Afghanistan

[Tenhigh]

6 minutes ago, Niagara Bill said:

I agree, but these types of crisis happen around the world and Ukraine is more important in status, TODAY. The people who die every day in US are people too. Likely more die daily from drugs than in Afghanistan. 

We can certainly chew gum and walk at the same time  

[Niagara Bill]

51 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

We can certainly chew gum and walk at the same time  

For sure. The Afghan gum is getting stale, the world has limited attention span, political will drops, and new crisis hits the front page. Maybe in the end it is better for a solution under the radar. 

[ALF]

The UN should be dealing with Afghanistan , carrot and stick 

[Tiberius]

House Republicans are vowing to impeach Biden for the earthquake in Afghanistan

 

You didn't see the earth acting that way when the incompetent criminal was president! 

[B-Man]

 

 

Biden’s assurance about Afghanistan 1 year ago today has aged as disastrously as everything else this administration has touched

 

 

 

Lost the entire country in 11 days and 13 service members, the first American casualties in over a year. He retaliated for that attack by droning 8 kids. People were falling off wheel wells of airplanes & he took about 3 questions on all of it. He turned his back and walked away.

 

 

 

 

 

https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/07/08/bidens-assurance-about-afghanistan-1-year-ago-today-has-aged-as-disastrously-as-everything-else-this-admin-touched/

 

 

[B-Man]

 

 

CIA director ‘proud’ of Afghanistan analysis despite disastrous Taliban takeover

by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter

 

CIA Director William Burns said he is “very proud” of the agency’s analysis in Afghanistan in 2021 despite being blindsided by the swift collapse of the Afghan government and failing to predict how quickly the Taliban would take Kabul.

 

The Taliban rapidly took over Afghanistan in mid-August amid a chaotic U.S. military withdrawal, and a suicide bombing by ISIS-K late that month killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians as the United States led evacuation operations at the airport, with the Taliban providing security outside.

 

Hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies and interpreters were still in the country when the U.S. left before the end of August.

 

Burns said Wednesday during an Aspen Security Forum discussion that he was “very proud … of the analysis, with all of its imperfections, that we tried to provide to policymakers over the six months leading up to the withdrawal.”

 

The CIA director prefaced this by admitting the agency had not predicted the Taliban would take over the country as fast as they did and that “all of us have lessons to learn from experiences like that.” He suggested that the CIA had at least gotten it less wrong than other parts of the U.S. government.

 

“As the president has said publicly, none of us anticipated that the Afghan government was going to flee as quickly as it did, that the Afghan military was going to collapse as fast as it did,” Burns said. “Having said that, I think CIA at least was always on the more pessimistic end of the spectrum in terms of highlighting, you know, over the course of the spring and the summer, the obvious ways in which the Taliban were advancing rapidly and how this was hollowing out in many ways, not just the political leadership but also the military.”

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign/cia-very-proud-afghanistan-analysis-disastrous-taliban-takeover

[Doc]

Might as well go Simple Jack...

[B-Man]

 

 

 

Kinder, gentler Taliban selling more children into marriage

 

 

With most of the international media attention still focused on Ukraine and/or China and Taiwan, not as much coverage of the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan makes it into the headlines. But that doesn’t mean that the situation has been improving or that the country is returning to any sense of normalcy. There is still an ongoing food crisis there, with large portions of the country going hungry on a regular basis. (Unless you’re a member of the Taliban, of course, in which case you are eating like a king.) But starvation isn’t the only problem that the people of Afghanistan are facing. The Taliban have continued their brutal crackdown on fundamental human rights, most particularly for women and girls. Most schools for girls beyond 7th grade remain closed and women are still prevented from leaving their homes unless fully covered in conservative Islamic dress and accompanied by a male family member. And young girls are still being sold off into marriage, frequently to Taliban fighters or officials, by starving families. It’s a complete humanitarian crisis and it’s being caused by the Taliban. (Associated Press)

 

https://apnews.com/article/violence-marriage-kabul-taliban-330ff124c9e06ea49ca363b991a7a996

 

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/07/27/kinder-gentler-taliban-selling-more-children-into-marriage-n485514

 

 

 

[Tiberius]

I thought at the time Biden was making a great decision to end that mistake of an occupation early in his presidency. Let it go and be forgotten 

[T master]

3 minutes ago, Tiberius said:

I thought at the time Biden was making a great decision to end that mistake of an occupation early in his presidency. Let it go and be forgotten 

 

You mean like you have let go of any angst against Trump ? 👍

 

Seeing as the plan was already put in place to get out prior to Biden taking office but hey even though he did totally screw up the withdrawal we will give you that one for not stopping with a executive order another plan put in place by the prior POTUS .

[B-Man]

 

 

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW IT’S VANISHED FROM DISCUSSION? THAT’S BECAUSE IT MAKES A DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION LOOK HORRIBLE: 

 

Marking one year after the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. 

 

“It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been a year now since America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The images of the final flights leaving the country and the throngs of desperate people trying to find a way out as the Taliban closed in are still burned into our collective memory. But inside the Biden administration (which has never really taken responsibility for that debacle), particularly in the CIA and other intelligence agencies, people are ‘moving on’ from Afghanistan.”

 

They move on from all their failures. And why wouldn’t they? There are never any consequences.

 

 

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/08/08/marking-one-year-after-the-afghanistan-withdrawal-debacle-n488052

 

 

 

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[B-Man]

 

 

Why the Afghanistan Withdrawal Was the Perfect Storm of Bureaucratic Incompetence.

 

President Biden wants you to forget about what happened in Afghanistan. He wants you to forget about the bureaucratic incompetence and incompetent decision-making by nearly every senior leader. To this day, no one has been held accountable. Accountability, even verbally, would mean admitting failure and taking ownership, something the Biden administration refuses to accept.

 

The botched withdrawal wasn’t a mistake or a one-time bad call. The catastrophe occurred due to consistent and specific inept leadership failures at the Department of Defense, Department of State, the White House, and the Intelligence Community. Failure to plan. Failure to be realistic about the strength and capabilities of the Taliban. Failure to adequately prepare and vet people to get them out of the country before the U.S. military departed. The Biden administration failed to connect the dots and keep agencies in sync. Pentagon leadership downplayed the truth about the shell the Afghanistan government and military was, as well as the reality that without the U.S. dollar and military propping them up, they would all come crashing down. Washington was hoping for an Afghanistan that they wanted – that should have been after 20 years of war and $2 trillion – but wasn’t. The withdrawal wasn’t a mistake – it was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions.

 

 

Read the whole thing.

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/ambersmith/2022/08/15/why-the-afghanistan-withdrawal-was-the-perfect-storm-of-bureaucratic-incompetence-n2611606

 

 

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[B-Man]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sherpa]

1 hour ago, B-Man said:

 

 

Why the Afghanistan Withdrawal Was the Perfect Storm of Bureaucratic Incompetence.

 

President Biden wants you to forget about what happened in Afghanistan. He wants you to forget about the bureaucratic incompetence and incompetent decision-making by nearly every senior leader. To this day, no one has been held accountable. Accountability, even verbally, would mean admitting failure and taking ownership, something the Biden administration refuses to accept.

 

The botched withdrawal wasn’t a mistake or a one-time bad call. The catastrophe occurred due to consistent and specific inept leadership failures at the Department of Defense, Department of State, the White House, and the Intelligence Community. Failure to plan. Failure to be realistic about the strength and capabilities of the Taliban. Failure to adequately prepare and vet people to get them out of the country before the U.S. military departed. The Biden administration failed to connect the dots and keep agencies in sync. Pentagon leadership downplayed the truth about the shell the Afghanistan government and military was, as well as the reality that without the U.S. dollar and military propping them up, they would all come crashing down. Washington was hoping for an Afghanistan that they wanted – that should have been after 20 years of war and $2 trillion – but wasn’t. The withdrawal wasn’t a mistake – it was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions.

 

 

Read the whole thing.

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/ambersmith/2022/08/15/why-the-afghanistan-withdrawal-was-the-perfect-storm-of-bureaucratic-incompetence-n2611606

 

 

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I really doubt anyone here will read it, but it is an entirely accurate viewpoint.

The problem is systemic.

When you have the system we have, which causes the extreme top level military to agree with the political power, you get yes men.

It's the best way to do it, but occasionally, like now, you get incompetent leadership.

 

Our Sect. of Defense is a political appointee whose resume strength is that he agrees with Biden, who is a military/leadership illiterate.

 

That extends down to the Joint Chiefs.

Below that, the major unified and operational commanders, things get more reasonable and realistic, but that isn't where major decisions on policy are made.

Trump screwed it up, but left an out if certain circumstances weren't met, but it was a "sloppy" out.

Biden didn't use that out, and the result has been horrible.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a betrayal and a disaster. 

 

[Niagara Bill]

On 8/8/2022 at 10:36 AM, B-Man said:

 

 

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW IT’S VANISHED FROM DISCUSSION? THAT’S BECAUSE IT MAKES A DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION LOOK HORRIBLE: 

 

Marking one year after the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. 

 

“It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been a year now since America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The images of the final flights leaving the country and the throngs of desperate people trying to find a way out as the Taliban closed in are still burned into our collective memory. But inside the Biden administration (which has never really taken responsibility for that debacle), particularly in the CIA and other intelligence agencies, people are ‘moving on’ from Afghanistan.”

 

They move on from all their failures. And why wouldn’t they? There are never any consequences.

 

 

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/08/08/marking-one-year-after-the-afghanistan-withdrawal-debacle-n488052

 

 

 

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May be to help dems, but more likely 2 other reasons.

Ukraine is more important than the dust bowl.

The only relationship the US has to Afghanistan was military and that has ended. Before that the US population had no relationship to Afghanistan and no relationship to its people. Taliban and Muslim in the headline and frankly most, including me have no interest. They can kill each other..amen. move on. Nothing we can do. Roe v Wade more important.

The quality of Biden decision was debated and filed away in people's minds. 

 

[sherpa]

12 minutes ago, Niagara Bill said:

 

The only relationship the US has to Afghanistan was military and that has ended. Before that the US population had no relationship to Afghanistan and no relationship to its people. Taliban and Muslim in the headline and frankly most, including me have no interest. They can kill each other..amen. move on. Nothing we can do. 

 

 

When you develop a relationship with thousands of people, and then abandum them as a political expedient, there is a result, and it is not good.

[Tiberius]

 Looks like Biden really is winding down the "forever wars"  

 

 

[B-Man]

 

 

 

[sherpa]

1 hour ago, Tiberius said:

 Looks like Biden really is winding down the "forever wars"  

 

 

 

Preposterous.

Tell that to our carrier Navy and Air Force Europe.

The "air strike" claim is specious.

We are flying crazy numbers in support of the Ukraine. 

 

[B-Man]

 

 

Joe Who? ABC Avoids Biden’s Name in Report on ‘Sad,’ ‘Hungry’ Afghanistan.

 

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/scott-whitlock/2022/08/15/joe-who-abc-avoids-bidens-name-report-sad-hungry-afghanistan

 

 

 

 

 

AP: Afghanistan marks one year since Taliban seizure as woes mount.

 

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-poverty-economy-kabul-taliban-cc5a327e607fd5fa1f64eae0e152e973