https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1427113848126021636?s=19
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1427113855835115520?s=19
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1427113861602238464?s=19
At least Politico puts some blame on media here. oddly introspective for them.
I’ll be very impressed if they blame media for the blind patriotism, beating of war drums and absolute uncritical deference to the military in 2001.
Eta: not a very extensive mea culpa
and we in the media for keeping Afghanistan off the front page and prioritizing trivia over troops fighting and dying in battle zones.
What’s the point? That if they had made it front page news we would have pulled out earlier? That we would have won? ?
no. there is no point. There was no “winning.” I know a lot of people who served in Afghanistan. They knew. If you had asked them 10 years ago or 10 weeks ago, they knew this is how it would go. Especially after Trump cozied up to the Taliban last year.
Fucking MAGAts all seem to forget their 4 years of screaming about forever wars and getting us out of there.
That tweet of Biden’s taking full responsibility is exactly what I look for in a leader. I haven’t been too happy with some of his decisions, but I think this one is good, and the active duty military friends I’ve talked to are in agreement.
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Not a fan at all of these “who can really say where the blame lies” takes. The invasion of Afghanistan was overwhelmingly supported by the public at the time, so if you want to date the fiasco to then, fine. But the fact that it turned into a 20-year black hole of blood and treasure is squarely on the US military and their enablers in the White House. From the WaPo’s Afghanistan Papers piece:
Several of those interviewed described explicit and sustained efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public. They said it was common at military headquarters in Kabul — and at the White House — to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case.
“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”
John Sopko, the head of the federal agency that conducted the interviews, acknowledged to The Post that the documents show “the American people have constantly been lied to.”
Give me a break with this “maybe we’re all a little to blame” bullshit, or even blaming the media, when there’s a massive, powerful, well-funded campaign hell-bent on misinforming everyone about whether nation-building efforts are succeeding.
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The history of military conflict in Afghanistan [has] been one of initial success, followed by long years of floundering and ultimate failure. We’re not going to repeat that mistake.
– George W. Bush, April 17, 2002
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https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1427456133376090131?s=19
In Texas, I expect Abbott will add something about refugees bringing COVID. I’m surprised he hasn’t already complained about plans to bring Afghans to a military base there.
https://laurajedeed.medium.com/afghanistan-meant-nothing-9e3f099b00e5
I am Team Get The Fuck Out Of Afghanistan which, as a friend pointed out to me today, has always been Team Taliban. It’s Team Taliban or Team Stay Forever.
There is no third team.
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Yes, it is, you evil she-witch.
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So what is going to happen to the Afghan special forces? Will they just join the Taliban to be the new military? Will they be killed? Will they leave service.
Where do we go for here? What wars are even acceptable anymore? Why have a charge “crime against humanity” when nobody will stand up to combat it anymore? You can argue about wars being business all the time but if you dont want to take the other step to condemn or ban any business that keeps this shitty living conditions around the globe its just an empty shell.
Um, from what I see, the media can war monger with the best of them. They definitely share some of the blame
Omg just read the first A400M of the Bundeswehr rescued 7 people last night. Are you fkn kidding me.
Not sure I should laugh or just cry.
Conservative Twitter is up in arms at the poor job Biden has done in withdrawing from Afghanistan.
But which of the prior candidates, assuming they were up to the task in the first place, do they believe would have been more competent?
Obama is a nonstarter for them so we have Bush, who largely got us into this mess, or lol Trump.
Biden touched his nose. Oreos, man.
China does have a playbook for this, I wonder if they bring it out in Afghanistan. What it would look like is deals with the Taliban to build massive infrastructure (China is the all time world champion of 12 lane highways) in exchange for access to any and all natural resources. They run this system all over Africa. Does Afghanistan have untapped natural resources that China would be interested in?
Edit: Skimming this article here
and my guess would be that China’s diplomatic relationship with Afghanistan is gonna be a whole lot of “Hey bro need some help getting those mines working at full capacity? We can help you out and we just need a modest 90% of the profits for ourselves.”
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I have some sympathy for them, at least here in the USA. Most where brought up thinking it was very patriotic to serve, and especially for the ones who enlisted within a decade or so after 9/11, were at a very young and impressionable age in the aftermath of 9/11, and many thought they were fighting a just battle. I didn’t start to figure much of this out until I was much older honestly.
A family friend lost their kid over there. All they do is talk about his honor and sacrifice so you can tell how his opinion was formed as a 12 y/o when 9/11 happened. Now there is a traffic circle named after him in their town with a little memorial, so more kids can grow up thinking how great it is to get blown up for corporate interests.
I also initially supported the war, so lol @ me.
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interesting vice documentary from a decade ago back when vice was good. Shows what an absolute shitshow ANA was, and why the local communities usually hated them. The commanders, almost all of them, would kidnap and rape young boys and make them slaves, and even kill them sometimes.
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