. Although the specifics of the case pertained to Israel's actions in Gaza, its overarching objective reached beyond these particulars. At its core, the case sought to address the substantial disparity between the lived reality of Palestinians and the narrative propagated by dominant political forces.

Across the globe, public anger regarding the events in Gaza has manifested on the streets. However, political leaders consistently chose to overlook, dismiss, ban, or vilify this collective sentiment. Maybe it is recency bias, but in my lifetime, there has never been such a disconnect between politicians and their people than when it comes to Gaza. 

The significance of South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice is that it publically challenges the portrayal of the Palestinian cause as a fringe issue.

Beyond merely outlining the severity of events – 23,000+ killed in Gaza, the 1.9 million displaced, the 7,000+ missing under the rubble, and the thousands of bombs dropped, making this the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century – the case links these claims to the Geneva Conventions and human rights law. 

But where are we as a society, as a human race even, that we are at a point where the case was brought forth in the first place? Such an initiative questions the legitimacy of the international response and underscores the diminishing persuasive power of Western logic in an increasingly multipolar world. 

The case represents a broader confrontation within international institutions, raising doubts about the actual existence of the human rights infrastructure. The conflict has placed Western allies in the precarious position of undermining or neglecting their own established systems, eroding their credibility on the global stage. When you're against the United Nations and hundreds of human rights organisations and objecting to a submission in a global court (in the case of the US and UK, a court that they themselves established), you are simply pulling apart your house with the very tools that built it.

Western powers, having previously failed to support a Gaza ceasefire, will from now on be viewed in the global south as fighting on Israel's side. More so than they were already. And why wouldn't they be? These politicians have made it clear that they want to supply arms and military support to a regime, and their intervention, it seems, is contingent upon the safeguarding of goods shipment. These politicians assert that financial resources are lacking for reconstructing their nations, yet readily allocate funds for military endeavours. Why? How is any of this normal? 

After the legal proceedings, Netanyahu said, "We will continue the war in the Gaza Strip until we achieve all our objectives. The Hague and the axis of evil will not stop us." Without compelling a policy change from Israel, what hope is there that South Africa's case will avail? It was obvious that Israel would use support from the US and the UK to prosecute the real agenda that Netanyahu and hundreds of Israeli politicians have hidden in plain sight (i.e. admitted on camera constantly): the destruction of Palestine and its people.

The recurring pattern is evident. Gaza transforms from an open-air prison to an open-air slaughterhouse under Israeli actions. Iraq faces invasion and fragmentation fueled by falsehoods and lies. Libya, once somewhat stable, descends into a state of civil war. Afghanistan witnesses invasion followed by prolonged failure and abandonment. Yemen endures relentless bombing, culminating in one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recorded human history. Syria? Also bombed, resulting in the displacement of thousands of refugees.

All of this, and more, is the legacy of Western "intervention", war, and policy in the Middle East.

Strangely, I find myself distanced from all this turmoil, yet the impact remains surprisingly profound. So many people I love have been impacted, yet I still experience a sense of detachment.

I go about my life. I have family and friends. I have hobbies and a job. But multiple times a day, it will hit me. I'll remember the videos I've seen of a mother crying over her son's body. Or the father carrying the remains of his children in plastic bags. Or the doctors performing amputations in overcrowded hospitals with nothing more than a dull butter knife. A wave of deep sorrow washes over me, settling in my chest like a persistent ache, lingering until I find a sufficiently absorbing distraction. And then, the cycle restarts.

But I don't want to be distracted. And I don't want to forget. I feel like I don't deserve to forget. It feels like the least I can do. Because I, unfortunately, do not have a megaphone loud enough to shout to those in positions of authority and tell them they are cowardly individuals sitting on chairs fashioned from the bones of Gaza's children.

In 2024, you would think that we would only be quoting Martin Luther King to learn about history and not to still use his message for current happenings, but he honestly said it best: "No one is free when we are all free." 

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

So in the documentary Harry moans about getting no support after he returned from afghanistan.. he has zero gratitude. William stopped the return interview cause he could see how exhausted Harry was. And Harry admitted it was William who persuaded him to get therapy. Harrys is amazing. His ability to reconstruct events is stunning.

I know those claims worked for Meghan, however, I don’t think they will work for Harry. He has been talking about PTSD nonstop for more than a decade, so I don’t think his claims that he got no help are credible.

[steampunkforever]

Every now and then I play a game in my head called "How would you win 9/11?" Not in the Mark Wahlberg sort of way but from the perspective of "if I were not a neocon ghoul, how would I handle this and avoid/postpone the sandbox forever war?"

Hard mode: Bin Laden has to still escape the battle of Tora Bora alive.

Extreme mode: you still have to invade Iraq at the behest of Reagan Era advisors still mad about Iran 30 years ago.

Easy mode I would just play the PR machine hard with the launch of Enduring Freedom. Like Panama, I'd hit hard and all at once with a coordinated force. The American people would need blood quick, and looking like a strong president is imperative for your first term, especially after such a hit to the American Ego.

Definitely approving the Ranger battalion's deployment to Tora Bora is the best path here, but the key is to pull out just as fast as we went in once we get our guy. Keep it feeling fresh, like Panama or Desert Storm. Afghanistan frankly has very little advantages for any army (according to most imperialist conquests of the area) so leave the government to the people that live there. The important part is that Americans feel that NYC has been avenged.

Hard mode means you don't get Bin Laden til 2011 as per current day, and therefore need to do a bit more cleanup during enduring freedom. Frankly my methodology here isn't much different than the current US anti-terror doctrine of airstrikes and deploying elite squads for night raids.

When you're fighting an asymmetrical war, using small units and remote explosions to hit key points (putting the "terrorism" in "counterterrorism") and match guerrilla fighters both costs less and beats the bad publicity of shipping corpses not old enough to drink home in flag wrapped caskets.

A low-impact campaign (read: less of a full on occupation) like this with US logistical support (and the input of people who're actually experts in Afghan geopolitics) would hopefully allow the US to avoid the protracted war with the insurgency that lasted literally 20 years and ended with the Taliban stronger than ever. Give it a couple years, call it a success, and hunt down the big guy until you get him in 2011.

Extreme mode isn't ideal (We shouldn't have been in iraq) but putting Bremer in control was really the nail in the coffin. I would demote him to janitor and find someone who understood the situation instead. Why build a highway next to an existing road? The obvious way to rebuild a country you bombed into fine gravel is to take advantage of the infrastructure you left behind.

I personally would've avoided treating Ba'athism like we could just denazify iraq, and rather pull key leadership and left the rest relatively intact so as to better rebuild the country. Allowing the military to remain standing (and in fact work as a method of reconstruction) and set up a client state that could keep Iran on its toes, sort of like how Iraq was before Desert Storm. Which still wouldn't be ideal but at least we'd significantly lower the chances of outright spawning ISIS through American cultural and administrative incompetence. There are no good imperialist wars but there are ways to not completely bungle it too.

[whatthehelloh]

Trump

This is an edited thread that @JohnFugelsang posted on Twitter

“Here's a thread for anyone who's been conned into believing Donald Trump cares about the US military or our troops.”

Faked a disability 5 times to avoid a war he didn't oppose

So 5 non-rich guys went to Vietnam in his place

Tried to kick homeless vets off 5th Ave

Stole from vets via his fraud online U

Lied about donating $1 million to veterans' nonprofits

Said he'd make troops commit war crimes

Pardoned a guy who committed war crimes

Falsely claimed he signed Vets' Choice into law

Insulted POWs

Insulted Gold Star Families 

Fined for misusing funds from 2016 Vets fundraiser

Called Generals "dopes & babies"

Falsely accused US service members of stealing funds for Iraqi reconstruction

Deployed 5,600 soldiers to the border in a midterm election stunt 

Personally insulted Generals Allen, Mattis, Kelly, Powell, McChrystal; Purple Heart recipients Mueller & Vindman, & Admiral McRaven

Lied about donating $6 million to veteran’s groups in 2016

Sided with Putin against all branches of military intelligence 

Blew off Veterans Day cemetery ceremony in France because it was raining.

What he said to Myeshia Johnson, widow of ambushed Sgt. La David Johnson. Not gonna repeat it.

He wants to cut SNAP. Do you understand how much that hurts military families & vets?

His budget seeks to cut Medicaid. Do you understand how much this hurts military families & vets?

Froze pay for all Fed agencies via Executive Order

Fed workforce is 31% veteran, approx. 623k vets

Undid regulations on predatory lenders who target military members 

He tried to destroy the Post Office, which employs thousands of veterans

Declared a fake national emergency to divert billions from the Pentagon to fund a wall he lied that Mexico would pay for

Downplayed & trivialized troops w/traumatic brain injuries in Jan 2020 

Insulted troops with PTSD

Used the national guard to tear gas US protestors so he could be photographed w/an upside down bible

Forced West Point cadets to travel back for graduation during a plague, endangering their health and the health of their families, for a photo-op 

Said 26,000 military sexual assaults were to be 'expected' because America lets women serve

Announced that transgender troops could no longer serve, via a tweet, without informing the Pentagon.

Invited the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11 

Claimed, stupidly, that his military budget made up for his lack of military experience

Told wife #2 he'd disown their daughter if she entered the service

Remember his fake veteran’s hotline?'

Here's What Happens if You Call the Veterans Hotline Donald Trump Set Up in 2015 | Blaze Media

TheBlaze decided to investigate.

Lied to US troops in Iraq that he'd given them their 1st pay raise in over a decade

Trump Institute fired a vet for 'absences' after he was deployed to Afghanistan

Claimed if an armored Humvee was hit by an IED, soldiers "go for a little ride upward & they come down." 

Blamed military leaders for the deadly failed Yemen mission he approved

He can't stop defending the Confederacy

Said his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” 

Attacked Navy Captain Crozier, who sounded COVID alarm for his sick sailors

Used military against peaceful protests by citizens of color

Had government give hydroxychloroquine to 1300 vets w/COVID-19 despite evidence it was dangerous

Didn't know what happened at Pearl Harbor 

Pulled out of Syria with no notice, abandoning US allies

Russia then posted footage of Syrian base, built by US, that they now own

Exploited 4 murdered Americans in #Benghazi for crass political purposes, after his own party had cleared the Obama WH in multiple investigations 

He kept trying to destroy NATO

Because of his government shutdown, members of US military worked without pay for the 1st time ever

No Other President Would Have Survived Defrauding Veterans’ Charities

No Other President Would Have Survived Defrauding Veterans' Charities | Washington Monthly

One of the many perversities of the Trump era is the low bar to which presidential accountability has now become set.  We are currently watching unfold the saga of presidential bribery and extortion o…

Said in 2018 that he was too busy to visit the troops: "I don’t think it’s overly necessary"

Ordered Navy to Strip Medals from Prosecutors in Eddie Gallagher's War Crimes Trial, even though Gallagher was extremely guilty.

Trump Orders Navy to Strip Medals From Prosecutors in War Crimes Trial (Published 2019)

President Trump lashed out at military lawyers who tried the case of Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of killing a captured teenage Islamic State fighter.

Now this. Read it to a #MAGA loved one

Putin is financing the murder of our troops and Trump couldn't stop siding with him.

Russia bought the murder of our soldiers.

Trump knew for months and chose to say and do NOTHING about it.

Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says (Published 2020)

The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.

The Pentagon & cabinet presented him with many options:

a diplomatic complaint to Moscow

a demand that they stop offering bounties for murder of US troops stop

an escalating series of sanctions

Trump has refused to say or do anything. 

He knew that Putin, who owns his debt via Deutsche Bank, was paying Islamic militants for murdering US troops.

He gave a speech and did nothing. 

Well, that's not actually fair…

Trump did a few things after learning Putin was paying for dead US troops in Afghanistan.

He lobbied other countries for Russia to be let back into the G7.

He also talked to Putin on June 1.

Days later he signed off on a plan...

...to permanently withdraw up to 1/3 of the approx. 34k U.S. troops currently based in Germany.

Which is part of Putin's dream of dismantling NATO.

Trump never told Germany he was going to do this.

[bighermie]

Biden Admin Has Sent $2.35 Billion to Taliban Since Disastrous Afghanistan Withdraw | The Gateway Pundit | by Johnathan Jones, The Western Journal

[legend-collection]

Barmanou

The Barmanou is a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid that inhabits the mountainous region of northern Pakistan. Shepherds living in the mountains have reported sightings.

The Barmanou is the Pakistani equivalent of the Bigfoot. The term Barmanou originating in Khowar, but now used in several Pakistani languages including Urdu, Shina, Pashto and Kashmiri. In addition to the name Barmanou there are a few local variant names as well.

The proposed range of the Barmanou covers the Chitral and Karakoram Ranges, between the Pamirs and the Himalaya. This places the Barmanou between the ranges of two more-famous cryptids, the Almas of Central Asia and the Yeti of the Himalayas.

The Barmanou allegedly possesses both human and apelike characteristics and has a reputation for abducting women and attempting to mate with them. It is also reported to wear animal skins upon its back and head. The Barmanou appears in the folklore of the Northern Regions of Pakistan and depending on where the stories come from it tends to be either described as an ape or a wild man.

The first search in Pakistan for Bipedal Humanoid man was carried out by a Spanish zoologist living in France, Jordi Magraner, from 1987 to 1990. He wrote a paper, Les Hominidés reliques d'Asie Centrale, on the Pakistani cryptid – the wild man.

He later researched the Barmanou extensively in the 1990s, but was murdered in Afghanistan in 2002. Loren Coleman wrote that he "collected more than fifty firsthand sighting accounts, and all eyewitnesses recognized the reconstruction of Heuvelman's homo pongoides ["apelike man"—i.e., a living Neanderthal.]. They picked out homo pongoides as their match to Barmanu from Magraner's ID kit of drawings of apes, fossil men, aboriginals, monkeys, and the Minnesota Iceman."

In May 1994, during a search in Shishi Kuh valley, Chitral, cryptologist Jordi Margraner, Anne Mallasseand and another associate reported that once during a late evening they heard unusual guttural sounds which only a primitive voice-box could have produced. No further progress could be made.

[mariacallous]

Al Qaeda has set up nine new terrorist camps in Afghanistan in 2024, a sign of the Taliban’s increasing tolerance of terror groups in their backyard in spite of pledges to crack down, according to an Afghan resistance leader visiting Washington this week. 

“These are training centers; these are recruitment centers,” said Ali Maisam Nazary, the top diplomat for Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front (NRF) based in the country’s Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. “The Taliban have even allowed al Qaeda to build bases and munitions depots in the heart of the Panjshir Valley. [That’s] something unheard of, something impossible even in the 1990s for al Qaeda to have achieved.” 

Nazary said that since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021, just before the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, terror groups including al Qaeda, the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have exploded in size and scope, as the country’s unguarded borders have allowed foreign fighters from Arab countries, Central Asian neighbors, and Europe to pour into Afghanistan. Nazary said that 21 known terror groups are currently operating inside the country.

“We’re seeing all the lights are blinking red,” said Doug Livermore, a former U.S. Navy official and a member of the Special Operations Association of America. The United Nations believes that al Qaeda has training camps in at least 10 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, even as the Taliban publicly deny that the terror group has a presence in the country. 

The movement of al Qaeda forces into the Panjshir Valley—long a stronghold of the NRF—has been a shock to the resistance, which still controls about 60 percent of the area to the Taliban’s 40 percent, according to Nazary.

Al Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel has explicitly called for foreign fighters to migrate to Afghanistan and prepare to attack the West. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. government watchdog group, said in a July report that though the Taliban have targeted the Islamic State and some other groups, the fundamentalist organization has tolerated the presence of al Qaeda and TTP. 

Terror groups control much—if not all—of Afghanistan’s border, Nazary said. “Al Qaeda didn’t have any presence in northern Afghanistan in 2001,” he said. “Today, al Qaeda has a presence throughout the country, and the other terrorist forces.” The country has become an “open black market” of leftover weapons, many of them American, he added. 

“The Taliban is having the same problem that we did for 20 years,” Livermore said. “You can control the core, you can control the ring road—to an extent. But then once you start looking out from there, particularly in the east and some of that rough terrain, that seems to be where they [the Islamic State] have managed to establish a pretty solid base of operations.” 

Nazary described the relationship between the Taliban and terror groups as “ironclad,” suggesting the group had even provided passports to allow foreign terrorist fighters into the country. The same U.N. report in July said that the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch has facilitators in both Afghanistan and Turkey who can move terrorist fighters into Europe to conduct attacks. 

But some experts are doubtful that the NRF’s message will resonate in Washington. “They are refusing to acknowledge that it’s not 2001 anymore,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. “They don’t recognize that, quite frankly, the U.S. and other Western capitals are not interested in getting dragged into a conflict in Afghanistan. There’s no interest in providing arms or money to anti-Taliban groups.”

U.S. intelligence officials are skeptical—at least publicly—about the extent to which Afghanistan could become a terrorist launching pad. The CIA remains in contact with the Taliban in an effort to stanch terror activities, the agency’s deputy director, David Cohen, said at a conference in Maryland on Wednesday, and he said that U.S. intelligence was able to tip Austrian authorities to an Islamic State threat against a planned Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month. 

“We have been engaging with them, all throughout this period, in various ways, as they have taken on the effort to combat both al Qaeda and ISIS-K,” Cohen said of the U.S. contact with the Taliban, using a common acronym for the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch. “And so this isn’t a ‘mission accomplished’ sort of thing. But it is worth noting that in Afghanistan today, the dire predictions have not come to pass.”

Kugelman said the NRF is trying to leverage growing U.S. concerns about terrorism risks stemming from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s harsh crackdown on women’s rights and perceived political opponents. But, he said, it doesn’t have the power to challenge the Taliban head-on.

“I do think that the NRF might perhaps overstate the dangers in Afghanistan, particularly when it comes to terrorism risks, in order to make a stronger case for support,” he said. “I’d also argue that at the end of the day, the Taliban really does not face any threat at all to its political survival.”

[ishparpuaqib]

revisited Ranko Matasović's Ime Hrvata (Name of the Croats) (2019), the state of the art as far as work on the origin of the Croat ethnonym is concerned. some notes—

the word Croat (sh. Hrvat, nom. pl. Hrvati) comes from Proto-Slavic *hŭrvatŭ (nom. pl. *hŭrvate). the earliest attestations of the name in foreign sources—cf. Byzantine Greek Krobatoí—suggest the name was first recorded rather late, certainly after the first *ŭ got reduced to a schwa in Serbo-Croatian (if the name had been borrowed from the Proto-Slavic form, the expected outcome in Greek would be *Kourobatoí)

there is no consensus on the origin of *hŭrvatŭ. proposed native Slavic etymologies have long been considered phonologically, semantically and historically suspect—a long-influential etymology, one that connects the name with a hypothetical Slavic cognate to Lithuanian šarvai “armour”, was ultimately rendered untenable by the discovery šarvai must represent a relatively recent borrowing from Germanic. this has led to speculation the word might be a borrowing from some unindentified substrate, perhaps Germanic or, especially, Iranic. the most influential of these proposals (at least in terms of the imprint it left on Croatian popular consciousness)—that the Croat name comes from the name of Harauvatiš (Arachosia in Greek sources), a region in what is today southern Afghanistan—is today considered unlikely, and is unsupported by either historic or archaeological evidence

though Matasović is ultimately sympathetic to the idea *hŭrvatŭ came into Proto-Slavic from an Iranic source, he nonetheless attempts to reconstruct a native etymology for the word. it is possible, though not particularly likely, that the *hŭr- in *hŭrvatŭ comes from a metathesised variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁wer- “north”, otherwise reflected in Proto-Slavic *sěverŭ. word-initial *ks regularly becomes *x in Proto-Slavic; Matasović singles out the example of *xudŭ “feeble; ill-intentioned”, ultimately from pIE. *k⁽ʷ⁾sowdós. a hypothetical adjectival form *xŭrvo could've then been nominalised with the rare but attested suffix *-atŭ, producing *xŭrv-atŭ—interpreted, under this view, to mean “Northmen”. unfortunately, there is literally nothing in the historic record to suggest the existence of a Proto-Slavic *xŭr-, nor the hypothetical adjective *xŭrvo

Matasović proposes a modified version of an etymology originally laid out by Max Vesmer, who connected *xŭrvatŭ to an Avestan word for “shepherd”. specifically, Matasović wonders if the Proto-Slavic word could be related to Proto-Ossetian *xurvæt- “guardian”; I could find no source mentioning this reconstruction that doesn't link back to Matasović's article, but given that there are no available digital dictionaries of any living Ossetian language, the lack of sources on their reconstructed common ancestor doesn't surprise me. the shift of Proto-Ossetian *æ to Proto-Slavic *a is irregular; the expected outcome would be *e. the best defence Matasović offers is that the Proto-Slavic borrowing could represent a remnant of the participle form *-āt- (hence *xurvāt), though this assumes such a form was still productive in Proto-Ossetian/Alanic (having since been lost in all modern Ossetian languages)

there is circumstantial evidence to support the above proposal—Matasović singles out the 1494 statute of Poznań (in Poland), which uses the word charwat to mean something like “town guard”. maybe. note that charwat isn't, to my knowledge, the expected Old Polish reflex of Proto-Slavic *hŭrvatŭ—I believe that first *ŭ would've regularly produced /o/, as in Chorwat “Croat”. maybe the variation is due to faulty transcription; there are literally no other attestations of the word charwat, so it's impossible to know for certain

note that it's not like we actually have a gloss that would verify the meaning of charwat—the interpretation “town guard” is Matasović's own, though it does seem to (apparently) be supported by the rest of the text. if this interpretation is true, I wonder whether the Slovak surname Horváth—apparently still the most popular surname in Slovakia—could better be translated as “guard”, against the popular view it refers to Croats (it being clearly cognate to Hrvat)

Wiktionary supports there being a connection between *hŭrvatŭ and Proto-Ossetian *xurvæt- (it quotes Matasović's article directly iirc), but it also claims Proto-Ossetian *xurvæt- ultimately derives from the same source as Proto-Slavic *sĭrbŭ “Serb”. if this is meant to imply an ethnic connection between the Croats and the Serbs because their names may represent distant cognates, it's batshit—are the Wends closely related to the Adriatic Veneti on account of their names both deriving from Proto-Indo-European *wénh₁-? I believe Wiktionary is wrong about the etymology of *sĭrbŭ, anyway; a connection with pIE. *ser- “to string together” (whence Latin series and Greek hórmos “cord”) seems more plausible to me, given the existence of the Polish cognate sierb “son” (attested as Old Polish posierb, “stepson”)

[beardedmrbean]

Life in Afghanistan has gotten perpetually worse for Afghans living under Taliban rule for the last three years as the humanitarian crisis continues to escalate, rights for women have all but vanished and Kabul remains essentially shut off from the international community.

A quarter of Afghans face "acute" food insecurity, more than half the nation requires humanitarian assistance, and according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nearly 70% of the country is "subsistence insecure," meaning they do not have reliable access to basic resources like food, water, housing or health care.

After the Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, the nation’s economy "basically collapsed," according to the UNDP, in large part because international funding through government donor plans, like the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, were shut down.

TALIBAN PARADES AMERICAN WEAPONS 3 YEARS AFTER CHAOTIC WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban has further exacerbated its own economic crisis by propelling its extremist ideologies and enforcing oppressive bans on women by barring their access to the workplace or education. 

In three years since Washington concluded its "War on Terror," many have questioned whether life in Afghanistan is worse than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. and its subsequent invasion.

"If it's not worse, it's heading in that direction quickly," Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and expert on security issues in the Middle East and South Asia, told Fox News Digital.

The Taliban has not only reinstated harsh bans on women, it has also brought back corporal punishment through public floggings and group-enforced executions. Additionally, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, in May threatened to reinstate stoning women to death for adultery – a Taliban punishment on women that was never fully eradicated even during the U.S. incursion. 

"The biggest difference between now and pre-2001 is the Taliban are much better resourced," said Rubin, who spent time with the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks.

TALIBAN VOWS TO PUBLICLY STONE WOMEN TO DEATH IN DIRECT MESSAGE TO WESTERN DEMOCRACIES

Rubin said that even though the Taliban are not directly funded by international humanitarian groups, it has found ways to siphon off funding for its own gains. 

The Taliban marked the three-year anniversary of the takeover of Kabul in a parade on Wednesday at Bagram Air Base – formally the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan – while showing off U.S. military hardware that had been abandoned following the withdrawal.

While neglecting any mention of the hardship Afghans face, speeches championing Taliban efforts to squash opposition to the extremist group were flaunted, along with a reference to Afghanistan’s continued isolation from the international community.

"The Islamic Emirate eliminated internal differences and expanded the scope of unity and cooperation in the country," Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir said in reference to a term the Taliban uses to describe its government, according to an AP News report. "No one will be allowed to interfere in internal affairs and Afghan soil will not be used against any country."

Former U.S. military machinery abandoned at the airbase like helicopters, tanks and vehicles were displayed alongside soldiers holding light and heavy machine guns.

"The Taliban holds these parades yearly to rub their victory and our defeat in our face," Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and founding editor of "The Long War Journal," told Fox News Digital.

Afghanistan has largely remained an international pariah over its human rights violations. But even as some countries have begun to allow for diplomatic engagement with the insurgent group, Western nations remain highly concerned over how Afghanistan has once again become a haven for terrorist organizations.

"Afghanistan is far more dangerous today than it was prior to 9/11," Roggio said. "The Taliban is in full control of the country, and it is sheltering and supporting al Qaeda and allied terror groups."

Roggio said al Qaeda is once again running training camps in at least 12 provinces across the country with very little internal resistance.

[dnickels]

The​ Imperial War Museum was established in 1917, while the fighting was still going on, ‘as a record of the toil and sacrifice of those who had served in uniform’ during the Great War. It was first called the National War Museum; the change to ‘Imperial’ was made after India and the Dominions complained that the name did not reflect their sacrifices. Today it describes itself as a ‘global authority on conflict’. It is a subdued and serious place, eager to point out that it does not celebrate war or victory; it was never supposed to be a frozen military parade, even if the suspended Spitfire in the main atrium – the military equivalent of the Natural History Museum’s Diplodocus – appeals directly to Britain’s neurotic Second World War triumphalism. Toil and sacrifice remain the watchwords. (Only in the gift shop does discipline break down, with poppy-spattered kitchenware and Churchill cult icons playing to a less reconstructed wartime imaginary.) The museum’s commemorative ethos presents war as a kind of social paroxysm, which from time to time afflicts ordinary men and women. A carefully weighted combination of historical exactitude and apolitical detachment can be maintained for the world wars, as they were joined in defence against aggression and fought by conscript armies; with 9/11 and ‘terrorism’ emerging as the pivot point, the museum also shows ambiguous signs of trying to construe 21st-century engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan as similar tragedies of necessity. There is some justice in this approach. Soldiers do not start or choose the conflicts they are shipped off to fight. But many of Britain’s 20th-century conflicts would not respond well to the same treatment: the Kenyan torture camps, the Special Night Squads of Palestine, the beheaders of the Malayan Emergency and Britain’s other dirty wars of colonial counterinsurgency are not easily transformed into neutral objects of genuflection. Castrating prisoners with pliers is the wrong kind of toil and sacrifice.

[rockislandadultreads]

Nonfiction Picks: Remembering 9/11

These book recommendations explore the history and consider the aftermath surrounding the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff

In this volume, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived - in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11th attacks yet.

In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers by Don Brown

The consequences of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, both political and personal, were vast, and continue to reverberate today. In this graphic novel, Don Brown brings his journalistic eye and attention to individual stories to help contextualize and broaden readers' understanding of the immediate aftermath and rippling effects of one of the most impactful days in modern history. 

Power at Ground Zero by Lynne B. Sagalyn

The destruction of the World Trade Center complex on 9/11 set in motion a chain of events that fundamentally transformed both the U.S. and the wider world. But the symbolic locus of the post-9/11 world has always been "Ground Zero" - the sixteen acres in Manhattan's financial district where the twin towers collapsed. This book offers the definitive account of one of the greatest reconstruction projects in modern world history, and how the symbolism of the reconstruction extended far beyond New York.

First Casualty by Toby Harnden

This volume reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11. Comprised of an eclectic band of linguists, tribal experts, and elite warriors, they were the first Americans to operate inside Taliban territory with the mission to track down Al- Qaeda. Award-winning author Toby Harnden gained unprecedented access to all living Team Alpha members in writing this book, drawing on extensive interviews and secret documents, as well as deep reporting inside Afghanistan.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[VOA is US State Media]

The Taliban may have achieved a diplomatic win in an agreement to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan[...]

“The three sides reaffirmed their resolve to fully harness Afghanistan’s potential as a hub for regional connectivity," said a joint statement released in May following a meeting of officials representing the three countries in Islamabad. The countries restated their commitment "to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.”[...]

The $62 billion CPEC connectivity project is a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative[...]

[A Brookings Senior Fellow] said China continues its narrative “that the West is to blame for the humanitarian crisis [in Afghanistan, and] that the West should not be holding [the] money of the central bank of Afghanistan.”[...]

“[B]y seizing Afghanistan’s overseas assets and imposing unilateral sanctions, the U.S., which created the Afghan issue in the first place, is the biggest external factor that hinders substantive improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in April.[...]

The ministry’s position paper on Afghanistan stated that China would “do its best” to support Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development. In recent months, Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan[...]

Last week, in a meeting with Taliban officials in Kabul, officials of Fan China Afghan Mining Processing and Trading Co. announced an investment of $350 million in various sectors ranging from construction to health to energy in Afghanistan, according to the Bakhtar News Agency, Afghanistan’s state news agency.

In January, the Taliban signed a contract with CAPEIC to extract oil in the north of the country by investing $150 million annually.

China has also shown interest in the development and operation of mines in Afghanistan. A Chinese company, Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), signed a contract with the then-Afghan government in 2008 to extract copper from Mes Aynak in Logar province. But that work has not started yet. Last month, the Taliban’s mining and petroleum minister, Shahabuddin Delawar, urged MCC to begin “practical” work on the development and operation of the mine.

12 Jul 23

[missleheja]

India Was More Civilized Than Rest Of The World In Ancient Times

The ancient Greeks may not have been the oldest civilization, but they were undoubtedly one of the most influential. The time of ancient India ended with the conquest of Persia by the old Persian Empire in the 4th century BC. This was a time when ancient Persian civilization was indeed the most powerful empire in the world.

In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, archaeologists were able to outline how civilization evolved from simple peasant villages of the Neolithic Age to a civilization. Later, in the 1st millennium BC, a new civilization came into being in the form of the old Persian Empire. During this time civilizations such as Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians developed.

Restoring the civilization and religion of the Indus Valley is impossible, but there is no doubt that it had its own religion. There is much evidence for the existence of ancient civilizations such as Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, but a reconstruction of their religion was impossible.

The fact that language people used was so powerful that it nurtured critical thinking as the fundamental unit that underpinned humanity's diversity. Unlike Muslims, ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations, which were once far more advanced than the West, have not produced a scientific revolution. Indian civilization lagged a little behind, but it also could follow religious trends, and that was due to the many manifestations of Indian genius.

The period after the decline of the Indus Valley civilization is known as the Vedic period, which was marked by the creation of several religious texts as Vedas as the reason for abandoning the cities. This period in ancient Indian history is also known in Sanskrit as "the Vedic Age" because it represents the earliest Indian scriptures, the so-called VedAs. It was also the formative period that laid the foundation for many of India's most important cultural, religious and political traditions.

However, this civilization faded around 1700 BC and a new phase in India's history followed. The later civilizations that emerged in the Indus Valley region laid the foundations for many of India's most important cultural, religious and political traditions. Today, the beginning of its long history is an important milestone in its history and an important milestone for the development of modern India.

The Indus Valley civilization originated sometime around 3000 BC and encompassed what is now northwest India and parts of eastern Pakistan. It stretched to an altitude of about 2,500 kilometres and reached as far south as the present border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and as far as the Indian Ocean. The civilization of the Indo-valley collapsed around 1700 BC, C., E. and modern India did not form until 1947. Modern India embraces much of what India did in ancient times, but not everything, for it embraces many of its most important cultural, religious, political, and political traditions.

The ancient Greeks invented India and called it the land of the Indus Valley, the Indian Ocean and the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Unlike the ancient Greeks and Romans, it had no definite borders, but it was assumed to have occurred after the Greek conquests.

Similar Neolithic communities emerged in the Indus Valley and other parts of the country, such as the Himalayas, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Ancient India was also called Harappan Civilization, after one of the ancient cities called Harappa. The name of this civilization was "Harappan Civilization" or "Indus Valley" after the city that was first excavated. Harpa, in turn, was an ancient city from the third millennium BC and part of a much larger civilization that stretched across northwest India. This civilization is now called the Indus Valley Civilization because the majority of these settlements were located along the Indus River in the northwestern region of the subcontinent.

It was one of the earliest civilizations in world history and took the place of the Indus civilizations from Mesopotamia and Egypt. It was also abraded in the third millennium BC, at about the same time as the ancient cultures of Babylon and Egypt, but much earlier.

Ancient India was by far the largest of the early civilizations and historians estimate that the large cities could feed up to 80,000 people. It extended to a larger region than all the regions of Egypt and Mesopotamia combined, and some historians estimate that each major city could have fed up to 70,000 people in the first century BC. Mohenjo - Daro in the third millennium BC and the Indus Valley civilization in ancient Egypt.

The Indus Valley civilization was important in hydraulic engineering and famously developed the world's first known sewage system, similar to that found in modern urban areas throughout the Middle East. We also know that people there used a range of powerful technologies that were brought to fruition by classical Indian civilization and were almost forgotten until the twentieth century. One of the most important of these was the old linguistic sewage and drainage systems, which were developed and used in all cities of the Indus Empire. These formed the basis for the construction of many of India's largest cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hola Steph! How have you been?

I was wondering if you have any Johnlock fic recs that are... maybe academic rivals or work rivals to lovers AU? A healthy dose of sexual tension and slow burn or whatever. Could be any word count. These days I've kinda been craving for that type of stuff, so please drop if you know any of those.

Take care dearie<33

Hey Nonny!

AHHHHH Not... precisely? Like I have Alternate Professions fics, but these three fics just came to mind that have something similar:

Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE|| Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role

Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w., 28 Ch. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place

-----

I know there are a tonne more, please feel free to remind me of them :)