New York Times Pentagon Correspondent Helene Cooper says there is a level of despair and depression among those in the Defense Department that she has not seen before, as the U.S. scrambles to evacuate thousands from Afghanistan.
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#Afghanistan #DOD #Biden
The military has been lying about Afghan army capabilities for years. Numbers,training, morale, everything. Twenty years is enough. We can’t keep propping up a corrupt government forever, especially one that the people didn’t believe in.
@G How are we going to get Americans out of Afghanistan that aren’t in the airport that is surrounded by The Taliban?
@Glenn Farris Well look at that – Abdul Baradar the head of the Taliban (and new leader of Afghanistan) was released from a Pakistani prison in 2018 at the request of Trump’s Afghan envoy so he could lead negotiations in Qatar with the US. HE signed the Doha agreement in February 2020. Trump installed the Taliban leader in Afghanistan!
@G And Obama released Khairullah Khairkhwa from GITMO in 2014, he is another key figure in The Taliban today. Now how are we getting these thousands of Americans out of Afghanistan that aren’t at the airport?
@Glenn Farris Trump gets no credit for getting the USA out of Afghanistan. This was all Joe Biden. Way to go Joe!
@G We aren’t out of Afghanistan and it sounds like Biden is going to leave thousands of Americans there to be killed by The Taliban.
I watched the towers fall while I was fresh out of boot. I spent the 10 years going back and forth to Afghanistan and Iraq. We lost so much for those of us who went there and we now have nothing to show for it.
To many ideas but few real plans to follow. This is what happens when we fight a war by popular opinion.
This is my generation’s Vietnam.
@Deborah Freedman Well, another big difference is we lost 55,000 men in Nam vs 5,000 in Afghanistan & Iraq combined
could you imagine if Vietnam lasted 20 years, christ.
Thank you for your service
My son USAF
Nothing to show for it? Our main objective when we went there was to get Bin Laden.
We got Bin Laden didn’t we?
@randal gibbons at the halfway mark. Then we stayed another ten years.
Senior DoD officials thinking “What happens to my million dollar a year seat on the board of directors at Halliburton now?”
The Military absolutely knew the Afghan Army on its own would not be able to stand alone on its own.
80% of the Afghan force are essentially illiterate. There is no way they have the aptitude and skills to operate highly sophisticated American Military equipment when they are illiterate AND don’t speak English. They did the best they could by going through the motions of showing up and putting on a uniform. But the Afghan Government is so corrupt, many of the soldiers had not been paid in months.
So they were faced with an actual scenario of imminent lethal combat, fighting for a government that seldom pays or properly supports them, and no more American assistance to support them at all.
Caught between a rock and a hard place. For centuries, their country has been one of feuding warlords.
One wins, the others capitulate, and life goes on until the next Tribal flare up. Now, there are 10s of 1000s of people who assisted the Allied efforts in 100s of ways who are in now in imminent danger, and derserve to be rescued WITH their FAMILIES. This is estimated to be around 88,000 people.
It is right to get out of Afghanistan. But it should have been a process that took the Safety of all these people into account.
Instead, it looks like it was done for Political Window dressing reasons, to get fully “out” by SEPTEMBER 11, in order to say “it’s all over” within 20 years of Ground Zero. A major strategic blunder. Perhaps it could not have been predicted just how swift the Taliban would sweep into power. But a safe and orderly withdrawal of everyone necessary should have been successfully accomplished BEFORE they pulled the plug and abandoned the ship.
They should have given the women training since they’re the only group who seems to have anything like guts to fight for what that country needs. Men with guns drop them and leave really come on
The American People will soon realize that Two Decades of democracy in Afghanistan will not change a culture with thousands of years of Religious Governance.
We need to stop assuming that the rest of the world wants western Capitalism. There’s more to life than Starbucks & McDonald’s.
No different than changes the culture of some of the people here in the US with fatherless kids and crime rates.
@Common Sense The Generic Rights and Freedoms in the Declaration Of Independence, the United States Constitution and Its 27 amendments make the United States a Favorable Place to live, however the downside to living in Total Freedom is the negatives that you cited. Thanks for the reply.
@A Fridge Too Far like beating women and stripping away their rights?
@NEO3 We’ve been bombing women and children in the Middle East for 20 years. Is that better or worse than forcing women to wear religious clothes?
That president Ghani reminds me of the scene in lord of the rings where the guy dresses 👗 up in woman’s clothes and flees with the stolen money from the treasury? Every Afghan soldier after hearing this must’ve just gave up immediately…
As a fan of those films, I have to tell you, It’s not from “The lord of the rings”. That scene is from The Hobbit: The Battle of the five Armies”. But I know what you mean. : )
What a clown show!
I don’t know where they conducted this survey but this Soldier is delighted. I may just live to see my retirement. Unless America send me to die hoping Afghanistan may someday become like Japan, Korea or Germany.
Pentagon didn’t apply key planning doctrine. The Tenth Man strategy essentially says that if nine people agree on a particular course, the tenth person must, in the context of this strategy, take a contrary approach so that all alternatives can be considered.
More like a level of incompetence.
When you lose a war it’s going to be messy.
Blinken should be in jail or resign
Remember kids, the Soviet Union collapsed a mere 2 years after fleeing Afghanistan. Amerika might just be next……
So wonderful to see the nice NYT lady with the homemade glasses defend the President and his administration. Such a nice lady.
How do we know there are Not Other Forces Directing the Show? Things Happen so Fast, Like if they were Planned.
At the Kabul Airport
“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time”
Of course they’re in despair. The money spigot has been turned off.