While I do not often agree with your views, your commentary today is tragically accurate. Certainly, the subject matter is neither humorous nor humane your references to the Kennedy School, granting interviews rather than beheading the BBC, and others demonstrate incredible wit. Thank you. I only wish the consequences were not so dire for the 29,000,000 Afghan nationals having to endure this.
While I do not often agree with your views, your commentary today is tragically accurate. Certainly, the subject matter is neither humorous nor humane your references to the Kennedy School, granting interviews rather than beheading the BBC, and others demonstrate incredible wit. Thank you. I only wish the consequences were not so dire for the 29,000,000 Afghan nationals having to endure this.
What is the point of this article? That the US should hang on in Afghanistan? I'm sure the writing has been on the wall for 15 years now, and Trump had the sense to pin the blame on his successor. Any sane person would first call out Bush, Obama, and Trump for this fiasco before Biden.
The pull out was inevitable. But the Taliban takeover didn't have to happen quite as embarrassingly fast as this. Biden's commanders could have planned the U.S. retreat better with a rear guard of airstrikes, etc. Maybe Biden should get credit for letting the band aid get ripped off in one pull and getting it over with. But the rules of politics are that it was his bug out plan so he's got to take the hit for the way it went down.
Insightful analysis would result in a purge of the current military and "intelligence" leadership. Which probably cannot happen until Biden is ousted and replaced in 2024.
The mistake of going in has been recognized by the insightful for years and neither the current or the last admin can be held responsible for that folly. However, the Biden administration now owns the withdrawal. They had seven months to change policy (in fact, they did change the timeline) and showed they had the means and the will to (disastrously) alter other policies regarding national security within days of his inauguration.
So, having chosen to leave the withdrawal in place, it was this administration's duty to make sure the tactics and logistics made sense. I personally don't consider that a "rule of politics" but more of a matter of sound, practical assessment; regardless. it is so. And this administration failed dramatically.
The media has been comparing this to Saigon (and there are definitely similarities) but the US left a marginally effective military in South Viet Nam that bore the brunt of the fighting. They held out for about two years and the extraction we see in the old videos involved about 1000 remaining US civilians - a number specifically drawn down to on the basis of being the number that could be extracted in one day by helicopter (under the assumption that the airports would be unusable).
While the Saigon withdrawal was unsatisfactory, it pales in comparison to the complete cluster**** we have seen over the past few weeks. Biden/Miley/Blinken/Austin have proven their complete incompetence and that is a completely accurate analysis.
Yeah, Trump tanked the election so it would be Biden’s problem. Smart.
The writing was on the wall before we ever entered. If the ruthless Soviet army couldn’t subdue Afghanistan, what made Bush-Obama think we could, while fighting in Iraq to boot?
If Bush AND Congress (including Democrats) had stuck to going in, destroying Al Queda, and leaving, we’d be much safer and the rest of the world wouldn’t be laughing and our enemies licking their chops.
Bin Laden himself said they were amazed at how easily the U.S. gave up in Somalia after Mogadishu. That was after we killed 1,000 Somali Militia vs 18 Americans lost (ok, if those numbers were from the pentagon, take with a tablespoon of salt.) It’s tragic any Americans lost their lives in that cess-pit. But from the jihadi perspective, we ran after a stunning victory, because for the U.S., any losses were too much (which they were, we should never have been there.) Now try matching up with a foe who gladly recruits children to send into the fight with a bomb strapped to them.
Every time we run with our tail between our legs, they grow bolder.
Afghanistan has been a 20-year, trillion-dollar jihadi-recruiting campaign. And I’ll bet it’s been successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
Radical change to war-planning? Try not starting one you can’t win.
While I do not often agree with your views, your commentary today is tragically accurate. Certainly, the subject matter is neither humorous nor humane your references to the Kennedy School, granting interviews rather than beheading the BBC, and others demonstrate incredible wit. Thank you. I only wish the consequences were not so dire for the 29,000,000 Afghan nationals having to endure this.
While I do not often agree with your views, your commentary today is tragically accurate. Certainly, the subject matter is neither humorous nor humane your references to the Kennedy School, granting interviews rather than beheading the BBC, and others demonstrate incredible wit. Thank you. I only wish the consequences were not so dire for the 29,000,000 Afghan nationals having to endure this.
What is the point of this article? That the US should hang on in Afghanistan? I'm sure the writing has been on the wall for 15 years now, and Trump had the sense to pin the blame on his successor. Any sane person would first call out Bush, Obama, and Trump for this fiasco before Biden.
The pull out was inevitable. But the Taliban takeover didn't have to happen quite as embarrassingly fast as this. Biden's commanders could have planned the U.S. retreat better with a rear guard of airstrikes, etc. Maybe Biden should get credit for letting the band aid get ripped off in one pull and getting it over with. But the rules of politics are that it was his bug out plan so he's got to take the hit for the way it went down.
Those may be the rules of politics, but not of insightful analysis.
Insightful analysis would result in a purge of the current military and "intelligence" leadership. Which probably cannot happen until Biden is ousted and replaced in 2024.
The mistake of going in has been recognized by the insightful for years and neither the current or the last admin can be held responsible for that folly. However, the Biden administration now owns the withdrawal. They had seven months to change policy (in fact, they did change the timeline) and showed they had the means and the will to (disastrously) alter other policies regarding national security within days of his inauguration.
So, having chosen to leave the withdrawal in place, it was this administration's duty to make sure the tactics and logistics made sense. I personally don't consider that a "rule of politics" but more of a matter of sound, practical assessment; regardless. it is so. And this administration failed dramatically.
The media has been comparing this to Saigon (and there are definitely similarities) but the US left a marginally effective military in South Viet Nam that bore the brunt of the fighting. They held out for about two years and the extraction we see in the old videos involved about 1000 remaining US civilians - a number specifically drawn down to on the basis of being the number that could be extracted in one day by helicopter (under the assumption that the airports would be unusable).
While the Saigon withdrawal was unsatisfactory, it pales in comparison to the complete cluster**** we have seen over the past few weeks. Biden/Miley/Blinken/Austin have proven their complete incompetence and that is a completely accurate analysis.
Yeah, Trump tanked the election so it would be Biden’s problem. Smart.
The writing was on the wall before we ever entered. If the ruthless Soviet army couldn’t subdue Afghanistan, what made Bush-Obama think we could, while fighting in Iraq to boot?
If Bush AND Congress (including Democrats) had stuck to going in, destroying Al Queda, and leaving, we’d be much safer and the rest of the world wouldn’t be laughing and our enemies licking their chops.
Bin Laden himself said they were amazed at how easily the U.S. gave up in Somalia after Mogadishu. That was after we killed 1,000 Somali Militia vs 18 Americans lost (ok, if those numbers were from the pentagon, take with a tablespoon of salt.) It’s tragic any Americans lost their lives in that cess-pit. But from the jihadi perspective, we ran after a stunning victory, because for the U.S., any losses were too much (which they were, we should never have been there.) Now try matching up with a foe who gladly recruits children to send into the fight with a bomb strapped to them.
Every time we run with our tail between our legs, they grow bolder.
Afghanistan has been a 20-year, trillion-dollar jihadi-recruiting campaign. And I’ll bet it’s been successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
Radical change to war-planning? Try not starting one you can’t win.
And what will those consequences be?
Anyone? Buehler?