Taliban reclaims Afghanistan

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 244854002/

Bidens folks have to figure out a way to blame this all on trump. trump is the only hobgoblin the dems can blame it on. I'm guessing one term Joe will make the same conclusion that LBJ made when it comes to running for re-election. He has to know he is FUBAR as a candidate. I don't think even MDs republicans could fail at making mincemeat out of him in an election campaign at this monumental failure of the POTUS.

And yet he beat Trump cleanly.

SE Hinton wrote a great novel called that was then, this is now. Joe Biden is sitting on the precipice of a calamity that makes the french humiliation at Dien Bien Phu look like a day in Disney land. The Taliban are now dictating to Joe what he can and can't do. Damn, I bet having beaten trump cleanly ain't a thought running through Bidens mind right about now.

I'm wondering how many folks on this forum, without doing a Google search, remember what happened to the French at Dien Bien Phu?

The second half of your paragraph speaks to why my comment is germane.

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 244854002/

Bidens folks have to figure out a way to blame this all on trump. trump is the only hobgoblin the dems can blame it on. I'm guessing one term Joe will make the same conclusion that LBJ made when it comes to running for re-election. He has to know he is FUBAR as a candidate. I don't think even MDs republicans could fail at making mincemeat out of him in an election campaign at this monumental failure of the POTUS.

And yet he beat Trump cleanly.

SE Hinton wrote a great novel called that was then, this is now. Joe Biden is sitting on the precipice of a calamity that makes the french humiliation at Dien Bien Phu look like a day in Disney land. The Taliban are now dictating to Joe what he can and can't do. Damn, I bet having beaten trump cleanly ain't a thought running through Bidens mind right about now.

his CIA top dog Burns met secretly with the Taliban yesterday, according to TWP. Maybe, he'll clean up the messes Joe left him.

I really hope he didn't wear a blue dress. We know how that interlude would play out. If it was a secret meeting why do we know about it? Would not a secret meeting by definition be secret?

The world has changed in the last 25 years. I’m case you weren’t aware.

[Kismet]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 244854002/

Bidens folks have to figure out a way to blame this all on trump. trump is the only hobgoblin the dems can blame it on. I'm guessing one term Joe will make the same conclusion that LBJ made when it comes to running for re-election. He has to know he is FUBAR as a candidate. I don't think even MDs republicans could fail at making mincemeat out of him in an election campaign at this monumental failure of the POTUS.

And yet he beat Trump cleanly.

SE Hinton wrote a great novel called that was then, this is now. Joe Biden is sitting on the precipice of a calamity that makes the french humiliation at Dien Bien Phu look like a day in Disney land. The Taliban are now dictating to Joe what he can and can't do. Damn, I bet having beaten trump cleanly ain't a thought running through Bidens mind right about now.

I'm wondering how many folks on this forum, without doing a Google search, remember what happened to the French at Dien Bien Phu?

Congratulations. You have moved on from Normandy and Dresden to the 1950s for your military comparisons. Although this one is a bit more relevant at least, tactically.

You skipped Korea - no Pork Chop Hill references?

BTW ever hear of the Berlin Airlift? I find it comparable and perhaps its outcome and effectiveness doesn't fit your historical narrative. And we did tell the Rooskies exactly what we were going to do in advance BTW. They didn't believe we could successfully pull it off.

Your almost correct with the Berlin airlift. That did not involve flying people out it involved parachuting supplies to the people on the ground. I guess the term airlift had you confused there skippy.

Gee, Einstein...It involved flying airplanes over enemy controlled territory with AA capability. Like the current situation, USA military personnel/equipment in potential war zone had the Soviets chosen to challenge. The operation also involved landing aircraft at Berlin Tempelhof Airport - at the height of the campaign, one plane landed every 45 seconds.

[Brooklyn]

More dangerous technology in the Taliban hands.

Brooklyn is happy about that.....

Our pal youthahtletics endorsed the war (unlike me) and gleefully paid for arming the Taliban. Had we stayed home as I had said for all those years this wouldn't be a problem.

[youthathletics]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

[youthathletics]

More dangerous technology in the Taliban hands.

Brooklyn is happy about that.....

Our pal youthahtletics endorsed the war (unlike me) and gleefully paid for arming the Taliban. Had we stayed home as I had said for all those years this wouldn't be a problem.

If we listened to you, we'd only be good at eating and being wrong all the time.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

[Farfromgeneva]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

Would be a interesting move to draw them out, get them in the open and clustered then bomb the ish out of them!

“Oh yeah bro, we’re definitely bouncing by end of month. Nobody will be around to do anything but we cut a deal with you that you’re going to go to so we’re all good.” Then when they show up...Blat blat blat blat, then you see a cowboy named Greg Abbott waiving his hat while
Riding a bomb down on them (which would solve two problems in one blast)

[youthathletics]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

The treaty was FEB20,18 months ago, slick, nothing like waiting until the last minute, to eff over your own people.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

The treaty was FEB20,18 months ago, slick, nothing like waiting until the last minute, to eff over your own people.

Trump left Office in January.

[MDlaxfan76]

diss, the scandal was in 2011...are you saying that we didn't have the "goods on them" during the Obama Admin, but later did under the Trump Admin? Or did the Obama Admin blow this?

It's confusing as presented in the article i linked to...so i went and dug around a bit about it...still doing so. Check it out yourself and see what you can uncover. A lot comes up when googling "Corruption in Afghanistan". Here's one source article. There are many. Our military and diplomatic efforts at addressing this issue are murky and, at the end of the day, shouldn't reasonably be laid at the feet of any single administration. Elements of our military-industrial complex may well be a thread that winds through the whole thing though.

..

Well sure, but sounds like Adm Mullen is talking about his time during the Obama Admin...sounds like they stubbed their toe hard on this one. Doesn't mean that the Trump Admin couldn't have done differently once they took over, but as a general argument it sounds like none of the Admins really did what was necessary to tamp down the corruption, such that the Afghan gov't could actually gain trust and legitimacy.

[MDlaxfan76]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

The treaty was FEB20,18 months ago, slick, nothing like waiting until the last minute, to eff over your own people.

youth, again, the 'team' you were riding effed it up royally...the only recourse for Biden would have been a re-escalation of the war, which he definitely wasn't going to do, having seen that such was fruitless in prior attempts.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Latest presser: Nice job BIden.....just dump it all on the military, expecting them to get it all done. After first pulling them out, then sending them back in, then have to work night and day to get them out by the 31st. As they have to turn people away........talk about mentally mind effing our soldiers.

Nice job leading the presser with a 3 Trillion Dollar spending deal, then talk about his boys at the G7 and UN are all cool with everything, then make it sound this effing debacle is just another day at the office. He's running scared of the Taliban.....UFB.

Who cut the deal with the Taliban and sent all of our guys home and told the Afghans to let all the Taliban prisoners out…. You want him to start another war? That will show them…

The treaty was FEB20,18 months ago, slick, nothing like waiting until the last minute, to eff over your own people.

youth, again, the 'team' you were riding effed it up royally...the only recourse for Biden would have been a re-escalation of the war, which he definitely wasn't going to do, having seen that such was fruitless in prior attempts.

https://law.stanford.edu/2020/12/07/the ... e-process/

The days of being John Wayne are over. Trump backed the Taliban. It’s plain and simple. Afghans cut the best deal they could. Life moves on. Hoping for a peace dividend. We can use some of the proceeds to fund infrastructure….win/win.

[Brooklyn]

If we listened to you, we'd only be good at eating and being wrong all the time.

Well you got me there.

[Farfromgeneva]

I still like my theory that’s it’s an elaborate ruse to consolidate them and drop it like it’s hot in them in one fell swoop...

Could even play the Moana Crab song over loudspeakers as we bomb them.

Well, Tamatoa hasn't always been this glam
I was a drab little crab once
Now I know I can be happy as a clam
Because I'm beautiful, baby
Did your granny say listen to your heart
Be who you are on the inside
I need three words to tear her argument apart
Your granny lied!
I'd rather be
Shiny
Like a treasure from a sunken pirate wreck
Scrub the deck and make it look
Shiny
I will sparkle like a wealthy woman's neck
Just a sec!
Don't you know
Fish are dumb, dumb, dumb
They chase anything that glitters (beginners!)
Oh, and here they come, come, come
To the brightest thing that glitters
Mmm, fish dinners
I just love free food
And you look like seafood (seafood)
Well, well, well
Little Maui's having trouble with his look
You little semi-demi-mini-god
Ouch! What a terrible performance
Get the hook (get it?)
You don't swing it like you used to, man
Yet I have to give you credit for my start
And your tattoos on the outside
For just like you I made myself a work of art
I'll never hide; I can't, I'm too
Shiny
Watch me dazzle like a diamond in the rough
Strut my stuff; my stuff is so
Shiny
Send your armies but they'll never be enough
My shell's too tough
Maui man, you could try, try, try
But you can't expect a demi-god
To beat a decapod (give it up)
You will die, die, die
Now it's time for me to take apart
Your aching heart
Far from the ones who abandoned you
Chasing the love of these humans
Who made you feel wanted
You tried to be tough
But your armour's just not hard enough
Maui
Now it's time to kick your
Hiney
Ever seen someone so
Shiny
Soak it in 'cause it's the last you'll ever see
C'est la vie mon ami
I'm so
Shiny
Now I'll eat you, so prepare your final plea
Just for me
You'll never be quite as
Shiny
You wish you were nice and
Shiny

[Brooklyn]

Right wingers continue to have a field day attacking Biden on the grounds (they say) that he bungled the retreat in Kabul - makes you wonder where were they when the South Vietnamese traitors ran away rather than fight the more patriotic Viet "Cong":



https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/cont ... rmat=1000w


Unlike then, the winners did not cooperate with the fleeing collaborators or the USA. Interestingly, the Taliban is cooperating and allowing the USA to take away those traitors rather than face trial for treason. Looks like the Taliban are a lot more humane than thought to be by so many in the West. Obviously, Biden is a lot more tactful and diplomatic than Gerald Ford was and has convinced them to remove the traitors. We'll see what happens next on 8/31.

[old salt]

I served in Afghanistan as a US Marine, twice. Here’s the truth in two sentences

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/read ... 41358.html

So when people ask me if we made the right call getting out of Afghanistan in 2021, I answer truthfully: Absolutely not. The right call was getting out in 2002. 2003.

That is an enticing counterfactual, offered in hindsight. Things were not stable in 2003. AQ was still active with OBL still alive. Afghanistan was in civil war with the Taliban temporarily defeated, so long as we continued bombing them. Had we disengaged then, rather than staying long enough to decimate AQ & get OBL, there's no way to predict how things would have played out & what would come out of Afghanistan in the ensuing 18 years.

I share his contempt for the parasites in the financial sector who put his childhood home underwater.

[jhu72]

The coming collapse of the Taliban ?

[cradleandshoot]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 244854002/

Bidens folks have to figure out a way to blame this all on trump. trump is the only hobgoblin the dems can blame it on. I'm guessing one term Joe will make the same conclusion that LBJ made when it comes to running for re-election. He has to know he is FUBAR as a candidate. I don't think even MDs republicans could fail at making mincemeat out of him in an election campaign at this monumental failure of the POTUS.

And yet he beat Trump cleanly.

SE Hinton wrote a great novel called that was then, this is now. Joe Biden is sitting on the precipice of a calamity that makes the french humiliation at Dien Bien Phu look like a day in Disney land. The Taliban are now dictating to Joe what he can and can't do. Damn, I bet having beaten trump cleanly ain't a thought running through Bidens mind right about now.

I'm wondering how many folks on this forum, without doing a Google search, remember what happened to the French at Dien Bien Phu?

Congratulations. You have moved on from Normandy and Dresden to the 1950s for your military comparisons. Although this one is a bit more relevant at least, tactically.

You skipped Korea - no Pork Chop Hill references?

BTW ever hear of the Berlin Airlift? I find it comparable and perhaps its outcome and effectiveness doesn't fit your historical narrative. And we did tell the Rooskies exactly what we were going to do in advance BTW. They didn't believe we could successfully pull it off.

Your almost correct with the Berlin airlift. That did not involve flying people out it involved parachuting supplies to the people on the ground. I guess the term airlift had you confused there skippy.

Gee, Einstein...It involved flying airplanes over enemy controlled territory with AA capability. Like the current situation, USA military personnel/equipment in potential war zone had the Soviets chosen to challenge. The operation also involved landing aircraft at Berlin Tempelhof Airport - at the height of the campaign, one plane landed every 45 seconds.

You should bone up on your history. Those stops at Tempelhof were to refuel and reload more supply. Not a single C47 ever landed in the Soviet controlled sector of Berlin. That is what a blockade is all about. Sure the Russians could have shot those planes down. Why do you think they didn't do that?

[CU88]

August 24, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Aug 25

Since August 14, just ten days ago, the U.S. has facilitated the evacuation of 70,700 people from Afghanistan; more than 21,000 flew out in the last day alone. President Biden maintains that the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline.

The evacuation, which began chaotically as the Afghan army and government crumbled and the Taliban took over the country in less than two weeks, has become far more orderly and efficient. (If there’s one thing the military does exceedingly well, it’s move large numbers of people!)

The administration has refused to say how many Americans remain in the country— the State Department urged employees to leave the country beginning in April—but its reluctance is likely out of concern about passing that information on to the Taliban. This evening, Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, said that the department has called every American who has expressed an interest in leaving Afghanistan, identifying them through a repatriation form on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

News broke today that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William J. Burns, met secretly on Monday in Kabul with a Taliban leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, to discuss the continuing evacuation efforts. Regardless of what they discussed, it seems to me a sign that the U.S. feels secure enough about the safety of Kabul to risk sending the country’s top spy there for a parley.

Another demonstration of that security came today when two Representatives, Peter Meijer (R-MI) and Seth Moulton (D-MA), took it upon themselves to fly to Kabul, unannounced ("to conduct oversight on the mission to evacuate Americans and our allies," Moulton’s office said). The State Department and U.S. military personnel were said to be furious that they had to "divert resources to provide security and information to the lawmakers.” “It’s as moronic as it is selfish,” a senior administration official told the Washington Post. “They’re taking seats away from Americans and at-risk Afghans—while putting our diplomats and service members at greater risk—so they can have a moment in front of the cameras.”

Although no Americans have yet been hurt in the evacuation, that state of affairs is precarious. Threats of an attack on the Kabul airport from ISIS-K, which would like to destabilize the Taliban before it cements its power, continue to loom.