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Leftists are fond of saying things like "You Can't Take on the US Gov't Without Nuclear Weapons and F15's."

When, apparently all you really need is some rifles and some rough country to hide in.

Spock wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 1:43 pm

Leftists are fond of saying things like "You Can't Take on the US Gov't Without Nuclear Weapons and F15's."

When, apparently all you really need is some rifles and some rough country to hide in.

I'm not sure how this is a leftist meme. And the Taliban didn't take on the US government. They waited it out. There's plenty of blame to go around on Afghanistan against four presidencies.

Donald Trump 4/21/21 wrote:I wish Joe Biden wouldn't use September 11 as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan. ... [W[e can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough. In fact, far too much and way too long. I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars of equipment out and more importantly, reducing our military presence to less that 2,000 troops from the 19,000 that was there... Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st. and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.

Republicans were bragging about Trump's negotiations with the Taliban on the official RNC website up until a month ago. The Taliban was able to put itself it this position because of the deal they made with Trump a year ago which, among other things, got a lot of them out of jail so they could be in a position to lead this final offensive. The Afghan army was already corrupt, and most of them just cut the best deal they could as quickly as they could.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:55 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 1:43 pm

Leftists are fond of saying things like "You Can't Take on the US Gov't Without Nuclear Weapons and F15's."

When, apparently all you really need is some rifles and some rough country to hide in.

I'm not sure how this is a leftist meme. And the Taliban didn't take on the US government. They waited it out. There's plenty of blame to go around on Afghanistan against four presidencies.

I have to agree. Plus, Afghanistan is an abyss regardless who is in charge/or tries to fix things.

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:46 pm

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:55 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 1:43 pm

Leftists are fond of saying things like "You Can't Take on the US Gov't Without Nuclear Weapons and F15's."

When, apparently all you really need is some rifles and some rough country to hide in.

I'm not sure how this is a leftist meme. And the Taliban didn't take on the US government. They waited it out. There's plenty of blame to go around on Afghanistan against four presidencies.

I have to agree. Plus, Afghanistan is an abyss regardless who is in charge/or tries to fix things.

The British discovered that in 1842.

Bob Juch wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 5:13 pm

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:46 pm

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:55 pm

I'm not sure how this is a leftist meme. And the Taliban didn't take on the US government. They waited it out. There's plenty of blame to go around on Afghanistan against four presidencies.

I have to agree. Plus, Afghanistan is an abyss regardless who is in charge/or tries to fix things.

The British discovered that in 1842.

As did the Russians

U.S. intelligence predicted on Aug. 10 it would take 30 to 90 days for the Afghan government in Kabul to collapse. It took less than one week. Here is how it unfolded.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... -timeline/

U.S. intelligence predicted on Aug. 10 it would take 30 to 90 days for the Afghan government in Kabul to collapse. It took less than one week. Here is how it unfolded.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... -timeline/

RNC quietly deletes webpage touting Trump's call for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp

The Republican National Committee was caught attempting to quietly erase history on Sunday when a page on GOP.com praising former President Donald Trump's "historic peace agreement with the Taliban" was deleted as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.

The Washington Post's Dave Weigel first noticed the apparent takedown, which an RNC spokesperson later billed as a routine update to the website.

"How quickly can the politics around Afghanistan change? Here's a section on the RNC's website in June; click it now, and you get a 404 error." Weigel added alongside an image of the dated page.

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

But he still wants to be. And all indications are that he's gonna try to be. When he does try, he'll become the Republican nominee. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 7:02 pm

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

But he still wants to be. And all indications are that he's gonna try to be. When he does try, he'll become the Republican nominee. --Bob

Nah.

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

That is true and I'll be among those who will say that Biden really screwed the pooch on this. Having said that, however, the "deal" that the 45th President cut with the Taliban laid a lot of the foundation for what we witnessed this week. It was a very weak deal which did not require much from them and much from us, and even so, the Taliban did not even fulfill most of its obligations. Having said that, Obama's waffling on troop withdrawal and W's diversion of priorities to Iraq were also contributing factors. There is a great deal of blame to go around here.

kroxquo wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:33 am

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

That is true and I'll be among those who will say that Biden really screwed the pooch on this. Having said that, however, the "deal" that the 45th President cut with the Taliban laid a lot of the foundation for what we witnessed this week. It was a very weak deal which did not require much from them and much from us, and even so, the Taliban did not even fulfill most of its obligations. Having said that, Obama's waffling on troop withdrawal and W's diversion of priorities to Iraq were also contributing factors. There is a great deal of blame to go around here.

Wasn't it the current occupant of the White House who tried to undo most everything that Trump had done? If Trump's deal was so bad, why didn't Joe back out of it, too? This is mostly on him.

Estonut wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 18, 2021 8:36 am

kroxquo wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:33 am

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Gee. Last I checked he wasn't prez.

That is true and I'll be among those who will say that Biden really screwed the pooch on this. Having said that, however, the "deal" that the 45th President cut with the Taliban laid a lot of the foundation for what we witnessed this week. It was a very weak deal which did not require much from them and much from us, and even so, the Taliban did not even fulfill most of its obligations. Having said that, Obama's waffling on troop withdrawal and W's diversion of priorities to Iraq were also contributing factors. There is a great deal of blame to go around here.

Wasn't it the current occupant of the White House who tried to undo most everything that Trump had done? If Trump's deal was so bad, why didn't Joe back out of it, too? This is mostly on him.

I actually agree with you and that is why I feel that Biden has handled this so badly. He had every justification to back out of the deal based on Taliban non-compliance and didn't. Biden screwed this up. However, while we will never know for sure, I feel fairly safe in speculating that if the 45th President had been ree-elected we would have had this situation back in May after the promised May 1 withdrawal. The U.S. military presence was the only thing keeping the Taliban from taking over and this would have been true no matter who had been in charge. So yes - if we were committed to Afghanistan, Biden should have cancelled the pull-out that began under the 45th's administration under a deal that was ill-advised and unworkable. Politically Biden was in a no-win situation - cancel the pull-out and be excoriated by the Right for extending the presence of American troops there when their hero had begun to fulfill his promise of ending American involvement there, or follow through on the agreement and be excoriated by the Right when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. I don't think he or anyone thought that the Afghan government would fall so quickly and I also think that he was expecting that the 45th would get some of the blowback because it was his deal. Unfortunately he was wrong on both points.