Afghanistan leave-taking
Sunday is usually my day off, but there’s so much Afghanistan news I thought I’d do a very short post on the subject. I expect to have more to say later, and at any rate the fog of war is operating right now and it’s hard to know exactly what’s happening there.
Maybe it’s always hard to know exactly what’s happening there.
But there is no question that we’re abandoning the country precipitously, and that the sanguine predictions of Joe Biden and some of the generals were a travesty. Just to take one small example (there are plenty others), here is a statement Biden made on July 8. That’s about five weeks ago:
But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.
In addition, he said, “There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.” But that has apparently occurred, as well.
Biden wanted out, and fast. There doesn’t appear to have been much of a plan for doing so – or, alternatively, the generals had been planning for something slower and that wasn’t allowed to happen. I believe that it would have been a debacle any way it had been done – that’s why three previous presidents didn’t do it – but Biden may just have maximized the confusion and carnage.
I usually write “Biden or whoever is in charge,” but in this case I believe that Biden actually was taking the lead and giving the order, and no one was successful in overruling him. We don’t know, of course.
There’s a lot we don’t know.
There’s plenty of coverage of what is apparently happening. Go to any news outlet or blog and you can find it.
I’ll skip the Vietnam analogies for now, but they’re there. There are differences, but for those of us who were around during the pullout from Vietnam, there are strong similarities. Here’s a post I wrote in 2007 on the fall of Saigon.
Another once-great power is ruined in the graveyard of empires. It’s sad that those who do not study history keep repeating its mistakes. But it’s sadder that those of us who do study history have to watch those same mistakes being repeated.
I suppose nobody in the history of Astan figured out what they really wanted to accomplish. If you do that, the probabilities will be clear, one way or another.
The Brits were fighting the same kind of war up until they left India. See “Bugles And a Tiger” by Masters. Officer in a Gurkha regiment. Good description of the details of the Raj at the time plus fighting up on the Frontier. Ended with the start of WW II.
Vietnam, Iraq 2 (Obama’s war), Libya (Clinton’s conflict)… With one possible caveat: What did he know and when did he know it?
The current Pentagon Princelings and pretenders stymied Trump for four years and finally the Cloth Headed Dummy let them show their stuff. Houston we have a problem ….
I dare say enlistment and retention will soon be an unanticipated crisis. Although Gavin’s the DOD pay for reassignment surgery may be the solution. 🙂
If you don’t think this is having an impact on the folks inside the beltway, check out this tweet:
John Cooper
@thejcoop
· 29m
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond says there are “no indications that President Biden is going to address the nation” on #Afghanistan any time soon.
“The moment that we are in today certainly would call for hearing from the president of the United States.”
I know it seems ridiculously late to us but this is the first moment a lot of our political/media elites are realizing the downsides to having a memory care patient sitting in the Oval Office.
I also think this disastrous withdrawal is a combination of general incompetence, anti-war liberals inside the administration who didn’t want to deal with the messy realities of getting out, and something Jack Posobiec mentioned on Twitter, that the CIA/U.S. intelligence is trying a fancy bank shot of handing Afghanistan off to Russia and/or China. They think Russia and/or China will get bogged down like the U.S. but I’m pretty sure they’ll be perfectly content to deal with the Taliban like a client state.
Mike
‘I know it seems ridiculously late to us but this is the first moment a lot of our political/media elites are realizing the downsides to having a memory care patient sitting in the Oval Office’
Yep, and the scary thing is as screwed up as this situation is it really doesn’t have an impact on an average person but what happens when something comes along that does?
Incredibly reckless.
IMO the most damning observation was posted over at Ann Althouse (althouse.blogspot.com):
At once, a condemnation of the Biden administration and the military brass who have been waging this campaign for the last twenty years.
Who will trust the American government / military now? I’m a citizen and I certainly don’t and won’t. After Afghanistan and Viet Nam, why should anyone be willing to lay down their life for a government run by feckless quislings?
Yes, Libya, too. I forgot Libya. Thanks for the reminder n.n.
It’s a pointless endeavour by now but it is interesting to think about the coverage of this if Trump was still president. Even if he had a better plan this was going to be messy no matter what.
Americans being told to “shelter in place” in Kabul. When does the hostage crisis begin?
“…but this is the first moment a lot of our political/media elites are realizing the downsides to having a memory care patient sitting in the Oval Office.”
Ha! Good one, MBunge!
As opposed to a Biden presidency as I was, I am now equally opposed to his removal. Now that he is becoming a visible disaster, those who supported him need to be confronted good and hard with the consequences of their actions and likewise suffer from them.
Don’t be surprised by the beginnings of negative press regarding Kamala Harris. I would not be surprised if she steps aside while Biden is still in office. Think about who’s next in line.
I repeat Robert Heinlein’s maxim:
Bad luck, here we come!
I feel immense sorrow for the Afghanis who took tremendous risk to trust America and work with American troops and agents during the past 20 years. Many of them will lose everything, some will be tortured and killed. America’s incompetence, unpredictability and fickle nature will result in true horror for many, many altruistic, good people who took a chance to side with us to improve their people. They believed in an America that, at least presently, completely let them down.
It seems that we are torn between should never have gone with shouldn’t have left, with a smattering of should’ve kept Big Army out and just let Special Forces handle it.
Afghanis are going to be killed after torture for cooperating with the 20-year US presence, and women will be taken as wives by the Taliban. Taken!
None of this bothers Dopey Joe and his Democratic Party, which did exactly the same to the South Vietnamese. Pelosi has already offered a BS response supporting old Joe.
The Democrats are sociopaths, all of them.
They are in process of ruining the USA too. It is what sociopaths do.
A. As mentioned, somehow the brass was able to stop trump. Im guessing it’s not just Biden who was pushing for it
B. If the brass had any balls as we were told over the past 4 years, someone would’ve resigned already and gone public
Rufus,
Amen!
Ed Bonderenka,
Just another clear lesson that if one is not determined to win, then do not go to war. This is not a game show where the losers walk away with a consolation prize. As most of us know, lives are actually on the line.
Another object lesson on why non muslim nations should oppose mass muslim migration. Culture matters.
Biden is trying to blame Trump for this disaster. But of course.
whycoh:
If you think the Mafia is good at controlling its own, just watch how good the Pentagon is. I would like to think some military brass would resign and tell the inside story, but I will not be holding my breath until it happens. Our military establishment is top-heavy with stars, and many of them bear responsibility for what is happening in Afghanistan. But I fully expect them to fill their current time, then move on to General Dynamics and other defense contractors. Why do the defense contractors want them? Not for their demonstrated bravery or leadership skills — rather for their Rolodex. A very sorry spectacle all around.
Gen. Austin was named SecDef because he was black. He has said his primary mission is to eliminate systemic racism in our Armed Forces, and he is forcing CRT on them.
I think Neo’s right that Biden decided on his own to pull out everyone as soon as possible with no warning to those affected. According to reports, he did it over military objections, and with no consultations in NATO. His initial target was 9/11, so he could brag that all the troops were out by the 20th anniversary, maybe at a big party with lots of ice cream. The dead and suffering Afghans will be sacrifices to a selfish old man’s ego. I don’t know if Trump would have done it better, but he could not have done worse.
Maybe the case for Biden to have actually made this decision is lack of planning.
We should have left almost 20 years ago.
We most certainly should have left after finding Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Afghanistan was just a staging/training area. The $$$ came from elsewhere and we didn’t go there.
A comment I saw at another blog. See how much Dem “security-related” trivia you remember.
How crap are Democrats with planning & execution of ALL types of security?
-Benghazi
-hiring the Awans
-computer security….stationing some secret service guys outside building housing a secret server, using “password” as the password, using unsecured private server, have maid print out national security documents, hire an IT guy that looks for system tips on Reddit,….
-Jan 6
-event permit for Charlottesville & then let the event get overrun by antifa
-Kabul
I seem to remember one of the things the military leadership would do with Trump is delay, delay, delay. So he would say let’s get out of Syria and they would say we can’t because we haven’t planned for that then they would never plan and the status quo would continue.
Given that they probably would have never been ‘prepared’ or ‘ready’ to leave Afghanistan regardless of who the president was.
Biden is useless and definitely deserves a lot of the blame but this is more on an actively incompetent military leadership that has been managing this mess for twenty years and four presidents.
“…confronted good and hard…”
One might sympathize…except for one small problem:
Biden did not win this election legitimately.
IOW, he stole the election.
IOW, the American People did not vote him into office.
Which leaves one where, exactly? (Well, grateful, I suppose, that one isn’t in Afghanistan at this moment of “Biden”‘s greatest triumph—i.e., greatest triumph so far (and no, I’m not joking, alas).
Not to worry too much, though: Everyone’s going to be “getting it good and hard”. (Well, most everyone.)
And it’s just begun—as the Democratic Party’s push to destroy the American middle class, as a prelude to destroying the entire country, is getting under way….
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/larrykudlow-budget-reconciliation-senate/2021/08/15/id/1032448/
According to Redstate.com the Pentagon princes including “white rage” General Miley and others warned the Cloth Headed Dummy that his proposed withdrawal was very risky. Good thing for the country they didn’t leak their fears to the media or undermine the Dummy in Chief. Nor did they resign. Profiles in courage? Not.
om,
This is an example of what they did to Trump over and over.
Remember how they all advised against Trump taking out that Iranian guy?
They always have an excuse for why we have to wait and wait and plan and plan.
Biden is an idiot but I see no difference in what they are probably saying to him than what they said to Trump.
“In addition, he said, “There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.” But that has apparently occurred, as well.”
Has that, literally that, occurred? I’m asking because I had been figuring that if the administration succeeded in nothing else in this debacle it would not allow that specific thing to occur, because of its obviously disastrous PR impact.
Heartsick is my strongest reaction right now. It’s like watching a ship sink because the captain steered it into an iceberg. I’ll denounce the captain later. At the moment I’m mainly appalled at the abandonment of all the people who helped us and will quite likely pay with their lives. As others have said, only a fool would trust this country now.
Lee Smith has some excellent background on his Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/LeeSmithDC
…linking mainly to one Jacob Siegel, who has some sobering analysis on the debacle, e.g.,:
https://twitter.com/Jacob__Siegel/status/1426950666652684291
https://twitter.com/Jacob__Siegel/status/1426156273704357889
etc.
https://twitter.com/abdulrahman/status/1426987309145247745?s=20
Not the embassy roof:
https://mobile.twitter.com/saadmohseni/status/1427000691407654914
The History repeat it self
https://twitter.com/sattam_al_saud/status/1426989749567377408?s=20
I agree with Neo that this time it was Biden and not his handlers who made the decision, and I’m guessing that it was partly his dementia which caused him to refuse to listen to any advise. Irrational stubbornness can be a symptom of dementia.
Like Mac, heartsick is my reaction at the moment for all the reasons given by other commenters. My biggest fear now is a hostage crisis, because in the end there will be many Americans and other Westerners unable to get out in time.
So Blinken assured us that there will be no lifting off survivors from the roof of our embassy, and it won’t be another Vietnam. The news is coming pretty fast, but one piece I heard was that our “embassy” was now at the Kabul airport. Another piece was that the Taliban had already taken the airport. This will be much worse than Vietnam, and many Americans are goners.
Griffin:
I think the Generals only care for themselves and know they couldn’t count on the media or the Democrats to provde cover for ethical resistance to a disaster policy decusion. Career before courage.
As has been said before, Joe Biden has been wrong on every foreign policy argument and decision throughout his decades long career in national political office.
That said, I still haven’t heard an explanation as to why the goings on in Afghanistan are of any importance, strategic or otherwise, to the United States. There are lots of you broke it you own it arguments, but as far as that goes, there are many culpable international parties.
We expended considerable blood and treasure there during the past 20+ years, but that as a reason to remain is a sunk cost fallacy argument.
Why?
om: to quote Mark Steyn- “If you don’t have total contempt for Milley and the rest of the brass right now, you’re part of the problem.”
Bob Gates on Biden’s foreign policy judgement:
“CBS’s “Face The Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Gates if he stood by a statement from his memoir that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
“I think I stand by that statement,” Gates said.”
Joe continues to bat zero on foreign policy.
Two things seem worth mentioning.
1.The Afghan Army and Air Force (Yes, they have one.) are dependent on western contractors to maintain their equipment. Apparently, when Biden announced his withdrawal plans, the contractors knw what was coming and left. So, the Afghanis were left high and dry – no one to maintain their equipment. That may be why they folded like a cheap suit. Much like the South Vietnamese when our aid was withdrawn – leaving them short of beans, bullets, and fuel. One would think some one in the Pentagon would have thought of that and mentioned it to Joe. Maybe someone did and Joe ignored it.
2. General Jack Keene (Retired) said that withdrawing during the “summer fighting season” was a bad idea. He said if Biden had waited until November, the Taliban would all have been in Pakistan and the withdrawal would have been less threatened. Also, setting a date certain was an invitation to the Taliban to mobilize their forces. Bad judgement again. Did anyone suggest this to Joe?
Too late now.
n.n on August 15, 2021 at 3:41 pm said:
What did he know and when did he know it?
“There are known knowns — there are things we know we know,”
Rumsfeld
“The Afghan Army and Air Force (Yes, they have one.) are dependent on western contractors to maintain their equipment.”
The Daily Beast is reporting the Biden Administration refused to allow Western contractors back into Afghanistan to service the equipment. If true, that is EXACTLY the sort of mid-level idiotic decision-making you see when everyone knows nobody is actually in charge.
Mike
First things first: the incompetent Biden believes his incompetent generals, clearly.
But why do we believe the Kakistocracy? Just because the Oligarch’s Believe their Minions voice? Because these useful idiots Believe their Master’s vice?
J.J. on August 15, 2021 at 7:10 pm said:
Did anyone suggest this to Joe?
May be Dr Harris?
1 month, 6 months, year … it really doesn’t matter. If US pulls out it’s going in the crapper and quick.
Let the carnage begin.
Now you’ll see what Islamic run country really looks like.
Chris B:
Yep, Mark Steyn once again hits it on the head.
But it continues and gets worse. According to redstate.com the WH posted a photo showing the Cloth Headed Dummy in a video call where the Doha Astan CIA field officer’s face isn’t obscured. So the muckety mucks in the IC helped to get rid of Trump and the replacement and his staff are too stupid to protect American assets in the field. Surprised? Hey, Raggedy Ann care to circle back on that too?
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/08/15/bumbling-biden-radio-silent-to-americans-on-crisis-may-have-outed-cia-n426966
n.n. wrote in the 3rd comment,
“Vietnam, Iraq 2 (Obama’s war), Libya (Clinton’s conflict)…”
Let’s add Somalia, “Blackhawk Down” to the Clinton pair’s record.
Mac:
In the post, on the words “he said” I had put a link to this article at RedState entitled, “Biden Proven Wrong Again, as Helicopters Land on US Embassy Roof.” In the body of that piece, there is this quote (complete with links):
This tweet was at the first link:
At that second article there is this:
There are some additional photos of helicopters there, too. They are not shown actually on a roof, but one can assume that may have been how they evacuated the embassy. I don’t know how organized or disorganized the scene was, but the whole situation sounds extremely rushed and chaotic.
Can’t walk and chew gum. Lucky for Taiwan and its unfortunate people that it’s typhoon high season right now.
The only good bit is that the collapse is happening so fast that the various Western countries don’t have time to fully load up on Afghan ‘interpreters’ to evacuate and Section 8 or equivalent into your grandkids’ neighbourhoods.
e.g. this kind of bleating:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-16/afghanistan-evacuation-mission-meeting-kabul-taliban/100379474
What’s not to like? Take your time getting there, Boys and Xirls.
Zaphod,
I would gladly take any such people in my neighborhood. Even into my home. Glenn Beck’s Nazarene Fund has done some admirable work helping such people with safe passage. It’s a cause I support. I wish my own church (the Catholic church) was currently more directly active in such efforts.
The Catholic church has been dragging its heels in the humanitarian crisis of Christian purges over the past 20 years as depressingly as it did with Jews in the ’30s and ’40s.
Zaphod:
I figured that would be your take on it.
My take is that they would probably be among the better citizens of any Western country. But don’t worry; they won’t be troubling you in Hong Kong or China.
@Rufus:
That is just pathological altruism. Plus you appear to be arrogating Divine Right.
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Don’t you think it’s a little presumptuous to import your executioners when there’s plenty at hand?
Not to mention your willingness to gamble with your fellow countrymen’s lives in the name of some specious Christian Universalism.
@neo:
You figured.
Better to be consistent than flip flop around sentimentalizing and then wringing one’s hands when the bodies pile up and wondering how things ‘just happened’. No time like today to start learning to play in the Big Kid’s Sandpit with the mind of an Adult. It’s only been 76 years since the last time anyone said anything intelligent: MacArthur’s speech on the Missouri.
Moralizing American Humbug is what killed whoever is going to die in Kabul. No need for it to kill poorer Whites who can’t afford to live in your neighbourhood .
I guess they could find a comfy home in Herzliya. Why is it that Whitey (yes) always carries the ‘humanitarian’ can?
It’s not like the USA as a political entity has any honor or credibility left (Boomers NB I am not talking about *you*. I am talking about this Crazed Leviathan which collects your taxes and imprisons you for a round or three of anal rape if you refuse to pay them). Might as well cut losses and pay no attention to the clowns who sill say that you’re honor-bound to save 100K Afghans who *will* hate you regardless of whatever you do for them.
It’s time to be honest with yourselves and stop with the sentimental nonsense. It’s sentimental nonsense along with less honorable motives had you in there for 20 years achieving nothing and building up to this horror show.
Zaphod @ 9:20pm,
Extremely grateful some long forgotten Ellis Island clerks took a gamble and let my ancestors in. Nothing against my ancestors, but I imagine an Afghani risking his life as a translator to aid the U.S. in the past several years has a more admirable curriculum vitae than my ancestors had upon arrival.
Hide under the bed, but be sure to fill in the forms first:
https://af.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-embassy-kabul-august-15-2021/
@Rufus:
That may be so. But past performance is no guarantee. These guys are traitors to their own people, very poor judges of character to have risked their lives working for a feckless incompetent invader, still fanatical Muslims — just with different allegiances than Taliban… and have track record of ‘fratricide’ (they’re not your brother) when around US troops.
Thought Experiment: China successfully invades USA tomorrow. Your neighbour goes to work for them as a ‘Translator’.
But your team are the Good Guys, so it’s different. Oh… that’s it! Because bringing the light and correct condom rolling techniques to people who *enjoy* living ancestral lives makes you Good. Plus don’t wear black clothes and black hats.
Another Thought Experiment. Same geniuses who support turning Afghan herders into Panda Express microwave oven operators would call you genocidal for trying to ‘Civilize’ the North Sentinelese.
It’s all just incoherent nonsense. Fence ‘em off, leave ‘em alone. Nuke from orbit if start misbehaving on wrong side of the fence.
And.
Wait for it…
Learn.
You are, of course, welcome to buy your own private island and go there and demonstrate as much Christian Charity to as many Afghans as you like.
Oh… and the ones who might not be totally fanatical Muslims. What do you think they’ll become when they see how your people live and behave up close and personal? Things were pretty tame in Greeley in Qutb’s time.
Z has immense concern for flyover proles in a country that he shows almost nothing but contempt for. For you see Z has been on vacation here once and been here on a few business trips. Arrogance and attitude covers everything else he needs.
Z, stay in Hong Kong or move to your preferred new home, the PRC/CCP.
jack:
Iran has been an Islamic-run country for over 40 years, so we’re already quite familiar with the phenomenon.
Z shows concern for Taiwan? What’s in it for him? Whatever works for Xi, Z!
as depressingly as it did with Jews in the ’30s and ’40s.
What did they not do that they should have done?
Some of these comment sections get tiresome in the evening hours.
http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2021/08/why-america-cant-win-wars.html
“Wars, like stories, are simple things if you define a goal that can be achieved by military means.
Few of our goals could be achieved by military means and certainly not by the ones we were using.
The Taliban know what they’re fighting for. Not only don’t we know what we’re fighting for, but we couldn’t define victory except in terms of Afghanistan turning into San Francisco with coffee shops, courses on feminism, and LGBT parades. The Taliban are fighting a culture war by military means. Our elites tried to do the same thing in Afghanistan without being able to define an enemy or victory.
The same establishment that excels at fighting culture wars against Americans keeps discovering that its toolbox of activism, media bias, and victimhood fails miserably outside the western world.
You can’t win a culture war if you don’t understand a culture.
The Russian and Chinese Communists understood that they were out to suppress Islam. The Chinese Communists are still doing it. Compare their tactics of forcing Uighur men to shave their beards and drink alcohol to America funding feminism and democracy in Afghanistan. Undermining traditional culture worked in America, they assumed that it would work in Afghanistan. They assumed that they could co-opt Islam the way they have elements of Christianity and Judaism into their woke project.
Their repeat failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Europe should be a wake-up call to their bright future in Little Mogadishu and all the Islamic enclaves that they’ve created in America.
But it won’t be.“
I’m embracing the upside of palpable incompetence.
If the illegal and traitorous fraud administration and the corrupt deep state apparatchiks face a real decapitation event in DC, then a genuine Patriotic struggle for the restoration of the Rule of Law and Constitutional government cannot be far behind.
Or, in other words: this Godless heathen’s prayers might actually get heard! MAGA on, men.
@Griffin:
Maybe you should go join the Flat Earthers then. I’m sure they take Boomercons.
It’s morning on the Oblate Spheroid I inhabit. Plus coffee!
Sucks, eh?
Z:
You ignorant slut. Griffin is younger than you, IIRC, in other words, not a boomer.
Arrogance and hubris, all in the same package (“Mind the size of a planet.”).
om,
Yes I’m 52. Also interesting he took offense at my comment. Kind of paranoid.
TJ:
“Or, in other words: this Godless heathen’s prayers might actually get heard! MAGA on, men”
Now that’s a MAGA Hard On we can all err.. get behind. Lead on, Macduff!
It’ll come. But not yet. There’ll be more ‘humiliations’ to bear. I seriously suggest that the best way to look at this is to dissociate a bit. You’re an American. You love your country and some of your people. You know what needs to be done with some of the others. For the rest, let it go. Whatever comes out the other end will not be the same country or people or institutions.
Look at a Victory Day Parade in Moscow. The Russian military parades with Orthodox Icons and many of their colors bear variously the Crosses of St George and St Andrew. But… every parade *begins* with a retro Soviet color party marching with the flags they took Berlin with at the ultimate cost of many millions of their own lives. This is deliberate. When you rebuild you keep limited symbols of the past because you don’t insult the good and the sacrifices that took place in your old defunct and replaced institutions and society. But, due honor given, you make something NEW.
Not too much with the MAGA. Make a New America Great Differently. And in a way that won’t so easily slide back into the cesspit you now find yourself in.
I liked manju or manru and the other guy that was steering clear of the beach better.
Z:
From your glowing tributes I assumed your buds from the PRC could walk on water (Can Do! to the max). What’s a typhoon to the mighty Xi?
Now our old Admiral Halsey learned that typhoons are best be respected, but he’s an old dead American. Not some expat out of Africa. Or a modern minion of Xi.
Griffin:
That was Montage of the magic Los Angeles bicycle. He(?) is a progressive but not entirely evil (exaggeration here) and contemptuous of America, unlike Z.
Montage may pop back in as the Newsom recall gets closer?
Manju has been AWOL for a long time.
@Griffin:
Not offended. Just not a fan of passive-aggression. Not a trait that benefits the West in current year. Not unless the course of History is determined by who is Meanest Girl. We both know you were referring to me. In future please have the moral fortitude to pull my nicknamed chain.
@om:
Not interested in your excrement flinging.
Re your drivel about Typhoons. Nature makes fools and playthings of us all: Yellow, White, or Khazarite 😛
Word is that original plan was to bail out of Afghanistan during Winter when most of Taliban bigwigs were in winter quarters in Pakistan. Nature again.
On the balance I think Halsey was wrong to bug out that time. But man could he fight. Hopefully you’ll do the same when the time comes.
In 2021 Halsey wouldn’t survive a week in the US Woke Navy, FWIW.
I’m currently reading Thunder Below by Eugene Fluckey. It’s a #$%^ing shame and tragedy what has happened to all of us.
Zaphod,
Your long repetitive one note comments make the comments in the evening tiresome. Why anybody would feel the need to vomit out lengthy comment after lengthy comment on virtually every post bores me and ruins the comments section no matter who they are (there have been others here in the past) by burying other comments.
Hope that was direct enough for your delicate sensibilities.
Z:
If you don’t like the night soil don’t wade about in it and sprinkle it throughout your tomes.
Typhoons? you brought them to the table, chappie, or is it Sir Chappie?
Your comment about the zero defect culture in the US military is old news, too. “Up or Out” has a feature for a long time. Arrogance writ large.
om,
Yes, Montage. I can never remember his moniker only that he was very, very concerned about steering clear of the beach last fall.
Dumb#$%^ of the Decade:
LARPing Loser
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-student-on-holiday-in-afghanistan-accepts-death-blhl8wph8
I dunno.. They might keep him around for other purposes for a while.
Apparently he was headed for a career in Wealth Management. Shut up and take my money!
Om and Griffin:
Instead of whining about my Reality Dumps, you two both ought to put on your thinking caps and start thinking about this:
Having just so royally #$%^ed the Pooch in the Pashtun Pleasure Center, what False Flags and Distractions might your your abortion of a Government / Deep State / Military be planning for you at home and abroad in the coming weeks and months to take the heat off themselves?
They’ve demonstrated that they’re capable of trying anything on and are simultaneously incapable of doing anything right abroad. Not sure how it works when they try it on at home. Temptation is to say they’ll eff it up… but as Greenfield points out, they fail abroad because they try doing stuff there that has worked well enough for them at home. Deep, Man.
Zaphod:
Ignorance and arrogance is not a good combination. Among the many things about which you are ignorant (and arrogant), what type of neighborhoods people here live in, and whether they are poor or rich, is one of them. Many people here don’t reveal too much about themselves in the personal sense.
Nor do you appear to have a clue how many people who comment here – or who live in the US, for that matter – wanted to leave Afghanistan vs. stay in Afghanistan. Trump was elected partly on the strength of his oft-repeated desire to get out, but he found it more difficult than expected. Biden is not being criticized for getting out (most Americans wanted to get out or to just leave a very small force for counter-terrorism purposes) – he’s being criticized for the stupid way he’s doing it.
Nor do you know much about the people who have helped the Americans in Afghanistan over the years, and what sort of citizens they would make. We brought in quite a few Iraqi interpreters after that war, and are attempting to do the same for at least some of the Afghan interpreters. They are not unknown quantities; they’ve been working with the military for years.
In this thread you have now officially entered troll territory.
https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-us-suspects-4000-cases-fraud-iraqi-refugee-program-documents-2021-06-18/
“Whatever you do,” cried Brer Rabbit, “Don’t throw me into the briar patch”
I’m out of this thread then. Happy Homelands all!
Zaphod:
No one is advocating bringing everyone here who makes application, and certainly not immediately. And of course some will be fraudulent. But if a person has been working for the US for many years, it should be easy enough to determine that and get them out safely.
You crossed a line tonight with your ridicule of those who show compassion for people who have helped the US and are in danger of being tortured and killed, as well as their families members being at risk of the same.
Thanks, Neo, I didn’t notice that link.
Rufus T. Firefly: “I would gladly take any such people in my neighborhood. Even into my home.”
I would as well. One of the things that sickens me the most is that these brave men who served in harms way alongside our soldiers and Marines (including my son) trusted us, and are now being abandoned to be slaughtered by the Taliban along with their families. Who in the world will ever trust us again.
Z is wading about in the night soil again. A feature. Some say that it is a characteristic of an underdeveloped vocabulary.
Carry on.
Chris B said:
“Who in the world will ever trust us again.”
I think that, for our progressive left, that is one desired feature of this whole debacle.
https://mobile.twitter.com/rafelnabeel312
This photo shows on 1975 three Afghani Student rewarded US scholarship to study in US
From the right:
1- Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad
2- Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai
3- Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai
This is not imaginary coincident these three of them became
1- An Afghan-American diplomat
2- The current head of Taliban’s political office in Doha Qatar.
3- an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who was the 14th President of Afghanistan from September 2014 to August 2021.
??
The Twitter account of the Taliban spokesman works freely, the account of the former President of the United States of America is currently suspended down pointing backhand index, he was suspended when he was still president with the nuclear button in his hand
The War that Could Not Be Won: My Article from 2012
I have been watching with great concern the situation in Afghanistan since President Biden made what I believe was the correct decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. Yesterday, Kabul fell to the Taliban which overthrew the Afghan government in a lightening campaign that lasted just 10 days. It wasn’t so much that the Taliban defeated government forces, it was the unprecedented collapse and surrender of those forces often without a shot being fired. Michael Hastings wrote: Whether or not Afghanistan would be a peaceful nation-state had we not gone into Iraq I doubt. Afghanistan is going to be Afghanistan, no matter how hard we try to make it something else. He was correct, as I was in 2012.
https://padresteve.com/2021/08/16/the-war-that-could-not-be-won-my-article-from-2012/
Don’t quite get the hoo haa over Zaphod’s comments.
I never read them!
My neighbors, wonderful people, now American citizens and happy to be here, are some of the Vietnamese refugees Joe Biden didn’t want to bring here. Granted, they’re Buddhist, not Muslim.
The real problem with bringing Islamic refugees here, besides being sure that they’re really deserving refugees, is the insane political correctness which prevents any criticism of the religion or any efforts to evangelize or Americanize them.
The British fought 2 Afghan War, the first was a defeat, but they won the second one. The discovered that there was no real vital interest in the place other than to keep the Tsar out. Hard to believe Afghanistan used to be rich by way of the Silk Road.
The Chinese Communist government will surely push into Afghanistan for its Belt And Road initiative, for greater access to the region. It will be interesting in a horrifying way to watch the interaction between two extremely brutal totalitarian regimes.