Afghanistan

[Buffalo_Stampede]

2 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

It's true, not sure what's going to change though, besides making the 8/31 evacuation deadline impossible to meet. There will be Americans and interpreters trapped in that @$#%hole, it's time for the president to stand up and do something here.  

I think he's got to go on with the evacuation.

[T&C]

2 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

ISIS is behind it. The same ISIS Trump said he dismantled. 

 

Everyone needs to understand we're all on the same team, especially during war times. There was no right way to pull out of Afghanistan. 

Certainly there was a better way though. Its like he thought about it for 5 minutes and said: "here is the plan".

[sherpa]

Just now, Chef Jim said:

 

Oh no I don't disagree.  I just wanted clarification. 

 

I know.

I get you.

If true, this simply cannot go unresponded to, and with undeniable force.

 

[Westside]

Just now, sherpa said:

 

I know.

I get you.

If true, this simply cannot go unresponded to, and with undeniable force.

 

Who or what do you bomb? It’s already a pile of rocks. Twenty years couldn’t beat them, not sure what else they could do different? It’s a total fubar now.

[Chef Jim]

2 minutes ago, sherpa said:

 

I know.

I get you.

If true, this simply cannot go unresponded to, and with undeniable force.

 

 

Again this is why, IMO, why Trump made the deal.  Don't ***** with us or you're toast.  He knew they'd ***** with us and we'd have 100% justification for bringing down the hammer.  Now?  More hand wringing.  This administration is so ***** over this.  

 

 

[Big Gun]

11 minutes ago, sherpa said:

 

Again, I don't know if it's true.

But....

If US troops were killed during a "negotiated" withdrawal, there absolutely has to be a response.

It must be strong and it must come quick.

Sorry, but that is the reality.

There was, 4 Marines were killed and 3 wounded.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

12 minutes ago, T&C said:

Certainly there was a better way though. Its like he thought about it for 5 minutes and said: "here is the plan".

How? Any plan that allows the Taliban to rule was a bad plan. Meaning there was no good plan because the Taliban would rule in any plan that involved evacuation of US military. 

[T&C]

If you (a general term) think about it, until Biden announced this so called "plan", there really wasn't a whole lot of news coming out of Afghanistan. How he managed to get this from 10 to 100 in a matter of weeks is despicable... and this doesn't even figure in our southern border debackle.

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

9 minutes ago, Big Gun said:

There was, 4 Marines were killed and 3 wounded.

What a tragic loss of life.  These poor servicemen/women are political pawns, and it's a ***** disgrace. 

[T&C]

4 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

How? Any plan that allows the Taliban to rule was a bad plan. Meaning there was no good plan because the Taliban would rule in any plan that involved evacuation of US military. 

Not announcing it would have been a good start. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

22 minutes ago, sherpa said:

 

Again, I don't know if it's true.

But....

If US troops were killed during a "negotiated" withdrawal, there absolutely has to be a response.

It must be strong and it must come quick.

Sorry, but that is the reality.

There will be. It was ISIS. There will be airstrikes like always. 

[Chef Jim]

8 minutes ago, T&C said:

Not announcing it would have been a good start. 

 

Trump was the first to announce it. Announcing it is not the problem.  Not have an apparent plan of execution for ALL possible contingencies seems to be the problem here.  Again you know.........leadership. 

[T&C]

Now at least 10 US troops killed. 

[Big Gun]

3 minutes ago, T&C said:

Now at least 10 US troops killed. 

Yup, just heard this also, Biden is done!

[OrangeBills]

13 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

How? Any plan that allows the Taliban to rule was a bad plan. Meaning there was no good plan because the Taliban would rule in any plan that involved evacuation of US military. 

 

Well, I'll try to provide an answer here, even though I know our Leftist friends won't play fair....BTW, I have been critical of this disastrous Administration's decisions virtually across the board, but you are right, what's done is done and at the moment we are all on the same side, no question.

 

In response to your question about what could have gone better:   To me, it made no sense to close the MILITARY AIRBASE that we had solidified over TWENTY YEARS for no reason before our people were out, no sensible reason at all.  The reason we were given, by our idiotic Head of Joint Chiefs, who was more focused on Woke issues in the Military instead of doing his job, was that they couldn't defend both the base AND the Embassy, so they closed the Airport.

 

The issue I have, is they were supposedly receiving credible intelligence that Taliban were advancing more quickly than normal and that Kabul could fall within months or even weeks/days of withdrawal...thus the need for an Embassy to remain was not sensible.  They probably did not want to "tip" their deal with the Taliban in terms of closing the Embassy before, but you know what, life is full of difficult decisions, and they mucked this up so bad it's going to resonate for a long, long time.

 

Now, they are probably going to strand tens of thousands of people who will be arrested, tortured and killed once the lights go out.  ALSO, the withdrawal of our last Troop elements is colossally more difficult from that Urban airport than it would have been from Bagram, where air support could have facilitated the last departure of our TWO last planes, now we'll have to rely on Taliban to protect the last plane that lifts off out of that urban airport.  That is just not a credible plan.

 

So, I'm afraid this Administration has demonstrated just how incompetent they are with these actions.

[sherpa]

This clearly bothers me, but doesn't surprise me.

I offer my opinion as a guy who sat in a ready room on an aircraft carrier with the ability to deliver unspeakable harm to the enemies of the US.

Nothing gets the juices going like knowing there are troops on the ground that are being hit.

There is no better mission than protecting American soldiers in the dirt.

Did the TopGun thing. Taught it.

It's fun, but protecting troops on the ground is like protecting your daughter from assault.

It is the single most motivating mission you can do, worth giving your life for, and watching Marines die while you could have stopped it is vomit inducing.

This has to be responded to, quickly, or this administration will lose the military.

 

[snafu]

10 minutes ago, T&C said:

Now at least 10 US troops killed. 

did the White House plan for this contingency?

 

[US Egg]

Biden won’t hear updates about this until after his afternoon nap and his handlers get him dressed and ready for dinner.

[Artful Dodger]

4 minutes ago, sherpa said:

This has to be responded to, quickly, or this administration will lose the military.

 

 

Don't you think the administration has already lost the military?  This level of incompetence is almost beyond belief. Every decision they've made has gone wrong.

[Tenhigh]

24 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

How? Any plan that allows the Taliban to rule was a bad plan. Meaning there was no good plan because the Taliban would rule in any plan that involved evacuation of US military. 

I think Orange Bills covered it pretty well.  We should have first beefed up our soldiers on the ground, pulled our civilians our (both American and Afghani) and then pulled out our military, taking every piece of equipment we could get our hands on.  Frankly, the best thing we have going for us right now is that the Taliban is trying to gain some legitimacy on the world stage, and not killing as many civilians as normal isn't a bad way to start, considering where they came from.