Taliban Taking Over Afghanistan - Does anyone care?

Do you care?

  • No

    Votes: 40 23.3%

  • Hell No

    Votes: 47 27.3%

  • Yes, we should invade and send in Troops

    Votes: 25 14.5%

  • I like Pie

    Votes: 60 34.9%
  • Total voters
    172
#1,951
#1,951
05_never_again said:
What happened to the "Who cares what the rest of the world thinks of us" attitude this forum had when Trump was in charge?
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You can not care what the rest of the world thinks of us and still acknowledge this situation can be used by our enemies to destabilize other parts of the world.
 
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#1,953
#1,953
rjd970 said:
True - and valid. However, given the amount of equipment planned to be left behind, combined with forces we have trained for the better part of a decade +, its hard to imagine that the consensus in the IC was the Taliban would still take back the country in a matter of weeks.



This simply isn't true. It just isn't VBH. Do you really think we withdrew all military out before we withdrew all civilians? We didn't retreat to Kabul either. We handed over bases one by one to the ANA. We fell back to Kabul because that was the last base to handover and the Embassy would be the new mission. Chracterizing this as a retreat is stupid. I would bet the mortgage that 95%+ of all civilians were withdrawn prior to a month ago. I know for an absolute fact all the government civilians and contractors I worked with were withdrawn months ago as their base was closed/handed over to ANA.

This is a tired line because we had roughly a 1000 people left (depending on reports) that we withdrew the military, ceded ground, and then just left everybody without a security blanket. The people that were left up to a week ago had a specific purpose/job and couldn't leave until the last bird took off.

The valid criticism here is that we did not leave enough security forces behind. The fact that we are having to send troops back in is unacceptable. However, the line that we had no security forces left and we just gave up and left civilians there because we were retreating to Kabul is patently false.



After 20 years they absolutely had extensive experience with the Afghani government. And I would bet both the US and Afghan governments absolutely thought this would go different. As you said before, that was a whiff, and that is valid criticism. I don't find it hard at all to imagine they really had faith this would go different, and I don't find it hard to imagine that they got that epically wrong (because that is the reality of the situation right now).



So it sounds like you are saying everybody should have known the country was going to fall in a matter of weeks, we should have kept a full posture there, and not given up any ground.

Then why make plans to leave in the first place? Hell, why even leave in the first place? At some point you just have to do it.



A lot of people are, and it goes to my larger point that everyone will find something wrong.



Again, this just isn't true. The surprise was that this happened so fast and the criticism is that we didn't leave enough security forces behind and had to send guys back in. The idea that we focused on the military first and left civilians behind is simply false.

This was a failure to build a suitable contingency. We have steadily drawn down in both civilian support and military footprint for the last couple of years. FOBs have been closing in a methodical and planned way. We should have kept a larger contingent force to make sure the handover went smoothly. Of course, then the the criticism would be we are never leaving, or maybe the Taliban would have still waited until they left. There are any number of scenarios.

At the end of the day, not a single person on this board can deny the fact that we are finally out, this administration actually did it, and evidently, the end result is the way the Afghan people wanted it.

“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history." - Ashwin Sanghi.
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rather than go through each point I'll just take the bolded.

they should have rated the chance that it would fall apart higher than they apparently did - again, having 2 decades of experience. It's hard to imagine they thought something like this was just a remote possibility.

the larger point is that this is a major F'up and I disagree that it no matter what the plan was it would have been a major F'up. no one is expecting perfection so yes there could always be something to complain about but on a scale of done well with a few errors to complete disaster I know which end of the scale we are on.
 
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#1,960
#1,960
DancingOutlaw said:
You can not care what the rest of the world thinks of us and still acknowledge this situation can be used by our enemies to destabilize other parts of the world.
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"I don't care what the rest of the world thinks" and "Man, this looks bad and can be used by our enemies against us" are contradictory statements.
 
#1,962
#1,962
238613083_10105864893248817_8725937640884075077_n.jpg
 
#1,963
#1,963
n_huffhines said:
You really believe that.
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Can you point to where I've gone off on Biden about what's happening?

Look, this was going to happen sooner or later. It's just a lot sooner than I think most expected to include Biden. Trump has the benefit of not being at the helm during this disaster.

Regardless, there are "what if" scenarios that can be played out in regards to the months and years leading up to our departure.
 
#1,965
#1,965
'Biden ALONE is responsible': US media blast President for his 'blame-shifting' after 'willful abandonment' of Afghanistan where ZERO US soldiers have died in last 18 months... but some left-wing press are back on side

The US media blasted Joe Biden today for his 'blame shifting' over the Afghanistan crisis after the President criticised Afghan leaders and military for refusing to fight while defending his decision to withdraw troops.

46768211-9900859-image-a-28_1629190919249.jpg


US media blast Joe Biden for 'blame-shifting' in Afghanistan crisis | Daily Mail Online
 
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#1,970
#1,970
K-town Vol Fan said:
I'm still trying to figure out how according to the poll, the majority of people don't care about Afghanistan, yet are still here saying how Biden has royally screwed this up. If you don't care, why does it matter?
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Pretty horrendous poll options. It was either I don’t care or send more men in, so “I clicked don’t care”. If there was a “I care but don’t to send troops in” option I would’ve done that. I suspect most posters feel that way
 
#1,973
#1,973
allvol123 said:
You can call them what you want, if they impacted your life, you're an imbecile.

Again, find his Kabul moment.
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Really? Where did you go see live music in spring/summer 2020? Where did you take vacations during same time? Everyone's life was impacted. If you don't think so, you're an imbecile
 
#1,974
#1,974
Grand Vol said:
Can you point to where I've gone off on Biden about what's happening?
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Did I say you did that? I'm just saying I've never seen you write multiple apologetic paragraphs hypothesizing that some bad optics surrounding Obama were actually a beneficial unintended consequence.
 
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