Why Biden is pulling the US -- and NATO -- out of Afghanistan

[paperfist]

Fighting a war is believing what your fighting for is worthy of fighting for and maybe dying for. You can't train that.

Outside a few exceptions every human wants to be free and has the instincts to survive. That's not worth fighting for?

 

[Amol S.]

If your "partner/ally/70 years of US-Pakistani relations" situation is that said partner is waging a proxy war against you with no less friggin Talibans, that will commit atrocities towards the afghan people by ANY standard.
I guess maybe its a relation ship that should be reconsidered. You pro acid'ing you girls in the face cause they attended school? You die. There shouldnt really be any kind of protection by any government anywhere from stuff like that.
Hell pull a Putin and novichok the bastards covertly. Everyone will know whats up, but cant prove it.

Talking about Putin, do you think the Taliban would have still been existent if Afghanistan was still part of Russia?

 

[sportage]

I get pissed when Fox and Hannity lie and claim that Biden is doing everything wrong and Trump was doing everything right. If that were the case, then Afghanistan wouldn't be a problem today because Trump (as Hannity claims) would have solved the entire Afghanistan problem.

And apply that same logic to the border. They blame Biden for the problems at the border but had Donald Trump's plan (wherever that was) had actually been a feasible plan then we would not have issues at the border today.

When it comes to war and certainly this Afghanistan war, and when it comes to immigration and borders, a president does the best that he can. You deal with and address what you can, then the next president inherits the mess. But hopefully we can do more about Afghanistan than we can with our borders. At least with Afghanistan we can simply GET THE F... OUT. And if people or Fox or Hannity want to toss around blame then blame Bush or Obama or Trump because they all had their chance and none of them presidents could solve the problem. And that goes for the border as well....

 

[emperus]

You are not seeing if a country can "fight for itself"
Call it what it is, a civil war.
Both sides are Afghans "Fighting for Afghanistan".

We just so happen to think one side is a bag of dicks (who won't bend the knee to our corporations)

It's not just about corporations, it's about people (esp. Women) having basic rights etc. etc.

 

[emperus]

Outside a few exceptions every human wants to be free and has the instincts to survive. That's not worth fighting for?

Some people are comfortable trading not being really free for being able to live tomm. And that tradeoff gets easier as you gorw and have a family.

 

[Amol S.]

What’s that say about our military if after 20 years of training a rag tag ‘army’ can defeat them quicker than a Mike Tyson fight?

Why can't the Afghan government ask for help from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, or the UAE? Why do I have a bad feeling that they are going to ask Russia for help at the last moment.

 

[Jhhnn]

Talking about Putin, do you think the Taliban would have still been existent if Afghanistan was still part of Russia?

Afghanistan never was part of Russia.

 

[Amol S.]

Afghanistan never was part of Russia.

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

 

[hal2kilo]

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

Apples and oranges.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Another take: climate change is going to help perpetuate Afghanistan's instability regardless of military intervention.

In Afghanistan, climate change complicates future prospects for peace

Experts say warming will further fuel natural disasters, mass displacement, child marriage, and conflict.

www.nationalgeographic.com

.

 

[hal2kilo]

Another take: climate change is going to help perpetuate Afghanistan's instability regardless of military intervention.

In Afghanistan, climate change complicates future prospects for peace

Experts say warming will further fuel natural disasters, mass displacement, child marriage, and conflict.

www.nationalgeographic.com

.

What? That green lush place is going to start looking kind of like a desert. /s

 

[brycejones]

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

Nope. They had no greater success than we did.

 

[Jhhnn]

Why can't the Afghan government ask for help from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, or the UAE? Why do I have a bad feeling that they are going to ask Russia for help at the last moment.

If your troops won't fight then the only thing that will save you is foreign troops, which makes you a puppet

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

That's not "part of Russia" at all. Ukraine was that for a very long time. Czechoslovakia never was, just for example. The Soviets never controlled the Afghan countryside any more than we have, either. They will not suffer foreign troops w/o resistance.

 

[Artorias]

Another take: climate change is going to help perpetuate Afghanistan's instability regardless of military intervention.

In Afghanistan, climate change complicates future prospects for peace

Experts say warming will further fuel natural disasters, mass displacement, child marriage, and conflict.

www.nationalgeographic.com

.

The silver lining here is that forced relocation is probably best for the younger generation that still live there.

Afghanistan is the wild west, no laws, no borders, no government, just many tribes, and an endless struggle between war lords.

With no civilian population to feed the Taliban they will have to look elsewhere and disperse. Perhaps Afghanistan becoming an even more desolate and inhospitable place is the best for all sides to move on.

 

[Amol S.]

The silver lining here is that forced relocation is probably best for the younger generation that still live there.

Afghanistan is the wild west, no laws, no borders, no government, just many tribes, and an endless struggle between war lords.

With no civilian population to feed the Taliban they will have to look elsewhere and disperse. Perhaps Afghanistan becoming an even more desolate and inhospitable place is the best for all sides to move on.

As if the government there would be willing to move. Afghanistan is one of the oil countries in the Middle-East.

What I do not get is one thing in particular. Why did Biden not do something like Operation Baby Lift in Afghanistan when US troops were moving out?

 

[m8d]

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

Afghanistan is where Empires go to die.

 

[sportage]

The news media IS WRONG!!!!
Americans DO NOT want to be engaged in war especially OVER THERE.
The American people WILL NOT be angry with this withdrawal.
Americans ARE NOT Warhawks nor do they desire to be.
ANd frankly.... Americans COULD GIVE A RATS ASS about Afghanistan or any other ghanistan. The generals care because war and destruction is their business, but no American family will be sitting around the old kitchen table angry and upset about the US ditching Afghanistan.

The media will make A BIG STINKY DEAL about the US leaving. That is..... until a mass shooting takes place in some school or in some Walmart. Then Afghanistan will be all but forgotten.

 

[Sunburn74]

Please. If Afghan govt soldiers believed they'd be executed after surrender then they'd put up a better fight. They might be wrong but the evidence of that is extremely sketchy at best.

CNN claims to have a video showing 22 afghan commandoes being summarily executed after surrendering. BBC news also stating that people with ties to the US are being summarily executed by the Taliban (civilians, soldiers, media, judges, etc)

It seems like this proves the population was never behind the new government, and that wouldn't have changed no matter how long we stayed.

Obviously the US sucks at nation building, and we should learn to stop trying.

The population has nothing to do with it. They vast majority of the people also hate the taliban and have always hated them. The problem is the taliban has the guns and organization and so they have stayed in power.

What’s that say about our military if after 20 years of training a rag tag ‘army’ can defeat them quicker than a Mike Tyson fight?

I think there's a little more to it than just the afghan army is bad. There's also a numbers game. The US apparently left 85, 000 taliban fighters at the time of their removal. Thats a lot of fighters to walk away and pat yourself on the back for doing a good job. The afghan army is on paper 180,000 but we know its far less than that. Then there's the advantage of guerrilla tactics. In these types of things its easier to be the attacker than the defender.


The more I read about this withdrawal the more it looks like a bad idea. The taliban apparently hasn't cut ties with Al Queda and the US will lose all in country terrorism surveillance. They hoped in april that they'd be able to keep an embassy and contractors and employed civilians and etc there but it appears they have to evacuate everyone and so the country will return to being somewhat of a black hole and breeding ground for terrorism. This thing is just a mess. There's also the issue of creating a massive migrant crisis to our allies in europe and not throwing them a lifeline by repatriating afghans we have more or less displaced. We basically pulled out unilaterally and said to german, france, turkey and the UK "here you deal with the million people that will be coming to your shores in the civil war that's about to occur".

 

[Ajay]

CNN claims to have a video showing 22 afghan commandoes being summarily executed after surrendering. BBC news also stating that people with ties to the US are being summarily executed by the Taliban (civilians, soldiers, media, judges, etc)

The commandos were supposed to be the elite Afghan troops trained by US SpecOps guys. If they are indeed surrendering, then that would explain the rapid decline of Afghanistan's military capability.

Anyway, in typical US fashion, we are rushing back in with 3000 troops and enough air support to get most (why not all?) of our embassy staff out. Hopefully, they'll be evac'ing civilian Afghani interpreters, etc. as well. I was really counting on the Biden administration not screwing this up so much. Really want the press to dig into this story and figured out how we failed in leaving Afghanistan with some grace and professionalism.

 

[rommelrommel]

For this place, Myanmar, Belarus and maybe a couple of others, I propose total and complete isolation, diplomatically and economically. Nothing and no one in or out. Cut off all communications, satellite, cellular, landline. No fuel, no food, no supplies of any kind, barricade all roads. Expel all diplomats, close all embassies.

Yes it would be tough to do given some of the borders, but a determined UN could do it.

I like the sentiment but China and Russia would veto that in a heartbeat.

 

[Indus]

Afghanistan is where Empires go to die.

Hopefully the American empire dies soon.. can't wait for Trumpistan and Scientific scum to be 2 different countries

 

[uallas5]

The US lost the war in Afghanistan the moment boots hit the ground.........in Iraq.

 

[Zorba]

The population has nothing to do with it. They vast majority of the people also hate the taliban and have always hated them. The problem is the taliban has the guns and organization and so they have stayed in power.

I think if the population was really behind the government, the military would be fighting a little harder.

Regardless, if after 20 years, the country folds in 2 months without us, I don't think a couple more would've made any difference.

 

[amenx]

The news media IS WRONG!!!!
Americans DO NOT want to be engaged in war especially OVER THERE.
The American people WILL NOT be angry with this withdrawal.
Americans ARE NOT Warhawks nor do they desire to be.
ANd frankly.... Americans COULD GIVE A RATS ASS about Afghanistan or any other ghanistan. The generals care because war and destruction is their business, but no American family will be sitting around the old kitchen table angry and upset about the US ditching Afghanistan.

The media will make A BIG STINKY DEAL about the US leaving. That is..... until a mass shooting takes place in some school or in some Walmart. Then Afghanistan will be all but forgotten.

Thats the problem with most Americans. They know jack shit about the world around them and how events in some far off obscure place can impact them to a frightening degree. Sept 11 was hatched in Afghanistan by Al-Qaeda and now they are very likely to make a comeback there again under the rule of the Taliban.

 

[zinfamous]

U.S.S.R. never had control of Afghanistan?

lolno