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

[sandorski]

The Taliban was not the reason to invade Afghanistan in the first place. They became a Target because they stood in the way of an angry mob. The poor Leadership of the US at the very beginning was the cause of decades of costly and pointless conflict. Just as many predicted.

The Taliban seems to be the only Afghani organization even capable and willing to bring Order to Afghanistan. Maybe we should let them.

 

[sportage]

Don’t buy this crap coming from republicans like Joni Ernst with bashing Biden and military policy. Trump could do no better and actually made things much worse by setting the stage for the disaster happening now i.e. there was no easy way to escape Afghanistan once Trump got his hands on the situation. Besides, Ernst is once again making politics out of anything she can because she still believes that Donald Trump will return. Ernst was herself in the military and she should know better than to criticize a sitting president when it comes to our military and policy. Shame on her. The Taliban isn’t the problem, Joni Ernst is the problem. Traitors all of them from Trump down. And we have Mitch McConnell tossing in his two cents worth. Mitch McConnell, the guy too busy giving Vladimir Putin blowjobs to impeach Trump. They think no one remembers…. but we remember.

 

[Vic]

All the people who told you that the Dems are warmongers just like the GOP and that Biden would never get us out of Afghanistan... now want you to be upset that Biden is getting us out of Afghanistan.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm fine with getting the hell out of Afghanistan...we should never have been there in the first place...getting OBL was the goal, not bringing democracy to a people who had never had it...and had no idea what to do with it.
We SHOULD have learned from the Soviets...they couldn't bring Afghanistan under control...and they didn't fuck around with niceties...they were beyond brutal.
I'm glad to see the US troops leave...what I'm NOT glad about is that once again, we pulled out and left vehicles, aircraft, and all sorts of weaponry for the enemy to use against the populace. Apparently we didn't learn that lesson from Vietnam either.

 

[Meghan54]

So if I understand your correctly, you want to punish everyone living in those countries and insure that the entire population suffers.

North Korea sound familiar?

 

[Meghan54]

All the people who told you that the Dems are warmongers just like the GOP and that Biden would never get us out of Afghanistan... now want you to be upset that Biden is getting us out of Afghanistan.

Remember, Trump negotiated this withdrawal with the Taliban, without any input or even any presence by the Afghan govt. So Biden is, again for Dem presidents, getting stuck fulfilling a treaty/agreement the previous GOP president made. Like Obama stick with GWB’s negotiated withdrawal from Iraq.

Guess Dems should take the conservative lead here…trash/overturn every foreign agreement the US enters in the prior GOP admin. Kinda like when the GOP trashed the TPP, Iran’s nuclear treaty, etc.

 

[WelshBloke]

Another win for China,

China reportedly prepares to recognize Taliban if they oust Afghan government

China is ready to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate ruler in Afghanistan if the extremist group manages to topple the democratically elected government in Kabul — which would also undermine t…

nypost.com

I mean china are probably right here.
Ideology and western values aren't going to grow in Afghanistan by means of foreign occupation (and that's what it was, look how fast it's crumbling without the foreign powers).
Sometimes it's time for realpolitik.
If we spend as much time and effort normalising relations with the Taliban at the least we can end up with a stable Afghanistan.

We absolutely should have evacuated everyone that worked with western forces before the troops pulled out though. We painted targets on those people and left them to it.

 

[cytg111]

I mean china are probably right here.
Ideology and western values aren't going to grow in Afghanistan by means of foreign occupation (and that's what it was, look how fast it's crumbling without the foreign powers).
Sometimes it's time for realpolitik.
If we spend as much time and effort normalising relations with the Taliban at the least we can end up with a stable Afghanistan.

We absolutely should have evacuated everyone that worked with western forces before the troops pulled out though. We painted targets on those people and left them to it.

I get that ideologically, but thats not how I see it, its a proxy country for psyops warfare, like Putin creating a humanitarian disaster to flood Europe with refugees that will in turn destabilize and shift nations in an alt right direction, ripe for psyops fuckery.
Like that I see Afghanistan, if Taliban really is funded by, and probably not only by, ISI, then that is where your enemy is at, you will never “win” the war in Afghanistan, that was always impossible, however those who wishes to flood the shores of xyz with heroin takes a win, those who wants the west in perpetual conflict in ME wins.. wtf I know, just know its not about the “Taliban”

 

[WelshBloke]

I get that ideologically, but thats not how I see it, its a proxy country for psyops warfare, like Putin creating a humanitarian disaster to flood Europe with refugees that will in turn destabilize and shift nations in an alt right direction, ripe for psyops fuckery.
Like that I see Afghanistan, if Taliban really is funded by, and probably not only by, ISI, then that is where your enemy is at, you will never “win” the war in Afghanistan, that was always impossible, however those who wishes to flood the shores of xyz with heroin takes a win, those who wants the west in perpetual conflict in ME wins.. wtf I know, just know its not about the “Taliban”

The Taliban are a terrible choice for using as psyops. They pretty much just want control of their own country and don't give a shit what anyone elses aims are.
We clearly can't make much difference in the country unless we keep a huge number of troops there, but we can make a few differences internationally by dealing with the Taliban.
It probably wouldn't be difficult to get them to cut off the heroin supply, it was us that was protecting the poppy fields from them at one point.
And if we don't actually get involved in boots on the ground warfare there there probably won't be a massive flood of refugees, particularly if we offer food aid when things get tough there.

Personally I think there are very few advantages to ongoing war in Afghanistan but we can get some positives out of a stable Afghanistan and working with the new regime.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

China & Russia can have a good time in there. I’m sure it will work out great for them like it has everyone else.

 

[WelshBloke]

China & Russia can have a good time in there. I’m sure it will work out great for them like it has everyone else.

China won't go in there politically, they'll just want natural resources and they'll pay a lot for the Taliban to let them do it.
If the West isn't there I'm not sure Russia will have much interest apart from trying to get us mired in there again by running their usual covert social media campaigns.

 

[K1052]

China is complaining they've got another islamist country on their border and Pakistan lamenting that the US allowed this to happen to them. Just fuck all the way off.

 

[K1052]

Kabul is surrounded, Afghan forces surrendered Bagram.

US choppering people out of embassy to Karzai Int.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1426801235966021634

 

[Fanatical Meat]

China won't go in there politically, they'll just want natural resources and they'll pay a lot for the Taliban to let them do it.
If the West isn't there I'm not sure Russia will have much interest apart from trying to get us mired in there again by running their usual covert social media campaigns.

how will China get the resources then, which is my point. Some Gov entity or Company or dudes will have to go there and by going there I guarantee there will be jihadist craziness attached to it.

 

[WelshBloke]

how will China get the resources then, which is my point. Some Gov entity or Company or dudes will have to go there and by going there I guarantee there will be jihadist craziness attached to it.

China asks the Taliban if they can send a mining company in, china pays the Taliban lots of protection money.
The mining company is now a guest of the Taliban and is paying them for protection.
The Taliban treat guests as a special thing plus they need money.

Also china doesn't really give a shit if their mining company drones gets killed anyway.

 

[K1052]

The career pentagon and state department people clearly did not believe the country would fall so rapidly since they've mostly flubbed the SIV applicant evacuation. Like even if you fucked up you've got planes and can charter...how hard is it fly everyone to Guam and sort it out later.

 

[brycejones]

China is complaining they've got another islamist country on their border and Pakistan lamenting that the US allowed this to happen to them. Just fuck all the way off.

Pakistan has funded and provided refuge to the Taliban for 20 years. Fuck their whining.

 

[Ajay]

Yeah, there's just a few other POTUSES who own it too, starting with GWB.

Well, of course. But, I was only talking about our recent withdrawal. That was obviously screwed up as we are already sending 3000 marines + combat air resources back in order to evacuate our embassy. I’m just surprised that Biden’s team didn’t do better job. There will be failures at multiple levels - I just want to see it spelled out in full at some point.

 

[pauldun170]

Well, of course. But, I was only talking about our recent withdrawal. That was obviously screwed up as we are already sending 3000 marines + combat air resources back in order to evacuate our embassy. I’m just surprised that Biden’s team didn’t do better job. There will be failures at multiple levels - I just want to see it spelled out in full at some point.

What was screwed up? Are you saying the administration screwed up for not planning on the Afghan army collapsing?

 

[HomerJS]

The Supreme Court 5 to 4 killed all those people in Afghanistan when they overthrew the will of the people in Florida. Gore won. And please do not waste your time telling me different. That time the Republicans were able to cheat and win the election as they again may next time unless people wake up.

I don't disagree with your former premise but no President elected after the attacks of 9/11 that wouldn't have gone into Afghanistan.

We lost focus immediately going into Iraq when Afghanistan should have gotten our complete attention.

 

[K1052]

I don't disagree with your former premise but no President elected after the attacks of 9/11 that wouldn't have gone into Afghanistan.

We lost focus immediately going into Iraq when Afghanistan should have gotten our complete attention.

I think this is probably right but am uncertain the ultimate outcome for Afghanistan would have been different. One of my friends would likely still be alive though without Iraq 2.0

 

[pauldun170]

It appears that the talking points being floated around are centered around
"The withdrawal is a failure of leadership and a disaster" because "Afghan allies left behind" and then sprinkle some "young women who learned how to read" on top.

There is a backlog of SIV applicants and apparently those critical of the administration wanted the admin to basically dismantle the system to speed up the process so we can evacuate any Afghan that helped us.

Also, it appears that people are critical of the administration for
1. Believing that the Afghan security forces would actually fight.
2. Not sending in 100,000 troops to restart the invasion and eliminate the Taliban from the country prior to withdrawal.
3. Push out the withdrawal date after witnessing the Taliban progress so that we can all watch US troops last stand in Kabul during Thanksgiving.

 

[HomerJS]

Sad. I'm hearing reports the Taliban are going door to door taking small girls from their mothers.

This is what religious freedom gets you

 

[Jhhnn]

China is complaining they've got another islamist country on their border and Pakistan lamenting that the US allowed this to happen to them. Just fuck all the way off.

Sources please.

 

[HomerJS]

Kabul is surrounded, Afghan forces surrendered Bagram.

US choppering people out of embassy to Karzai Int.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1426801235966021634

Images are eerily familiar...