I fear I have not written much about Afghanistan, but I have no special expertise on the subject. So, it is no great loss. I just reached the conclusion we ought to stick it out, THE “QUAGMIRE” IS PART OF THAT STRUGGLE WE CALL LIFE. However, even the guy I voted for wanted out. So, I figured he would eventually figure out how to do it without leaving a mess. That was always the problem. Afghanistan is a quaqmire for armies. It is difficult to get out without great losses.
Our current president, Joe Biden, seems determined to prove Afghanistan is a quaqmire. That’s his excuse for not having any discernable exit strategy. Effectively, he wants us to believe he botched it because nothing else was possible. Biden, of course, is just doing what he always does, lying. The size of the lie — the fact the lie is so obvious — does not seem to matter. I guess he still expects the news media to smooth it over for him. Who knows? Biden might be right, and that would be so sad.
Here is a transcript of Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for doing this.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Thank you for doin’ it.STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s get right to it. Back in July, you said a Taliban takeover was highly unlikely. Was the intelligence wrong, or did you downplay it?
Continued => Full transcript of ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos’ interview with President Joe Biden
Here is a link to the video, Biden says he did not see a way to withdraw from Afghanistan without ‘chaos ensuing’.
What do you think of our president? Comment welcome.
Citizen Tom 
Today is August 24 2021. I just found out that Joe Biden plans on leaving Afghanistan on the 31st of the month and I am in shock at the cowardice I see coming out of the White House.
I am a veteran of the 173rd airborne brigade, having served 18 months in the Asian theatre. I’ve never thought much of my time in the military until today when I found myself weeping for the America I once knew.
The one thing we all knew in every outfit in the American war machine was that you NEVER left a buddy behind. Dead or alive everybody does all they can to see that happen.
Today in Biden’s coward littered America we are actually leaving our people to be slaughtered by a group of ruthless terrorists. Our president is a traitor. He, and those behind him are destroying this country in every possible way they can. Why? Who is pulling the strings?
I sit here, an old man heart sick and ready to fight, but I don’t know which way to turn.
@pitybull1
The Democrats have proven to be intensely destructive. Some have theory that they think they have to destroy our country before they can fully transform it. Personally, I think that most of them are so greedy for power and wealth that they lack the self-discipline to exercise any self restraint. In addition, they are so arrogant they think they can convince of anything. Likely, they will try to convince us that our withdrawal from Afghanistan was so kind of grand victory.
It is, Tom. Amazing how so many so-called Trump Patriots simple write off the capability of our military.
@Doug
So, when you engaged in endless criticisms of President Trump, that showed your lack of confidence in our military?
Huh? I have no idea what you are getting at there.
My issues with Trump were all about the man himself.. and his psychotic behavior.
@Doug
My issues with Biden and the Democratic Party is that they are a bunch of crooked, incompetent, lying scoundrels.
If that works for you>
@Doug
It is what works for you. Your idea of debate is calling Trump names. I speak to the known facts and the issues, you come up with nonsense. If I don’t support Biden, I don’t have confidence in the military? If you support what Biden has done, you don’t care about your countrymen.
I sit here, an old man veteran as well. I see an amazing feat of logistical prowess that only our country in the entire history of the world could have pulled off. I see what looks like an extreme effort on the part of our State Department to get not only the vetting process worked out, but to make sure all the ills of the planet won’t be let into the country. Also, the behind-the-scenes negotiating with the Taliban. The intel people dedicated to not only keep things in place for the evacuation but in planning for the future. No.. you can complain all you want about what you “think” Biden has done or not done according to what we see on the videos. So far nearly 80,000 have been evacuated and other than the sadness of a couple crushed Afghan people outside the airport… no American lives have been lost so far. Pretty amazing. The simple fact is that we.. the general public.. does not know the extent of our operation… nor really should we. The situation is so fluid that sometimes we just have to have a little faith in the process. You’re an ex-military man.. and you should know that many times details of a given operation are best kept as secrets, at least until the operation is terminated. I ask myself.. why hasn’t ISIS-K struck by now? Maybe our intel people have thwarted their plans. Maybe they are just laying low to wait for the end chaos on Aug. 31 to make a great strike. Maybe we’ve been sharing intel about ISIS-K to the Taliban so they can take care of those guys. A lot we do not know. We should wait and see.
I didn’t agree with Trump when he tried to get out of Afg by making a deal with the Taliban . . . what Biden is doing is an absolute tragedy for all the Americans and friendlies he is leaving behind. . . . When I see him bowing down to the Taliban demands I wanna scream. Biden’s a punk, period.
We still have forces in Korea, We have treaties with Taiwan as well as others on the Pacific rim. . . we have protection treaties across the world . . . in just six months Biden has turned the US into a paper tiger and the whole world is laughing at us as we bow down to the terrorist.
This is not something that takes a lot of thought (unless trying to defend him) I want to know why he gave up Bagram and 85 billion dollars worth of weapons . . . I want to know why he rushed the military out FIRST instead of LAST. . . Why we are negotiating with terrorists (and Taliban/Isis/Al Qaeda are ALL brothers in arms) . . . Handshakes and smiles are a sign of weakness to these people and they are making fools out of us via the dipshits at the Whitehouse. . . . and mark my words this will follow us home. . . we screwed NATO . . . we screwed the Afgan workers . . . we screwed the soldiers who fought there . . . we screwed everybody, and this will all follow us for years to come . . . we have an open border that is being infiltrated as we speak.
and to this BS that the Afgan army ran away after fighting all these years and taking thousands of casualities . . .anybody who believes that needs to research the situation a bit. . . .
@pitybull1
Well put!
No.. the point being neither of you has any real idea what is going on over there. I surely don’t either. So, all that remains is your political opinion against those in the current administration.
@Doug
Don’t be an idiot! There are certain basic facts that are not in dispute.
Because Breitbart or some loons on FOX or OAN said so?
@Doug
Do you ever consider blatantly obvious facts instead of your feelings.
Whose “facts’ and from where?
@Doug
Here are the facts, again.
1. The jackass pulled out the troops BEFORE he evacuated the civilians. Who does that? Democrats.
2. The jackass abandoned Bagram Air Base and billions of dollars worth of military H/W to terrorists. Who does that? Democrats.
3. The jackass deserted the Afghan military. The Afghan military had been fighting for years and taken heavy casualties, but they had not given up. Yet many of these people cannot read. They cannot maintain the H/W we have given them. So, we had provided contractors and we took those contractors away. That is when they gave up. There never was 300,000 thousand Afghan soldiers. It was air support, not numbers, that gave the Afghan military an advantage over the Taliban. Democrats took that advantage away.
Check out several articles that show the scale of the problem.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-surge-exposes-failure-us-efforts-build-afghan-army-2021-08-15/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wapo-fact-checks-biden-bogus-claim-that-afghanistans-military-larger-than-nato-allies
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-pilots-assassinated-by-taliban-us-withdraws-2021-07-09/
Even when we left Vietnam, we at least gave the South Vietnamese a chance to fight on their own. Biden did not give a crap.
I am listening (and watching) reports from SF and other special op war fighters who have actually been there and know the mindset of our enemy. . . I am also watching veterans from congress give testimony on fox. . . .
right now I am watching the results of an attack at the airport. An attack that was the direct result of very bad planning. . . . when this over I am praying for a complete shakeup for the dipshits at the Pentagon . . our young soldiers deserve better . . . much better.
This entire plan is the biggest F-UP I ever heard of. . . . .
it’s possible to improvise on the move when alone, but these guys are trying it with thousands of people on the move . . . won’t work . . .
once you lolly gag into an ambush you’re dead . . period. The only thing they can do now is take back Bagram and hold it long enough to do a proper evacuation.
@pitybull1
Biden is moving out. They actually think people will forget the whole mess before the midterm election. That is what they think of us.
we now have 12 guys dead, I think Joe is gone over this. Putting our guys in a non- defendable position like that airport is unconscionable. In those wide open crowded spaces It was ripe for a suicide bombing, I’m surprised it took so long…….. Like I said, you can’t lolly gag into an ambush. . . that place was an ambush in waiting. . . . this is all the result of deserting Bagram . . . I’m worried about those c-130’s etc. also. . . they are also easy targets for a hand held missile.
@pitybull1
What Biden has done is either traitorous, or he is demented. The fact his subordinates did not rebel against his decision suggest they supported his decision, and the problems are blatantly obvious. Given he picked them….. As a nation, we are in big trouble. There is no legal way to get rid of these people.
@Doug
Here are the problems, again.
1. The jackass pulled out the troops BEFORE he evacuated the civilians. Who does that?
2. The jackass abandoned Bagram Air Base and billions of dollars worth of military H/W to terrorists. Who does that?
3. The jackass deserted the Afghan military. The Afghan military had been fighting for years and taken heavy casualties, but they had not given up. Yet many of these people cannot read. They cannot maintain the H/W we have given them. So, we had provided contractors and we took those contractors away. That is when they gave up. There never was 300,000 thousand Afghan soldiers. It was the air support that gave them an advantage over the Taliban.
Check out several articles that show the scale of the problem.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-surge-exposes-failure-us-efforts-build-afghan-army-2021-08-15/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wapo-fact-checks-biden-bogus-claim-that-afghanistans-military-larger-than-nato-allies
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-pilots-assassinated-by-taliban-us-withdraws-2021-07-09/
Even when we left Vietnam, we at least gave the South Vietnamese a chance to fight on their own. Biden did not give a crap.
just watched a retired SEAL say pretty much the same things . . . that is a good double witness . . .
I fear for this country. In just six months we have been crippled to the point we may not survive. I don’t know how, when, or where, but we MUST be prepared to stand and fight back against this onslought from those who would kill our republic.
I don’t like Trump, but I do like the gov of Florida. He is still a man and IMO manhood is in decline.
@pitybull1
The people who established this country were not perfect, but most tried to live by the Bible. When we worship idols of our own making, like sex, stuff, science, state, and self, manhood and womanhood do seem to suffer (See Romans 1 starting at verse 18.).
Hmmm…. sex.
Jeez.. DeSantis is killing his own people! He can’t even manage the pandemic in his own state! Health roadblocks galore from that guy… and all he is concerned about is winning over Trump people with this idiocy that getting vaccinated and wearing a mask is the end of the Constitution. That guy is truly nuts… and some Type A personality ignoramus.
@Doug
The sacred mask. The idol of good health. Got to have that.
You know something. I wear a mask more than I must. Why? Because I have relatives who have been convinced that masks work, I wear the damned thing to appease their consciences. Nevertheless, I don’t make it my business to force either geniuses or fools to do things they don’t want to do just because I think they ought to do it.
I try not to be a busybody.
Very good relatives.. and good boy that you listen to them.
@Doug
Check out my latest post and this comment.
that doesn’t even deserve a response . . .
@pitybull1
Well, then I will ask a question. What is a pity bull?
A pit bull trapped in a flock of sheeple . . .
( PS My no response remark was to Doug concerning his remark about Desantis) . . .
@pitybull1
Thanks. I understood who your no response remark was targeting.
First off… I am not defending Biden simply because he beat Trump… there’s much of this that has a lot of questions. If Trump were still President he would have stopped all “Afghan interpreter friends of America” people flat out simply because they were foreigners… and they are rapists, thieves, and murderers, full of Covid (and some are probably good people too). He would have just gone in there and bombed something… of left it up to unit commanders when to order their troops to kill anything that moves, then wring his hands of the responsibility.
To your point #1… I see you had/have this all figured out and this summation came to you as totally common sense black & white approach. Easy.. even a jackass could figure it out… right?
To your point #2… Seems in his speech he said the Generals said that keeping Bagram open instead of the airport would be poor strategy… so he agreed. I’d not blame the generals in the least.. but I give Biden lots of credit for listening to the guys who know. That, to me, is displaying leadership in management. You were an O-4 I was an E-4, and even I know the difference.
Regarding the surrendering of ALL that equipment to the Taliban… uh… read below….
To your point #3… I’m a little confused, if the Afghan military was drawing from a demographic of being ill-educated, ill-trained, and ignorant camel-crackers.. and thusly difficult to teach how to operate military hardware…. why are you all-fired-up concerned about all that stuff falling into Taliban hands when the Taliban themselves come from a worse educated and motivated population demographic.. and they have no teachers like the Americans to show them how?
The Taliban assassinated Afghan pilots? Well, then, the Taliban has a bunch of aircraft they simply cannot use. Is that a problem for you?
@Doug
First off you start off with an anti-Trump diatribe. When you make accusations, you just undermine your own credibility.
Point #1: The jackass did not figure it out. That is why we should not elect jackasses.
Point #2: With his usual clarity, it is difficult to say whether Biden was referring to whether the generals wanted to reopen Bagram after he had abandoned it or keeping it until after the evacuation of civilians was over. I find it ridiculous to believe the generals ever wanted to give up Bagram. The airport in Kabul is next to a major city and surrounded by high terrain. So, it is difficult to defend. Cannot even keep out suicide bombers. We are depending upon the Taliban for security. That’s insane.
Would the generals want to get Bagram back? That’s doable, but the Taliban could crater the runways before they were driven out. In addition, if the Taliban fought back with any ferocity, we would probably take serious casualties, and for what. Biden wants out.
Point #3: Your bigotry is hypocritical. You accuse Trump of xenophobia, but you insult the Afghans with vigor. The Taliban may be uneducated, but there is no reason to believe they are stupid. Much of the equipment we left behind, like guns and body armor, they know how to use. The equipment they don’t know how to use they can sell to Russia and China. Russia and China will be happy to reverse engineer our equipment, steal designs, and ID weaknesses. They may also offer to maintain what they don’t want. The Russians’ and the Chinese’s problem will be the extent they can resupply parts. My guess is that the Russians and the Chinese will prefer bribing the Taliban with offers of equipment that they make.
Note two issues that make up point 3:
1. We wrecked our credibility as an ally. When we pulled out our military first, we abandoned everyone. That includes more than just the Afghan military. It also includes the Afghan people who worked for us and every American in the country.
2. We abandoned 85 billion dollars in hardware. That’s a huge waste of money.
Our credibility was “wrecked” following four years of Trump.
You keep harping on the equipment. Other than a few tanks and APC’s that once they break down there’s no parts…. a bunch of obsolete Humvees that will also need maintenance… a lot of assault rifles that are not high tech and easily obtainable by China or Russia… what exactly are the “secret” weapons we gave to the Afghans? 1. Does it even make sense that we would give a Third World military any super state-of-the-art weaponry to fight another militia rag tag army that can be defeated with decent conventional weapons systems and a disciplined fighting force? 2. We didn’t abandon “everyone”. Duh.
BTW.. YOU were the one that said the Afghan military was too stupid to train.. not me.
@Doug
Bagram Air Base was our base, not an Afghan base. When our soldiers were abruptly ordered out, it was inevitable they would forget or leave behind something.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/08/18/left-behind-billions-in-u-s-equipment-for-the-afghanistan-taliban-to-use-against-us-n1470346
https://reason.com/2021/08/20/the-taliban-got-their-hands-on-american-military-gear-because-we-invaded-afghanistan-not-because-we-withdrew/
I have no doubt that the 85 billion number is inflated and that much of the equipment is dated or second rate. I also don’t see how we could have retrieved back what we had given to the Afghan military. Nevertheless, I still don’t see the point of abandoning military equipment to terrorists, and we did not make any effort to give the Afghan military a fighting chance.
Since when does not being able to read equate with stupidity?
I’d not worry too much, Tom. There’s still time for the American body count to rise further and the Trump GOP can blame Biden (secretly praising ISIS for their contribution). If no one else dies in this process…
1. The military will be welcomed home as heroes.
2. Those that died will have very public and very military funerals followed by the parade of family members making their remarks on all the networks… with the Trumpian networks focusing on the anti-Biden remarks from extended family members.
3. Biden will get credit for getting out over 100,000 people during impossible conditions… and he will claim that those who perished in this operation are the last Americans to die from our involvement in Afghanistan. Polls show the public just wanted out of that place.. and he delivered.
4. State Department will negotiate some levels of safe travel out for any remaining Americans, which will take time, and might only happen after the airport is re-opened, or some grand convoy in and out and to a nearby country for flights out. (this may or may not provide an impetus for the Taliban to keep open international ties for their own sake.. maybe we can keep open a diplomatic mission to maintain intel from the region on possible strikes against America.)
5. As for the remaining Afghans who have helped us and we made promises to save who are stuck there because of the Taliban not wanting to lose them (and we do not know how many that is)…. the public will care little since the huge numbers of refugee families far outnumber evacuated Americans and will justify in their minds it was a “good effort”.
6. A year down the road the Taliban will be no better off unifying that damn place than anyone else who has tried for centuries. Other whacked Islamic extremists will take refuge there like before.
7. Dems take all of Congress in the Mid Term.
@Doug
All you are doing is projecting yourself onto me. No facts. No logic. Just how you feel, and at this point your feelings cannot be trusted.
I discuss things Biden obviously could have done to prevent this mess. You ignore all that. Doesn’t match what you want to feel. Does not excuse your news media conditioned hatred of Trump. Since you cannot explain why you hate Trump, I guess you just want that scapegoat too much to give it up.
Note that Biden blamed Trump before Trump pointed out that Biden did not follow Trump’s withdrawal plan.
Trump admitted that he set Biden up in Afghanistan… some stupid rally. Trump also discontinued a year previous any processing of documentation to get the interpreters evacuated.
@Doug
Put up or shut up.
As you wish….
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-assails-biden-afghanistan-humiliation-2021-08-22/
…and here’s a great history spanning the last four presidents….
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/how-four-presidents-created-afghanistan-mess/index.html
@Doug
You claimed Trump admitted he set Biden up for failure. Which of those reference supports that accusation? Trump set up a conditions based withdrawal (https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf). All Trump claimed is that he had set our withdrawal in motion, and Biden would not be able stop it. He did not call that setting Biden up for failure.
Note the doubletalk in the factcheck.org article. The agreement had conditions it says the Taliban violated. Moreover, Biden arbitrarily extended the withdrawal date to September 11. Then when people pointed to the obvious stupidity, he moved the date again. So, Biden obviously had no problem with arbitrarily changing the terms of the agreement.
Note these articles.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/08/19/biden-dismantled-trumps-crisis-evacuation-agency-nixed-plan-months-before-the-fall-of-afghanistan-1120984/
https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/20/trump-administrations-careful-afghanistan-withdrawal-plans-were-ignored-by-biden-regime-former-trump-aide-says/
The Biden administration has just been a model of feelgood obfuscation and obscuration. At this point, we have little idea how many of the people we were obligated to get out we actually did get out.
Jeez, Tom… amgreatness.com? bizpacreview.com? Where do you find this stuff??
@Doug
The issue is whether those sources are complete. I don’t trust the news media to be objective, especially news media organization run by big corporations with political interests that don’t coincide with my own.
So… to broaden your horizons, consider all roads, evaluate all possibilities, you prefer sources that are simply echo chambers to your opinions?
@Doug
Your usual form of argument. Ad hominem. Sigh!
@Doug
Biden pulled our troops out of Afghanistan before he had gotten out the civilians. Then he had to reinsert MORE troops, and he put them into a less defensible position, actually dependent upon the enemy for their security. And you think that is okay? A sign of competence?
I think “we” need to reserve judgement until the process is completed, then do the big investigations. Obviously, if you prefer to start now with the “I told you so’s ” to keep up the divisive anti-Biden momentum for 2022/24, then go for that.
@Doug
That’s BS! It is also hypocrisy. You never reserve judgement of Trump, and you ignored the evidence.
It’s good to know that Austin is all over the covid jab and Milly is busy with studying race theory . . . . . maybe if they looked up and did their real job (which is to protect their armies fighting capability) we would not be in Kabul surrounded by crazies. . . . .
@pitybull1
They are they for their party loyalty, not for their competence.
@Citizen Tom . . . This mask thing is crazy . . . shutdowns are crazy . . . destroying a thriving economy and driving everybody crazy is crazy . . . giving people more money for free than they can make working is crazy. . . . demanding everybody take a vaccine for a virus that has an extremely low kill ratio that is actually lower than that vaccine has is crazy . . . all this fear, fear, fear is crazy . . .
I personally believe there is a concerted effort to drive this country to it’s knees. . . . thinking otherwise is fear inspired insanity . .
Sounds more like YOU are the one filled with fear.
@Doug
I don’t agree with you. Therefore, you must be wrong? How juvenile can you get?
I thought I made that reply directed to pitbull or something
I fear for this country . . . that is true.
I have faith in the Constitution… bad decisions, unpopular decisions, good decisions, as long as elected officials make decisions under our legal umbrella or are held to account if they don’t. Anything other than that can and should be rectified by our votes.
Social change that spawns social upheaval and general national discontent is not a part of the Constitution unless the changes violate elements of the Constitution.
@Doug
The Constitution is just a piece of paper with writing on it. Either we give those words life with our conduct, or we don’t.
Our faith has to be in God, that He will give us enough strength to govern ourselves in a way that glorifies Him. That includes honoring Him by behaving with honor. Since saying the Constitution says things it does not say is dishonorable, we should be holding those politicians accountable, but we are not.
Constitution stipulates that the arbiter of all legal interpretations of same is SCOTUS… not some person with a political opinion that needs stroking.
@Doug
You cannot read?
right now, we are in the midst of a Marxist revolution and there is no amount of voting that is going to change that fact when voting itself is highly suspicious. Research The Great Reset and listen to the world economic forum . . . . it’s sad how many “conspiracy theories” are coming to pass.
@pitybull1
We can still win elections, but we have to make an all out effort to ensure election integrity. Volunteer to be a voting officer or observer. Protest local state and local officials who refuse to maintain the integrity of the vote. Support those who do.
The way I see it is that we are today like the German people in the early thirties must have been.. If we sit back and hope for better days? We are gonna lose just like they did.
Nobody in government is making any sense . . . Biden demanding vaxx for everybody in country while overlooking an open border filled with covid stricken immigrants . . . etc.
I think fair and honest has gone the way of common sense and trust
What is happening right now in real time was unbelievable just a few months ago. . . . There is an evil shrouding this country in darkness, I can feel it, and I’m pretty sure you can too.
Your perception of “evil” is called “change”. Stick to the Constitution with all the change and I am ok with it. Sounds like what’s bothering you is that us white folks are not the majority anymore.
@Doug
You brought up the subject of race. The racism is your own.
@pitybull1
Yep! These are good times to remember those verses in Ephesians 6 about spiritual warfare.
@Doug . . . commenting on 26 @ 10:16
Austin and Milly and others are political appointees and a disgrace to the military. Yesterday I watched a general on TV admitting to giving the Taliban a list of all afghan helpers in country so they could help them get out. . . . the Taliban is our friend now? They have our back at the airfield? God help those kids stuck in the kill zone.
PS all those weapons are by now in Chinese and Russian and Iran labs being analyzed and copied. . . . the 85 billion dollars worth of gear was left for the good guys and forgotten after Bagram fell . . . they should have been destroyed. The whole base should have been destroyed . . . unbelievable that it wasn’t.
@doug . . . why is it you people think everything is racist? like all us whities are just sitting around in our hoods waiting for a cross burning or something.
now, is this the time I have to try and prove how loving and non-racist I am?
Well actually there are some black people I can’t stand like that Austin fellow, whites too, like that coward in the white house.
actually in the military half my platoon was black and even though the states were mired in riots and burnings we all got along quite well. Hardly a pucker butt in the whole outfit . . . something I can’t say for the anonimous internet.
Ok.. fair enough then. We all know none of us in “here” are racist.. although I could debate that preferring a white majority does not necessarily imply that some end result would be racism run amok for anyone else not white having residence. We can be “partial” to our appearance preferences, regardless of skin color, and yet not having the slightest animosity. I can go on and on about that aspect given it’s the nature of man. For another day perhaps.
@Doug
Well, you have established you are a racist. Of course, you are superior to us because you are aware of you racism.
🙄
Hmmm…. I think I was superior way before that. 😛
@Doug
Of course, you thought you were superior way before that. Pride is innate. No one has to be taught to be proud. Humility has to be learned.
…and respect earned.
@Doug
True, but respect is given, not demanded.
A dastardly dictator demands respect.. and gets it or you will die. Depends on the type of respect.
@Doug.
Well, if you want the respect given to a rabid dog……
@Doug
Talk about rose colored glasses. You don’t even know if the 80,000 people we have gotten out are the people we need to get out. You just have an impressive number from people who cannot be trusted.
Because Biden is so disorganized, they just put people on an airplane, and they vet them latter.
Why haven’t the terrorists struck? We have no idea who they have attacked and killed away from the airport, but they have enough to keep them occupied. They have plenty of people to kill and maim.
Evil loves the darkness because evil men do not wish to be known for what they are. Like as not, however, our forces at the airport will be hit before they leave. The Biden administration has already told Americans to stay away from the airport. Kind hard to get out if they do that. Right? Hence, the airlift is effectively over, and they are not going to get everyone out.
He definitely ruined this…
@SLIMJIM
I wonder if he did it deliberately. It is that bad.
I wonder too
Biden is dangerously incompetent, besides being the neo-Marxist left’s useful idiot. His administration halted the previous administration’s Crisis Response Plan that would’ve ensured the safe evacuation of all Americans before pulling out of Afghanistan.
…and Trump fired the pandemic response team in 2018.. and the rest of that is history. Your point?
@ Doug.
My point? First, to your comment, your assertion is false. Trump did not fire the Pandemic Response team, It disbanded and some members stayed with the Trump administration.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/10/fact-check-white-house-didnt-fire-pandemic-response-2018/3437356001/
But it IS true the Biden’s State Department did halt the Crisis Response Plan, so now we have Benghazi 2.0.
https://yournews.com/2021/08/18/2203423/joe-bidens-state-dept-halted-a-trump-era-crisis-response-plan/
Very good to my claim of Trump “firing”.. it was in fact disbanded, with some member going hither and yon. Bolton said that early on. I expected you to make that point. Regardless… “disbanded” is any less of a result? I will also add, that per Bolton (who has some of his own skin mixed within the Trump game) the disbanding was done in some internal effort to “streamline” functions. Yeah.. ok. I might accept that under a veil of suspicion.
So now we go to your point/claim… to which I submit this citation…
https://www.mediamatters.org/war-afghanistan/fox-news-pushes-false-story-biden-dismantled-agency-evacuate-americans
If you dig deep and hard enough you will always find someone to make a substantive claim that the world is flat…. and someone will always believe him/her.
We can agree that these claims are politicized. All I know is that Biden’s Afghan withdrawal is a genuine disaster. Not only thousands of Americans trapped behind enemy lines, but also people from other nations, along with those who have helped us from the Afghan people themselves. Now, it’s fully in the hands of some of the most brutal terrorists in the world.
And no on either side is saying we should be nation-building there. This is where Biden is being misleading. We DO have a national interest in Afghanistan. We keep future 9/11’s from happening by maintaining forward positions like this. This is why we still have troops in places like Germany and South Korea. But what we will have now, with no military deterrent in Afghanistan, is the perfect training ground and major supply depot for worldwide terrorism against the United States and Europe.
Of course it’s an appalling disaster, Mel! The question RIGHT NOW is addressing how to get the people out… NOT belaboring the political nonsense of Trumpian “I-told-you-so’s” about Biden. Trump would have done far worse because he would have bombed someone… and judging NO one apparently understood the surrender of the Afghan military then most absolutely no one could have expected anyone to have done any better. It’s not like we have evacuating countries on the American resume of success stories. This is the stuff that happens in life.
We can investigate the hell outta all this after, with visions of sugarplums and dreams of jailtime and impeachment all you want later.
@ Doug.
A false equivalency, just defending your party, and it’s not my point. The truth is, we could’ve done much better, as I pointed out with other examples. And this isn’t just partisan-speak. Many dems agree and are critical of Biden’s irresponsible pullout. The problems we have to focus in now, as you rightly say, is because of his incompetence. We are forced to put people in harm’s way that shouldn’t have happened, and now we’ve made Afghanistan a potential cesspool for future terrorist activities against the U.S. This could’ve been avoided, and we have to live with it. So, yes, we do need to access why this happened so it doesn’t happen again. Some of Biden’s advisors need to be fired, or disasters like this probably be in our future. There is no excuse for this.
“A false equivalency, just defending your party, and it’s not my point.”
My party? Are you sure you have me pegged correctly? How would you even know… you’ve never checked.
And yes.. I understand your point.. which was MY whole point… you wanna sit around and blame Biden just because he’s not Trump. Your choice.
@ Doug.
Because he’s not Trump? I really don’t care about political parties and their crony politics. I blame incompetence because we (and the free world) now have to live with the consequences. And that was my point.
Well.. yes you do care about your party. I read it all the time.
But let me ask you this… if you had the power.. today…. to “solve the problem of Afghanistan” what would you do?
@ Doug.
“Why not just get Trump to incite all the MAGA people to try another insurrection? After all, he missed returning on August 13th like Qanon said he would.”
LOL! You just proved you swallowed all the leftist propaganda. Oh, I think you just pegged yourself.
As I recently replied.. yes you do think of party apparently.
@ Doug.
I think of ideologies and look at what people actually do. There’s a difference. Yes, these people belong to parties, but if Biden had shown some strong leadership on this, I would’ve commended him.
Fair enough.
@ Tom.
“Given Biden created the current mess and shows no sign of being able to fix it, he needs to be replaced. Harris?
I would like someone at least coherent that doesn’t nap through the crisis. I would take Harris over Biden, and please God, don’t let Pelosi have more power! We need to not totally fall apart as country over the next couple of years. Our enemies smell blood and we’ve put ourselves in a very dangerous place. I don’t care which party fixes it. It needs to be fixed for everyone’s welfare and safety.
Be patient, my son…. and have faith.
@Mel Wild
The Democrats will just use the crisies they have created as an excuse to seize more power, but they won’t fix anything. Marxists don’t fix anything. They just wreck everything. Why? There isn’t enough power to satisfy them.
@Doug
Given Biden created the current mess and shows no sign of being able to fix it, he needs to be replaced. Harris? Well, at least she is not demented. Heaven help us if we get to Pelosi.
Why not just get Trump to incite all the MAGA people to try another insurrection? After all, he missed returning on August 13th like Qanon said he would.
@Doug
You have heard — well, you probably haven’t — that the FBI released a statement yesterday that they did not have any evidence that anyone organized the riot at the Capitol on Jan 6.
Friday news release. Good time to bury a story, especially with all the news about Afghanistan.
Yep… and I never said there was any overt plot…. I did say that Trump and others bear responsibility for inciting it all toward the Capitol. I’d not worry.. nothing “legal” will likely happen to Trump or anyone else. Although…
“FBI investigators did find that cells of protesters, including followers of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups, had aimed to break into the Capitol. But they found no evidence that the groups had serious plans about what to do if they made it inside, the sources said.”
@Doug
Yep!
That was an armed insurrection. Just no guns, except for the police.
@Mel Wild
The Biden administration did not need a Crisis Response Plan. Whenever anything goes wrong, they blame it on the previous administration, somebody else, or everyone else.
Reblogged this on ARLIN REPORT……………….walking this path together and commented:
YEP, Biden is lying. Lying about his INTEL, lying about the Pentagon command, all to cover his own ass. He has done this his entire political career. There are a lot of names for this guy, Creepy Joe, Sloppy Joe and now Joe Blow! (Arlin Report comment)
Thanks again!
Reblogged this on boudica.us.
Thanks!
Biden certainly has no market corners on lying POTUSs…….but that was a sh*t interview.
@Constitutional Insurgent
Yep!
He was defensive, uncharacteristically not holding a lot of empathy for the suffering humanity. He’s stressed and it showed. George, like most of the media in general, was badgering him about the idea.. “if we make that Aug 31 date and there’s still people to save are we going beyond that date?”, until he finally relented and said something to affirm that. He could have/should have done better on his speech and most certainly with this interview.
I’m not defending the guy.. the buck stops with him. I am not a Trump-lover so I will not bemoan all of Biden’s alleged age-related incompetencies in carrying out this particular evac action. Personally I am all for letting all this play out because the situation over there is very fluid and entirely subject to individual violence… maybe even a plane going down. There is no book or manual on such a large scale evacuation. We will have all the time in the world after all this to investigate the hell outta of it. Elements I find positive in a number of ways has been we have a dialog with the Taliban. Of major concern is that the Taliban has a crappy command & control system because they simply have no technology to get orders to the thugs in the field. Also, the average Taliban fighter in the field kinda does their own thing anyway… as we can see from the random acts of personal violence. Yet they are in fact being remarkably restrained so far.
For sure all this looks and feels appalling…. but if anyone can pull this off it’s the good old USA.. and if it ends up a complete disaster no one on this planet could have done better… tragedy that it would be. All the rah-rah aside… I hope someone at State keeps the negotiation balling rolling after this affair.
@Doug
The Afghan military has been effective at fighting the Taliban. Biden plainly pulled the rug out from under them. That is called betrayal.
One of the most likely reasons the Taliban is having trouble exercising command and control is that any rabid Muslim who has a gun has “joined” the cause, and the Taliban leadership is having trouble asserting control. Once the Taliban leadership gains control, the happy talk will end.
I’m curious as to why you think that fighting the Taliban is worth our American lives or tax dollars? They pose zero national security threat to the homeland or even the Middle East.
@Constitutional Insurgent
Not a big fan of nation building, but Bush made the commitment. So, was the cost of staying worth the benefit?
Politically the cost of staying had become an obvious liability. However, as Biden demonstrated all too well, getting out engendered regrets. So, I think the political costs equal out. I will readily admit even a well executed retreat would have been messy. The only way to prevent the horror of a Taliban takeover was to provide support for the Afghan military. To prevent that we had to keep Bagram and military contractors in country.
Some say the real issue was whether staying in Afghanistan improved our security enough to be worth the cost. Because Afghanistan will again become a haven for terrorists, I think we still have an expensive problem. Moreover, we no longer have the Afghan military to fight the Taliban on the ground. Afghans, not us, were taking the vast majority of the casualties.
Afghanistan is in both a good and bad location. It is difficult for us to get to, but it borders both our major enemies, and it borders Iran. So, that location has Intel value. We pay a great deal for intel, and getting close to the source matters.
Holding BAF and keeping Contractors in country was not going to stop the Taliban’s continued encroachment. At it’s best, the Kabul regime only controlled the cities and the Ring Road….and even then, realistically only during daylight hours.
AFG has never been a good source of intel regarding Iran. It’s a better source for collection on China [and was for India, but the Taliban takeover will push their influence out]. 9/11 was largely planned in an apartment in Hamburg, financed by the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia. For al Qaeda, Afghanistan was never more than a rudimentary training area and R&R location [such as it were anyway].
I agree with you, that any extrication from AFG was going to be fraught, and the current situation is a sh*tshow.
@Constitutional Insurgent
Exactly.
@ Constitutional Insurgent and Tom.
I believe that staying in Afghanistan was not to nation build anymore, but to keep it stable enough so not to become a future platform for terrorist groups. As Rep. Dan Krenshaw said, we keep future 9/11’s from happening by maintaining forward positions like this. This is why we have troops in places like Germany and South Korea.
Of course, now this country will be a major training ground for anti-American terrorists and China will be able have a free flow of military hardware to ship to their airports. Not to mention, the atrocities that will be perpetrated on the Afghan people by the Taliban. Biden’t total evacation was reprehensible in every way possible.
I’m inclined to believe this was intentional and not a screw up at all. Joe was used to get them in the door and he will be their sacrificial lamb.
@River Dixon
Cannot say you are wrong, but I don’t think Biden is a willing victim. Blackmailed, perhaps.
That makes sense.