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Fredo's avatar

Well…

I tend to agree. After having served there myself in different decades, I can tell you in absolute terms that there was NEVER ever a remotely reasonable Afghan National Army. NEVER. Not for one minute of any day since they tried to create it. This fact was obvious to everyone there. It was an “in the open secret” akin to the emperors new clothes.

There was never going to be an end that resembled a “win” for American media. Not after 20 years, or 50, or 100 years of occupation would there have been a scene of calm at Kabul Airport. In fact I dare say that after 50 years of occupation there would have been an entire generation of graft and corruption that would have forced even more of those morons to try to fly back to American while clinging to the outside of an airplane. And that Afghani that thought that was possible - he was likely in charge of a Battalion of ANA. Just saying - not the brain trust.

However. We should not be I a position where we have plane fulls of Afghanis and there’s some 5000 Americans still somewhere in the country. This is a problem. And this is where I have issues with the execution. And that is a genuine complaint - we can’t have stopped the panic an the madness that unfolded in respect to the locals. But we absolutely could have managed our civil serve to exit much better. It doesn’t make sense. But to your point, we shouldn’t be surprised by the complete incompetence of our leadership elites that failed so utterly in the conduct of the war, only to expect the to suddenly become serious people and conduct an amazing pull-out. It was therefore built in that the same Americans morons - anyone with stars on their shoulders - would be shocked by all this and totally unprepared. After all, they 300k strong ANA that they told us was ready and stalwart had also disappeared like rice paper in water.

Patraeus…*rolls eyes. That cat’s claim to fame was the amazing, Alexander the Great-like tactic of outnumbering your opponent on the battlefield. The only thing more surreal than being called a genius for understand day 1 infantry basic training tactics is that all the other Rumsfeld aligned Generals were against it! “Wait…more good guys to go against the bad guys? Nope, can’t see how that would possibly fix any of this.”

You know what’s bizarre? Keen looks exactly the same now as he I’d when I was a private I the 101 back in the early 90s. Every time I see that guy on Fox it creeps me out. That guy is. Not alive. It’s not natural.

Anyway…

Great read, and spot on. This, what we’re seeing, was ALWAYS the outcome. We should have left at the beginning of 2005. You could drive around Helmand back then and not get shot at. In fact Gen. Olson (I believe it was Gen. Olson - another dick-bag) that claimed that the Taliban had been defeated and no longer presented a threat inside Afghanistan; that everything was now a border control issue - keeping the Taliban out as they tried to cause trouble from their safe haven in Pakistan. We should have left then. Kabul would have been bewildered and curious, but doubtful we’d have seen this madness. Democratization hadn’t become a goal at that point.

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Wazoomann's avatar

99% agreement on the need to end this, as early as 2004ish. President Biden gets props for pulling out. He also deserves all the criticism he's getting for getting on TV and telling voters the Afghans will be fine. $2.4 Trillion apparently gets you an army whose tanks only have a reverse gear. There is not a single consultant, advisor or mirror fogging person in WA involved with training the Afghans that supported Joe's POV on the Afghan army.

President Biden would have been better off with a Trump truth bomb. "Look, we've wasted over $2 trillion killing people and training an army that can't refuel their own vehicles. Time to move on, let the Afghan's sort this out. We will have an orderly departure, but we aren't going to announce a date because that gives the enemy too much info. In the meantime, we will process immigration papers for those who worked with us in country" Meanwhile, no Americans "died" during that time period. Joe took over and then this? He was supposed to be the "competent" one. Had Trump supervised this debacle he would have been impeached, successfully. Both Dems and Repubs would have hoisted him with his petard.

Instead, we got b.s. served on gluten free toast with kale. The failure here isn't withdrawing, it's the sheer incompetence of the withdrawal. The so-called, "trust me, I have a degree in this" and "follow the science" crowd showed they literally are bereft of competence. They gave up an airbase that could've provided cover for the retreat. Meanwhile, the President and his staff are on vacation. After hearing weekly complaints of the previous President playing golf, what could be worse? Oh, right, a President who literally needs a nap while Afghans hang from airplanes in a a pell mell sprint for safety.

I generally agree with your assessment on the need to just get out, but this...it's about as competent as the Jan 6 "insurrection" debacle. Who was in charge of capitol protection? When did they call? Why wasn't anyone aware of the crowd? Why did the speaker refuse the Guard? Why was capitol police asleep? Why, on one side of the building, were people breaking down doors and on the other side, being guided in by the police for a stroll, then asked everyone to leave nicely...and they did! Yep...that's the current state of American govt and bureaucracy. And these are the people one is supposed to trust? Buffoonery.

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