we just lower standard for posting new topic. amazing.
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Stop whining.
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Then why did they close Bagram Base with so many in Afghanistan?
Not expert nor do I pretend to be one but that was just plan ■■■■■■■ stupid IMO.
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From what I have heard the military calculated a timeline based on some assumptions that did not hold true. They thought that the Afghan Army would fight for their country and maintain a certain level of security. And with that they expected the existing government to stay there and support the Army. I have a friend who works at the Pentagon and has told me for years that for any given situation the military makes multiple plans based on multiple contingents. And while it is uncertain if they had a specific plan for what happened is unknown. But it is certainly obvious that they did not have the ability to pivot and keep up with the quick desertion of the army and government.
And part of the blame is with the folks there who did not heed the warnings to get out that our State Department issued for weeks. In hindsight perhaps we should have not just suggested but rather ordered folks to leave.
Closing it was stupid. But I don’t think it would have been realistic to use it for an evacuation base. More for a staging area for evacuation aircraft. The road to Bagram from Kabul would have been a nightmare for transportation of that magnitude let alone the dangers. Helicopters would be an option but a slow one.
As I said, not expert but it would be a good place for logistic to get Americans out.
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I will say there is a lot of truth in that. However every private over there knew they would not fight. We seen it way to often. The Generals were either toeing the party line or they are incompetent, period. They should be immediately fired or retired.
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This was on State.
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Taliban demanded the Americans close the airbase with no guarantees in return. Just the good will of the Taliban.
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Blinken. Optics. The embassy was planning on staying.
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It’s like we didn’t learn anything in 1979 Iran. I agree, this is all on State.
And when are we ever going to learn that any agreement with a terrorist organization isn’t worth the paper that it is written on.
I want to heart it…
Some mitigating facts. Biden announced April 14 that the US would be withdrawing from Afghanistan starting May 1 and finishing on Sep 11.
Everyone knew this. It seems to me that people still there, for the most part, chose to remain into the final stages of withdrawal and accepted the associated dangers. The wise person would not have procrastinated.
That being said, the danger certainly escalated quickly as the government military pretty much evaporated resulting in the chaos we see today. Perhaps Biden should have course corrected as this went down but I don’t think the US being in charge of Kabul would have been feasible.
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Really 
now the Taliban is the most powerful terrorist organization in the world with advanced military equipment. News just keeps getting better.
“According to a report from the Government Accountability Office reviewed by Kheel, the U.S. supplied Afghan forces with more than 75,000 vehicles between 2003 and 2016, along with nearly 600,000 weapons, 160,000 pieces of communications equipment and more than 200 aircraft.
Some of the equipment has been lost or destroyed, but U.S. officials told Reuters that the Taliban now controls more than 2,000 armored vehicles and as many as 40 aircraft.
So now the Taliban military is as powerful as the country of Jordon.
"We have no indication that [Americans] haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport. We made an agreement with the Taliban…”
my goodness. that sounds like negotiation
good now i bet
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Who is on first?
John Kirby says there is Al Queda (and ISIS) in Afghanistan and Sleepy Joe says there are not. Who is right. What the ■■■■ is going on?
I wonder how realistic it would be to put a kill switch in weaponry that we give other nations? Just push a button and fry the electronics kind of thing.
Do you think we learned our lesson on nation building this time?
I don’t 
They wouldn’t want it. They’d just go buy Russian and Chinese equipment.
No military or paramilitary force in the world would want a weapon that a foreign state (which means potential future enemy) could just shut off with a kill switch.
ID Tag weapons will never happen.
