Biden says he stands squarely behind Afghanistan decision

In the end, we'll all be grateful for Biden's "clean break" decision. When you spend 20 years propping up a military that doesnt want to fight its own civil war and local politicians who would rather flee the country, then making an exit would have never been clean and easy -- regardless of who is in the White House.

To Be Clear: if President Biden had kept our troops in Afghanistan and rolled back the Trump plan, Republicans would be attacking him for keeping our troops in harm's way in an unwinnable war.

“After 20 years, I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.”

The coalition support could have stayed another 20 years, and the outcome would be the same. Despised when there, despised when leaving. Best the latter.

It is disgusting me how the right wingers are all over this and crucifying Biden, when in fact he is only doing what Trump said he was going to do last year but did not. It was Trump that invited the Taliban reps to the U.S. to negotiate a deal and truce. Now all of a sudden these right wingers care so much about the well being of Afghanis.

Biden is standing by his decision as would any good leader. America is not responsible for being the world's police state. Thank you Joe for having the courage to finally end this two decade imperialist invasion of Afghanistan and war for oil.

https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2009/03/oil-and-gas-available-in-afghanistan

Biden: The buck stops with me.

Former guy: I don’t take responsibility for anything.

Stark contrast in leadership styles!!!

America trained the Afghans for 20 years. The Afghans responsibility was to defend their own country after years of training. The President of Afghanistan and the citizens handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban. WTF?

They say 3 days ago that taking the capital would require at least 30-90days. Taliban did it in less than 2 days. Clearly the military that the US had been training and supplying for the last 2 decades is the most useless army in the world. Full of traitors and cowards.

Look at the bright side. If the US didn't pull out, who knows how long they would have to keep babysitting that country. What a waste of time and resources.

@Mr Noidall

Biden bundled this plain and simple. Calling Trump the worst president in history is coming back to haunt Biden

LOL! Nice try to avoid the topic. The world and the US has already decided that trump is one of the worst president in US history.

The deal with the Taliban is just another example of trump doing Russia and China's bidding!

Try again!

For twenty years Afghan troops have been trained and given new weapons. For twenty years construction of roads, schools, hospitals electrical generators and water purification stations.

In all that time the country could not find a leader worthy of the term. The military, other than Afghan special forces, cut and ran or simply surrendered without a fight. A generation was brought up in freedom and yet they dont think it is worth fighting for. It may have been better to train female only battalions as they are the big losers in Taliban rule. At least they would fight for their country.

This is not a US problem or a allied coalition problem. If they refuse to fight for their own freedom, then they dont really want it. Hardly the fault of those who fought terrorists in their lands for so long.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Watching Clarissa Ward’s reporting from Kabul,.

That is one brave woman!

The scenes from the Kabul airport are surreal and a humanitarian tragedy. Not a particular fan of Biden or the former guy, but with the cards he was dealt there was little Biden could do. The status quo was becoming untenable.

What is truly hilarious is that the republican national committee's website conveniently deleted any reference to Trump's peace deal with the Taliban.

The right-wingers are truly shameless. They will do anything, lie, distort, ignore, just to crucify Biden for simply doing what the previous administrations pledged to do but did not.

It was the RIGHT decision, even if it will be politically harmful in the short term.

In 2 weeks, the story will be over, and Americans will be happy that the forever war is over.

@Zichi Trump''s Taliban deal was a bad one with the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners who returned to fighting. 

The Majority of Americans Left and Right Supported Trump’s Deal With Taliban to End Afghan War.

The UK's defense minister blamed Trump for the Afghanistan crisis, saying 'the die was cast' when Trump negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban

https://www.yahoo.com/news/uks-defense-minister-blamed-trump-103155633.html

"President Biden inherited a momentum, a momentum that had been given to the Taliban because they felt they had now won. He'd also inherited a momentum of troop withdrawal from the international community, the US."

"So I think in that sense, the seeds of what we're seeing today were before President Biden took office. The seeds were a peace deal that was [effectively] rushed, that wasn't done in collaboration properly with the international community and then a dividend taken out incredibly quickly."

He had previously called Trump's deal "rotten" and said the international community would likely "pay the consequences.

Another example of trump's conman business deals!

The Afghan military and the government failed its people.

To be perfectly fair, after 20 years of war and american occupation, a completely corrupt governement (Karzai) followed by a criminally inept one (Ghani), apparently most of the afghani population actually fully supports the taliban. That is exactly why they have advanced as quick as they did. Because there was barely anybody to oppose them.

Also, keep in mind that if Pakistan didn't support the taliban, they would barely exist at this point in time. If we're playing the blame game -and there's plenty of blame to go around-, Pakistan has to be mentioned.

The man who signed off on the Iraq war

You were a huge supporter of the Iraq War and you and your unnamed non-partisan historians claim Bush 2 was a successful president.

By your standards, it’s hard to attack Biden for that. You still supported it after seeing what was going on first hand.

Where is EU in all this ?

I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn’t stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn’t stop the process.”

Trump, 1 month ago

There’ll be lot of memory loss on the GOP side, so thought to remind them of another beauty from the former guy.

False.

That's actually pretty true. Most historians rank him in the very bottom tier.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/30/historian-ranks-trump-near-bottom-presidents-obama-rises-top-10/7795974002/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States#2021_Gallup_poll

Not a particular fan of Biden or the former guy, but with the cards he was dealt there was little Biden could do. The status quo was becoming untenable.

I agree with the above;

With regard the 'former guy'; it should come as no surprise to reasonable people, at least, that the most dishonest politician in US history is trying to re-write his own history:

TRUMP HOPES NO ONE REMEMBERS HE PUSHED FOR A FULL AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL IN JUNE

The 45th president is desperately trying to rewrite his own Afghanistan history.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/donald-trump-joe-biden-afghanistan

@Peter14

Totally agree with you. And it's funny how people from other countries put down America when they themselves have not done anything in terms of trying to improve Afghanistan. America is in the game and takes charge when it's in America's interest. I would like to see other countries involved but they just sit by and watch then blame everyone else.

The peace deal with the Taliban, supported by Russia, China, the UN among others by the way, called for the US and it’s allies to gradually pull out of Afghanistan and for the Taliban to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government. As soon as the Americans ceased pounding them, the Taliban increased their attacks on the Afghan army. Then they refused to talk with the Afghan government, unless 5,000 of their folk were released from prison. Not surprisingly, that even after this prisoner release, they never engaged in peace talks with the Afghan government. They are and have always been backstabbing liars and the mistake was to trust them. They also have claimed to not revert back to their earlier brutal rule, but that also remains to be seen.

Let’s not forget Trump wanted to have a secret meeting with the Taliban at Camp David days before 9/11.

We can add Afghanistan to the list of America hating countries, like Iran and NK, Iraq will be next! And the Chinese are already talking to the Taliban. Taliban leaders are not interested in infrastructure, they are only interested in lining their own pockets, they will sell Afghanistan to the Chinese in a heartbeat.

Why didn't Biden call in the UN to supervise the withdrawal instead of just dumping it?

I'm with Fizzbit. As soon as Biden unilaterally broke the deal all bets were off. The Afghan Government lost any tiny shred of credibility it may have had, the Afghan Army (?/) had no incentive to fight for such a government, the Taliban once again had an excuse for casting the US as liars and dishonorable and this debacle ensued.

Getting out is right, getting out like this is pathetic. Joe really has lived up to all of his prior billing. Incompetent and surrounded by hacks who have already previously demonstrated their hubris and lack of ability.

The US withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years of war: 4 questions about this historic moment.

https://theconversation.com/the-us-withdraws-from-afghanistan-after-20-years-of-war-4-questions-about-this-historic-moment-164300

The question is not necessarily about blame for the war, more competence in government.

Trump attempted a approach of negotiation, the main difficulty, one cannot trust the word or signature of religious extremists.

Joe Biden walked into trap of his own creation.

Joe should have taken and listened to the advice from his own appointed advisers.

The commander in the photo was in Gitmo for 8 years before being released claiming he was a simple person who wanted to help Americans.

Why would anyone think it strange if a person an invading alien army had arrested and abducted from his home and then left to rot 8 years in Gitmo had a mind to join the side of the winners, the Taliban, the sworn enemy of his tormentors?

watching the plane leaving with people clinging onto it and the pictures and videos of those desperate and terrified people begging and trying to get out will live in infamy and in the minds of the nation forever. 

This is one of those images that’ll be on the cover of TIME. They’re showing videos of two guys falling to death after the plane took off.

With the benefit of hindsight President Biden would have opted for a more phased withdrawal.

The EU and German Government are suggesting US Biden administration failed to inform them of the sudden withdrawal.

Disbelief and betrayal: Europe reacts to Biden’s Afghanistan ‘miscalculation’

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-reacts-bidens-afghanistan-withdrawal/

I mean Biden spent 8 years under Obama. Obama on the outside is the nicest person in the world. But he was aggressive as f@#k. Even the drone strikes alone... More in the first 2 years in office than George W's 8 years in office.

Don't despair people, it wont be long before the US finds another war to be part of. The weapons industry just needs to refresh the sales pitch of 'freedom and liberty down the barrel of a gun' before the profits start rolling in again. I would be curious to know how many years the US hasn't been involved in some kind of war since it was first established. Very few I imagine....

GdTokyo,if the US left Japan ,maybe you be one of those falling from a plane

America's purpose was finished when they killed Bin Laden in Afghanistan. For which, they were required to help Afghanistan. Commitment to Afghanistan ensued was only a pretense and was not a serious one.

W started the 20 year war and everyone is blaming Biden and Trump.

The President of Afghanistan and the citizens handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban..

Nope the Biden team handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban and the Ghani government/military was told to get out of the way.. that's what happened, and that's why they have faced no resistance.

The war was lost 20 years ago by Rumsfeld. A war that was never needed as a surgical strike against the Taliban leadership was all that was necessary. This day was coming and we all knew it ... except possibly the average FOX News viewer ...

Dear Mr. President,

A defeat is what it is, A failure of policies is what it is, so please STOP dancing around the fact that this pull out was a total disaster.

The Taliban is defending their freedom from a nation that forces face coverings, destroys statues, and promotes child sex changes.

Well, feel free to move there and live happily ever after, then.

He has no choice.

No more 'mission accomplished', but 'mission diminished & decomposed'.

Too bad, hapless & hopeless..

Encouraging the Taliban takeover has been another fine mess, a parting gift from the previous Trump administration although the internal rot of the corrupt central government in Kabul tottering on its foundations of sand made it impossible for Biden to prop up any longer. The only cloud with a silver lining for the Afghan people is they need not fear American revenge in the form of a brutal embargo: they are only medieval Muslims, not Cuban commies.

GOP scrubs webpage touting Trump's "historical" deal with the Taliban.

Wayback Machine

“Trump has continued to take the lead in peace talks as he signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which would end America’s longest war,” the now-deleted page read. It also noted that while the now ex-president has “championed peace,” Joe Biden had pushed “endless wars.” 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210615230810/https://gop.com/president-trump-is-bringing-peace-to-the-middle-east-rsr/

@Zich..........Another trump deal that screwed everyone in the process and the conservative rights selective memory all at work!

Not defending Biden here, not a fan of imperialism in any form, but this was pretty much a no-win scenario by the point he inherited it. Whenever the US withdrew this was going to be the result.

The only thing that remains to be seen is which superpower the Taliban successfully treats with, so far it looks like the US and China are both pre-emptively courting them. Russia is present but probably in no hurry to engage either.

If only the US hadn't basically founded and armed the Taliban in their eagerness to undermine socialism in Afghanistan. We'd probably have a thriving and progressive middle eastern communist country instead of one waffling between theocracy and total collapse.

It seems to me the US should not have sent US soldiers to Afghanistan whatever after 911 attack. I thought its going to be a long war, maybe war 4-5 years but unbelievably 20 years. I still remember CNN, CBS,,,,, many news showed over 80% of American people (from teenagers to elderly) supported the Afghan war, Most people shouted out USA go, USA go, USA go like this. Revenge did not solve anything after all.

A man of FAITH can never be defeated.

bass: And I also said, you need to keep a residual force.

Well Trump left 2,500 troops. What number did you have in mind for a residual force? 500? And those troops would have stopped what we just saw from the Taliban while securing American interests at the same time?

You got what you wanted, and so did I. We just didn't think the Afghans would give up overnight. Neither did Trump, and neither did Biden.

@oldman_13

It is disgusting me how the right wingers are all over this and crucifying Biden, when in fact he is only doing what Trump said he was going to do last year but did not. It was Trump that invited the Taliban reps to the U.S. to negotiate a deal and truce. Now all of a sudden these right wingers care so much about the well being of Afghanis.

Get your facts right, Trump negotiated the deal with a deadline for leaving the country on August 31st THIS year. He did what he said he was going to do. The deal was negotiated in Dubai not in the US. And the deal was set with many conditions on the Taliban to make the deal valid, the Taliban however DIDN'T keep their end of the deal, ignoring the conditions set, so the onus was on Biden to drop the deal or use the deal conditions to punish the Taliban for breaking the conditions, but he chose to just keep the US part of the deal nonetheless, and without any consequences for the Taliban. So, of course the Taliban would take the country immediately after the US left, the US stance was already one of non giving a damn. This is clearly all on Biden. The deal was set with conditions to be met in order to make the final decision viable. And it wasn't, so he had the tools to make the call, alas, unpopular, but chose not to. It is fine. The US had to leave someday. But don't blame it on Trump.

Biden is standing by his decision as would any good leader. America is not responsible for being the world's police state. Thank you Joe for having the courage to finally end this two decade imperialist invasion of Afghanistan and war for oil.

This is clearly all on Biden. The deal was set with conditions to be met in order to make the final decision viable. And it wasn't, so he had the tools to make the call, alas, unpopular, but chose not to. It is fine. The US had to leave someday. But don't blame it on Trump.

But, still Americans should be very angry and extremely furious and demanding answers and rolling of heads, so to speak, for the 20 years and trillions of dollars for nothing.

The astonishingly rapid victory of the Taliban may be the Imperial USA’s Suez moment: The scale of global humiliation is almost off the charts.

This is entirely obvious to any historically literate observer. This catastrophic defeat was the neoclowns’ war. This was the failure of the self-styled “national security right” who flattered themselves into believing that they dictated reality with their words. Afghanistan is the neocons’ failure. It is AIPAC’s failure. Genuine Americans never wanted, supported, or endorsed the concept of an empire in the Middle East.

To quote one veteran who served in it: “My friends died for nothing. My soldiers died for nothing. I served for nothing. And the communists took over at home.”

Adolf Hitler erroneously blamed the Jews for the German defeat in WWI. He was wrong to do so because Germany never had any chance of winning that two-front war even before the USA got involved. But anyone in the future who wants to blame “the national security right” for the US defeats in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan will be absolutely correct. This was Bill Kristol’s war. This was Paul Wolfowitz’s war. This was Richard Perle’s war. This was David Frum’s war. This was Max Boot’s war. This was Michael Ledeen’s war. This was Jennifer Rubin’s war. This was Ben Shapiro’s war.

But it was not America’s war, and no American should ever forget that. These second- and third-generation immigrants to America have systematically labored to destroy what was once, briefly, the greatest nation, the greatest Christian nation, on Earth. Now, imagine how much worse the situation would be today if the cursed neoclowns had gotten their way and US troops were also trapped in Iran and Syria and Pakistan and Ukraine.

But their time is passing. Their failure is inevitable. Those who corrode and corrupt their way to influence and power will never be able to hold on to their positions, because with power comes responsibility and neither corrosion nor corruption are capable of serving as a foundation for building anything but chaos and Hell on Earth.

I really hate to say it, but the US and the world may have been better if Trump had won another term. Trump is a horrible human being but is mean and aggressive. Biden seems too nice and has no backbone. I'm really disappointed in him. The videos and pics coming out of Kabul are gut wrenching. Shame on him!

The Taliban is defending their freedom from a nation that forces face coverings, destroys statues, and promotes child sex changes.

According to them, Jan 6 was far worse than the threat of Al Quaida or the Taliban, go figure…

The chance that the Taliban invade America to overturn elections and install an autocrat as leader are very, very, very.... very slim.

The chance that some alt-right morons do the same from inside are, unfortunately, very real.

The most powerful military in the world in the country for 20 years couldn't control rural militants, and within weeks the country is taken over by these people? Makes a whole lot of sense.

Slayer- make no mistake, it is all part of the "plan".

you are suggesting a residual force should have been left in Afghanistan. 25k-50k?

Maybe, I’m not in the decision making guess, it was my personal opinion on the number.

After his single term, Trump had not achieved that.

Yeah and now Biden made it worse, condolences

*"The Pentagon announced on 17 November 2020, that it would reduce the number of US forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January, i.e. by 15 January 2021, before President Trump's term of office expires on 20 January 2021."*

If that’s what the Pentagon believed to be enough to deal with the Taliban, so be it.

The Trump administration completed its reduction of forces to 2,500 troops in January 2021.

It was Trump's intention to bring home every single trooper.

No, that’s not what Pompeo, Keane and McGregor said.

Now you are suggesting, Biden should have increased the numbers of troops instead of bringing them home.

No, a residual force and he didn’t do that.

Frankly, the picture in the media, of a forlorn isolated President alone staring at a screen at Camp David is testament that politics and leadership have consequences.

President Joe Biden has a wealth of experience, politically and diplomacy. Why on earth did he put himself though this?

Joe Biden had retired.

Where is his party full support?

It's a sad sight to see, but if this happened today, it would have happened tomorrow, or next week, or next year.

If the entire Afghan military was always going to lay down their weapons so quickly, then this was always going to happen. The only thing to stop it would be American troops there for multiple decades more.

SNAFU . . . What else can ya' say?

Trump screwed up in how he prepared the withdrawal and Biden made it worse by his handling of it. A total friggin' mess!

In the end, we'll all be grateful for Biden's "clean break" decision. When you spend 20 years propping up a military that doesnt want to fight its own civil war and local politicians who would rather flee the country, then making an exit would have never been clean and easy..

The decision they took was to handover to the Taliban, the decision they should have taken should have been to HO to the existing government.. the way things have changed. clearly shows that the government/military was told to move out of the way, things will get very messy soon, don't think anyone would be grateful for that..

Trump wanted every soldier home and by the time of the election.

He wanted it. But Presidents want a lot of things now, don’t they?

At that time there were 8,500 troops.

With Trump's agreement, 5,000 Taliban fighters in prison were released.

Not good for sure and now Biden’s bungled unleashed even more and they took over the entire country

Even that is not enough for your residual force of 25k-50k.

I am not in the Pentagon so I wouldn’t know as I stated, just my personal opinion.

So you think Biden should have spent more troops not less?

I think Biden is politically more screwed than he was before.

That’s really and by far not all on Trump or Biden. In fact, all the problems arose long before but surely and obviously after 9/11, not replacing the incompetent bureaucrats in the services and military with capable thinkers, strategists and successful practitioners to avoid terrorist attempts and attacks. What we now see in Afghanistan is only a later part part of the harvest that now is ripe and still to be expected all over the globe, because they (not Taliban but very similar) already have managed to infiltrate many countries. The usual trick or strategy of them, and you can check it, it’s ‘waterproof’ everywhere, they produce conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes and the West all take them in then for humanitarian reasons, but they are still believing in the same supremacy of Islam and are by religious rule one world spanning unity. You don’t want to hear and know that, but I tell you until it arrives in your ignorant brains. Also now, the same error will be done with pleasure, hundreds of thousands fleeing and taken into many other countries. They are maybe no Taliban, but they are Islamists and have the duty to djihad one way (more civilized) or another (more violent). In shorter words, everything is an error for the West, occupying, withdrawing, helping the fleeing as aftermath, just everything will turn out to be false.

Good job Joe!

Can I say that again….good job Joe!!

Yes, he was following a deal made by Trump, though he broke the deal by extending the pullout, which may be the reason the Taliban broke their deal and are blitzkrieging Taliban style, but if it was your country, why would you not?

Biden said he'd rather take the criticism over the fallout

Ha, only by the corporate media and corporate war pigs that won’t have that government trough anymore.

Was watching corporate CNN yesterday for their take and they were not happy.

It is disgusting me how the right wingers are all over this and crucifying Biden,

It’s even more disgusting that some on the left want to give him a pass for screwing this up in the absolute possible way.

when in fact he is only doing what Trump said he was going to do last year but did not.

Trump is not the President, Biden is, and when the left make excuses like that is not only petty, but it makes them look weak, not in charge and the concern that they shouldn’t be in charge of anything. Trump, Pompeo, former Gen. MacGregor amd Gen. Jack Keane all advised the Trump to keep a sizable residual force, he lost the election (as Dems continuously claim) and wanted the world and the GOP to know that Biden is the President and he’s in charge and made sure everyone and every Republican know this. Trump was responsible for the outcome of Jan 6. That is irrefutable and undisputed, as the images will live in the minds of the nation forever, it all happened on his watch as President of the US.

Equally, Biden is President and he completely botched this and watching the plane leaving with people clinging onto it and the pictures and videos of those desperate and terrified people begging and trying to get out will live in infamy and in the minds of the nation forever. This is 100% signed and executed by Biden, even a lot of the media that’s in Biden’s corner are harshly criticizing him. It doesn’t matter how Biden or this administration want to shove the blame. The man in the WH the one that currently holds the Presidency and demanded that everyone including the GOP and the former President know this is Joseph Biden.

It was Trump that invited the Taliban reps to the U.S. to negotiate a deal and truce. Now all of a sudden these right wingers care so much about the well being of Afghanis.

Yes, because they didn’t want another 9/11 to happen, people wanted out, so did I, but I was never under the illusion that we could do a full pullout. We would take the majority of the troops out and keep a small residual force present and that would probably be indefinitely (realistically looking at it)

Biden is standing by his decision as would any good leader.

That’s not helping Biden. The only people that agree with Biden are a few Dems and that’s it, not even the majority of the DNC and the media think his decision on this was anything but good, wise or making logical sense.

America is not responsible for being the world's police state.

No, but America is the only nation that will battle radical Islam and do it for the entire world, but Biden’s radical and irresponsible decision on this will now probably involve the rest of the world going forward.

finally end this two decade imperialist invasion of Afghanistan and war for oil.

Which we need and we’re energy dependent but now thanks to the current President and now once again dependent on the ME.

if it’s bad, he blames Trump.

nowhere in the article said that Biden is blaming Trump. Biden is owning the mistakes. US now have a real leader.

"The commander in the photo was in Gitmo for 8 years before being released claiming he was a simple person who wanted to help Americans."

Is that sarcasm or are you really that gullible. According to soldiers on the ground over there, they all say that they are simple farmers or shop keepers that want to help Americans. But turn around and you’ll get a knife in your back.

Trumps deal was US troops out by May 1. Biden broke the deal and moved the date to Sept 11. Why? Gee, Sept 11? WTF is wrong with these people? Right after Biden broke the deal and changed the date, the Taliban gave Biden a warning that if he broke the deal then the US is responsible for any consequences. And if you know nothing about Afghanistan politics, the “deal” means everything.

But stop blaming Biden or Trump or the Taliban, look to your corporate MIC and their partners the corporate media, and the corporate politicians who take their money to keep these wasteful policies out of eighth and out of mind.

Whilst Joe Biden and Donald Trump continue to publicly assign blame, the grossest betrayal of all is the fate of the Afghan women and young girls.

Where is Kamala Harris?

Gone into hiding?

Maybe Harris could answer this young girls question?

'No one cares about us': Crying Afghan girl shares fears of 'dying slowly in history' in viral video

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9897005/Crying-Afghan-girl-shares-fears-dying-slowly-history-country-seized-Taliban.html

The fact that so many liberals are condoning Biden's actions, shows how utterly ignorant and dumb they really are! And blaming Trump? Lol.... Get over it! Biden has no place as POTUS. Worst POTUS in America's history! America looks weak and China and Russia knows it! Democrats should be hanging their heads in shame!

As regards the AP photo:

A deja vu “gut-wrenching” scenery, indeed. When Saigon fell to the hand of North Vietnamese forces in 1975, people rushed to withdrawing U.S. helicopters to escape the city. 

I think Joe Biden is merely cleaning up the mess left by George W. Bush, who started the U.S.-led

war in Afghanistan to retaliate the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Laden.

But Biden was wrong when he said the U.S. forces could not help a military with a low fighting morale. Can a U.S.-assisted or -created army stand firm against an indigenous army with a clear cause and aim to fight a war?

It certainly does, look at the mess we’re in now.

Totally, a small but sizable force, light but heavily armed and violent yet peaceful troop deployment would have done wonders.

I would say less with special ops, put again it’s my personal opinion.

Totally someone with the abilities of Rambo III would have done miracles.

With the fire power we have and if we don’t have a strict rules of engagement, it’s more than enough.

Yes thanks for reminding that we can fire lasers from the space too, trump's space force is a right fit for Afghanistan.

The American people was utterly fed up with supporting this seemly never ending Afghan war.

Setting partisan politics aside, President Biden rightly or wrongly made a call. I respect Joe Biden for that.

What I find very disappointing is his Vice President Kamila Harris not standing next to Joe Biden and offering unequivocal support.

Yes your advice of a small but sizable force makes perfect sense,

It certainly does, look at the mess we’re in now.

I would put the figure at a minimum of 25,000 troops at the Bagram airbase and at least another 5,000 at the Kabul embassy and airport.

I would say less with special ops, put again it’s my personal opinion.

The 2,500 left there by Trump would not be large enough to defend themselves against the Taliban.

With the fire power we have and if we don’t have a strict rules of engagement, it’s more than enough.

The US has no obligation too people in Afghanistan,as an American,the US is limited in it obligation too me as an American ,if you are in another just because you find yourself in dangerous situation,you are not entitle too sanctuary in America

These Taliban at Presidential palace ,remind of all these American Hillbillies,at the capitol in Jan 6,the Taliban Beard ,Beard,Gun,Gun,American Hillbillies,Beer Beer, Truck Truck

you previously posted demanding all troops brought home, 100%

And I also said, you need to keep a residual force. That’s like saying, when you leave your house and even if you live in a decent neighborhood, you like the door and arm your home security system, it’s called a piece of mind, CYA, extra security.

and nothing about leaving a small force and what size is a small force?

I don’t need to say that, that’s just common sense. My 14 year old can even figure that one out. Get real!

This is one of the rare moments I have seen where the left and the right are in agreement on the absolute debacle that has taken place. Switching from MSNBC to FOX and reading articles from the National Review and the Washington Post, you could hardly tell the difference in the coverage. Biden simply refused to be dissuaded by his advisors who by all accounts warned him if this outcome. He had been warned by congressmen that it would take months to safely get the SIV applicants out.

I spent over a year and a half in the country working with Afghans as a civilian teaching them English. I can tell you they embraced our values and believed the message that by embracing the west that the future would be brighter. I visited Kabul University and saw the young people of Afghanistan who aspired to making their country better . I am personally in touch with one of my former students who spent most of today at the airport today trying to get out only to flee terrified as the Taliban began infiltrating the crowds inside the airport. He is desperate now and only wants to get out with his family and told me he is unable to sleep knowing the Taliban may knock in his family's door at any moment.

We could have maintained Bagram with the few thousand that we had and provided the minimal support the country needed. Does anyone question the 4000 US military we have based in Djibouti for years now to fight maintain the peace in that region? Now we have turned the whole damn country over to the Taliban and turned our backs on thousands who believed in us. Shame on Joe Biden.

Why should Afghan men fight against their own countrymen after all foreign troops, mainly from USA and their appointed Afghan president fled the country?

Ordinary Afghan men are poor, nobody cares about them and they all are tired, they do not want to fight against each other anymore. Even the Taliban do not want to fight any longer.

The US defeated Japan in easy fashion, and the country has been better for it.

Tell the many thousands who died how easy it was. And 75 years ago is a long time. The French defeated the Germans easily in WW One. 25 years later, they were a German colony.

The fact is undeniable. The US is a paper tiger. A dangerous one, though, enough to bring world-ending wars upon us through incompetence, moral weakness and corruption.

PEACE! Is there a better word in all of English? Or a better phrase than "minding one's own business"? Given that the Founding Fathers of the U.S. were exactly what we now call "terrorists" (ask the Tories of the time), and went on to commit much worse horrors on Americans (Native) than the Taliban could even imagine, maybe we could just thank Ol' Joe for finally ending the 20 YEAR (!) Bush/Obama debacle of blood and murder staining America's soul. And, as difficult (excruciating really) to say a positive syllable about djt, he seems to have gotten the ball rolling and Joe following up. Peace in our Time! Let's hope this one lasts...

He wanted it. But Presidents want a lot of things now, don’t they?

Totally agree, trump wanted the Taliban to nominate him for the Nobel, totally rational !

Not good for sure and now Biden’s bungled unleashed even more and they took over the entire country

Yes your advice of a small but sizable force makes perfect sense, they can be light but heavily armed too.

I think Biden is politically more screwed than he was before.

I totally see Trump back in office by the end of this month, at Taliban's request!

Just when my trust in US was starting to improve and I thought that things may be ok again, then this happens.

It’s disgraceful to just leave the people alone and helpless. The scenes at the airport are heartbreaking. Their president flees his people.

If they do this to the Afghan people, then what right have they to be in other countries? Will they also abandon others? This was all for nothing and I hope that people do not forget what Biden has done. God help us all.

I know this site is very left leaning but people seem to forget that Biden has been in the white house for almost 9 years of this 20 year war and also signed off on it for the initial invasion. He had just as much responsibility as Trump did in what has happened.

Yesterday, Bass was saying between 25,000 and 35,000 troops would be a “sizeable small” force because he said what is here in Japan and in Germany is sufficient.

Yes, that’s correct and If you want to make the lame argument that Joe was only following up on Trump’s plan of withdrawal, then that fine, but that also means that Joe should have done so in a calculated, responsible and safe manner and he did none of that, and the videos are a testament to that botched operation.

 Shame on Joe Biden.

If you want to be the global hero/policeman, then I’d recommend alien technology or brainwashing, cuz nothing has worked so far.

It really time for the US to leave Japan, the US could not stop an invasion of Japan

Republican right-wing milking the Afghan cow that was born from the Trump Taliban deal.

None of this or 9/11 would have happened had the POTUS of the 1990s not override the CIA to take out Bin Laden.

You got what you wanted,

Not like this, but yeah, why would Joe or the Dems care about the Taliban. According to them, Jan 6 was far worse than the threat of Al Quaida or the Taliban, go figure…

President Biden will go down as the best President in the History of the USA due to his Afganistan plan.

Are these guys serious?

“State Department calls for Taliban to include women in its government”

There you have it. The right is angry about calling for equal rights for women. And they think they're any different from the Taliban.

Even the staunchly Democrat MSM and SNS are saying that this is on Biden, yet over at JT you never fail to disappoint!

To be accurate, it's on America. You guys were a complete and utter failure on this one.

Does America never not screw up it's foreign wars? Loss after loss after loss. Then they wonder why they had 9/11. It's because of stuff like this.

25k to 35k of our troops is not a small force, not even a “sizeable small” force; it’s a huge force.

Not really when you look at the overall ratio. And even with that smaller number as things gradually and slowly improve you can send a few thousand back, but obviously you will always want a sizable force present.

Biden’s withdrawal is exactly what Trump’s withdrawal would have looked like.

No, because there was no one left. Obama did the exact same thing and like Biden wrote ISIS as a JV team.

Claiming that Trump would have somehow magically done a better job is beyond the pale given the man can hardly dress himself.

Claiming that Joe did a good Job leaving Afghanistan with the Taliban fully in charge given the fact that he can’t even make his own decisions, but in the words of Bob Gates: he's been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

The man who signed off on the Iraq war, while in congress the man who’s boss downplayed the threat of ISIS as VP and now as President presided over the worst withdrawal debacle since the fall of Saigon.

Are these guys serious?

“State Department calls for Taliban to include women in its government”

Despite the Taliban's long history of oppression of women and iron-fisted rule, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price Monday urged Afghanistan's new leaders to form an inclusive government that had women in it.

Why don’t we demand for LGBT inclusion too?

You were a huge supporter of the Iraq War

I was in the beginning.

and you and your unnamed non-partisan historians claim Bush 2 was a successful president.

In other regards, yes.

By your standards, it’s hard to attack Biden for that.

No, the world is attacking Biden for his disastrous way as to how he miserable failed and botched this withdrawal execution.

You still supported it after seeing what was going on first hand.

Not like this, which goes to show how unprepared and incompetent this Carter-like group really are.

So, he’s doubling down on a bad decision. How very Trump of him.

we now have 6,000 troops trying to secure the last way out of the country. Funny, if he’d committed 6,000 (or even half that) to security assistance, we wouldn’t have people falling to their deaths from airplanes because the alternative is even worse.

sad and pathetic decision but not surprising, elect a fool and get foolish decisions, glad I don't live there