Taliban Taking Over Afghanistan - Does anyone care?

[Caculator]

We Are ******* Abandoning American Citizens" Says Livid Army Colonel In Leaked Afghanistan Texts

"We had them out there waving their passport screaming, 'I'm American.'"

If you're trapped in Afghanistan right now it's because you want to be trapped in Afghanistan. C'mon guys.

 

[volinbham]

No, I don't believe LG believes it. LG is just doing what he does and that's blindly defend his team.

battered wife syndrome

 

[Weezer]

link?

A few links have been provided. Now what?

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

You don't read so good.

90% is all?

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Damn you are in denial.

He's not in denial. He's just trying to gaslight you.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Come on LG even you don't believe that bullshot.

He doesn't.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

link?

Biden said it yesterday in the press conference.

90%

 

[volinbham]

Biden said it yesterday in the press conference.

90%

His staff say he meant 98%. If so he's saying your chance of being an American citizen and getting out of Afghanistan was the same as surviving Covid if you catch it. Therefore I'm assuming we'll abandon Covid mitigation efforts since 98% is "extraordinary success".

 

[RikidyBones]

His staff say he meant 98%. If so he's saying your chance of being an American citizen and getting out of Afghanistan was the same as surviving Covid if you catch it. Therefore I'm assuming we'll abandon Covid mitigation efforts since 98% is "extraordinary success".

If 90% is successful then we are golden with Rona.

 

[vols4sure]

So with the leaked call looks like we absolutely knew Taliban would quickly take control. So why did we not destroy the equipment we were leaving? Only thing I can come up with was appeasement to the Taliban to get them to allow us to withdraw.

 

[rjd970]

Yes but even hearing Kabul would be isolated basically 10 days after the planned departure (30 days from Aug 11) ought to raise some eyebrows that the ANA can hold out for a year or more conclusion was way the hell off and maybe 30 days could turn into many less

Does this not apply to the Americans…who were literally on the ground and in the middle of it…that had a full month at least to leave, that are now stranded? If Biden is an idiot because he didn’t see this coming then these folks should shoulder some responsibility they are now stuck as well. No?

Like I said, Biden is the CIC, but the intel was absolute ****.

 

[BreatheUT]

There are symbolic gestures done by Congress all the time. I seen to remember some very prominent Congress men and women put on some tradition African attire and kneel for a stages photo opp, I guess they didn't know they chose the traditional garments of a slave trading tribe though.

Point is it's a simple gesture.

They absolutely no clue about Kente cloth yet they were race baiting for votes.

 

[volinbham]

Does this not apply to the Americans…who were literally on the ground and in the middle of it…that had a full month at least to leave, that are now stranded? If Biden is an idiot because he didn’t see this coming then these folks should shoulder some responsibility they are now stuck as well. No?

Like I said, Biden is the CIC, but the intel was absolute ****.

It does to some extent but they were being told by us that things were not out of control and we weren't running planes out of there constantly so getting out through commercial flight might be daunting. Also, it appears that State was kinda like the DMV on steroids in getting clearances for family members. Finally, as we've heard anecdotally some of these people didn't know who to trust - getting mixed messages from different sources and the "go" decision had risks too.

 

[KB5252]

Are there Americans stranded there who wanted to get out that we did not get out?

No. There are Americans who wanted to STAY, at least for now. and we will help them if they change their minds.

There are also Afghans who helped us and there are anecdotal reports, some of which are likely true, that there remain some who want to leave but are either not sure how, don't have the requisite proof or were too scared. We have said we will help them and we are doing what we can. The vast, vast majority of the 100k + we have evacuated were of that group.

False, there are contractors and other Americans who could not safely get to the airport to get out.

Don't believe me..... Listen to the Pentagon.

 

[rjd970]

It does to some extent but they were being told by us that things were not out of control and we weren't running planes out of there constantly so getting out through commercial flight might be daunting. Also, it appears that State was kinda like the DMV on steroids in getting clearances for family members. Finally, as we've heard anecdotally some of these people didn't know who to trust - getting mixed messages from different sources and the "go" decision had risks too.

But the vast majority (the ones that got out) didn’t seem to have these same concerns or problems. So I’m wondering what was going on with these folks that are left. In some cases I would bet they had months to get out. I get that maybe some were scared in the last couple of weeks…but this was all happening well before August and people had been leaving for months. Underpinning all this was the awful intel being fed to planners.

The administration, for all its bungling of this, made it possible for people to get out. A LOT of people, especially in the last 1-2 weeks. I’m wondering why the blame for these last Americans are 100% on the administration.

If there was somebody really waving an American passport and we flat out told them no then that is an issue. I suspect the number of Americans left that applies to is minimal, if not zero.

 

[hog88]

Does this not apply to the Americans…who were literally on the ground and in the middle of it…that had a full month at least to leave, that are now stranded? If Biden is an idiot because he didn’t see this coming then these folks should shoulder some responsibility they are now stuck as well. No?

Like I said, Biden is the CIC, but the intel was absolute ****.

Kabul collapsed less than a month after Biden said:

He insisted it is not inevitable that the Taliban will retake control of the country, pointing out that the Afghan government has a far larger and technologically superior military.
“They have the capacity, they have the forces, they have the equipment,” he said. “The question is: will they do it.”
But he added that the country is “highly unlikely” to be ruled by a single, “unified” government

And this:

“Do I trust the Taliban? No," Biden said. “But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war.”

 

[rjd970]

Kabul collapsed less than a month after Biden said:



And this:

It actually collapsed less than a week after he got intel suggesting it would take 90 days. This is per the Reuters article. If he is an idiot for believing this, then those literally on the ground and in the middle of who believed are even bigger idiots.

 

[hog88]

It actually collapsed less than a week after he got intel suggesting it would take 90 days. This is per the Reuters article. If he is an idiot for believing this, then those literally on the ground and in the middle of who believed are even bigger idiots.

If he really did receive intel suggesting it would take 90 days he also received a contradictory report suggesting days to fall. He chose which one to believe.

 

[rjd970]

If he really did receive intel suggesting it would take 90 days he also received a contradictory report suggesting days to fall. He chose which one to believe.

Was that second report in the Reuters article? I missed it if so.

 

[hog88]

Was that second report in the Reuters article? I missed it if so.

I didn't read it but all intelligence reports come with contradictory analysis.

 

[volinbham]

But the vast majority (the ones that got out) didn’t seem to have these same concerns or problems. So I’m wondering what was going on with these folks that are left. In some cases I would bet they had months to get out. I get that maybe some were scared in the last couple of weeks…but this was all happening well before August and people had been leaving for months. Underpinning all this was the awful intel being fed to planners.

The administration, for all its bungling of this, made it possible for people to get out. A LOT of people, especially in the last 1-2 weeks. I’m wondering why the blame for these last Americans are 100% on the administration.

If there was somebody really waving an American passport and we flat out told them no then that is an issue. I suspect the number of Americans left that applies to is minimal, if not zero.

I'm not laying 100% blame on the administration in totality. I'm laying blame on them for pledging to get them out and doing whatever necessary to do so and going back on that. In addition there are numerous choices between Aug 14 and 31 that may have gotten more out (eg. other countries being more active in going to get their people, not moving our perimeter out, etc.) The date of leaving became more important than the mission to get those people out even though the opposite was pledged.

the bulk per administration #s got out during the Aug 14 - 31 period. it was an absolute cluster to get out during that time and it appears many of those left did their part by getting to the airport but they couldn't either get through the Taliban check points or couldn't get through the gate.

 

[volinbham]

It actually collapsed less than a week after he got intel suggesting it would take 90 days. This is per the Reuters article. If he is an idiot for believing this, then those literally on the ground and in the middle of who believed are even bigger idiots.

I wouldn't call them bigger idiots because the narrative they were getting from the people who should know was that things would be stable for a while - Biden was saying that, State was saying that and they wanted Ghani to say it.

 

[volinbham]

I also add I'm not blaming Biden for everything that went wrong.

I am blaming him for:

1) letting politics and optics drive his decision making on the withdrawal
2) painting a rosier picture of the situation than he knew to be the case
3) going back on his pledge to get people out and do whatever it takes
4) not being transparent and not taking questions on this critical situation
5) blame shifting all that went wrong and claiming "extraordinary success" on an action that was nothing of the sort
6) basically telling people to move on; this is over

It is failure of leadership in the face of conditions turning worse than anticipated where I focus my critique. Some of those conditions were the result of 1) and 2) but some were beyond his control.

 

[rjd970]

I wouldn't call them bigger idiots because the narrative they were getting from the people who should know was that things would be stable for a while - Biden was saying that, State was saying that and they wanted Ghani to say it.

…and the intel…but these people that are left were and are on the ground.

 

[rjd970]

I also add I'm not blaming Biden for everything that went wrong.

I am blaming him for:

1) letting politics and optics drive his decision making on the withdrawal
2) painting a rosier picture of the situation than he knew to be the case
3) going back on his pledge to get people out and do whatever it takes
4) not being transparent and not taking questions on this critical situation
5) blame shifting all that went wrong and claiming "extraordinary success" on an action that was nothing of the sort
6) basically telling people to move on; this is over

It is failure of leadership in the face of conditions turning worse than anticipated where I focus my critique. Some of those conditions were the result of 1) and 2) but some were beyond his control.

All of that is fair. And I’m not defending how this was handled. There was an epic failure of leadership here. I still think with the same information there would have been similar bungles with other presidents, but that is a “what if” that is impossible to argue. Biden deserves the blame because he was in charge.

He gets credit for actually leaving and gets all the blame for how it was handled.