I think we're going to find out one of three possibilities:old salt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:05 pmYep. The decision to close Bagram & reduce troop strength from 2500 down to 650, nearly 2 mos before we had to -- before we had our people & critical equipment out, was a green flag to the Taliban & a surrender flag to the ASF. It was totally unnecessary, as we subsequently demonstrated when we evacuated & retrograded 6000 troops & their equipment in 3 days, at the end of the massive civilian airlift, from just one urban airport under siege. Just imagine what we & our allied nations could have airlifted in those final days out of Bagram, Mazir-i-Sharif, Shindand, Herat & HKIA, had we planned it that way.cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 3:35 pm The decision to abandon Bagram will come back to bite Biden in the ass. That is the single event that proved Biden had lost control of our exit from Afghanistan.
1. Biden relied on military Generals who told him that the "Afghan army" we armed, trained, and bankrolled for 20 years would be able to hold these facilities for a few months with ease, or...
2. Biden overruled them all to get us out before something changed, leaving any and all F ups during his first year if office, knowing full well that come next election, all Americans will remember is that we're out of Afghanistan. In other words, it won't matter because it's off the front page a year+ before the next election. A political calculation overruling anything else. Presidents handle war like this all the time, timing their decisions around election concerns.
3. A combination of both.
My money is on #3, leaning heavily toward #2.