That is the only issue I have with this withdrawal. We should have been much better at evacuating Afghans and their families that worked with the coalition troops. At least I hope that in the future nobody is dumb enough to trust any of these countries to take care of you if you help them.
1 Like
Is Biden going to be against withdrawal now that he knows Bernie is for it? HOW ARE WE GONNA PAY FOR THE WITHDRAWAL JOE!!!
1 Like
IIRC Bidens team said the ANA asked them not to withdraw people before because it would make them look like they had already lost and demoralize the army. In hindsight obviously it would have been the right move, but honestly most people didn’t think they would fall apart so fast, except for the soldiers on the ground.
I watched a couple documentaries of like Lts and captain level guys who were on the ground who were talking about the situation and basically the ANA wasn’t really interested in fighting and mostly cared about surviving, the commanders were ruthlessly stealing everything, and how the whole situation was kind of a shit show. Then the high level guys would tell the politicians everything was going great and the money was well spent
Kind of reminds me of business. Low level to slightly above them know whats going on on the ground and of all the problems and middle to high management completely have their heads in their asses and have no clue.
My gf spoke to someone whose sister lives in Afghanistan and her husband is a soldier. He was ordered to turn in his weapon and uniform before the Taliban even got close. I can‘t confirm the veracity of this but if true it seems the decision not to fight came from the top.
In my experience the middle to upper management have been told, repeatedly, but they ignore any and all data they don’t like and call it positive thinking. Anyone who tells them more than once gets punished for being too negative.
3 Likes
How much of a bribe to the Taliban would be required to let everyone out safely?
From what I’ve watched in documentaries anyone who was a good soldier and down to fight went to the special forces. The rest didn’t really want to be involved in a war and joined up for a steady paycheck, and I don’t blame them. This was mostly America’s war. Most of these people came from villages barely surviving with no national identity but yeah the leaders were a huge problem too.
To become a commander you had to grease the right palms because the afghan government was super crazy corrupt, so naturally you got people who’s only goal was get into a leadership position and steal as much as possible from the Americans.
What most likely happened is after the Americans left the Taliban bribed a bunch of the commanders to get them to lay down their arms, and the commanders being corrupt grifters jumped all over it.
They mostly are from my understanding. The long con is to have decent PR so you can A) not get sanctioned to all fuck and B) get some ok trade deals which will make the Taliban much richer and powerful.
Though my guess is they aren’t letting too many women out, they want them there to force marry their soldiers and be their servants basically. But they’re trying to keep that on the downlow.
AFAIK no foreigners have been killed yet.
This is exactly what happens. In literally every company. The truth telling middle managers get nuked and replaced with less capable sycophants. Every time.
2 Likes
There has been a firefight yesterday involving the US & German forces and unknown attackers at the Kabul airport. It’s a powder keg that’s going to blow at some point.
Saw the John Oliver piece from yesterday and just want to drop a “Fuck you Biden”. I mean I am not surprised about Tucker and Laura I. but for Biden to say this shit is another level. FUCK THE USA.
1 Like
We’re keeping them from getting at Afghan government money held by foreign banks, something like $10B. That may be the only thing keeping this from going to hell.
Telling potential Afghan refugees to figuratively fuck off makes Biden appear more Republican than Democrat.
There are already Afghan refugees arriving in the US. Only question is how many and when. Answer is not as many as we should take, even over a long period of time.
Giving an actual platform to the reality of the situation. Not a huge one, but one of the first.
3 Likes
I think that’s the same dude I saw in the documentary. He was saying the same stuff in the documentary a decade ago
1 Like
lol definitely gotta go with noted expert on wars…checks notes…Tony Blair
1 Like
You know who Biden should be taking advice on this issue from? A freakshow war criminal who basically single handedly destroyed his own party for a decade at least.
9 Likes
This doesn’t narrow it down a lot.
4 Likes