LaxPower Back-Up Stick

With things changing by the minute, thought this might warrant its own thread.

If you need to get up to speed:

Here’s what you need to know:

• With the Taliban in control, uncertainty and fear grip Afghanistan.

• Afghans storm Kabul’s airport in a desperate bid to escape.

• Chaos at Kabul’s airport delays the arrival of thousands of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

• Nations expect an outpouring of refugees as the Afghan crisis escalates.

• Biden returns from Camp David to address the Afghan crisis.

• Afghan women fear what will happen with the Taliban once again in power.

• The Taliban take over the presidential palace.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/16 ... istan-news

How bad people want out of that place...... https://www.instagram.com/p/CSpU8JxLVKC/

From the AP:
What we know, what's next

https://apnews.com/article/taliban-take ... aba21b60b6

youthathletics wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:03 pm How bad people want out of that place...... https://www.instagram.com/p/CSpU8JxLVKC/

Sadly, they know the alternative is a much more brutal death.

The Refugee Crisis will get worse.

Kudos to USAF Pilots -

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/america ... le-flight/

"C-17 aircraft are designed to carry around 100 paratroopers and their equipment, that didn’t stop an American C-17 leaving Kabul with 800 souls on-board.

Wikipedia says max payload is 170,900 lbs - so that's 800 people @ 213.6 lbs/person, which seems plausible.

https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/142 ... -flight%2F

stavridisj

14h
From an AF General who was on my team at NATO In this aircraft that is designed to transport 102.
The 800 on board have arrived safely.
Thank you 816th EAS...American heroes all.

BREAKING: President Biden orders another 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to Kabul. 7,000 U.S. troops will be on the ground in Afghanistan soon. Another battalion from Ft. Bragg non-stop (no layover in Kuwait as those soldiers have already departed to Kabul airport)

Female mayor in Afghanistan says she's waiting for Taliban to 'come ... and kill me'
Zarifa Ghafari, 27, told British newspaper she has nowhere to go and can't leave her family.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/fema ... l-n1276914

The internet can be funny at times.

CNN likely invited the Taliban over for dinner. Damned cLoWNs: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSpTkznhXGG ... _copy_link

https://i.imgflip.com/5jt01t.jpg


Still voting Republican?

youthathletics wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 4:46 pm The internet can be funny at times.

Yup:

youthathletics wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 4:47 pm CNN likely invited the Taliban over for dinner. Damned cLoWNs: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSpTkznhXGG ... _copy_link

Wonder when Biden will invite the Taliban to Camp David and release their leader from jail...

This is a bi-partisan situation/decision.

Since both Trump and Biden wanted to pull the plug.

Understandable, I guess. Since it only took about five minutes for the last 20 years of blood and treasure to vaporize.

But we hadn't had a single combat fatality in 18 months. What was the problem with keeping the lid on with the few thousand troops that were already there?

We still have troops in Germany and SK all these decades later. Does that mean those are "endless" wars too?

ggait wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:02 pm This is a bi-partisan situation/decision.

Since both Trump and Biden wanted to pull the plug.

Understandable, I guess. Since it only took about five minutes for the last 20 years of blood and treasure to vaporize.

But we hadn't had a single combat fatality in 18 months. What was the problem with keeping the lid on with the few thousand troops that were already there?

We still have troops in Germany and SK all these decades later. Does that mean those are "endless" wars too?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E86PoPpWEAA ... name=small

If Biden had any inkling that this was coming, before turning over all bases in the north, he would have sent these troops back to hold Kabul, Bagram & Mazir-i-Sharif to cover our withdrawal, retreat & an orderly evacuation of Afghan allies. We would have then had 3 airfields & 1 (maybe 2) land routes for the retreat/evacuation. Huge miscalculation.

Brooklyn wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:06 pm

ggait wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:02 pm This is a bi-partisan situation/decision.

Since both Trump and Biden wanted to pull the plug.

Understandable, I guess. Since it only took about five minutes for the last 20 years of blood and treasure to vaporize.

But we hadn't had a single combat fatality in 18 months. What was the problem with keeping the lid on with the few thousand troops that were already there?

We still have troops in Germany and SK all these decades later. Does that mean those are "endless" wars too?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E86PoPpWEAA ... name=small

He left Afghan people on the ground high and dry, that should have been flown out with our people, he left munitions stockpiled. Sure Trump wanted out, as did over half our country, myself included. He F'd up, plain and simple....and its not a partisan thing, its a BIden thing.

Any talk about evacuating Afghan refugees, right now, is happy talk. The escape of our forces still on the ground is far from assured.

It will always be fashionable and politically correct to always blame the Democrats for the mess created by Republicans. Of course, the Dems bring this on themselves by continually turning the other cheek rather than fight back with the truth. They have plenty of time and opportunity to do it now. Let's see if they develop the b𝒂lls to answer back with the truth.

Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden. All had chances to get us out, all wanted to get out, but couldn’t execute.
I’m not lying the blame on the feet of one party. Plenty of culpability.
That said, thank you to the soldiers who fought over there and gave those people relative peace and stability for 20 years. The soldiers did good while the politicians were for turd. Feel for those who sacrificed much.
Then- For the people who grew up under Taliban rule, to know relative freedom for 2 decades, and now have it snatched away is heartbreaking too. But they need to fight for their country and desired way of life, too.

Biden's claim that we can still counter terrorists in Afghanistan is specious. In the places he named, we either have forces there or next door or we can enter from offshore. It's a long flight from our ME bases to Afghanistan... if Pakistan allows us to transit their airspace.

ggait wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:02 pm This is a bi-partisan situation/decision.

Since both Trump and Biden wanted to pull the plug.

Understandable, I guess. Since it only took about five minutes for the last 20 years of blood and treasure to vaporize.

But we hadn't had a single combat fatality in 18 months. What was the problem with keeping the lid on with the few thousand troops that were already there?

We still have troops in Germany and SK all these decades later. Does that mean those are "endless" wars too?

A full breach of the agreement with the Taliban would have meant Taliban attacks on U.S. forces. There would have been further combat fatalities.

The situations in Germany, Japan, and South Korea are completely different. Those nations are not active combat zones. Afghanistan always will be.

DocBarrister