The Joseph R. Biden Score Card

Afghanistan: The last US military planes have left Afghanistan, marking the end of the United States' longest war - CNNPolitics


I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans," McKenzie told reporters. "The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30th, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m. East Coast time, and the last manned aircraft is now clearing the airspace above Afghanistan."

We believe there's still a small number who remain, and we're trying to determine exactly how many," the official told reporters Monday. "We are going through manifests of people who have departed, we are calling and texting and WhatsApping and emailing our lists, in an effort to have a more concrete figure regarding how many Americans may remain."

 

Biden's a decent fellow and has done some good things already--BUT--- the way he pulled out of Afghanistan was badly wrong. They left lists of those that helped the US in any way for the Taliban to get. They left people there --even American citizens to the Taliban, not to mention millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment that the taliban now have control over. That was all extremely STUPID,SHORT SIGHTED and in my opinion reckless and life endangering. God dammit , if those in the government knew we were getting out some amount of time ago--this could have and should have been done a hell of a lot better.

 

War never ends, but going after stone age throwbacks still living in the dark ages with Predator drones, and even blowing up the occasional hospital just to get one the bastards, is not war.

 

I’m trying to make sense of why that information was handed over to the Taliban, and the only thing I could think of was maybe it was to help facilitate and expedited evacuation and to let them clearly know that when these listed individuals come through any of your checkpoints- let them through. It’s not like the Taliban wasn’t going to be able to access the information anyways, especially since they took over the embassy.

I’m still pleased with Biden’s performance with dealing with this shit sandwich, 20 years in the making. There was no way we were getting out of there without a “farewell gift”- and I still think the Taliban is behind last Thursday’s attack, in some way, shape or form.

 

It’s all part of warfare though, regardless. And It all happened in a place where service members have fought for 20 years. It’s still war…..

 

When it isn't war, its business and, without business, there can be no war. The US went in, cut the heads off as many roosters as they could, made a few infrastructure improvements, and can now claim property rights, and return whenever they want. We also did a thorough survey while we were there, for minerals.

 

Weapons at the airport were "demilitarized" right before the last men left Afghanistan.


The US military says it permanently disabled over 150 vehicles and aircraft before leaving Kabul so they can 'never be used again'

 

We have no further interests in Afghanistan. If we go back for anything, it will be to possibly get any US that got left behind or to do surgical strikes on prominent threats to prevent another 9-11 from happening.

 

We can return whenever we want? Please consult with your doctor, you may need a change in your prescription.

 

George Bush gets us into an imperialistic nation-building exercise at a cost ( on our children's credit card) of over 2 trillion dollars, with no clear, achievable mission and no exit strategy.
Barack Obama doubles down and increases our military presence (not that McConnell and the rest of his merry band of Fascists would've let him withdraw without facing impeachment).
Trump unilaterally signs a 'peace accord' (capitulation) with the Taliban, freezing out out Asraf Ghani's government entirely, released 5,000 Taliban from POW camps, and promised to evacuate by May 1st 2021. Hell, he even invited them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11 for a photo op.
He also bragged that what he'd set in motion couldn't be undone.
Joe Biden inhereted a treaty that Constitutionally carries the force of law, and the pressing strategic necessity to reassure the world that the U.S. actually does uphold their treaty commitments, a 20 year war with zero probability of a successful ending, a martinet government which had already given up any pretense of leadership, an opposing force to which we'd already capitulated, a national army that had zero command and control from Kabul, a military-industrial complex that had been consistently lying to the past four administrations, assuring everyone that everything was coming up roses; victory was at hand if you'd only invest a few more hundreds of billions, and only 2,500 U.S. troops left on the ground.
The U.S. just completed the largest airlift in history; 123,000 people in just 17 days, from a Third World commercial airfield in a war zone completely surrounded by hostile forces at the cost of only 13 American lives.
I think Biden's done a hell of a good job under damn near impossible circumstances, including deliberate sabotage by the prior administration.
I sincerely doubt that any of his armchair-general critics could've done better.

 

In hindsight we should have evacuated all American civilians and Afghanis who worked for us before pulling out our troops, but we didn't forsee the Afghan military collapsing so quickly. We thought we would have plenty of time for an orderly evacuation.

Afghanistan has a history of repelling outside occupiers. Now they're occupied by an internal force who won't tolerate any resistance. The Taliban claims to have become more moderate but it's clear that many of its members are homicidal fanatics who won't be controlled. If they try to take their holy war outside of Afghanistan the shit will hit the fan.

 

And I seriously think Biden will steadily recover in the polls from how he handled this whole fiasco.

 

Biden Deserves Credit, Not Blame, for Afghanistan
"The very last chapter of America’s benighted stay in Afghanistan should be seen as one of accomplishment on the part of the military and its civilian leadership. Once again the courage and unique capabilities of the U.S. armed services have been made clear. And, in a stark change from recent years, an American leader has done the hard thing, the right thing: set aside politics and put both America’s interests and values first."

 

"Oh! Yeah? That's all Biden's fault" ~ Some MAGA Hat Guy

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3572057/video-taliban-flying-black-hawk-helicopter-afghan-city/


The clip was uploaded by an account called Talib Times - a page claiming to be the official news source for the Islamic Emirate.

"Our Air Force! At this time, the Islamic Emirate's air force helicopters are flying over Kandahar city and patrolling the city," the tweet read.

Just days before, social media footage appeared to show militants taking the same-style helicopters for a joy ride.

However the pilot but was unable to get the aircraft off the ground.


It remains unknown if the fighters have been trained to fly the helicopter or who was at the controls.

The videos have now sparked fears over what the fanatics could do with a fleet of helicopter gunships.

 

Killing Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, was good for business, and killing as many of the Taliban as they could was good for business. Its nice to be able let the whole world know, in no uncertain terms, who is reliable and good for business. The US has about Three Trillion Dollars worth of minerals they'd like to claim, as soon as prices on swarm bots come down.

 

Oh, but they'll find some reason to bitch - probably the paper towels were too thin.

It's probably time to stop rebuilding cities that are under sea level, that area is just not sustainable especially with sea levels rising.

 

I had to catch myself there. I was gonna bitch about all the water rescues, and why the hell didn't you get out since you had 3 day's notice..... But where were those people going to go? They can't afford food or a car, much more just waltz off to an upland hotel for a week at $200/night. It's probably time to relocate a bunch of people. Not many storms in Arizona or New Mexico or mid Texas. I think, with the traditional kindness of the red states, this helping the poor and unfortunate would be right up their alley.