Back in September of 2021 a US Marine said anyone who believes the US withdrawal from Afghanistan would've been any different even if the US stayed there longer or came up with a different plan is wrong and it's just wishing thinking.
I want so much to find the news report of his statement which I saw on TV back then so I can back it up with a source. I tend tp agree with him. He wasn't a general or colonel, he was maybe a mid level officer or sergeant. I'll keep trying to find the source which was from a progressive news network. In the meantime it seems what he was saying is even if a few thousand US troops remained there for more years or if the withdrawal plans varied the outcome would have been about the same in chaos.
I agree because how would the Afghan citizens not have rushed an airport or a nearby sensitive area in approximately the same messy way as it actually happened in 2021 even if the US departure was delayed until 2025 or longer? I'm sure all sorts of scenarios from conservatives will say that this or that military plan would've made the withdrawal a mostly orderly process.
Yeah, fine, let those plans roll in, they have been for almost a year and a half. And they will be in preponderance in the Repub controlled investigation. God I can see the maps, diagrams, and charts showing how the withdrawal could've been so peaceful if 2k or so US troops were placed here or there for another six months with some magical methods outlining how there would've been very little rushing or rioting by the populace near the evacuation areas. Btw I was in the US Army in the mid 70s as a SP4, for a few years in Germany as a surveyor for Lance short range nuclear missiles and 8 inch howitzer field artillery.
Just wait for those shoulda been coulda been diagrams to show up in Congress on CSPAN. And you conservatives out there in this forum just itching to defend such alternatives plans to what Biden implemented. Get in this thread and call that Marine an idiot or something. I hope the Dems rip apart the conservative alternative Afghan withdrawal plans. So much so that House Republicans get so furious over the insults that they call the Sergeant at Arms and physically try to harass the Dems.
And I even supported having a couple thousand US troops remain near the airport for a few more years if necessary. In hopes of a much more orderly withdrawal. And that runs counter to what the Marine said at the top of this post. Which makes me sound like a hypocrite and that may be so.
But it still doesn't change that what the Marine said is probably still true. That I'm wrong and any conservatives or progressives/liberals or anyone are also wrong and guilty of wishful thinking if we think the outcome of a complete withdrawal would've been significantly better than what actually happened. Edit: And that's even if the withdrawal would've been planned & implemented by different people including within the US military or delayed for years.
Edit again: The Dems will have Marine or Army soldiers like the one at the beginning of this post say the same thing at the investigation on the House floor. Maybe even the same Marine I mentioned whoever he is. And some conservatives will be so angry they may threaten them. And that's typical of conservatives. Well at least the far right wing ones, and the far left too, to threaten force. So typical. And it may be spreading to the mainstream population.
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