Afghanistan Observations
[guest post by Dana]
Two damning observations today:
[A]t this very moment we’re facing a situation in Kabul in which (a) we’re abiding by a Taliban deadline because there’s no alternative that doesn’t end with lots of Americans dead, (b) we’re planning to abandon American citizens and many, many Afghan friendlies behind enemy lines, and (c) we’ll probably end up paying a king’s ransom to the jihadi degenerates now in charge of Afghanistan for the safe passage of anyone who doesn’t make it out before next Tuesday.
If Americans are still in Afghanistan next Tuesday, Biden will be faced with a choice — either abandon our countrymen or ignore the deadline that he, under Taliban pressure, has now doubled down on.
If he leaves Americans behind enemy lines, it will be one of the most shameful derelictions of duty by a commander in chief in our nation’s history, a putrid act that will stain Biden’s memory forever. It was Biden’s recklessness and incompetence that stranded these Americans in Taliban-controlled territory, and it would be his cravenness and incompetence that would leave them there.
Meanwhile, today:
During a press briefing Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that there are only roughly 500 Americans remaining in Afghanistan who wish to be evacuated.
He noted that out of 6,000 U.S. citizens who stated that they wanted to leave as of August 14, when the evacuation effort began, 4,500 U.S. passport holders were rescued, leaving 1,500 people, approximately 500 of whom are still actively looking for passage out. The numbers Blinken cited do not include those in possession of a U.S. green card, reporters confirmed at the press conference.
The State Department is trying to ascertain the status of about 1,000 U.S. citizens who have not contacted the U.S. government explicitly requesting evacuation. At a subsequent briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration believes many of the 1,000 who are currently unaccounted for may be dual citizens of the United States and Afghanistan.
However, the secretary said that this number is fluid and “dynamic” given the rapidly evolving circumstances on the ground.
“The specific estimated number of Americans in Afghanistan who want to leave can go up as people respond to our outreach for the first time, and can go down when we reach Americans we thought were in Afghanistan but have already left,” he said.
Despite Jen Psaki telling us it was irresponsible to use the word “stranded” when referring to Americans um, stranded in Afghanistan, Sen. Romney didn’t call it what it is:
My statement on the President’s decision to keep the August 31 deadline in place to withdraw from Afghanistan: pic.twitter.com/f16YWrAQOT
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) August 24, 2021
There can be no doubt that we have the mightiest and most capable military in the world, the most advanced technologies available, and an extraordinary amount of substantial resources to make sure that every last American and every one of our Afghan partners is safely evacuated from Afghanistan, but the question is: do our politicians have the will to do that?
–Dana
It’s hard to imagine, from the comfy setting of the U.S., what level of desperation those stranded in Afghanistan must be experiencing. The video clips of so many wading through knee-deep raw sewage is something else altogether.
Dana (174549) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:21 pm“you’ll be the first person I call” – Biden.
Thanks to Biden’s handlers, we were spared the live audio.
It’s beginning to look like we have a “Jerry” for a president.
felipe (484255) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:35 pm“I trust his [Biden’s] judgement.” – Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 3rd in line to the presidency, 8-25-21
_____
‘1.It’s hard to imagine, from the comfy setting of the U.S., what level of desperation those stranded in Afghanistan must be experiencing…’
Not really; live long enough and you discover history does indeed, rhyme. It is chillingly familiar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1xuTJqZ20M
“I’ve seen it.” – Jim Lovell [Tom Hanks] ‘Apollo 13’ 1995
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:43 pmleaving 1,500 people, approximately 500 of whom are still actively looking for passage out.
The dead have stopped looking.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:46 pm4. See #3. Watch the video. Only difference: time zone and skin color.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:48 pmWe need a new flag, to fly next to the POW/MIA flag.
I suggest this: A democrat-donkey on a field of yellow.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:53 pm@3:
No, here
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:55 pmAgain, impeachment for cowardice in the face of the enemy.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 3:56 pmThanks for this post, Dana.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:04 pmPerhaps we should have a bipartisan commission to look into this catastrophe. I’m sure Pelosi and Schumer would be fine with that. Because there assuredly will be one in 2023.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:08 pmWhy do we ahve to go to Drudge and the Daily Mail to get factual updates?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:10 pmThere are pictures out there of Afghans standing in a sewer. One is holding a sign that says “I have German citizenship”
steveg (ebe7c1) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:12 pmThere are pictures out there of Afghans standing in a sewer. One is holding a sign that says “I have German citizenship”
I think that’s a great deal of what is pissing off our allies. There are obviously citizens of Canada, Britain, Germany, France, and other nations still stuck in Afghanistan, many of whom are no doubt dual citizens, and it doesn’t seem as if the Biden Administration is making any real effort to ensure that the U.S. is aiding their evacuation. I saw a picture of soldiers at the airport somewhere online earlier today and the caption said that these were U.S. and Canadian troops, so it would seem like we do have some allies on the ground with us, but is the administration just going to bug out once the last Yank is airlifted out, irrespective of the fate of citizens of our allies? I am guessing that the whole censure by Parliament and other grumbling from friendly capitals indicates that they believe that’s exactly what the Biden Administration is going to do.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:20 pmState Department just issued warning to all Americans in Kabul- do not go to Kabul airport and if there now: leave.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:22 pmI see we are on to the Confidence Fairy stage of this little media event, so it seems to be following the normal arc.
Clap louder, everyone!
john (cd2753) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:29 pmThis old mick needs a hypo in that azz he keeps showing us as he shuffles away from American eyes-or a good b!tch-slapping back into reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambk84Uv99g
“Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard.”
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:30 pmThe Costanza Principle has been supplanted by The Biden Rule:
There will quite often be times when the best action one can take is the exact opposite of the one that is being taken.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 4:56 pmif you’ve lost pierre delecto
JF (e1156d) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:11 pmYou have to wonder if Biden is getting his advice from Bowe Bergdahl.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:19 pmI would donate to lose pierre delecto.
mg (8cbc69) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:45 pmI’m pretty sure that Trump would have pulled everyone out abruptly and chaotically in May and the entire GOP would be behind him, blaming the people left behind for procrastination.
On the D&D chart, Trump is chaotic stupid (Biden is chaotic senile).
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:52 pmWill the afghani army fight when they get here?
mg (8cbc69) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:52 pmI’ll say it again: while President Biden is the Commander-in-Chief, and ultimately responsible, this is a failure all the way up and down the line. In that huge building that Colonel Sherman Potter once described as four walls and a spare, there are supposed to be military strategists who plan for every, every! contingency, yet no one seems to have thought of, and been prepared for, the possibility that the Afghan army would just fold.
The military should have been prepared for, ready for the possibilities we have seen, and ready to act. The civilian leadership which control the military should have known of what possibilities could occur, and been prepared to order the action necessary.
We ought to see a whole wave of military officers putting in their retirement papers at the Pentagon, and a whole lot of the civilian leadership resigning.
Yes, President Biden is a total doofus, but he can’t order any actions we are not physically ready to take.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:56 pm^^What Bluegrass Dana said.^^
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 5:59 pmIs some of this incompetence due to Obama reviewing the military leadership ranks several years back and jettisoning those he felt weren’t enthusiastic supporters of his way of thinking?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:02 pmIm pretty sure that people that voted for worse than Trump are sophisticated and have a dossier 3 feet high on why they are the most impotent person in the world. ⚓️
mg (8cbc69) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:04 pm@21. Trump knows how to collapse a building, Kevin. See Bonwit-Teller for details. OTOH, President Plagiarist knows how to fly a plane into a construct to bring it down. See Afghans plummeting to their deaths from wheel wells for details.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:06 pmthe possibility that the Afghan army would just fold.
The Afghan president folded first. We should trade him for the Americans.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:10 pmIs there not a possibility that this ineptitude has been planned/executed intentionally because power brokers in DC had this -Taliban rule – as an objective?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:15 pm@21 the trump over/under was comment 38
under wins
JF (e1156d) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:17 pmThe Colonel of seventeen syllables asked:
It wasn’t President Obama who was thinking about ‘critical race theory’ and transgenderism; those were steps even too far for him. But the civilian leadership did not-so-slowly indoctrinate the officer corps, to know that they had to be politically correct to rise above the O-5 level.
But what do you expect from a military leadership trying to win wars without hurting anybody?
There may actually have been some planners in the Pentagon who did muse over the possibility that the Afghan army would just quit, but, if there were, their policy papers and plans do not appear to have been taken seriously by the colonels and generals, do not seem to have been a concern to the deputy undersecretaries and assistant secretaries in the civilian leadership. Nobody was prepared!
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:18 pmWe made it to @21. Who had 21 in the butTrump betting pool?
frosty (f27e97) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:24 pmColonel Haiku asked:
What, get President Biden’s worst foul up out of the way early, so the rest of his Administration would be seen as an improvement? 🙂
Nahhh, even the dumbest of the Democrats, and there are plenty of dumb ones, would ever see Taliban rule as a win. If the Afghan army hadn’t just quit, maybe they could have held the Taliban off for a year or so, kind of like it took North Vietnam two years to retool and get ready for the invasion of South Vietnam, so it took two years after we bugged out for the Communists to win, which would leave President Biden with a, “Well, we gave the Afghanis the best shot we could, and they failed,” answer. Instead, it fell apart almost instantly, and it’s all on him.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:27 pm@30 – sorry. Should have read the whole thread
frosty (f27e97) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:27 pmMr Snowman wrote:
Who knows if President Trump, had he been re-elected, would have done things better, but it’s pretty difficult to see him doing things any worse.
President Trump would have been just as handicapped by whatever the military and civilian leadership planned and proposed; we can only hope that his civilian appointees would not have been quite as stupid as Mr Biden’s.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:31 pmThe much nicer Dana wrote:
The whole country is raw sewage.
President Trump drew a lot of criticism for referring to [insert slang term for feces here]hole countries, but he was speaking the truth, and there’s no doubt that Afghanistan is one of those [insert slang term for feces here]hole countries.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:34 pm@23 One of the many messed up things about this is watching KH enable this knowing it increases her chance of being the 1st fpoc POTUS. One of the other messed up things is watching everyone around her enable that.
frosty (f27e97) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:36 pmI’m pretty sure that Trump would have pulled everyone out abruptly and chaotically in May and the entire GOP would be behind him, blaming the people left behind for procrastination.
I defer to no one in my belief in Donald Trump’s ability to eff things up, but I don’t see Trump just leaving all of that equipment there and having no concrete plans to evacuate Americans. And unlike Biden, I’m guessing that facing the threat of the Taliban taking over Kabul before the evacuation was complete, Trump would have ordered the return of a far larger military presence. We know now that virtually every advisor warned Biden that the Taliban would move much more quickly than was previously thought. Trump might have had sense enough to listen to those warnings and to heed them; Biden believes that he’s such a foreign policy expert that he was confident enough to dismiss their warnings.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/25/2021 @ 6:57 pm6 month holdout until Taliban takeover was best case and even that didn’t spur any planning…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:09 pmbiden, like obama, is simply managing america’s decline
and also giving it an extra push down the stairs to make sure
JF (e1156d) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:14 pmBiden’s incompetence doesn’t somehow make Trump more competent. Trump remains under-informed, self dealing, erratic, mendacious, and petty….on a good day. He’s burned so many advisors and cabinet members that now only bootlickers, eunuchs, and family remain to try to save Trump from Trump. January 6th showed us how a sociopath handles a crisis…hiding….frozen…impotent to act…..Covid19 shows us how a sociopath stumbles ignorantly through a crisis…always looking to scapegoat someone else and market any and every conpiracy misdirection. We can imagine whatever we want about how Trump would have acted in Afghanistan and not let himself look like a loser….but at the heart of leadership is character and wisdom. If it wasn’t this test…it would be some future crisis that would reveal his deficits and let us down. We deserve better. We need people like frosty, Haiku, mg, and JF to want and demand better…..when will we see it?
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:26 pmI defer to no one in my belief in Donald Trump’s ability to eff things up, but I don’t see Trump just leaving all of that equipment there and having no concrete plans to evacuate Americans.
Agree.
No way capitalist Trump would have left $85 billion worth of war surplus ‘assets’ behind- especially to be used against us or sold to competitors- even for parts; lifetime government swamp creatures like Pelosi and Biden couldn’t give a damn- it’s just the cost of withdrawing… especially if MIC profiteers keep kicking back a piece of the $ action over the years to their campaign coffers.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:27 pm41.Biden’s incompetence doesn’t somehow make Trump more competent…
Beaush!t. More neocon, creamed-chipped-Cheney-on-toast.
-ring-ring- Reagan on the hotline for ‘ya: ‘I’m dead, AJ. And so is the modern ideological conservative movement. But why is it so hot here? Adolf, turn up the air conditioning. What’s for dinner Osama– not lamb again?!’
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:33 pmBiden believes that he’s such a foreign policy expert that he was confident enough to dismiss their warnings.
Meet the new CJCoS, SoS and NSAdvisors: Malarkey, Blarney & Beaush!t.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:39 pmAJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:26 pm
I demand better. When will we see it? I don’t expect people like you to be able to answer that. Can you?
frosty (f27e97) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:42 pmWhen he or she isn’t telling others they comment too much, it’s the “you need to do better” approach.
Very amusing.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:52 pm@41 Let’s make it easy and use 20/20 past tense.
When have we seen it? When has AJ seen it?
We needed folks like AJ to demand better. Why didn’t that happen, and why should we expect any different now?
JF (e1156d) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:53 pm“If your enemy doesn’t have helicopters or drones, give them to him”
—- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:59 pmHe ran to ‘save America’s soul.’
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 8:12 pmNow he runs from saving American lives.
We need people like frosty, Haiku, mg, and JF to want and demand better…..when will we see it?
You saw it: Donald J. Trump. And like Halley’s Comet and every episode of ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ there’s a good chance you’ll see ’em again.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 8/25/2021 @ 8:16 pmbut at the heart of leadership is character and wisdom. If it wasn’t this test…it would be some future crisis that would reveal his deficits and let us down. We deserve better. We need people like frosty, Haiku, mg, and JF to want and demand better…..when will we see it?
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 8/25/2021 @ 7:26 pm
Making it about Trump or Biden sort of misses the forest for the trees. The plain fact of the matter is that we appear to be at a point in our history, like Rome in 410 AD or France right before the Revolution, where our elites are simply incapable of managing a complex society. They just don’t have the intellectual or emotional tools anymore to handle these kinds of crises. There’s entire books that could be written on this, but ultimately it boils down to our institutions becoming increasingly dominated by mentally ill, resentful, delusional, emotionally stunted people who managed to learn just enough to be dangerous.
Their ultimate goal for 50 years has been to completely remake the country in their image after they tore it apart from the inside, using liberalism’s ethic of tolerance and fairness as weapons against it, to create the communist utopias that failed to materialize after the World Wars. That’s not just hyperbole–Marcuse talked about it freely in his works, such as prioritizing the sensual above the reasonable, for example, and arguing that the ends justified the means as long as they were the radical left’s means and the radical left’s ends (it’s not an accident that one of their mottos is “no bad tactics, just bad targets”). As I cited a few days ago, they favorably compare their ideology to that of highly deadly viruses like Ebola or AIDS.
This is the end result of 50-60 years of self-centered hedonism promoted by Boomer, Gen-X, and Millennial leftists in the universities, mass media, and popular culture. The whole point was to eliminate concepts of character and wisdom so that the glorious, sensuous, self-actualizing, liberating communist utopia could come to pass. It’s a system of belief tailor-made for people who don’t want to grow up, but expect to be protected and saved by the very people and systems they’re trying to destroy. That’s coming home to roost now, and I suspect it’s going to get quite a bit worse before it gets better.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 8/25/2021 @ 9:52 pmI’m curious, and I mean honestly curious because I have been having this argument with some progressives, what exactly should Biden have done to improve the evacuation prior to now? I understand that the current objection is to not extending the Aug. 31 deadline, but I am speaking more to all the steps up to August.
The argument being made is that an earlier large scale evacuation, contrary as it would be to the wishes of the Afghan government, would have simply led to an earlier large scale collapse with no real improvement in the results.
What is the fault with that argument? I think it’s dubious but I like to know what other people think.
The one thing that seems to have been really missing was expediting the processing of visas. I just suspect that some of the administration’s hesitation was fear of Republican panic over too many refugees arriving too quickly.
Victor (922979) — 8/26/2021 @ 2:22 amaj liberty- No way am i sophisticated enough to ride with you and your ilk.
mg (8cbc69) — 8/26/2021 @ 3:08 amThe argument being made is that an earlier large scale evacuation, contrary as it would be to the wishes of the Afghan government, would have simply led to an earlier large scale collapse with no real improvement in the results.
This is just reframing the problem as a means of coping with the incompetence on display. The Afghan government has known since at least February of 2020 that we were going to be pulling out. Trump had the number of troops down to 2,500 by December of last year. The Taliban deliberately held off on their offensive until May 1st, which was the withdrawal deadline they expected us to adhere to. The government would have collapsed regardless because the army hadn’t been paid in weeks, if not months, as Ghani and the government’s leaders were so corrupt.
The real question is, and I suspect it’s because your progressive friends don’t want to confront it, is why did this administration botch this as badly as they did? No one in the administration up to this point has taken ANY accountability for this, and now they’re trying to frame it as the most successful airlift in the country’s history, which is laughable on its face. They’re trying blatant misdirection with Biden’s COVID announcements because the cabal clearly doesn’t want him speaking off the cuff without pre-coordinated questions and answers (a practice going back to the Clinton years, incidentally; Obama in particular had a habit of freezing reporters out who dared to go off-script, and the DNC email dump revealed the same practice), and their own officials have been getting stun-locked by simple questions, or outright lying in their own pressers. We angered our NATO allies in this whole process by not coordinating with them, and they’ve subsequently embarrassed us by sallying right out of Kabul to pick up their people while the 82nd Airborne sat around on their butts at the airport.
What happened is that no one in our massive hyper-scaled administrative bureaucracy or its leaders, or the think tanks who do nothing but sit around working over issues like this, appears to have actually been honest or realistic about the conditions on the ground. When that happens, it doesn’t matter what efforts are made to not botch the situation, because they’re operating off of a false premise. As a result, they ended up being driven by events rather than executing a plan on their own terms, and their leadership imploded.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 8/26/2021 @ 5:07 amI found this a worthwhile read… https://americanmind.org/salvo/biden-embraces-defeat/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 5:20 amFor teh El Cajon kids…
Hello Muddah, hello Papa
Can you please help
Make it stoppah
It is not so entertaining
But it could be if teh bullets
Would stop raining
h/t AlanSherman
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 5:37 amMr Liberty wrote:
Considering that President Trump’s worst problems over four years were nowhere close to as bad to what President Biden has f(ornicated) up in his first seven months, I’d say that your statement is not supported by the evidence.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/26/2021 @ 5:55 amMr M wrote:
We get it: you don’t think highly of Donald Trump. But it isn’t much of an argument to say that you believe that, despite President Biden’s actual f(oul) up, you are “pretty sure” that President Trump would have done things worse.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:00 amWhat kind of El Cajon kids got sucked in, that town usually gives off a 80s Cobra Kai/Duncan Hunter Jr. vibe, maybe they are mercs. (DC thought it might be a bible history group).
urbanleftbehind (1dcc96) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:02 amVictor wrote:
It is entirely possible that such would have happened, but we can’t know, since it wasn’t tried. We do know the results of doing things the way that they have been done.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (3867c9) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:05 amThought: It could be that it’s a good thing the government of Afghaniatan collapsed when it did – by August 14, two weeks before President Biden;s date for complete withdrawal. At least it gave people two weeks to get out.
Imagine if it would have collapsed only now or on this weekend..
It could have been worse.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:12 amVictor (922979) — 8/26/2021 @ 2:22 am
Really? That had to have been some deep conversations. I can’t imagine why you didn’t get good answers to your questions.
It might help if you translated what JB has said into a clearer version of his thought process. When he said before the collapse that the collapse wasn’t inevitable he was lying. We know this because he is now saying a collapse was inevitable and that he just expected it to take longer. His words were “priced in”. In other words he expected to get all US forces out leaving civilians and allies behind. Then have a couple of months fluffing his accomplishment before the collapse. At that point he would pin it on the AF government. We can be confident in that analysis because it’s what he’s doing now, ie pinning it on the AF government. The only difference is the timeframe. There is no version where he didn’t expect the AF government to collapse. He just expected them to buy him some time. One of his many misjudgments was thinking the AF government would play along.
So, you already know what he could have done differently. He could have ordered troops to prepare for a large scale evacuation, started pulling people out, and dealt with the consequences that he “priced in” with an operational Bagram airbase providing logistics and support.
frosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:21 amHot Air:
That;s maybe what Biden would like people to think, but it’s not true.
All he says is that with every day the danger gets worse – of a suicide bomber or maybe of a Taliban attack
We;re on a course to do that.
Biden doesn’t want to rescue them, or rather he’s afraid to rescue them because he could get accused of taking terrorists out of Afghanistan.
On the other hand he’s also afraid of outright and officially abandoning people whom many people in the U.S. A. want to save or would like to see saved.
His compromise is not to officially exclude any more people from the airlift, but also to throw up and/or not eliminate bureaucratic and practical obstacles keeping the number of Afghans taken out down, and to obfusticate about who is being rescued as long as possible.
He and his subordinates will talk a lot about American passport holders and the numbers of people he is getting out.
If only. Biden can;t do that – he can’t transfer any funds, at least not without criticism.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:25 amSammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:12 am
Yes! And that was Biden’s plan. To have the collapse happen after the US forces were completely gone.
frosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:27 amSammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:25 am
You’re thinking the only thing stopping him from loading up “pallets of cash” is criticism and that’s why it won’t happen?
frosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:33 amBiden’s hands are tied, his back to-teh-wall, what could he do…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:44 amfrosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:21 am
U.S. policy was to force a negotiation with the Taliban and a compromise or transitional government. The Afghan government would have none of that, and Joe Biden criticized them for it.
The worst any any person advising Joe Biden was willing to predict was a civil war, with the likely (but not inevitable) outcome being the collapse of the Afghan government, but not before six months.
Despite this, they gave themselves 18 months to process visas.
They drew up contingency plans for a need to evacuate the embassy quickly, which they didn’t expect to happen too soon. They were going to leave the diplomats there the military withdrew. What better proof that Biden didn’t expect a collapse to happen when it did?
Starting in March, the Secretary if State says now, they issued warnings to American citizens to leave Afghanistan (like they do for any number of other countries from time to time) with the language getting stronger from time to time. Biden has blamed Americans for not heeding them.
As things got worse, the time to the collapse pf the Afghan government was reduced by some of the people charged with making predictions, but the most pessimistic gave it weeks.
They didn’t factor in the idea that when something is perceived as inevitable, it becomes imminent. This idea was entirely absent. The same thing is true for companies filing for bankruptcy.
I think it
wasn’t absolutely 100% with him, even though he appears sometimes to be saying so. Nothing ever is, why should he expect that the Afghan government had a 0% chance of survival?
He wanted them to negotiate their own dissolution
He was not going to give the final blow. Trump sort of like claims he would have, but I don’t think so. It’s easy for Trump to say now.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:47 amfrosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:27 am
Nobody in the U.S. government was predicting differently.
He wasn’t so much planning for the Afghan government to collapse, as allowing for it, because he was told it would happen, but he also wanted to disguise it through a negotiation. But he found no takers among the anti-Taliban people.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:51 amThe Democrats love planned parenthood. Why would they give a schiff about Americans stranded in Afghanistan?
mg (8cbc69) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:56 amI think it wasn’t absolutely 100% with him
He’s “functioning” at 50.3% of mental capacity.
This should help clarify the situation… https://twitter.com/storm_paglia/status/1430298365259038723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1430298365259038723%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Finstapundit%2F
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:56 amVictor (922979) — 8/26/2021 @ 2:22 am
Oh they did expedite it, but not enough. It was also fear that any elimination of any obstacle would let in some bad guys.
AS things got worse, in late June, they decided to do final processing outside the country. They were having a bit of difficulty finding third countries (they eventually did when the government collapsed) and the plan was to take some to Guam but they seem to have taken them to military bases in the USA, after some screening outside.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:58 am“Administrations are judged on how they respond to their first real crisis, it’s hard to imagine how Biden could have done any worse than he has on this one.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:58 am69. Elections.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:59 am73-
mg (8cbc69) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:02 amI get it. Stranding Americans in Afghanistan by the democrats will win them hearts and minds.
And elections.
As the United States intelligence community was warned, a bomb has gone off outside the Kabul Airport.
(But don’t blame the Taliban. The U.S. was told it is “ISIS-K” which is supposed to an enemy of the Taliban – they’ve even fought them, says President Biden.)
The aim, obviously, is to chase the U.S. out faster, and get more people left behind.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:16 amColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 6:58 am
Not disagreeing with the spirit; but come on man! This just shows a lack of imagination.
frosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:20 amDemocrats in Congress – even Adam Schiff – want more time for people to be taken out.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?514220-1/representative-schiff-evacuations-unlikely-completed-august-31-deadline
Biden never reckoned on Americans at least, being stranded.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:21 ammg (8cbc69) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:02 am
Stranded is a triggering word for Psaki and the admin. They’re expecting the greatest airlift in history to win hearts and minds and you can’t have that with making an omelet. Just don’t mention the eggs.
frosty (f27e97) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:30 amExplosions reported at airport and hotel
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:33 amTelling folks don’t go to airport, leave if already there.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:34 amMultiple explosions, suicide vests suspected…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:36 amUnknown number of casualties, multiple fatalities reported…
Terrible news…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 8:04 amColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 7:34 am
It came with the exception unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative.
Note: While the U.S. military was not going outside the boundaries of the airport, the CIA was. (previously, in counter-terror operations, in any place where the u.S. military was not permitted to go, but the u.S/ government did it, the CIA was in charge. It officially doesn’t happen.)
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 8:47 amColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/26/2021 @ 8:04 am
A benghazi fir every allied country.
Blame must be placed where it belongs: Pakistan.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 8:48 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/world/asia/afghanistan-pakistan-taliban.html
The same thing goes for ISIS-K and all the other Islamist frint groups.
There’s too much evidence of that. And how else could the Taliban accomplish what they did – and with such skill. Where did they get the resources (even allowing for “customs” taxes and opium smuggling?) Where did they get their ideas? Where did they have the leisure to plan?
Some of this, I think, is based on the takeover of China by Mao. There are Pakistani officers would learn this. You have recently captured territory that is governed less cruelly.
There were Taliban leaders who were ready to make peace and settle down into a rich life. But Pakistani intelligence would always enable the United States to kill them.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 8/26/2021 @ 8:58 am