Quick Afghanistan Refresher

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From Kurt Eichenwald, NY Times best-selling author

Definitely worth a look.     https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1428849518901071880

After reading all that, the author still says Biden fucked up.

I do believe, as your handle indicates, you have a racket in your head and it's hard to decipher stuff.

Picking that idea out of that long documentation of a debacle set up and waiting to happen is an interesting take. FYI, it's really hard to make a tasteful dish out of a shit sandwich. 

Good luck to ya, bud. Wish you the best.  

Last time I checked, West Point has NEVER offered/required a class regarding pulling out of a foreign country.

I'm not saying Biden's execution was perfect, but that the military, their strategists, etc will never look graceful retreating.

Glad we're getting out. Adios!

Yeah, Biden certainly wasn't perfect, but the set up sucked and the intelligence either was wrong (ask Milley) or not listened to. It's a mess, but at least Joe's trying to salvage the situation. 

He sent 6,000 soldiers over there (isn't that double what was there?), which scares the hell out of me, but he ain't irresponsibly putting his tail between his legs like someone else tried. He's trying to make the best of a f'd up mess. And American soldiers even left their perimeter to go get folks. It seems he's not taking the Taliban's shit, as much as possible.     

It ain't gonna be pretty no matter what he does. Pulling out of a country after a war is ALWAYS a mess. A logistical nightmare. And there's plenty of folks ready to criticize.  

Joe's political handlers were certainly smart getting pics of soldiers helping refugees into the news cycle for the weekend. 

Getting the friendly Afghans and Americans out of country before the Taliban took over was never going to happen. The second we started air lifting large numbers of people out would have signaled to everyone that we had no faith in the Afghan government and the Taliban would have taken over in days, and we would have been right where we are now. There is no organized efficient way to pull out of a country you have occupied only by force for the last 20 years.  

^ true

 

and since Biden had announced months ago that the US would be gone by September what the hell were people (who were eligible to get on a plane and leave) waiting for? 

^ no shit.

Cut and run.

Alexander conquered Bactria back around 330 BC - he wasn't too interested so he went after India and got his ass kicked.

Silver lining -- Once we really get out of there, our military position is easier in a way. It's expensive to occupy.

We always wanted to destroy the Taliban leadership. But they were dispersed and in hiding. Once they start governing it will centralize their ranks and their leadership will probably make some public appearances. Unlike out in the mountains, one smart bomb could take out a bunch of "important" ones while they are convening. 

And the guys that were creeping around in the mountains in the dark are probably going to be terrorizing villages out in the open. (If ya had a drone and a grudge...)

Whatever happens one thing is for certain -- the "defense" contractors are going to be collecting a lot of tax dollars to protect us from somebody over there one way or another.