Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Miscue After Miscue, U.S. Exit Plan Unravels
New York Times via Yahoo News ^ | August 22, 2021 | by Michael D. Shear, David E. Sanger, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes and Lara Jakes

Posted on 08/23/2021 4:11:42 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top national security officials assembled at the Pentagon early on April 24 for a secret meeting to plan the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It was two weeks after President Joe Biden had announced the exit over the objection of his generals, but now they were carrying out his orders.

The plan was a good one, the group concluded.

Four months later, the plan is in shambles as Biden struggles to explain how a withdrawal most Americans supported went so badly wrong in its execution. On Friday, as scenes of continuing chaos and suffering at the airport were broadcast around the world, Biden went so far as to say that “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or what it will be — that it will be without risk of loss.”

Interviews with key participants in the last days of the war show a series of misjudgments and the failure of Biden’s calculation that pulling out U.S. troops — prioritizing their safety before evacuating U.S. citizens and Afghan allies — would result in an orderly withdrawal.

And although Biden White House officials say that they held more than 50 meetings on embassy security and evacuations, and that so far no Americans have died in the operation, all the planning failed to prevent the mayhem when the Taliban took over Kabul in a matter of days.

Only in recent weeks did the administration change course from its original plan. By then it was too late.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; afghanistandebacle; biden; bidenforeignpolicy; election2020; taliban; uswithdrawal; wediditjoe
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

1 posted on 08/23/2021 4:11:42 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

PLAN???? WHAT PLAN??? OH. Yes.....DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT TRUMP WOULD HAVE DONE.

FIRE THE GENERALS!!!


2 posted on 08/23/2021 4:17:37 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Hit piece on Intel and Afghan military. Doesn’t hold Biden administration to account at all, IMO.


3 posted on 08/23/2021 4:22:13 AM PDT by randita
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

dm has article up that embassy staff saying better to die by bullet than face the crowd

Taliban making threats if we arent out of there by deadline

They are in the catbird seat. Its crazy


4 posted on 08/23/2021 4:23:01 AM PDT by RummyChick (Bagram was the most logical exit point. Stand up and justify your decision (hat tip Larrytown))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: randita

Watch to see what Washington post does. One of their reporters saved by the brits


5 posted on 08/23/2021 4:23:52 AM PDT by RummyChick (Bagram was the most logical exit point. Stand up and justify your decision (hat tip Larrytown))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

I see the possibility that Sept 11 2021 will see thousands of people getting their throats cut on live TV.


6 posted on 08/23/2021 4:24:56 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We have two Democrat parties. 50% of the US population has no political representation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

A totally free and open press would have told the American people that leaving a few thousand marines, and NATO forces in there with control of Begran airport would keep the status quo for ever. Under Trump not American had been killed, and life was actually pretty stable there.

Pulling us out completely in the middle of the night, leaving allies there, giving up the airport.

The people in charge starting with this dumbs Milley should be all out on their butts.


7 posted on 08/23/2021 4:36:38 AM PDT by nikos1121
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

It will only get worse. We have incompetent and woke “leadership” in the White House, State Dept, and Pentagon.

Remember, every single person evacuated to date was cleared by the Taliban. Islamists are the de facto TSA in Kabul.


8 posted on 08/23/2021 4:41:12 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: randita

It uses “failure” and “Biden” in the same sentence. Good enough for me.


9 posted on 08/23/2021 4:42:47 AM PDT by No_Mas_Obama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Six woke authors ...


10 posted on 08/23/2021 4:43:33 AM PDT by Cboldt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

This was, IMO, deliberate sabotage of American interests to benefit the CCP. The millions paid to the Bidens over the years is now bearing dividends to the ChiComs.


11 posted on 08/23/2021 4:54:07 AM PDT by dirtboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
In Biden's short speech yesterday, two times he said, "The women and men of the military."

He never said "the men and women." Men make up about 85% of the military, and 99.9% of the actual combatants.

You don't repeat that "women and men of the military" inversion until you have been totally brainwashed by the woke left. Biden is a teleprompter-reading zombie, repeating the woke fantasy bullshit of his woke cabinet and advisors.

That's why I call our military the WAMM: The Woke American Marxist Military.

No wonder our forces are now trapped inside Kabul Alamo Airport, literally at the mercy of the Taliban. Their "war plan" is to HOPE that the Taliban lets our citizens out of the trap we flew into.

.


12 posted on 08/23/2021 4:58:54 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Copy of letter image at webpage.
:joebiden:
Bin Laden warned in 2010 letter that Biden would ‘lead US into crisis
August 22, 2021
By Emily Crane

Osama bin Laden once warned al Qaeda not to target Joe Biden because he believed that his inheriting the presidency if something were to happen to Barack Obama would “lead the US into a crisis,” a resurfaced letter shows.

In the letter dated May 2010, the al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind wrote he had no assassination plots against Biden because he deemed him “totally unprepared” to lead the United States.

Instead, bin Laden urged his followers to be on the lookout for then-President Obama.

He told them there was a high priority to target aircrafts belonging to Obama and then-CIA director David Petraeus.

“They are not to target visits by US Vice President Biden. The groups will remain on the lookout for Obama or Petraeus,” bin Laden wrote.

Osama bin Laden once warned al Qaeda not to target Joe Biden.
Sygma via Getty Images
“The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there.

“Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.

“As for Petraeus, he is the man of the house in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war’s path.”

The letter was uncovered in a treasure-trove of documents found in the terrorist’s Pakistan hideout after he was killed by US forces in a raid on May 2, 2011.

The documents, penned between 2006 and 2011, are publicly available through West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.

Bid Laden’s criticism of Biden has resurfaced amid the botched withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/20/bin-laden-warned-in-2010-letter-that-biden-would-lead-us-into-crisis/


13 posted on 08/23/2021 5:10:29 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ann Archy

How can a plan unravel, if there never was one. Overturning every policy instituted by the Trump Administration is not a plan, it is simply demolition, with no thought to what might replace the demolished objectives.

Unless, put more simply, failure to plan is a blueprint for failure. There is no Plan B.

Failure began at the top.


14 posted on 08/23/2021 5:18:20 AM PDT by alloysteel ( Poor people give rich people all their money anyway. Just as they have always done.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Send in multiple QRFs’ with air support, followed by heavy ground support.
R.O.E. - Kill anyone with a gun. Take fire from a mosque...air support bombs it, and if they begin a protest, gun them all down.
The only thing these savages understand is violence.
Oh, and don’t bring a single savage to our country.


15 posted on 08/23/2021 5:49:02 AM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

That’s a man baby!!!

It would appear that the majority of those pictured belong to the officer corpse. sp on porpoise.

Gag.

For all of us free thinking folks, one has to wonder at what level above the grade of those pictured, did someone leader like determine this was a good idea.

...and why someone at an even higher level approved it.

Political decisions designed to turn the US Military in to a PC force would seem to be a bit shortsighted no?

So where do we go from here? I can only imagine, but why should I have to imagine, when our ability to fight an enemy is put at risk?


16 posted on 08/23/2021 5:50:22 AM PDT by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Even the Old Gray Whore ought to know that you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit!


17 posted on 08/23/2021 6:10:08 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (“I’m not the olny one!”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ann Archy

None of them could organize a goat roping.


18 posted on 08/23/2021 6:40:06 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

You are correct.
The US Army is a woke Democrat monstrosity deserving of scorn.
People should stop saying that there are “good people” in the Army. While perhaps in some sense that is true, those people do not have control! They are few in number and they keep their heads down and behave.
We should understand the same thing about the FBI by now.
We should understand the same thing about the education system.
We should undestand the same thing about the legal system.


19 posted on 08/23/2021 6:47:46 AM PDT by BDParrish (God called, He said He'd take you back!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Clearly, the military who failed to plan for an Afghan collapse have never been in a real war. Or tried to understand Afghanistan.

I suspect they have never even read much military history. They act a lot like those confident Yankee generals who used to outnumber the hated Nathan Bedford Forrest, sometimes by four or five to one, as they started out to fight him. And then ran away in terror, crying like schoolboys.

They thought the Afghan government couldn’t collapse suddenly? A lot of other governments in history have done the same thing. How long did Poland hold out in 1939? Barely over 30 days. How long did mighty France hold out in 1940? Six weeks.

These generals, if they really could not conceive of and plan for a rapid collapse, are unfit for command and need to be retired. They were promoted way above their competency, which was probably no more than company commanders.


20 posted on 08/23/2021 7:04:06 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson