Do you approve or disapprove of Joe Biden's performance on Afghanistan?

[Gabe Lackmann]

Okay... you are kind of babbling here, but let's look at this.

They were warned that Afghanistan was unstable.... They went anyway. We'll make an effort to get them out, but there has to be a point where you say, "You pays your money and you take your chances".



But NATO itself ended operations in 2014.




Actually, we spent 3 Trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Where did that money go? It's a lot of money for so little results... and not surprisingly, a lot of money went to these corrupt ass contractors.

Haliburton alone received 39 Billion from their work in Iraq and

The $385 Billion Military-Industrial Boondoggle You've Never Heard Of

America's foreign bases are more staggering than ever—and, with your tax dollars, an empire of private contractors is holding them down.

www.thenation.com

These big companies also have a lot of lobbyists in Washington, and you can't see the connections?



Again- they knew the work was dangerous when they took it.

I am not babbling anything. The sole purpose of the US government is to protect and serve the citizenry of this nation. When our government can no longer, to some extent ensure the safety of its citizens, ESPECIALLY when those citizens are supporting the government's mission in a foreign land, then it is of no use to anyone. Least of all the citizens.
So stop being a biased douche bag, and making excuses for this senile fuckwad, and his inept administration.

 

[jehanne1431]

US left Afghan airfield at night, didn't tell new commander

From article: (After the U.S. military secretly abandoned Bagram air force base the night of July 6) --- Roughly two dozen officials stationed at the U.S. embassy in Kabul sent a memo through the department’s confidential dissent channel to alert Blinken, along with another top State Department official, that the Taliban was well-positioned to take over the nation, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The cable, dated July 13, additionally provided suggestions on what should be done to counter the threat from the insurgent group and speed up the evacuation process. Among the recommendations made to the department was the suggestion to use "tougher language" when describing the atrocities that the Taliban had already committed. (ooo, bold move)

Here’s another recommendation you might have thought of ---- REVERSE THE DECISION! Reoccupy the Bagram base and methodically get the everyone out long before you give up our defenses! (As well as our military equipment) Somebody did this on purpose knowing what would transpire ---- no one can be that stupid or uncaring.

 

[candycorn]

Do you approve or disapprove of Joe Biden's performance on Afghanistan?​

DISAPPROVE!

This was inevitable...

Biden is just the one who ripped the band aid off. Long term gain, short term loss.

That being said; the pullout has been a SNAFU.

 

[gtopa1]

Irrelevant. There should have been no deal with the taliban, nor should the trump administration released a talban criminal.

Something I agree with, U2. Now tell me; you say the same regarding Obama's releases??

Greg

 

[sartre play]

China has already built a railroad, mining operations and power plants in Afghanistan.

Interesting, Do you have more info?

 

[JoeB131]

There is the Joe we all know and love.

Not that we will ever have that discussion about how the Zionists run our foreign policy, sometimes to the detriment of our interests.

 

[JoeB131]

I am not babbling anything. The sole purpose of the US government is to protect and serve the citizenry of this nation. When our government can no longer, to some extent ensure the safety of its citizens, ESPECIALLY when those citizens are supporting the government's mission in a foreign land, then it is of no use to anyone. Least of all the citizens.
So stop being a biased douche bag, and making excuses for this senile fuckwad, and his inept administration.

Sorry, man, you go to a Country the State Department has EXPLICITELY WARNED YOU was dangerous, you kind of waived an absolute right of protection.

We'll get these idiots out... even the profiteers... but they really have no one to blame but themselves.

 

[Skylar]

Do you approve or disapprove of Joe Biden's performance on Afghanistan?​

DISAPPROVE!

Nope. A withdraw from Afghanistan was always going to be a cluster fuck. And the moment Trump negotiated a useless 'peace deal', ceding the country to the Taliban and scheduling the US retreat with the release of 5000 Taliban prisoners, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban was inevitable. The Afghani forces were never going to hold the country.

The September 1st retreat date that Trump agreed to gave Biden months to prepare. He had months to evacuated Americans from the country. This clusterfuck of disorganization where our troops left and then came back? That's on Biden.

The country falling to the Taliban? That's on Trump's 'peace deal' and capitulation to the Taliban.

 

[CowboyTed]

This was inevitable...

Biden is just the one who ripped the band aid off. Long term gain, short term loss.

That being said; the pullout has been a SNAFU.

There was little Biden could do...

That is why we keep asking the Trumpsters... Trump left 2500 troops and a skeleton crew in place when he left and a deadline to be out by April...

What could Biden do...

1. Get Out
2. Deploy more personnel in...

Deploying in would have caused a street battle in Kabul.. 4.5 million city, 70,000 taliban fighters...

Imagine the casualty rate..

Will Biden's decisions cause suffering? Yes... Could it be much worse? Yes

Remember, the road to hell is paved by good intentions..

 

[CowboyTed]

Nope. A withdraw from Afghanistan was always going to be a cluster fuck. And the moment Trump negotiated a useless 'peace deal', ceding the country to the Taliban and scheduling the US retreat with the release of 5000 Taliban prisoners, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban was inevitable. The Afghani forces were never going to hold the country.

The September 1st retreat date that Trump agreed to gave Biden months to prepare. He had months to evacuated Americans from the country. This clusterfuck of disorganization where our troops left and then came back? That's on Biden.

The country falling to the Taliban? That's on Trump's 'peace deal' and capitulation to the Taliban.

Skylar...

Biden had only 2500 troops in the country on taking office... The deal said he wasn't supposed to increase that significantly...

They did try and encourage Americans to leave but there was a massive political problem... The more stringent you were asking to leave the more you were undermining the Afghan Government and Army... IT was a bit of a catch 22 they inherited... Saying that the Taliban are actually driving foreigners to the airport..

Irish woman tells of getting 'Taliban escort' as she escaped Afghanistan

Irish teacher Aoife MacManus has since managed to make it to Islamabad in Pakistan and plans on returning home to Ireland by Sunday

www.irishmirror.ie

Taliban want them out safely...

Why we can't arrange a convoy from Kabul to Islamabad under international/US supervision? Explain to Taliban that these people don't want to be here and you don't want them here too... Let them go safely and there is a chance you won't hit by major sanctions...

 

[SweetSue92]

Skylar...

Biden had only 2500 troops in the country on taking office... The deal said he wasn't supposed to increase that significantly...

They did try and encourage Americans to leave but there was a massive political problem... The more stringent you were asking to leave the more you were undermining the Afghan Government and Army... IT was a bit of a catch 22 they inherited... Saying that the Taliban are actually driving foreigners to the airport..

Irish woman tells of getting 'Taliban escort' as she escaped Afghanistan

Irish teacher Aoife MacManus has since managed to make it to Islamabad in Pakistan and plans on returning home to Ireland by Sunday

www.irishmirror.ie

Taliban want them out safely...

Why we can't arrange a convoy from Kabul to Islamabad under international/US supervision? Explain to Taliban that these people don't want to be here and you don't want them here too... Let them go safely and there is a chance you won't hit by major sanctions...

"Inherited.....TRUMP!!!"

No one is buying this

 

[JoeB131]

"Inherited.....TRUMP!!!"

No one is buying this

Most Sensible people are...

Kind of fun to watch the Islamophobic Twat get out there and cry crocodile tears for all the poor Muslims in Afghanistan.

 

[Skylar]

Most Sensible people are...

Kind of fun to watch the Islamophobic Twat get out there and cry crocodile tears for all the poor Muslims in Afghanistan.

When Trump negotiated the US retreat from Afghanistan and the release of 5000 Taliban.....what did they think was going happen when the US actually left?

 

[candycorn]

There was little Biden could do...

That is why we keep asking the Trumpsters... Trump left 2500 troops and a skeleton crew in place when he left and a deadline to be out by April...

What could Biden do...

1. Get Out
2. Deploy more personnel in...

Deploying in would have caused a street battle in Kabul.. 4.5 million city, 70,000 taliban fighters...

Imagine the casualty rate..

Will Biden's decisions cause suffering? Yes... Could it be much worse? Yes

Remember, the road to hell is paved by good intentions..

Maybe....maybe not.

Deploying a few thousand over the last few weeks hasn't broken down into sizable clashes with the Taliban...has it? Saying that deploying "more personnel in" would have doesn't appear to have a foundation. One thing we know about the middle east is that a lot of the actors are unpredictable; the one common thread in terms of leadership from Jordan to India; Turkey to Saudi is pretty much that whoever is in power either has to denounce the US in public and accept aid in private or denounce the US in public and not accept aid in private.

Here is my take.

I think they should have erred toward the worst-case scenario; total collapse of the AA then have the best minds wargame that out. What would it be like if we had to go it alone over there? And then implement that plan. If you have the aid of a professional army fighting on your behalf...great. If not; you have the assets there to do the job yourself.

A lot of this is Monday Morning Quarterbacking...but I think any reasonable person could tell 2 things if they were just coming back from a 20 year mission on Mars:

Terrorists never honor their agreement.
The Middle East hates us; will always hate us; and nothing we do will change that.

We should have been better prepared.

---

As for the blob; he was a contributing factor to the cluster fuck; no doubt. But Biden is in the chair now and day-to-day operations are happening on his watch. He is responsible for what is happening right now.

 

[Desperado]

When Trump negotiated the US retreat from Afghanistan and the release of 5000 Taliban.....what did they think was going happen when the US actually left?

How about the well equiped Afghanistan Army stepping upand fighting for their country without the US holding their hands.Afterall the years of training and all the equipment we gave them who would have thought they would cut and run

 

[U2Edge]

This was inevitable...

Biden is just the one who ripped the band aid off. Long term gain, short term loss.

That being said; the pullout has been a SNAFU.

NOTHING is inevitable when it comes to conduct of foreign policy and defense policy.

The United States and NATO have spent years building up the Afghan government and military only to pull the rug out from under them suddenly this year. Its a disgrace, and abandonment of an ally, and will increase the probability that countries like China or Russia will challenge the United States in the years to come because they believe are WILL is WEAK!

Equally important, RICHARD CLARK, who was in charge of U.S. counter terrorism in the late 1990s says that were back to 1998 in terms of defending the country from terrorist in Afghanistan. The United States just surrendered Afghanistan to the same people that helped murder 3,000 Americans in the World Trade Towers on 9/11!

 

[U2Edge]

How about the well equiped Afghanistan Army stepping upand fighting for their country without the US holding their hands.Afterall the years of training and all the equipment we gave them who would have thought they would cut and run

In terms of fighting and dying, it was the Afghan military that was doing 99% of that the past six years. It was working to in the sense that the Taliban were held back to small number of districts in rural areas, while all 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan were FREE of the Taliban. Then Joe Biden just decided to abandon the whole mission:

You can see the scale of Afghan military sacrifice in the numbers here:

Brookings Institution:


Year - Afghan military/police deaths from combat - U.S. military deaths from combat - Non-US/NATO deaths from combat

2015 - 7,000 - 11 - 1
2016 - 8,000 - 9 - 2
2017 - 8,000 - 11 - 2
2018 - 8,000 - 13 - 4
2019 - 10,900 - 18 - 2
2020 - 10,900 - 4 - 0


The United States only lost 66 troops to combat in Afghanistan the past 6 years while the Afghan military lost over 53,000!

 

[candycorn]

NOTHING is inevitable when it comes to conduct of foreign policy and defense policy.

Sure it is.

Or perhaps you can name an Islamic government that fully embraces the US at all times. It strains my memory to remember a time outside of Saudi for a brief period...

Eventually they have to denounce the US....

The United States and NATO have spent years building up the Afghan government and military only to pull the rug out from under them suddenly this year. Its a disgrace, and abandonment of an ally, and will increase the probability that countries like China or Russia will challenge the United States in the years to come because they believe are WILL is WEAK!

Huh? I hope you don't think that the Afghans thought that we would be there indefinitely.... If they are/were....that's on them.

The Afghan Army should be kicking ass and taking names. They layed down.

Equally important, RICHARD CLARK, who was in charge of U.S. counter terrorism in the late 1990s says that were back to 1998 in terms of defending the country from terrorist in Afghanistan. The United States just surrendered Afghanistan to the same people that helped murder 3,000 Americans in the World Trade Towers on 9/11!

Yes and no....

That was Al Queda. The Taliban helped them. And I suspect there will be a movement within the Taliban to do the same thing again. I think there will be a lot of hesitation in that aspect. The Taliban isn't under the impression that they whipped the US Military...or at least they shouldn't be (they may say as much for public consumption but they don't actually feel that). We could take that nation in 2-10 months if we were willing to squander more blood and treasure. Holding it is another matter though. It becomes death by a thousand cuts

As I said back in 2008 or so... "There isn't anything in Afghanistan worth a drop of American blood".

 

[U2Edge]

Sure it is.

Or perhaps you can name an Islamic government that fully embraces the US at all times. It strains my memory to remember a time outside of Saudi for a brief period...

Eventually they have to denounce the US....

Huh? I hope you don't think that the Afghans thought that we would be there indefinitely.... If they are/were....that's on them.

The Afghan Army should be kicking ass and taking names. They layed down.

Yes and no....

That was Al Queda. The Taliban helped them. And I suspect there will be a movement within the Taliban to do the same thing again. I think there will be a lot of hesitation in that aspect. The Taliban isn't under the impression that they whipped the US Military...or at least they shouldn't be (they may say as much for public consumption but they don't actually feel that). We could take that nation in 2-10 months if we were willing to squander more blood and treasure. Holding it is another matter though. It becomes death by a thousand cuts

As I said back in 2008 or so... "There isn't anything in Afghanistan worth a drop of American blood".

Its only inevitable to people that, give up, and like to believe in things like "unwinnable war", and other such nonsense. The Fact is, if the United States and NATO had maintained the 10,000 troop deployment that was there in April, the Taliban would still be isolated to the small number of remote rural districts that they have been isolated to for decades. August 2021 in Afghanistan, would have been the same as August 2020 in Afghanistan.

The United States has lots of friends in the Muslim world to include NATO Allies like Turkey and Albania, in the Persian Gulf with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates. Even the new government in Iraq although friendly with Iran, still works extensively with NATO and continues to host nearly 7,000 NATO troops including 2,500 American troops. In fact, the United States gets more support from some of these Muslim countries than we do from older more traditional allies like France, Germany, or Japan.


There is no difference between Al Qaeda and the Taliban except for the name and perhaps nationality of origin in some cases. In fact, Al Qaeda and the Taliban are more intertwined now through marriage and children born over the past two decades than they ever were back in 2001. The TALIBAN is a terrorist organization that attacked the United States on 9/11 and under JOE BIDEN, the United States essentially surrendered to the TALIBAN.

It was the idiots in the 1990s who thought that Afghanistan was some backwater country that did not matter. That LOGIC is what killed 3,000 Americans in two hours on 9/11. It could have been 50,000 dead if the attack had occurred in the early afternoon when the Trade Towers would have been full with workers as opposed to the morning.

Its hard to believe that there are people out there who think the TALIBAN can be trusted in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM!


By the way, the Afghan military put up a hell of a fight the past 6 years and it was working until Joe Biden destroyed the project:

Brookings Institution:


Year - Afghan military deaths from combat - U.S. military deaths from combat - Non-US/NATO deaths from combat

2015 - 7,000 - 11 - 1
2016 - 8,000 - 9 - 2
2017 - 8,000 - 11 - 2
2018 - 8,000 - 13 - 4
2019 - 10,900 - 18 - 2
2020 - 10,900 - 4 - 0

Who the hell abandon's an ally that puts in that level of Sacrifice!?

 

[candycorn]

Its only inevitable to people that, give up, and like to believe in things like "unwinnable war", and other such nonsense. The Fact is, if the United States and NATO had maintained the 10,000 troop deployment that was there in April, the Taliban would still be isolated to the small number of remote rural districts that they have been isolated to for decades. August 2021 in Afghanistan, would have been the same as August 2020 in Afghanistan.

The United States has lots of friends in the Muslim world to include NATO Allies like Turkey and Albania, in the Persian Gulf with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates. Even the new government in Iraq although friendly with Iran, still works extensively with NATO and continues to host nearly 7,000 NATO troops including 2,500 American troops. In fact, the United States gets more support from some of these Muslim countries than we do from older more traditional allies like France, Germany, or Japan.


There is no difference between Al Qaeda and the Taliban except for the name and perhaps nationality of origin in some cases. In fact, Al Qaeda and the Taliban are more intertwined now through marriage and children born over the past two decades than they ever were back in 2001. The TALIBAN is a terrorist organization that attacked the United States on 9/11 and under JOE BIDEN, the United States essentially surrendered to the TALIBAN.

It was the idiots in the 1990s who thought that Afghanistan was some backwater country that did not matter. That LOGIC is what killed 3,000 Americans in two hours on 9/11. It could have been 50,000 dead if the attack had occurred in the early afternoon when the Trade Towers would have been full with workers as opposed to the morning.

Its hard to believe that there are people out there who think the TALIBAN can be trusted in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM!

I didn't care much about what you wrote. We're pulling out; there is nothing to win over there. If you think differently... Sorry....
Here is the bottom line. The US, for it's history, does the following:

We beat the crap out of those who challenge us. Then we invite them to the negotiating table and offer generous terms and negotiate a peace agreement. That is what we do; that is what we have done. That is what we will always do. The problem is that when it comes to a fundamentalist theocratic opponent; there simply is no compromise of their beliefs so there is no negotiation. The only solution left to the US is that we come back with absolute disaster, conquest, brutal occupation. Essentially martial law for decades. Simply put (and Thank God) we don't have the stomach for it. I'm not saying we're weak or soft or anything of the sort...what I am saying is that we simply don't see the point of doing it for absolutely no tangible gain. In some ways our optimism is our biggest problem. We're hopeful that there won't be any terrorist training camps springing up next Spring. So we're okay leaving this Summer.