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How with all the advanced equipment, spy satellites, human sources and trillions of dollars is the US military and intelligence community so clueless? What a wa

How with all the advanced equipment, spy satellites, human sources and trillions of dollars is the US military and intelligence community so clueless? What a waste of money. 4 days ago, US intelligence officials revised their estimate for the fall of Kabul from 12 to 3 months. https://archive.ph/14OGH https://archive.ph/14OGH AUG 13: “Kabul is not in an imminent threat.” - John Kirby, Pentagon Spokesman AUG 15: Kabul taken by Taliban. https://twitter.com/MrsT106/status/1426936592573284353 https://twitter.com/MrsT106/status/1426936592573284353

thesuperbigfrog 5y ago
I think the assumption was that the Afghanistan army that the US funded, trained, etc. would fight back instead of running or surrendering. Looks like that was a bad assumption.
- andruby 5y ago
  So we’re going back for a cycle of US-trained and armed people joining an extremist group that will turn on the US? I hope history doesn’t repeat itself completely :(
owroomexorcist 5y ago
No proof to suggest this is true, but I assume they were lying through their teeth.
- drumhead 5y ago
  I was going to ask who, but then I realised everyone was.
WJW 5y ago
That would not have aided in the policy goal of "leaving Afghanistan". This was already such a well known strategy in the 80s that the (absolutely fantastic) British comedy show Yes Minister explained exactly how to do it: Bernard Woolley : What if the Prime Minister insists we help them? Sir Humphrey Appleby : Then we follow the four-stage strategy. Bernard Woolley : What's that? Sir Richard Wharton : Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis. Sir Richard Wharton : In stage one we say nothing is going to happen. Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it. Sir Richard Wharton : In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do. Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
- forgingahead 5y ago
  The back-and-forth sounds similar to the same concerns raised about mail-in voting and security of the vote for last year, or even for strong action to be taken in early days of the pandemic (masks, border closures, etc). Nothing to see here since nothing has happened yet, after it happens it's too late to do anything about it. Oops! Sad I guess, but not unexpected any more.
LatteLazy 5y ago
This was contained in the publicly released treaty the US signed with the Taliban last year. No surprise. No fuss. Just theatre. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-F... Pretty much every point in section 2 pre-supposes that the Taliban will control all of Afghanistan, from domestic security to issuing visas.
sto_hristo 5y ago
It's like a grownup version of Looney Tunes. This is basically video game pacing.

thesuperbigfrog 5y ago

I think the assumption was that the Afghanistan army that the US funded, trained, etc. would fight back instead of running or surrendering. Looks like that was a bad assumption.

andruby 5y ago
So we’re going back for a cycle of US-trained and armed people joining an extremist group that will turn on the US? I hope history doesn’t repeat itself completely :(

owroomexorcist 5y ago

No proof to suggest this is true, but I assume they were lying through their teeth.

drumhead 5y ago
I was going to ask who, but then I realised everyone was.

WJW 5y ago

That would not have aided in the policy goal of "leaving Afghanistan". This was already such a well known strategy in the 80s that the (absolutely fantastic) British comedy show Yes Minister explained exactly how to do it: Bernard Woolley : What if the Prime Minister insists we help them? Sir Humphrey Appleby : Then we follow the four-stage strategy. Bernard Woolley : What's that? Sir Richard Wharton : Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis. Sir Richard Wharton : In stage one we say nothing is going to happen. Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it. Sir Richard Wharton : In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do. Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

forgingahead 5y ago
The back-and-forth sounds similar to the same concerns raised about mail-in voting and security of the vote for last year, or even for strong action to be taken in early days of the pandemic (masks, border closures, etc). Nothing to see here since nothing has happened yet, after it happens it's too late to do anything about it. Oops! Sad I guess, but not unexpected any more.

LatteLazy 5y ago

This was contained in the publicly released treaty the US signed with the Taliban last year. No surprise. No fuss. Just theatre. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-F... Pretty much every point in section 2 pre-supposes that the Taliban will control all of Afghanistan, from domestic security to issuing visas.

sto_hristo 5y ago

It's like a grownup version of Looney Tunes. This is basically video game pacing.