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Back To Reality
The situation gave a short timeline for completion. trump handed the country over to the Taliban. The Taliban was only going to tolerate our operation there for so long.Originally Posted by T. A. Gardner
Daniel Patrick Moynihan said it best, "You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts."
Paul Begala, "Politics is show business for ugly people."
Stephen Colbert, "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
trump is a child rapist. We all know it.
Thread Killer
Biden handed the country over to the Taliban. He could have just dumped Trump's deal like he unilaterally did with so many other things Trump had done. Trying to pin what became a massive fuck up in leaving Afghanistan is Biden's to own.
Back To Reality
The Taliban prisoners released by trump were unlikely to return to prison just because Biden rescinded the deal. trump surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban, and it would have taken another major war to recapture it from them. Biden could have started another war, but it seemed pointless.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan said it best, "You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts."
Paul Begala, "Politics is show business for ugly people."
Stephen Colbert, "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
trump is a child rapist. We all know it.
Honoring my oath
Tacit admission that Trump's deal was bad?
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
Honoring my oath
Even so, when our own allies were caught flatfooted by the speed of Biden's departure out of Afghanistan, then it was a badly executed plan.
That's 100% on the Commander-in-Chief at the time of the execution of the plan, not the previous douchebag who started the negotiations.
Walt (08-05-2022)
DeadHead
The Taliban already controlled ~80 percent of the country by the time Biden was inaugurated.
What is the strategic political objective, and how much strategic bang for the buck do we get from trying to reconquer Afghanistan again?
If you and Trump didn't want Afghanistan to fall, you should have done a better job training the Afghan army. Trump had four years to train them, but he did such a shitty job that the Afghan army collapsed in two weeks with barely a shot fired.
100% recycled karma
what did you expect would happen when Biden pulled contractors from Bagram?
We taught the ANAF how to fight with air power as integral for EVAC and support
100% recycled karma
the big screw up was trying to withdrawal from Karzai international instead of Bagram
Keeping Bagram operational would allow for diplomatic staff/translators to be out first ( and the ANAF would have contractors to keep the Air up)and then the US forces last
DeadHead
Trump should have trained them to take care of their own equipment.
So if we had some contactors in Afghanistan, the Taliban would have been driven back and defeated?
Why didn't your plan work in the previous 20 years?
100% recycled karma
13 Americans blown up because they left the gates to get Americans in?
No it would be the same SNAFU that Biden pulled
100% recycled karma
get out of here. US AF is complicated stuff. we even need civilians specialist to keep it up
The Taliban WERE "driven back" Trump got the number down to 2500 and it stayed there for about 16 months while the Taliban battled the ANAF with little gains by Taliban. Biden closed Bagram in July but Contractors were already being phased out
Biden’s Afghan Exit Alarms Contractors Who Outnumber U.S. Troops
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/federa...ber-u-s-troops
U.S. contractors leaving Afghanistan could be more “devastating” to the Afghan security forces than the U.S. troop pullout, John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said last month.
The departure of contractors was largely ignored as the focus shifted to when Biden would withdraw the military, Sopko told a forum organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Afghan government relies on contractors to train in using, and maintain, U.S.-supplied equipment such as Lockheed Martin Corp.’s UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and C-130 transport aircraft, he said.
DeadHead
I spent the last 20 years listening to people say that if only we did X Y and Z, we could push on to the final victory!!
Your claim that some contractors would have tipped the scales towards a victory over the Taliban is just the latest in a long, 20 year litany of outrageously and overly optimistic prognostications.
100% recycled karma
no i didnt say keeping the status quo of contractors would "win"
I'm saying it would have stabilized the Taliban rapid gains,and allowed for EVAC thru Bagram
DeadHead
It's well understood at this point that shortly after Trump surrendered to the Taliban in early 2020, Afghan government leaders and military commanders covertly made their own deals with the Taliban, promising to lay down their weapons in exchange for their lives being spared. That sequence of events was in place well before Biden was sworn in on 21 January, 2021.
Your little team of contractors would have had no possibility of deterring and defeating the Taliban.
Verified User
Any American deaths are tragedies.
But to get out of a war-torn, unstable country like that with only 13 casualties? That's remarkable.
By your criteria - you think it would have only been a successful operation if there were no casualties at all? Do you think that's realistic in a situation like that?
And we would have had to keep 5,000+ there to maintain Bagram. You're already contradicting yourself - because that in itself would have likely led to more casualties.
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