Fever dreams and fantasy island (would make a great Television show)
In real life. Would not happen in a million years.
Allan
Trumpâs plan had no concern for anyone in Afghanistan. He wouldnât of gave the Taliban the deal they got if he did.
The buck stops with Biden. He â â â â â â up but you know full well that if Trump had the chance to complete the withdrawal he started that the ANA would of still fell and the Taliban would be in control of the country today
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Afghan National Army.
What a hoot.
You mean the guys who killed our soldiers on a regular basis.
Allan
Nope. I just mean the blinded chutzpah of it.
Afghanistan is a land, but itâs only a country by default, as the where the other local powers have stopped wasting treasure, on account of it being inhabited by ungovernable rivals who switch sides at least once a year as a matter of tradition.
Nobody is saying Biden didnât â â â â it up.
Some people are pretending the entire 20 years including 1st half of the withdrawal werenât also a â â â â up
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With the weapons we gave them. I am soooooo happy weâre finally out of there
Credit to Trump here. Real credit, even if he just stumbled backwards into it.
The ISI is no longer, and wonât be for the foreseeable future, the only sugardaddies to give 'em goods.
And a well armed Taliban is very likely to draw the interests of the kind of enemies who refuse to learn the lessons the Persians, Russians, British, Soviets and Americans studiously refused to learn.
Also, not good for Russia. Really, quite bad for them. Putin is going to have to bribe Kadyrov into forgetting the playground is open again
Leaving Afghanistan was one of the few decisions he made that I agreed with. My only real concern was that we might be doing it too quickly
No we donât remember because it did not happen. They were getting their briefs by end of Nov.
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Irrelevant and counterfactual. Afghanistan is ungovernable as a whole.
The Taliban arenât âin control of the countryâ. They are in control of parts of the country. And that will ebb and flow over time.
Iâm okay with bandaid ripping. But, I donât suffer from the Consensus view of the US as an ennobling, civilizing power.
They kept dragging their feet
Slaughtering people on a road is the same beast.
Different beast: different situation. The context matters, esp since weâre discussing Poppy Bush and Baker. Dollars to donuts, they leave an intractable problem in tact in the Russian territorial anus.
Esp since they were already used to doing it.
Wasnât prudent, over the berm, if the goal was to keep the sclerotic House of Saud up on its corrupt haunches for a generation or two longer. Which was very much the goal.
Two thoughts:
1)-âkeeping air power until no longer neededâ is mission creep. You keep the sircraft, you have to keep troops to defend the base. You need techs to service the aircraft, and contractors to service both. On, and on. The aircraft need to come out when the troops do.
2)-we should have prohibited Americans from going into Afghanistan after Biden announced the hard withdrawal date on 04/21.
That was not the question. The question was simple and straightforward.
I donât disagree with you strategically. The question I read was one of will.
Honest question: if money, time, or casualties were not a factor, do you think we ever could have succeeded in Afghanistan?
I donât think will is severable from its field of play.
I donât think Poppy and Baker ever soften up Afghanistan for Russia, just like they were never Clinton-stupid enough to send Zinni on his moronâs tour of the 'Stans.
I have my problems with the elder Bush, but I donât think he would have clintoned the whole world into thinking Russia could be encircled free of charge.
Succeeded at what?
