Westerners rush to leave Kabul; Afghan president flees country

What a disastrous but utterly predictable conclusion to the imperialist war for oil. So many Afghani civilians died for nothing.

Rats and sinking ships comes to mind.

This seems familiar.

With Afghanistan falling within hours and days shows they didn't do any nation building. USA is a military power, they're not nation builders. A plan was required beyond oil

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” he said on ABC’s “This Week."

Totally different latitudes and longitudes. This deadpan quote by Blinken will be remembered I think.

What a humiliating disaster.

But tens of thousands of Afghans who have worked with U.S. and other NATO forces are seeking to flee with family members.

They're a pale shadow of those who supports the Taliban. A country doesn't collapse so soon if the system ( set by Westerners) had popular support. It's time to get out of town fast and leave the ruins ( lives and material) behind.

Afghan President fleeing his own country without a fight. What a wimp.

Westerners rush to leave Kabul; Afghan president flees country

Why rush? With plenty times of doing things properly, twenty years with trillions of budget. So what it give us?

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-war-in-afghanistan-has-cost-the-us-226-trillion-2021-4

How quickly they forget:

Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over

President George Bush rejected as "non-negotiable" an offer by the Taliban to discuss turning over Osama bin Laden if the United States ended the bombing in Afghanistan.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5

That's a story from October 14, 2001.

Imagine if Bush 2 had taken the offer. How many lives and how much money would have been saved?

the U.S. Embassy suspended operations and warned Americans late in the day to shelter in place and not try to get to the airport.

And then "What"?

Rats and sinking ships comes to mind.

Japanese Embassy staff included.

No one cares…20 years and $2 trillion…for nothing. Anyone surprised?

It's a shame Trump gave the Taliban a 1 year warning that we were leaving AND gave them back 5k of their fighters we had as prisoners for nothing in return.

Imagine if Bush 2 had taken the offer. How many lives and how much money would have been saved?

You honestly believe the invasion was about Bin Laden rather that old-fashioned imperialism? The imperialists in turn copped a good old-fashioned blood-letting.

@EricToday 08:18 am JST

Imagine if Bush 2 had taken the offer. How many lives and how much money would have been saved?

You honestly believe the invasion was about Bin Laden rather that old-fashioned imperialism? The imperialists in turn copped a good old-fashioned blood-letting.

No, of course not. But history has shown for 2,000 years what happens to foreign imperialists who try to impose themselves in Afghanistan. Only a fool would have predicted any other outcome.

Soldiers don't look happy though they can go home. The US lost the war finally again like a Vietnam war. Finally 2-3 trillion dollars and thousands of soldiers have gone in vain.

What a disastrous but utterly predictable conclusion to the imperialist war for oil. So many Afghani civilians died for nothing.

I thought we should have left a long time ago, but not in this way. This is just pathetic. It could and should have been handled and executed differently, you can’t send people to fight for something and then treat these people that their services didn’t matter much is not just only disgusting, but demoralizing for the majority of people that fought and died there as well.

2nd picture looks like the helicopter just dropped an A-Bomb on Kabul.

oldman_13:

What a disastrous but utterly predictable conclusion to the imperialist war for oil.

There is no oil in Afghanistan.

I thought we should have left a long time ago, but not in this way.

Sure, they forgot the farewell parties and handing over keys ceremony.

If you supported leaving Afghanistan , you shouldn’t be complaining. And if you are complaining don’t forget the former guy, the one who was ready to throw our allies under the tanks, all to get a Nobel.

No oil in Afghan my friends. Please study before posting.

Thousands of years of disruption. Who will try next? Belt and road initiative?

I support Biden exit,the hand he was handed by Trump,who could not wait to kiss the Taliban rear, Google Trump Afghanistan Deal

“The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and, you know, they want to cease the violence. They’d like to cease violence also.”

~Trump on his claim the Taliban is against violence

Let us not forget this beauty from the guy desperate for a Nobel Prize.

Those that keep tossing around "Imperialism" don't seem to understand exactly what imperialism is. Old Britain engaged in imperialism by making "colonies" under British RULE (Hong Kong, India, etc) . How many US colonies are located around the world under US RULE? Now if people said corporate imperialism, then I would agree as that is a thing.

All in all, Afghanistan is now going to go back in reverse under Taliban RULE (I've never seen or heard of them effectively govern....) so there is no progress for them in the future.

Afghani "president" left, and the people have never really wanted to fight for their own freedom away from the Taliban. They always expect others to fight for them, but when asked to stand on their own two feet... they caved. Too much corruption, laziness, and blatant ignorance.

I've heard that the perspective in certain countries similar to Afghanistan, always wonder why the US doesn't just bomb EVERYTHING (or even nuke) to win by sheer unrestricted force. But that is because the US will always be held accountable for anything on the global stage since we are part of the Geneva convention.

Trump started the pull out against the advice of the defense generals at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. Biden sadly decided not to renege on that deal.

Personally, I believe there are other reasons for the US to leave.... we'll just wait and see what happens next.

Everybody knew there's good probability, once the US leaves, the Taliban would return to government one way or another - whether thru civil war or peace deal. The US can't stay in Afghanistan forever

But the speed that the Afghan government forces cut tail and ran was worse than even the worst expectations

Now the Taliban would return to governing but in a world that's much different from 20 years ago - Taliban would be held responsible for following global standards if they want investments to continue; they would be held responsible for the cocaine trade; many global entities are already in Afghanistan via economic and financial ties; surrounding countries are more involved what goes thru the Afghan borders; there's internet and social media now and news travel faster; there's pockets of Al-Qaeda and ISIS trying to establish their own caliphates, not to mention Shia groups that the Taliban oppressed during their previous rule of the country; etc.

The world is actually paying better attention to Afghanistan this time

Ironically, the Taliban, who are Sunni, may try to copy their antagonist neighbor Iran, who are Shia

Honest

US had to leave eventually. Biden reneged on the deal that was made that might have had some little chance of avoiding this chaos.

The world should just let the Afghans live the way most of them want to and stop trying to impose our values on them...Tragic but true. Thanks

If you supported leaving Afghanistan , you shouldn’t be complaining. And if you are complaining don’t forget the former guy,

No one told Obama to go into Afghanistan, that was his decision because according to him, Iraq was the wrong war, the real war was in Afghanistan.

The world should just let the Afghans live the way most of them want to and stop trying to impose our values on them...

That sounds nice, until you realise that choices that people make in other countries can and will affect you eventually. The choices the CCP made back in 2019 created problems for the entire world is a prime exampe. Afghanistan always had an active illicit drug trade even before the US invaded, Afghani's fled the country to get away from the way the Taliban rules by strict Islamic doctrine. I'm curious to see if the Taliban can improve their country at all, but due to how they function, it is impossible.

No one told Obama to go into Afghanistan

Eh? The occupation was already 7 years in by the time Obama came into office. No one have told him to go into Afghanistan as the US was already there.

@lostrune2

they would be held responsible for the cocaine trade

I think you meant opium (heroin) trade. From what I've heard though, when Afghanistan was under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, they actually banned the cultivation of opium, then it returned after the US invaded and the Taliban used opium to fund their insurgency. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

The problem with an "evacuation" still ongoing when the Taliban are already sitting in the Presidential palace is now we dont know who needed to be evacuated before today and who just showed up now.

How many "refugees" will now be actual Taliban fighters given humanitarian visas to enter the USA? in that chaos at the airport there is no way to know who is who.

total incompetence.

At the very least PLEASE help the people who helped the US military!

Get them out of the country!

Too much time has already been wasted talking/planning this.

The world should just let the Afghans live the way most of them want

No indication the majority want to wallow in backwardness. That's why the majority hated the occupiers and their lackeys in government.

We all know the imperialist powers will do almost anything and support any regime to stop a popular uprising of the Afghan people against capitalism.

No one told Obama to go into Afghanistan, that was his decision because according to him, Iraq was the wrong war, the real war was in Afghanistan

Even if you weren’t yet born in 2001, there is enough information generated in the last 1 day giving details about the Afghan war.

Better read up, because this is just embarrassing!!!!

No, it's not Saigon... That was a more organized force heavily backed/armed by China.

Here in the resident's own words:

“The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army,” Biden said. “They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.”

“There’s going to be no circumstance where you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” he added. “It is not at all comparable.”

No, it's not Saigon... That was a more organized force heavily backed/armed by China.

North Vietnam and China famously had a very poor relationship. The Soviet trainloads of weapons, medicine, food and etc usually decreased by half on their trips from through China to North Vietnam.

What is the use of a body like UN when middle age barbarians can runover an entire country with such ease?

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” he said on ABC’s “This Week."

True, Saigon didn’t fall anywhere near this quickly.

Why are some talking about oil? As far as I know, there’s no huge oil reserves in Afghanistan.

I always knew the Afghan National forces were a bunch of doped-up, lazy cowards, I just didn’t imagine they were this pathetic.

Eric

if the majority didn't support the Talibs then they wouldnt have taken the country so quickly. I think you are to credulous of Western reporting on this country. Kabul is not the countryside. Yes tragic but equally it is their country to run or ruin (if it can be further ruined)

It seems like a repeat of history from the Cuban Revolution of the late 50s, when Bautista took a powder and fled the island. I feel sorry for the local Afghans, especially the women.

Blame the western media for this mess. They kissed up to the weakest President and his policies to lead the strongest country in the world. The trouble is our current President believed all the nonsense the media were feeding him. Game over.

What is the use of a body like UN when middle age barbarians can runover an entire country with such ease?

To the US, Russia, China, the UN is a joke. Don't like something, veto it in the security council.

Just like the WHO.

Only SpecOPS should have ever been in Afghanistan. I can see Cheney pushing it for economic reasons.

From Covid to the border and now Afghanistan? There is a point when one has to admit something is really wrong with this administration. This finger-pointing leadership has no backbone. Embarrassing and dangerous.

A gang of dirty pirates showing off their machine guns.

Let it go and watch the Taliban destroy their own country. That's the plan.

A gang of dirty pirates showing off their machine guns.

That is offensive to pirates, who are only after money to survive, not the proliferation of a perverted version of Islam.

The guns in the photo are all assault rifles, the two on the right looking like some form of special operator modded version M4s.

Afghanistan wasn't about oil it was about opioids; now that synthetic fentanyl from China has crashed the market, demand for American-made opioids has plummeted. There's no money left to make in Afghanistan for Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma, so the Sacklers got us out.

“This is murder by incompetence,” said U.S. Air Force veteran Sam Lerman, struggling Sunday from his home in Woodbridge, Virginia, to find a way out for an Afghan contractor who had guarded Americans and other NATO forces at Afghanistan’s Bagram air base for a decade.

I'm very sure a lot of Americans feel this way.

There is no escaping this disaster brought about by this biden administration. They can try to finger point to try to shift blame but even liberal newspapers such as ny times and washington post are cleary putting this fiasco on biden. And. rightfully so.

Right back to square one.

Sooner or later, these religious Islamic extremists will be calling for Jihad.

Then its only a matter of time for terrorism to again become an ever present threat to US/ Western culture of freedom and democracy.

Someone in the US government should have watched the TV series Homeland a few years ago which had parts set in Afghanistan. Obviously it was not totally fiction as current events prove. Like the afghani politician who created a totally fictitious military unit, that did not exist, that got huge amounts of money and equipment that just went into his own pockets. How much money does the fleeing Afghani president have in his personal bank account one can imagine. More than enough to finance a nice retirement in Switzerland or wherever I am sure.

if the majority didn't support the Talibs then they wouldnt have taken the country so quickly.

Lesser of two evils.

William77Today  11:01 am JST

The west committed a huge mistake in invading Afganistan.

History already told us that these people are impossible to tame.

The Britons had a very harsh time back in the 1800es trying to pacify the region ending up with 80.000 soldier killed and a governor.

Back in the late seventies the most powerful and efficient army in the world invaded them and the Soviets ended up leaving in shame.

Then the U.S. and it’s coalition made the same mistake to invade them.

But the biggest mistake made by them was invading Iraq and Saddam back in 2003,Afganistan was still weak and fragile and needed the west full cooperation instead they focused their efforts in Iraq.

I’m all for democracy and I thank the providence to be born and grew up under such system.

But at the same time forcing democratic values to a very conservative society like the Afghan one was a mistake.

Look how hard was for the allied to bring democracy here in Japan after WW2 and still despite all the efforts they didn’t grasp yet the full conception of democracy.

Even if you weren’t yet born in 2001, there is enough information generated in the last 1 day giving details about the Afghan war.

Yes

Better read up, because this is just embarrassing!!!!

I think it’s the other way around.

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/02/15/obamas-failed-legacy-in-afghanistan/

Obama came into office rightly arguing that the war was important but had been sidelined, and promised to set it aright. Yet Obama’s choices since 2009 reflect a more conflicted stance, and it is not clear he ever settled on a coherent strategy. He deployed more troops than needed for a narrow counterterrorism operation, but not enough for a broader counterinsurgency campaign. He initially increased reconstruction funding because he believed, rightly, that effective Afghan governance was an essential condition for victory, but quickly second-guessed himself and subsequently reduced civilian aid every year thereafter.

Most damagingly, Obama insisted on the public issuance of a withdrawal deadline for U.S. troops, undermining his own surge—which eventually became so obvious that he finally reversed himself. Obama’s belated decision to sustain a small force of some 5,500 troops in Afghanistan beyond his term in office is likely to keep the Afghan army in the field and the Taliban from outright victory—but this is a low bar compared to what Obama once hoped to achieve there.

Again, there is more than enough blame to go around, but it’s with Bush, Obama and now especially Biden that deserve the heaviest condemnation.

Biden will never recover from this.

Even the fierce Muslim Mongols on their passage to India knew better than to try and conquer the inhospitable fastnesses of the Afghani tribes. Can't blame the old government crew for abandoning ship (who would want to suffer the fate of Mohammad Najibullah?), but taking out with them for personal enrichment the people's moolah before the mullahs move in is a crime by any other name.

see that guy sitting like a boss on the left in the picture?

he is one of the Taliban Five that were released by Barack Obama who then went to Qatar.

 A source at the Afghan presidential palace told CNN that eight or nine representatives of the Taliban's delegations from Qatar -- where talks for a solution to the conflict are ongoing -- were inside the palace as of Sunday morning.

I think it’s the other way around.

So Obama started the Afghan war, where does it state in the article that you mentioned .

I sure would love to swap the Afghan war stories, considering we were both there covering the Soviet invasion!!!

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.

Really? I was sitting in an USAF ops break room in Utapao in April, 1975 watching the evacuation of Saigon unfold. Looks the same to me......

These people want to live in the fifth century.

Let them.

And stop using our tax money on US weapon factories.

Countries giving refuge to fleeing Afghanis will not be thought highly of by the new leaders of Afghanistan.

These people will be seen as traitors. Countries harboring them will be seen as giving aid and comfort to enemies.

Saigon 2.0.

ulysses:

If you supported leaving Afghanistan , you shouldn’t be complaining. And if you are complaining don’t forget the former guy, the one who was ready to throw our allies under the tanks, all to get a Nobel.

There is a lot of finger pointing at the former guy when of course the former guy inherited the mess from the guy before him (oddly the partner of the former former guy is the current guy). Long story short, the former guy didn’t throw Afghanistan’s girls to the wolves - the current guy did. Apparently Americas allies who also expended a great deal of effort in Afghanistan are not too pleased with the current guys inept retreat. Be sure not to miss the last helicopter from the embassy roof.

The US pulled the plug on the group it was supporting in China long ago paving the way for the CCP victory. Mao and his people were a bunch of country bumpkins with no experience governing a country. They were the sandal wearing fighter types too. The US spends the next three decades debating and pointing fingers on how China was lost.

Skip to the turn of the century, Bush/Cheney, then Obama (not Biden he wanted out 10 years ago), then Trump and finally Biden pulls the plug; all of them knew the obvious: Afghanistan has no government. 300,000 in the Afghan military disappears within a week. Now begins the ugly blame fest.

History repeats. The US never learns.

bass4funk: "No one told Obama to go into Afghanistan, that was his decision because according to him, Iraq was the wrong war, the real war was in Afghanistan."

Dude, that's embarrassing. The time machine arguments again. Yes, yes, we know... 9/11 happened on Clinton's time, GWB just inherited a huge deficit, then Obama went into Afghanistan, and later Trump killed OBL, and let me guess... Corona started under Biden? 

Kentarogaijin: "Seriously Alan ??, what does Japan have to do with this issue??.."

They are also fleeing.

"What a childish comment, seriously so childish.."

Not really. What's childish about it? Is there not another thread about Japan evacuating along with all the other Western countries? Is it not running in that case and only is with other nations?

YrralToday  09:10 am JST

I support Biden exit,the hand he was handed by Trump,who could not wait to kiss the Taliban rear, Google Trump Afghanistan Deal

If you believe President Trump is to blame for;

The Afghanistan crisis

The Border Crisis

The COVID super spreader coming from the open border

The skyrocketing prices of almost everything needed to sustain life

The dramatic increase of China virus cases

Millions of your taxes going to the million plus illegals entering America

then you believe President Trump won the election and is still the President and making present day decision for Americans.

AND Google/Yahoo are Left propaganda sources of information.

AND Biden was in office for EIGHT YEARS under Obama. EIGHT YEARS!!

Of course, it’s not Saigon, it’s even much worse. Why? Because now the whole planet is affected and it is happening exactly now, to all of us in one way or another, not anytime earlier, only ‘locally’ and only to watch or read in older history books.

Bidens Saigon moment.

And all because he and his handlers just HAD to reverse all of Trumps policies. And replace them with childish posturing.

AND Biden was in office for EIGHT YEARS under Obama. EIGHT YEARS!!

Do you know what the job of a VP is? It is to provide private consultation to the President, then to implement whatever the current President decides, provided it isn't illegal under the laws of the country. VP Biden did that.

The US military should never have done a large-scale deployment into Afghanistan. 20 SpecOPS teams should have been in there with satellite and air support only. The State Department and CIA should have been running the search for Bin Laden. The US has never built a nation successfully. Even US Territories have huge issues compared to US states.

Military isn't for building a country or securing cities. That's what police do. Military is there to kill people and break things. That's their job. If you need a surgical strike, use a cruise missile or send in the Rangers/SEALs/Air Force Special Warfare Airmen. That's what they train to do.