Afghanistan

[canpakes]

Talk about that without talking about the person who, in February 2020, made the commitment to make the final withdrawal happen on May 1, 2021?

Didn’t he claim that this would be done ‘by Christmas’? Because that would have guaranteed a careful and measured departure.

I’m sure that it would have been the most amazing, incredible evacuation that no one has ever done before.

[Jersey Girl]

.
Former Trump adviser and Newsmax host Steve Cortes has concerns that the war was costly … but more importantly, that some dirty refugees might sully his town.

Um, it's not landing in our towns to begin with. I am so sick of this kind of thing.

[Jersey Girl]

Sorry I am having an aftershock to that pic of the C-17 and the rhetoric therein. Lay that idiot down on any military flight line in my area and I'll be happy to house a few folks, particularly women and children, until they are equipped to make their own way in life here. What those officers did was freaking HEROIC. How dare that guy USE their heroic act and the desperation of refugees for perceived political gain.

Lord, forgive me but I really do hate people some days.

[Jersey Girl]

Steve Cortes, son of an immigrant, Notre Dame grad, who has sacrificed no time in service whatsoever. POS. Hope he made his immigrant daddy proud with that.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Right now America is a pretty soft enemy and a terrible friend.

Terrible in two ways. We betray our allies and we are weak. But hey, getting woker every day.

I’d take the Taliban over this illegitimate, anti-American govt we have now under Beijing xiden. They have done nothing but “F” up this country and go after our rights more than any govt before. I am glad our globohomo military lost Afghanistan. Now the world knows how weak we really are. Jan 6th showed how weak our people are as well. The US is just a gigantic blow hard, paper tiger.

^ The conversation between two magats as they fellate one another.

[canpakes]

.
From Reason.com, back in Ferbruary -

Don't Let Biden Sink Troops Back Into the Afghanistan Quagmire

We have an agreement to pull out by May. We should honor it regardless of the state of the country.

SCOTT SHACKFORD | 2.2.2021 1:50 PM

Will we ever get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, ever? ABC News reports that President Joe Biden's administration is preparing for the likelihood that troops will remain in Afghanistan past a May deadline established in an agreement with the Taliban because of ongoing attacks and assassinations there.

During the Democratic primary debates, Biden said he wanted to end our wars in the Middle East and bring troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, but he also made it clear he does want to keep some military presence within the country for antiterrorism and intelligence purposes.

As his presidential term ended, Donald Trump pushed for a faster withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which drew criticism even though it's what Americans across the political spectrum actually want.

ABC points to this decision from Trump in an attempt to suggest that the drawdown is contributing to the challenge of actually leaving Afghanistan: "U.S. troops are at their lowest level in Afghanistan now, which the Pentagon said in a new report Monday has imposed 'limitations' on completing its mission."

The report they reference is from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). And while the office's quarterly report does say that the drawdown "introduces some limitations on force capacity and on the train, advise, and assist mission," the very next sentence says that leaders of the U.S. forces have said that that the drawdown to 2,500 troops was not currently adversely affecting its work.

It's slightly odd of ABC News to attempt to paint SIGAR as some sort of critic of Trump's troop withdrawal because for years now SIGAR reports have been the primary way that Americans who were still paying attention would know that our continued involvement in Afghanistan has absolutely failed to stabilize the country and served primarily as a massive money pit for defense spending and a threat to the lives of our troops.

The latest report is no different, and ABC News does take note of that:

"There has been no cease-fire agreement and high levels of insurgent and extremist violence continued in Afghanistan this quarter despite repeated pleas from senior U.S. and international officials to reduce violence in an effort to advance the peace process," John Sopko, the longtime special inspector general, wrote in the report's introduction. "Nor is it evident, as SIGAR discusses in this report, that the Taliban has broken ties with the al-Qaeda terrorists who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States."

So the agreement that's supposed to allow the U.S. to exit Afghanistan in May has not, in fact, led to peace.

What about political stability in Afghanistan? Have we at least given Afghan citizens a government to turn to? Today, SIGAR put out another report about the state of the country's election system. One of the major findings:

Election fraud in Afghanistan is rampant and takes many forms: Political leaders exert influence over senior election officials and, through them, lower-level staff, and election commissioners and their senior staff sell their services for financial gain. Senior election officials thus play an ambiguous role, serving variously as protectors of the process, perpetrators of fraud, illicit collaborators with senior government officials, and victims of their abuses. Fraud is also perpetrated by local powerbrokers trying to curry favor with candidates in the anticipation of reward, in the form of government contracts, jobs, or payoffs. It is difficult to detect and prove fraud, and even harder to reduce it. Anti-fraud measures are often co-opted to perpetrate more fraud, and even successful fraud mitigation can end up suppressing legitimate votes, sometimes in ways that favor one group over another.

We are bringing neither peace nor democracy to Afghanistan, and a sober read-through of SIGAR's reports makes it pretty clear that the country is likely to remain unstable for the near future.

After two decades of military intervention in Afghanistan, there is little reason to believe continued military participation, training of the country's police forces, or oversight of the nation's elections is going to work. Biden promised on the campaign trail to get the U.S. out of this quagmire. So did the prior two presidents. Trump did finally manage to get some troops out of there. Rather than treating this as some sort of reckless behavior—as through throwing billions of dollars away and losing thousands of U.S. troops there is not reckless—Biden needs to follow through on his promise.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Don’t you damned provide facts, canpakes. Don’t you dare.

damned trumptards and GQP’ers playing fast and loose with reality once again.

- Doc

[Alf'Omega]

Oh really? Is Biden somehow bound to uphold Trump's policies? It's a shame he didn't keep the remain in Mexico policy for asylum or the other innumerable executive orders he overturned on day 1.

Because those orders violated international law. Trump doesn't care about what's lawful, he only cares about what he thinks he can get away with.

It seems Biden pulled out against the advice of his handlers.

And for good reason. 72% of the country wants us out of Afghanistan, and despite promises from previous Presidents, Biden is the one who will actually do what he said he'd do.

I'll grant you that Trump had isolationist tendencies as well but this debacle belongs to Biden.

What debacle? Americans aren't being abandoned in Afghanistan, and we're moving thousands of Afghans out of the country. We're also keeping with the agreement the United States made with the Taliban.

And I'm not convinced that it's ever wise to negotiate with terrorists.

Blame Trump, since he's the one who negotiated with the Taliban. Biden has come out recently saying he is doubtful that the Taliban will actually change for the better. He's not kissing their asses, calling them smart and throwing fawning praise their way as Trump did.

And Mark Levin did complain when Trump left the Kurds to the Turks. I'm not complaining. I'm just pointing out there were a bunch of lies in Biden's speech.

No one listens to Levin. What did Hannity say about his complete betrayal of the Kurds? What did Carlson say? Brietbart? Daily Caller? etc.

[Res Ipsa]

I didn’t see you point out actual lies in Biden’s speech, Ajax.

There’s a significant difference between changing a policy, such as border enforcement, and reneging on an agreement made on behalf of the United States, such as Trump’s Peace Agreement with the Taliban. One involves a loss of credibility in future negotiations. The other is the expected effect of changes in which party controls the government. They aren’t comparable.

[ajax18]

I didn’t see you point out actual lies in Biden’s speech, Ajax.

Biden's statement that the Afghans weren't willing to fight was a lie. Over 50,000 Afghans have died fighting the Taliban in the last couple years.