Posted on 08/15/2021 5:48:18 PM PDT by conservative98
Media is already pointing out the Trump wanted us out in May, and that 2 Republican and 2 Democrat presidents have all been involved in this 20 year problem. I have not yet heard the complaint that Cheney and Bush 2 going into Iraq meant we lost focus on Afghanistan. Personally, I am pixxed that my son in Special Forces lost 3 years with his young family because of 2 Afghan deployments and 1 Afghan focused deployment to the Middle East—2006, 2013, and 2020.
I think I heard the phrase “shelter in place” used. I imagine they are running out of food and water at the airport. Hope the incoming plains will be loaded with these supplies.
News reports are saying that when we withdrew the air support and other help to the Afghan Army, they panicked as soon as the Taliban attacked. I imagine President Trump would also have had to remove those supports when he closed out in May. Why wasn’t the Afghan Army trained enough to not need this kind of help??
Like people with sense actually think the Taliban would have kept those promises. There would always have been some excuse they could have used to default on the promise. Actually, Taliban will be smart to not harbor terrorist groups for their own safety, either from those groups, or from Western retaliation if they go out and perform more terror acts in US and Europe.
How besides military action would Trump have been able to pay hell to the Taliban who are not much plugged into the 20th Century, much less the 21st?
Hey, but at least we know how to mask and social distance. Hard to catch Ebola that way.
People dropping off a C-17 at 500ft isn’t a very good look.
President Trump would have designed the civilians to leave first.
Boots and armor would not have moved.
Money and supplies.
Hubby likes their platform:
1. no gynocracy
2. no in your face LGBTQ, preferred pronouns
3. abortions banned
4. patriarchy re-established
LOL (doesn’t like the part about gun grabbing from civilians)
I have always asserted that although the Moslems have been a warring, tribalistic lot intent on controlling and converting the world (not unlike CCP China), they did not ramp up their efforts in the 1950’s when western culture was sane.
Sometimes timing (and other factors) are crucial. Like not getting stuck part way into Russia in winter.
Here is one analysis:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3985912/posts
Now, that said, the Taliban had Pakistan and China behind them, so, in the long run I believe the Afghan military needed at least air support and intelligence from the West, as well as us making it quite painful for Pakistan’s ISI, in particular, to support the Taliban. Kabul also needed a sort of intangible: a 20 year younger General Dostrum.
Just my 2 cents worth.
The airplane tragedies certainly show just how desperate the people were regarding Taliban rule. Today there have been reports emphasizing the Taliban’s conciliatory attitude and reassuring other Islamic oriented countries of their good behavior. One difference to the Taliban now versus 20 years ago is that even Taliban have had 10 or more years of access to the internet and social media, also the “Arab Spring” and the many complexities of those events. Presumably Taliban should be much more aware of world opinion and perhaps be concerned about some of it. Anybody know how many cell phones and Chromebooks Taliban actually have.
I listened to a man today who is the ranking Republican on a Congressional committee dealing with military and security, He expressed concern that we never did anything about obtaining the rare earth minerals from Afghanistan and which China is so eagerly grabbing throughout the world. He also spoke about how long it takes to process the papers for the Afghan translators and families. What I want to know is if these things were so important why weren’t they being done during the last administration, especially if we were leaving in May. The ranking Republican was very concerned that we had not done a good job of caring for the people who helped us as translators, etc. Is this similar to the way we did not honor our commitments to the Kurds several years ago because it was more important to have the Turks happy? Pretty soon nobody is going to trust it is safe to help us. He also mentioned that we should have gotten bin Ladden when he was at Tora Bora and nipped a lot of this trouble in the bud. My question is how did the CIA manage to loose the maps they had made of Tora Bora? Did this happen so that lots of money could be made on military efforts. Cheney and Halliburton certainly cleaned up in Iraq. What kind of exposure did they have to US money in Afghanistan, and who else were major beneficiaries in executing projects that were not very effective for the Afghan people, but sure cost a lot of our tax dollars?
But, but, but, the Taliban said they would eliminate the drug trade, or not?
I see you fail to mention 8 years of Bronco.
Trump would not have pulled out completely in the middle of the night leaving 40,000 American civilians behind enemy lines. He wouldnt have 1000s of allies behind enemy lines. He would not be begging the Taliban to do the right thing but holding them to benchmarks that would have teeth. He would reverse the pull out if the Taliban violated the benchmarks.
🔝
Once again I agree with President Trump.
Since this thread is about the Afghan situation, I was focusing on Afghanistan issues. If the CIA maps had been used, the next president might not have had serious issues in Afghanistan.
We need to make them, and no one wants to make them.
I think that means Blinken would become President?
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