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

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brandonbull

brandonbull

Diamond Member
May 3, 2005
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hal2kilo said:
Democrats are their own worst enemy. They seek truth. Nothing could ever have worked with how Trump surrendered. If the Pubs were in the majority, we wouldn't even be having these hearings, and if they did happen, no one from Trump's admin would have been compelled to testify. Fuck these looking backwards hearings.
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Democrats and truth seeking are mutually exclusive.
 
V

VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,511
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Some batshit nutball Qpublican senator from Idaho decided to interrupt Anthony Blinken’s briefing the Senate on the Afghanistan withdrawal to demand that Blinken reveal who has “the authority to press the button and cut off the president’s speaking ability”.

https://www.rawstory.com/no-magic-button-cutoff-biden/

Who has the authority to press the button and cut off the president’s speaking ability? Fox ‘’‘News’’’ (et al).
 
hal2kilo

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
25,436
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VRAMdemon said:
Some batshit nutball Qpublican senator from Idaho decided to interrupt Anthony Blinken’s briefing the Senate on the Afghanistan withdrawal to demand that Blinken reveal who has “the authority to press the button and cut off the president’s speaking ability”.

https://www.rawstory.com/no-magic-button-cutoff-biden/

Who has the authority to press the button and cut off the president’s speaking ability? Fox ‘’‘News’’’ (et al).
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WTF. Yea, I saw that. All I could think of, was this guy a Qanon conspiracy nut? Funny how you named him. I should have just realized, he's the Idaho Senator, move along.
Of course, this plays to the narrative "Kamela's really in charge" conspiracy circulating around.
 
M

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
12,906
3,681
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1438941957330509832

Mistakes happen in the fog of war, so this doesn't prove that the U.S. withdrawal should have gone better. IMHO it is at least one incident that proves some mistakes did occur, and anybody saying the job was well done has partisan blinders on.

It's interesting that in recent comments, Sec. Antony Blinken appeared to lay the responsibility for the unilateral withdrawal on President Biden's shoulders. This was in response to a question about our NATO allies forcefully telling the U.S. to not get the hell out of Dodge. I guess Blinken is tired of being the fall guy for the administration.
 
K1052

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
51,241
43,469
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Nobody in America cares how many Afghan civilians we accidentally kill, which really has been a big part of the problem all along. A lot of people in that country mostly minding their business probably haven't been loving that a missile tipped with an exploding knife drawer (among other fancy weapons) could randomly pay them a visit for no real reason.
 
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PlanetJosh

PlanetJosh

Golden Member
May 6, 2013
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It's shocking to read that headline about the drone hitting the wrong vehicle and all the civilians who died from it. I think many of us will feel sad about this for a long time. I don't mean all the time for most but when it comes up in our memories sometimes like with other terrible mistakes made by governments.
 
J

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,684
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manly said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1438941957330509832

Mistakes happen in the fog of war, so this doesn't prove that the U.S. withdrawal should have gone better. IMHO it is at least one incident that proves some mistakes did occur, and anybody saying the job was well done has partisan blinders on.

It's interesting that in recent comments, Sec. Antony Blinken appeared to lay the responsibility for the unilateral withdrawal on President Biden's shoulders. This was in response to a question about our NATO allies forcefully telling the U.S. to not get the hell out of Dodge. I guess Blinken is tired of being the fall guy for the administration.
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Blah, blah, blah, as if Biden had full control of the situation, which he obviously did not. And, uhh, what alternate course of action should he have taken under the circumstances, anyway?
 
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MrSquished

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
25,873
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K1052 said:
Nobody in America cares how many Afghan civilians we accidentally kill, which really has been a big part of the problem all along. A lot of people in that country mostly minding their business probably haven't been loving that a missile tipped with an exploding knife drawer (among other fancy weapons) could randomly pay them a visit for no real reason.
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There was a great piece on NPR the other day with an author who wrote a book on the war in Afghanistan and how fucking terribly we ran it. We basically offered money for terrorists, and local warlords just started turning people in for the loot. It was a money grab for them. Many innocents got caught in this scheme. Then stories about so many innocents killed via drones, snipers, bombs. They had a story of a guy in a field that was just making tea but they said it looked like he was planting an IED leaning over, boom, gone. We lost a lot of goodwill in certain parts of areas like that, which is why the Taliban took over so quickly, people didn't see them quite as bad anymore and cut deals with them, and had no faith in a sham Afghan government in bed with the Americans.

Total shit show.
 
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P

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
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manly said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1438941957330509832

Mistakes happen in the fog of war, so this doesn't prove that the U.S. withdrawal should have gone better. IMHO it is at least one incident that proves some mistakes did occur, and anybody saying the job was well done has partisan blinders on.
Click to expand...

Just another example of why it was a bad idea to be there in the first place and why Biden made the right choice in getting out.
 
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brandonbull

brandonbull

Diamond Member
May 3, 2005
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pmv said:
Just another example of why it was a bad idea to be there in the first place and why Biden made the right choice in getting out.
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Biden didn't make that choice. Remember, Biden tried to lay the blame for the trainwreck of a withdrawal on Trump.
 
P

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
14,664
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brandonbull said:
Biden didn't make that choice. Remember, Biden tried to lay the blame for the trainwreck of a withdrawal on Trump.
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Whatever - Biden actually finished the job, even if Trump's "deal" limited the scope for choices about timing and execution.. Just as he cancelled that pipeline. Two ways he's been better than I expected. Two cheers for Biden. I'm still expecting him to get a lot of other things wrong, though.
 
MrSquished

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
25,873
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pmv said:
Whatever - Biden actually finished the job, even if Trump's "deal" limited the scope for choices about timing and execution.. Just as he cancelled that pipeline. Two ways he's been better than I expected. Two cheers for Biden. I'm still expecting him to get a lot of other things wrong, though.
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Trump's deal sucked. It was the right idea to get out of there, but his deal was terrible. He let go all those prisoners for nothing, including the guy who led the Taliban re taking over Afghanistan.

He cut out the Afghan government of the negotiations, which while it wouldn't have made the Afghan government amazing, it would have at least made them look legit. Perception counts for a lot, and by cutting the government out, it showed every Afghani warlord that the US had zero faith in them and the country was a free for all.

The war was failed from the start and execution, the withdrawal shit show was sealed by the deal.
 
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IronWing

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,064
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Panino Manino said:
Drones will continue dropping bombs on innocent people.
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True and it’s only going to get worse. Drones are cheap and difficult to trace. Everyone from governments to organized crime to plain old ornery folks are going to get in the game of dropping bombs on people.
 
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sportage

sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
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hal2kilo said:
Like the Republicans really care to get all those Afghans out in the first place.
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That's my Trumpie family...
They were all over Biden's ass about the evacuation, the deaths, and more so THOSE POOR REFUGEES. Then.... it was announced on local news that the state would accept some of those poor Afghan refugees. Video from the local news stations was aired showing refugees getting off planes at the local airport. Well... THAT did NOT go over very well with cries of foul and oh damn.... more illegals coming into the state, and all kinds of smug anti-refugee remarks from the Trumpies, my Trumpie family. Yes, those same Trumpies who were sooooo sympathetic only two weeks before. But now with those Afghan refugees as seen on TV were actually coming to the Trumpies state, town and cities. That was all it took to expose the Trumpie hypocrisy, the Trumpie faked concern over Afghanistan, and their faked concern for those dead American soldiers because they really did not care about dead American soldiers. They never have in the past.... My family, the Trumpies, the hypocrites.
 
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