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Will Kabul become America's Dien Bien Phu?
American Thinker.com ^ | August 27, 2021 | Cauthen

Posted on 08/27/2021 9:49:33 AM PDT by Kaslin

With President Biden's August 31 withdrawal deadline looming and the Taliban's insistence that it not be extended, the unanswered question is what the Taliban will do, and how Biden will respond should the evacuation effort stall and U.S. military forces remain at Kabul's international airport on September 1?

Based on the current political and military circumstances, the surrounding topography, and the unforced and tenuous political and military position Biden chose, it is not difficult to see some parallels with France's position in Vietnam at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Begun on 13 March 1954 and ending 56 days later with France's disastrous capitulation and humiliating withdrawal from Southeast Asia, Dien Bien Phu nearly 70 years later offers a cautionary example of history's lessons for the political intelligentsia and senior military officers.

French national political stasis; military hubris; and strategic, operational, and tactical incompetence led to the Vietminh (North Vietnam's communist army)'s defeat of an ostensibly superior Western power. Vietminh forces were able to quickly mobilize and amass a 5-to-1 advantage over the French at the start of the battle. The Vietminh emplaced heavy artillery in the surrounding hills and employed effective anti-aircraft fire, supported by herculean logistics, to destroy an encircled French garrison of 16,000 men huddled at a small and isolated airfield.

"Dien Bien Phu," wrote Lieutenant Colonel Shull, "is in a 75 square mile valley bottom ringed by small mountains of 1,400 to 1,800 feet. Once the Vietminh seized these mountains, emplaced artillery, and blocked the French from moving beyond their fortifications, the French loss became inevitable." The Vietminh disabled the airfield on the second day of the battle and for the next 54 days laid siege to the French garrison, unleashing unrelenting attacks resulting in all but 100 French killed, wounded, or captured.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; joebiden; taliban
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1 posted on 08/27/2021 9:49:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Ha! It’s ABOUT as dumb, militarily!!


2 posted on 08/27/2021 9:51:33 AM PDT by SMARTY (Republics decline into democracies & democracies degenerate into despotisms. Aristotle)
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To: Kaslin

It already is.


3 posted on 08/27/2021 9:52:15 AM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: Kaslin

Not yet, but it has the potential.
All the Taliban has to do is bring up their artillery and US troops could be trapped. They could destroy any aircraft on the ground, landing, or taking off, and maybe crater the runway beyond use.
They don’t have a lot, but in the current situation, they don’t need a lot.
Of course, we have counterbattery in the form of air support, assuming they can reach Kabul. Some nations (Pakistan) might not allow it.


4 posted on 08/27/2021 9:53:35 AM PDT by Little Ray (Civilization runs on a narrow margin. What sustains it is not magic, but hard work. )
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To: Kaslin

Ridiculous premise. The two situations bear no resemblance to each other. Idiot should actually read up about DienBienPhu.


5 posted on 08/27/2021 9:54:04 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: Kaslin

Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu

https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Very-Small-Place-Siege/dp/030681157X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2IX9PANKPA3ZG&dchild=1&keywords=hell+in+a+very+small+place&qid=1630083193&sprefix=hell+in+a+%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-1


6 posted on 08/27/2021 9:54:12 AM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: Kaslin

C'MON MAN! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO ASK ME WHAT FLAVOR I GOT!


7 posted on 08/27/2021 9:54:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Kaslin

Trust the American Thinker to get things wrong. Dien Bien Phu was a battle. This is a collapse. This is Saigon. This is the end.


8 posted on 08/27/2021 9:54:43 AM PDT by x
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To: x
This is Saigon. This is the end.

My only friend, The End.

9 posted on 08/27/2021 9:55:19 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kaslin

Saigon -- and Not Saigon.

Why is the second picture "Not Saigon"? Because Saigon is in Southeast Asia.

Why is Kabul not Dien Bien Phu? Because the French aren't there.

10 posted on 08/27/2021 9:55:34 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We have two Democrat parties. 50% of the US population is taxed w/o representation.)
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To: Kaslin
Nope.

France lived on, and their ruling class was not trying to exterminate their own population.

11 posted on 08/27/2021 9:55:50 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: Kaslin

Be prepared to have all this thrown back in our faces. Biden will get ALL Americans out by the 31st, or an extension date. He will then become the hero of Afghanistan in the media’s view. It’s just too fishy for me. These people are diabolical and won’t hesitate to kill a few for favorable press in the end. Remember, the ends justifies the means to these perverts.


12 posted on 08/27/2021 9:56:24 AM PDT by Scooter100
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To: Kaslin

Dien Bien Phu was supposed to be a French trap to mass the enemy’s troops.

Kabul is an evacuation.


13 posted on 08/27/2021 9:58:36 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: SMARTY

Can we have a break from these nostalgic American thinker types?

Kabul will turn out to be the most prominent fiasco since Before pre biblical times. Before Homer wrote about war.

It will have had no precedent.

12 marines and a Navy corpsman were killed yesterday

The taliban and Isis are just getting started.

Our stupid administration is importing military men leaving not only Americans there but active duty military.

The reasons for this are unthinkable but there are reasons for this.


14 posted on 08/27/2021 9:59:56 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Kaslin

IDK why, but everyone keeps saying that Biden is not extending the deadline. HUH? He was told by the Taliban that they refuse to extend “the occupation”. He didn’t have a say in that, the Taliban said “absolutely not”.


15 posted on 08/27/2021 10:00:08 AM PDT by ALASKA (Trump will win resoundingly, but it's not going to be pretty. )
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To: Kaslin

Any soldier with half a brain would never put forces in that location and under those circumstances. The fidiots with stars know this but did it anyway. If the Taliban or ISIS wanted to,they could easily slaughter and destroy everything within the perimeter.


16 posted on 08/27/2021 10:00:50 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Kaslin

More like Khartoum in 1885.


17 posted on 08/27/2021 10:07:41 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (30 days! FB jail for mentioning a Monty Python script about tranneys, and the 1936 Olympics.)
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To: dfwgator

Of our elaborate plans, the end.


18 posted on 08/27/2021 10:17:29 AM PDT by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: Kaslin

Yeah, in reading history.


19 posted on 08/27/2021 10:23:16 AM PDT by SkyDancer
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To: Kaslin

No. There was a battle there. Biden just surrendered. What would anyone expect from a shell of a man who was never that much in his prime.


20 posted on 08/27/2021 10:38:18 AM PDT by odawg
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