Measuring success in Afghanistan withdrawal

[citygator]

The Taliban has our guns, weapons, vehicles. Even IF we get every American and ally out....there's that.

This is an epic catastrophe. If you're not getting it yet, turn over to Morning Joe and witness their long faces. They're not even trying.

No exit strategy was going to make the Afghan army fight.

 

[citygator]

Success is when a withdrawal happens and there is no chaos. Trump took the US troop level from 50,000 to 2,500 and it went smoothly.
So why didn't Xiden take the last 2,500 out by May 1st along with the embassy staff?
Last month Xiden said the AFG army would defeat the Taliban, so did Milley.
We don't have everyone out of AFG yet, so don't count your chickens...

So it’s a beauty contest? Results matter. If soldiers die or are injured due to negligence it’s a failure.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

"Success" and "withdrawal" do not belong in the same sentence concerning this Biden catastrophic exit.

 

[citygator]

Not left our people, allies, weapons, vehicles and other treasure back on the ground. With no plans in place. Obviously.

So you would have bet against the Afghan army and puked out everything they were outfitted with?

 

[citygator]

"Success" and "withdrawal" do not belong in the same sentence concerning this Biden catastrophic exit.

What is your measure of success?

 

[citygator]

I don't disagree re: leaving Afghanistan. Leaving THE WAY we did is the issue. I have said this many times and heard it repeated many more.

What measure are you using to measure success?

 

[citygator]

There are some estimates that there are 86k people who fall into that category still there when you include all the Afghans that helped us fight that war. If that number is 50% accurate we will get an F.

Your measure of success is immigration for 86,000 people?

 

[easyt65]

A successful withdrawal of Afghanistan will be if every American soldier and civil service worker gets out alive. How else will you measure success?

Getting Americans out of Afghanistan alive will be ' breaking even'. There is no 'success' to gain from Afghanistan now.

 

[colfax_m]

Do not for one second mistake this. The vast majority of the American people would have been behind "we've done all we can here; time to withdraw"--which is NOT a loss.

That’s exactly what Biden said and did.

 

[Hellokitty]

The withdraw Biden plan was/is a disaster, but IMO the focus now needs to be on how the Afghanis who worked with the US and their families will be vetted before being relocated to the US. And how will those who pass the vetting process adapt to living in a country that will cancel them for using the wrong pronoun or force them to show JAB papers...

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

“Measuring success” in withdrawal?

Depends above all on the Taliban …

At this point we might as well just pray to God (or Allah) that Westerners are allowed to get out of the country — alive.

As for those who worked for the U.S., the truth is the West doesn’t really want most of them ... so pray for them too.

(As for “vetting” …. Afghans are being told to apply for paperwork from the State Department, whose offices were in the Green Zone, which is now taken over by the Talaban. The Russian and Chinese embassies are still open however. Travel to the airport is now completely controlled by the Taliban.)

 

[schmidlap]

A successful withdrawal of Afghanistan will be if every American soldier and civil service worker gets out alive. How else will you measure success?

Some indicate that postponing indefinitely the inevitable culmination of the 20 year, $2.2 trillion nation-building fiasco in "The Graveyard of Empires" is their idea of "success."

Will those who habitually called for immediate withdrawal (Trump repeatedly and continually) now stand by their position or become shameless hypocrites out of hyper-partisan political opportunism?

THEY WERE FOR WITHDRAWAL BEFORE THEY WERE AGAINST IT.

Trump had set May 1 as a final Afghanistan withdrawal date, in addition to criticizing the United States's presence in Afghanistan dating back to 2012, and he argued in a statement this past April that Biden's timeline was "way too long."

Trump said that .while leaving Afghanistan is
"a wonderful and positive thing to do!"
he had set a May 1 withdrawal deadline and added that
"we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.
... we can and should get out earlier.
Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long...
I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars
of equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence
to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there."
​

Trump's Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo applauded Biden's decision to continue with Trump's plan to withdraw despite pushing back the timeline and said he was "confident" in the current administration's past assessments that the Afghan Security Forces and citizens would "fight" to prevent a full Taliban takeover.

Senator Rafael Cruz responded in April to Biden's original announcement by stating he is "glad the troops are coming home" and that "it should not be the job of the U.S. military to engage in nation building." (A sentiment Dubby Bush had expressed before initiating the "nation building" fiasco)

Crazy Ron Paul had enthused, "It’s great when we can find places to agree. I’m grateful President Biden is keeping President Trump’s plan to leave Afghanistan, even with a delay until fall. The time to bring our troops home is now or as soon as possible. Enough endless wars."

A number of other Republicans, including also praised Biden.

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis tweeted in April that she wished "the Biden Administration had kept to President Trump’s May 1 deadline, but I am pleased our troops are coming home" and looks "forward to working with the current Administration to continue our intelligence gathering efforts and preventing terrorists from using Afghanistan as a home base."
James Baker who served in the Cabinets of Reagan Dubya Bush, endorsed Biden's decision this past April. "I admire the fact that President Biden had the courage to end up and say we’re going to get out of Afghanistan. It’s time to do that."

Other Republicans who fully supported Trump's withdrawal deadline, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Florida Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Matt Gaetz, and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, the chairman of the rightist House Freedom Caucus.

[These prominent Republicans loved Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal plan. Until they didn't]

​

Veterans wanted out of Afghanistan​

​

Marine veteran Dan Caldwell said ... A majority of veterans, including those who served in Afghanistan, wanted the United States to get out.​

​

“That has been consistent since 2019,” said Caldwell, senior adviser at Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative group that conducted surveys and launched a multimillion-dollar campaign backing withdrawal. “We believe that ultimately, President Biden made the right decision.”​

​

"This withdrawal needed to happen," said Brittany Ramos DeBarros, who deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and is now organizing director for About Face: Veterans Against The War. "But the way that it's been orchestrated is disappointing to say the least."​

​

Veterans for Peace, an antiwar group, decried the “pandering and posturing” of politicians and said “both parties are to blame for this mess and a militaristic culture that places profit above all else.” The group promoted a community Zoom call Monday for veterans who are having difficulty processing what’s happening.​

​

Before the Taliban takeover, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that it had started to see an uptick in veterans seeking help as news of the imminent withdrawal made headlines.​

​

[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/v...mental-health-issues/ar-AANoPzK?ocid=BingNews]​

Would another twenty years of occupation and another $2.2 trillion dollars of American taxpayer's money have produced competent Afghan leadership that would not flee as soon as it was entrusted with its own nation's security?

Fat chance.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

What is your measure of success?

An exit plan that didn't allow this kind of immediate collapse. It should have been a strategy that included getting all of our personnel and equipment safely out. This was an intelligence failure like we've never seen.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Your measure of success is immigration for 86,000 people?

Biden is allowing more than that in through our southern border every month.

 

[Coyote]

A successful withdrawal of Afghanistan will be if every American soldier and civil service worker gets out alive. How else will you measure success?

Every Afghan who helped us and face death will get out alive.

But even that is not enoughed. We effed it up for 20 years and then abandoned them.

 

[Lesh]

That is about it. A very low bar. Fareed Zakaria said it best on CNN last night, “There is no elegant way to lose a war.”

There it is

 

[lennypartiv]

I actually agree with you. It was time to get out of that quagmire. It was a road to nowhere.

Sometimes war is necessary. It was a sad time for our country when our boys were fighting in Iraq and you liberals didn't have any patriotism.

 

[citygator]

Afghanistan is falling on Biden's watch in a most horrific way.

That's all she wrote snowflake.

What would you like to see for a successful exit?

 

[candycorn]

A successful withdrawal of Afghanistan will be if every American soldier and civil service worker gets out alive. How else will you measure success?

Getting out all of those who helped us for the lat 20 years for starters.

 

[BlueGin]

No exit strategy was going to make the Afghan army fight.

Especially when Biden took their means to do so on the way out.