4 ms·

Biden orders 1k more troops to support airlift of U.S. embassy

7 points by cwwc 5y ago

caicalicali 5y ago
Biden should be impeached. Milley should be court martialed. Some of the helicopters and weapons that they gave to the Taliban are expensive as fuck. It is basically an arms deal gone horribly wrong.
deleted 5y ago
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988747 5y ago
This is the ultimate proof that America is in decline: at its best they would have anticipated it and evacuated the embassy at least a week ago. If they can't even protect the diplomats how are they supposed to protect common citizens?
- lttlrck 5y ago
  It illustrates more about the Afghan army than anything else. Willingness to fight, quality of training and recruits … I don’t know but it’s very sad on all fronts after 20 years of investment (or call it what you will).
  - 988747 5y ago
    I read it somewhere today: over last 20 years Americans trained the Afghan army to fight in the same style as them, which means heavily rely on air support. Now they have withdrawn all air support an expect Afghans to hold their ground.
    - hollerith 5y ago
      Yeah, well I read somewhere yesterday that the Afgan air force has over 200 warplanes and that the US air force is still flying sorties in support of Afgan ground troops (though they might stop).
      - jimmygrapes 5y ago
        This is the primary thing. Their air force could be one of the best in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Israel a distant 2nd and 3rd, but... it's not. I can't really explain why, but my opinion is that the "allied forces" trained the Afghani forces with the intention and assumption of maintenance being taken care of for them. The pilots are fine, the mechanics are fine, the ground crews are fine; the supply chain is not, and Right to Repair issues still exist despite the circumstances.
- cft 5y ago
  Same thing happened to the Soviet Union 3 years before the break-up. I think the decay is going to be sudden, and fairly rapid: not a decline
- creato 5y ago
  Evacuating the embassy is probably a last resort, because it's a strong negative signal of the US' faith in the Afghan government. It may be obvious in hindsight, but if the US evacuated the embassy weeks ago, that could have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the conflict (instead of a consequence of it).
  - 988747 5y ago
    Deciding factor in the outcome of the conflict was this demented [1] idiot Biden being elected the President of the United States. Everything else is just a logical consequence of that. [1] https://newsthump.com/2020/05/14/joe-biden-forgets-own-name-vows-to-bring-joe-biden-to-justice/ https://newsthump.com/2020/05/14/joe-biden-forgets-own-name-...
    - 988747 5y ago
      And if anyone still needed proof that Biden is indeed an idiot then his today's address should be enough.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the deciding factor in the outcome of this conflict; everything since has been about dragging out the inevitable. And, boy, has there been a lot of dragging out.
rasz 5y ago
I just dont understand US. There was this whole big argument about Afghanistan being a lost cause because US military was always designed to fight standing armies and not insurgents, yet there we have a standing army approaching Kabul met by this limp dick non resistance reaction. Put a couple AC-130 on constant rotation and mow down anything moving in the direction of the capital.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > There was this whole big argument about Afghanistan being a lost cause because US military was always designed to fight standing armies and not insurgents No, Afghanistan was a lost cause because the distraction of the Iraq War led to bungling most of the first decade or so of occupation, which is a nonreversible problem.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  But is there an easily spottable army? Can't they just disappear into the populace when they know the Americans are coming? It seems like they've been hiding amongst that populace anyway. And they've had another 20 years' time to gather and train recruits. If I were a war general tasked with solving this, maybe just track all the baddies' pickup trucks via drone/satellite when they "disappear", and send the firepower to destroy them..
- reducesuffering 5y ago
  Too late. Taliban have already breached inside Kabul suburbs in record time, 4 miles from US embassy. Nothing tells you your government is incompetent like seeing reports of "90 days possible to take Kabul; 60 days; 30 days; 72 hours" when all along you could tell ANA wasn't resisting and that it was happening in real time.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

7 points by cwwc 5y ago

Biden should be impeached. Milley should be court martialed. Some of the helicopters and weapons that they gave to the Taliban are expensive as fuck. It is basically an arms deal gone horribly wrong.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

988747 5y ago

This is the ultimate proof that America is in decline: at its best they would have anticipated it and evacuated the embassy at least a week ago. If they can't even protect the diplomats how are they supposed to protect common citizens?

lttlrck 5y ago
It illustrates more about the Afghan army than anything else. Willingness to fight, quality of training and recruits … I don’t know but it’s very sad on all fronts after 20 years of investment (or call it what you will).
- 988747 5y ago
  I read it somewhere today: over last 20 years Americans trained the Afghan army to fight in the same style as them, which means heavily rely on air support. Now they have withdrawn all air support an expect Afghans to hold their ground.
  - hollerith 5y ago
    Yeah, well I read somewhere yesterday that the Afgan air force has over 200 warplanes and that the US air force is still flying sorties in support of Afgan ground troops (though they might stop).
    - jimmygrapes 5y ago
      This is the primary thing. Their air force could be one of the best in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Israel a distant 2nd and 3rd, but... it's not. I can't really explain why, but my opinion is that the "allied forces" trained the Afghani forces with the intention and assumption of maintenance being taken care of for them. The pilots are fine, the mechanics are fine, the ground crews are fine; the supply chain is not, and Right to Repair issues still exist despite the circumstances.
cft 5y ago
Same thing happened to the Soviet Union 3 years before the break-up. I think the decay is going to be sudden, and fairly rapid: not a decline
creato 5y ago
Evacuating the embassy is probably a last resort, because it's a strong negative signal of the US' faith in the Afghan government. It may be obvious in hindsight, but if the US evacuated the embassy weeks ago, that could have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the conflict (instead of a consequence of it).
- 988747 5y ago
  Deciding factor in the outcome of the conflict was this demented [1] idiot Biden being elected the President of the United States. Everything else is just a logical consequence of that. [1] https://newsthump.com/2020/05/14/joe-biden-forgets-own-name-vows-to-bring-joe-biden-to-justice/ https://newsthump.com/2020/05/14/joe-biden-forgets-own-name-...
  - 988747 5y ago
    And if anyone still needed proof that Biden is indeed an idiot then his today's address should be enough.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the deciding factor in the outcome of this conflict; everything since has been about dragging out the inevitable. And, boy, has there been a lot of dragging out.

rasz 5y ago

I just dont understand US. There was this whole big argument about Afghanistan being a lost cause because US military was always designed to fight standing armies and not insurgents, yet there we have a standing army approaching Kabul met by this limp dick non resistance reaction. Put a couple AC-130 on constant rotation and mow down anything moving in the direction of the capital.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> There was this whole big argument about Afghanistan being a lost cause because US military was always designed to fight standing armies and not insurgents No, Afghanistan was a lost cause because the distraction of the Iraq War led to bungling most of the first decade or so of occupation, which is a nonreversible problem.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
But is there an easily spottable army? Can't they just disappear into the populace when they know the Americans are coming? It seems like they've been hiding amongst that populace anyway. And they've had another 20 years' time to gather and train recruits. If I were a war general tasked with solving this, maybe just track all the baddies' pickup trucks via drone/satellite when they "disappear", and send the firepower to destroy them..
reducesuffering 5y ago
Too late. Taliban have already breached inside Kabul suburbs in record time, 4 miles from US embassy. Nothing tells you your government is incompetent like seeing reports of "90 days possible to take Kabul; 60 days; 30 days; 72 hours" when all along you could tell ANA wasn't resisting and that it was happening in real time.

deleted 5y ago

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