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Biden orders 1,000 more troops to aid Afghanistan departure

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By ROBERT BURNS and JOSH BOAK

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40 Comments

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Love it or hate it, but it seems taliban has support of vast majority of afghans, who sees the current imposed govt as outsider, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible for taliban to capture most of Afghanistan without any fight.

4 ( +12 / -8 )

President Biden is showing that he, along with so many of his predecessors, knows little about military affairs. Trump had his excuses to avoid Vietnam. So did Clinton. So did Biden- he received multiple draft deferrals for being a student and for asthma. At least Bush the Younger had the stones to strap on a fighter jet in the National Guard.

The Taliban are going to take over. May as well get used to it and make the necessary moves.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

President Joe Biden authorized an additional 1,000 U.S. troops for deployment to Afghanistan, raising to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden called an “orderly and safe drawdown” of American and allied personnel.

Well, he (or rather his handlers) blew the "orderly and safe drawdown" out of the water, when they stopped Trumps negotiations with the Taliban and the May withdrawal. 'Cant talk to the terrorists, remember? Every that Trump did was bad and had to be undone, remember?

So, instead they announced a UNILATERAL withdrawal with fixed withdrawal date several months out .... the most idiotic way to handle the situation. What you see now is what this kind of kindergarten policy gets you.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

Almighty 'Murica runs again with it's tail between it's legs from the enemy. War on terror, huh? What a joke this farce was.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The US should get out. They have to seal their fate by themselves.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@ P. Smith

"Just get all Americans out."

I would imagine that is what the average Afghani thinks.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

We were there for a reason and that reason has been achieved. The reason was so America can get Bin Ladin and other securities that was mission accomplished. The rest of you merely speculate. Next, we are moving on to other hot spots of the world.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Love it or hate it, but it seems taliban has support of vast majority of afghans, who sees the current imposed govt as outsider, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible for taliban to capture most of Afghanistan without any fight.

Hard to say what percentage of Afghans want the Taliban in charge. I saw a Pew poll which showed the overwhelming majority of the society want to live under Sharia. Whether a majority want the Taliban’s particularly awful interpretation of this already bad idea isn’t clear.

Anyway, it’s up to the Afghan people now. Invasion and intervention had been an abject failure.

Well, he (or rather his handlers) blew the "orderly and safe drawdown" out of the water, when they stopped Trumps negotiations with the Taliban and the May withdrawal. 'Cant talk to the terrorists, remember? Every that Trump did was bad and had to be undone, remember?

The partisanship is getting boring. It really is.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Escalation. First it was 3,000 American tropps ( to take care of a poorly planned white house regime withdraw) then it was 5,000 and now it's 6,000. It's as if this so-called administration doesn't know what's going on.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

"I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."

Just quoting that for future reference.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Have images of Hueys evacuating personnel and refugees from the embassy.

Sai... Kabul will fall within days

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I don’t care so much about the Afghani people as I do American and allied forces, but I do worry about those Afghani people that risked their lives to help us in fighting the Taliban over the last 20 years, we need to get them out and possibly into the US and they should be given special status rights and all of it didn’t have to end in the messed up and irresponsible way it did, but be that as it may, here we are and the Afghanis have to learn to fight for their own country and make the necessary sacrifices that our people did for that country, if they don’t or won’t then whatever happens, happens.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Here is the regime's press secretary, Psaki, trying to explain all things taliban and this regime's withdrawl/escalation.

Spoiler alert: lost in translation.

https://youtu.be/3dTitPxzV5Q

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Please show a poll of what the Afaganis think!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Here is the regime's press secretary, Psaki, trying to explain all things taliban and this regime's withdrawl/escalation.

Yes, Biden bad. You’ve thrown the rattle out of your pram enough times on many threads for us to get the picture.

Understood.

Get a grip.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Afghanistan:

Russia tried and failed.

USA tried and failed.

China, can't wait to see them in the quagmire.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Why is it that after billions spent on military equipment and training, the Afghan military still cannot defend itself from what is a largely untrained and ill equipped militia? How many years have the Afghans had to get their military in order? They need to learn to defend themselves but its seems they have no apetite for that. They have had ample opportunity to get their sh*t in order, but there is too much government corruption and incompetence. It's very sad the locals will suffer - many will be murdered and tortured but thats not the fault of the US. When Kabul is finally overrun, just watch all the corrupt government politicians take the money they have stolen over the years and run away to neighboring countries....

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I want to quote an acquaintance of mine who has worked off and on in Afghanistan for 25 years as an engineer.

I have had an interest in Afghanistan for the last 25+ years and what I see today has been obvious for a long time.

The Teleban had kicked all the murdering blood sucking 'warlords' into one tiny corner of the country but for their efforts they were rewarded with sanctions and isolation and eventually invasion.

So what did the invaders do? They formed a new government and put the same warlord arses on the seat of power and imagined the populance would give them allegiance, fat chance.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It’s not the collapse of the US puppet regime in Afghanistan that is surprising, it’s the sheer speed of the collapse, especially when compared to the collapse of the Soviet puppet regime there, which at least managed to last two years after the withdrawl of Soviet forces. America's regime won't make two months.

The neoclowns who run US foreign policy (and increasingly domestic policy as well) operate through corruption because they are evil and because their primary weapons are a) deception, b) access to a near-infinite supply of manufactured money and c) human weakness. And while corruption is indubitably an effective means of degrading and destroying organizations, institutions, and traditions, it is an incredibly weak foundation for building anything from buildings to nations.

This is why, since 1945, they are always defeated in the end. They can’t hold onto their gains, even when everything is under their control, because they cannot build anything that lasts.

Remember: Two years after the Soviet empire retreated from Afghanistan, the empire itself fell. If the amazingly fast collapse of the US puppet regime is a harbinger for a similar series of events, the imminent fall of Kabul would appear to suggest that the collapse of the US empire will be even more rapid, and even less expected, than the fall of its Soviet predecessor.

And while it seems to have escaped mainstream observers, I tend to doubt it is an accident that the Taliban’s massively successful offensive comes just two weeks after the Chinese foreign minister recognized the legitimacy of the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Droll QuarryToday 04:45 pm JST

Afghanistan:

Russia tried and failed.

USA tried and failed.

China, can't wait to see them in the quagmire.

Droll: you can add to that, the British, The Mughals.... and keep going back. Not known as the graveyard of Empires for nothing. The Chinese are quite smart and will use soft power to fill the void. Can see Afghanistan becoming strategic for them as they continue their belt and road initiative.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

zichi

The majority of Afghans do not support the Taliban or their ideology of strict Sharia control.

I do not know that and neither do you. What we do know is that the naive American idea of "national building" buy foisting "democracy" on a nation that is not ready for it does not work. The Afghani king in the 60s knew that, and so did the Sovjets under their occupation. If you want to drag the nation into modernity, you need a firm hand. The American idea that you can simply remove a dictator and then miraculously a modern democracy will spring up has always failed and will always fail.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Ego Sum Lux Mundi

And while it seems to have escaped mainstream observers, I tend to doubt it is an accident that the Taliban’s massively successful offensive comes just two weeks after the Chinese foreign minister recognized the legitimacy of the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.

Like everything outside their blinkered ideological narrative, it has indeed escaped our "mainstream" media. Any surprise?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I fear for the now 6,000 American troops being in/sent to afghanistan under this so-called administration's plan of a withdrawal.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

As I type this, Kabul is starting to get over run with the Taliban, with little or no resistance.

And the US has moved its remaining embassy staff to operate from the Kabul airport.

You can see live updates on BBC News.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

divinda

As I type this, Kabul is starting to get over run with the Taliban, with little or no resistance.

And the US has moved its remaining embassy staff to operate from the Kabul airport.

Yep, the Biden regime totally botched this. As expected and predicted.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

History does repeat itself. Fall of Saigon - 1975. Fall of Kabul - 2021

If you are in Kabul, get out before it is surrounded. If you are female, get out of Afghanistan any way you can.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

If you are in Kabul, get out before it is surrounded.

Too late, its already surrounded. All roads to the borders are Taliban controlled.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The Taliban won't attack the Americans. That would be stupid of them, and they are not stupid. The Americans are leaving, and the Taliban is reminding them of this. Just get it done with and let the Afghanis get on with governing their own country. The Taliban will certainly mellow once they realize what is required to do so - better than adding to the already 3,000 American dead.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Too late, its already surrounded. All roads to the borders are Taliban controlled.

What makes so many people sick is that we have known that this poor excuse of a human occupying the people's house has absolutely no idea of what is going on.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I don't think anyone is surprised by the resurgence of the Taliban... but I think we were expecting Kabul to fall over a period of months, not days.

Probably within hours. According to the AP, Taliban negotiators are already at the presidential palace in Kabul to prepare for a peaceful transfer of power.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

My God. Maybe the warhawks in both parties will finally realize that nation building is best left up to the people who actually live in those nations. Exporting liberal democracy to certain places is like giving a bicycle to a fish.

This mission was over when Bin Laden was finally hunted down and exterminated. No other reason to stay except for military contractors and equipment providers to keep their snouts buried deep in the government money trough.

I do feel sorry for the people in Afghanistan, especially women and minorities, who were hoping for real change. But a thousand years of cultural/religious oppression can't be replaced in 20 years of mediocre half hearted 'reform'.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The Taliban won't attack the Americans. That would be stupid of them, and they are not stupid.

I disagree. I think they would attack the Americans in a heartbeat. They’re not stupid, but if they can become a martyr in the process then that’s what they will do given the chance.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

So says the vice-president who served for eight years while the ongoing war expanded. He voted in favor of the invasion of Afghanistan, which he supported as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

To blame Trump is disingenuous - as the Democrats in the Senate opposed the Trump plan to withdraw from Afghanistan. Obama alongside Biden had eight years to end the war in Afghanistan - it did not happen, in fact there was a troop surge.

Nation building. There was no intent and it is a ridiculous notion to cite. It is and was a country without a railroad . It was under assault by the Russians. The Reagan and GHW Bush regimes supported the Taliban and various warlords and bandit chiefs. Clinton, and Operation Infinite Reach, the first pre-emptive strike against a non-state actor (to quote GWB: Clinton, "...fire(d) a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt....”).

The strategy was initially to bomb the place, until the rubble bounced. Atop that strategy, in swooped the CIA weaseling its way into the good graces of opium smugglers, warlords & bandit chiefs and the operators of heroin labs. In came the troops to create For Apache in Kabul (where Pete Buttigieg did a cameo, which was conflated into Warrior Pete). Hospitals were bombed. Anyone of 'fighting age' was rounded-up and taken off to 'interrogation centers' and essentially tortured. What economy existed was utterly destroyed. Cluster bombs littered the landscape. IEDs were common, a show of support, not for the invading army.

It was a warm-up act for the invasion of Iraq. And. Colin Powell was to make public evidence that Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda was responsible for 9/11. Never happened. All but one of the 9/11 conspirators were Saudis or Egyptians. The hatched the plot in Hamburg, Germany, not Afghanistan. And were linked to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Not Al Queda. Afghanistan was NEVER about nation building. It was an emotive shell game, as a precursor to Bush winning the, as he phrased it, trifecta.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

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