Bit of work I’ve got to do.
American withdrawal from Afghanistan. My mempory is that it wsa horribly rushed because Biden Admin cocked it up. Not sure of the details – I think accleration without telling everyone?
Anyway, what I need to find is progressive, woke, lefty, hell, usual media, sayin’ it’s just fine, really great!
Basically, those covering asses for political bias reasons.
So, any ideas on who this was? How to find those pieces?
Didn’t the Taliban just have their version of a May Day parade with the stuff Joe and Kamala left behind?
Trump agreed to withdraw all troops by 21st May 2021, the actual final withdrawal was on 30th August 2021.
It was a mess because there’s no clean way to withdraw a small force (2500 when Biden took over) while the native army you’ve been propping up for 20 years is busy running away.
“It was a mess because there’s no clean way to withdraw a small force”
Oh go on with you. You can at least blow up much of the equipment, you can at least leave from Bagram air force base rather than Kabul airport. You could actually reinforce the 2500 if extra hands are required for the destruction.
If memory serves the date chosen by the Biden administration was selected for publicity purposes – it was the same date of the year as something-or-other.
I’d always assumed that Biden changed the date just so he wouldn’t be seen to be carrying out Trump’s policy.
Of course this then meant that the US had resources to dump into supporting Ukraine. Being a fan of Steves’, I’m naturally happy that he fled from Afghanistan, but regret he then decided to go for Ukraine.
As for any references to US policy, I’m afraid I just skim the media and assume that my outstanding brilliance will automatically lead me to the perfect solution.
Not exactly sure what you’re looking for, but when I want to find something that justifies anything woke or progressive, I turn to Wikipedia.
And, lo and behold, a long long essay about the complete withdrawal process over years, with one or two sentences about the final days around Bagrum, neglecting mention of any . . . unpleasantness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_U.S._troop_withdrawal_from_Afghanistan
In the weeks and months leading up to the final withdrawal, Biden was refusing to accept that there would be any problems with the Taliban. Hence the rush and panic at the end.
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2573268/biden-announces-full-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-by-sept-11/
Best to avoid anything including the words Wikipedia, factcheck, Reuters and bbc.
Don’t forget to mention these 13 Tim:
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/29/1032044382/what-we-know-about-the-13-u-s-service-members-killed-in-the-kabul-attack
https://www.vox.com/world/2022/8/15/23300236/no-one-held-accountable-catastrophic-afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-white-house
Not sure if it helps but here’s Vox channeling its inner Dr Heinz Kiosk. We are all guilty.
@some of my best friends
It was a mess because there’s no clean way to withdraw a small force (2500 when Biden took over) while the native army you’ve been propping up for 20 years is busy running away.
They left like thieves in the night, without even informing their ‘coalition’ ‘colleagues’ they were going.
As BiP says, they could have denied materiel and withdrawn to Bagram and ultimately covered themselves from the air over the nice open approaches.
It was complicated – certainly – by Afghans civvies wanting to go too, but it didn’t have to be like it was.
This was criminal malpractice, literally. It cost lives.
The government doesn’t get involved in the tactics of an operation like that and I find it hard to believe the US ground commanders didn’t know what was coming (with that plan).
The government does get involved in the strategy, and leaving behind billions of dollars worth of equipment does make it harder for the Chinese to make further inroads into Afghanistan via their friends in Pakistan.
The insurgent Pak Taliban are currently being very naughty with US weaponry supplied by the Afghan Taliban, but I’m sure that’s just coincidental.
Gen MacMaster was Trumps security adviser and reckons they persuaded Trump it was best to stay at one point but lost out. He’s good for some background reading.
https://www.deseret.com/2021/10/27/22747222/general-hr-mcmaster-on-americas-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-trump-national-security-adviser-biden/
https://www.newsweek.com/hr-mcmaster-warns-against-self-delusion-that-afghanistan-withdrawal-means-wars-end-1624089
This is surprisingly balanced:
https://www.britannica.com/event/withdrawal-of-United-States-troops-from-Afghanistan
I can find very little which is even vaguely complacent.
This may be the closest:
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
it was the same date of the year as something-or-other.
August Bank Holiday!
Most likely answer I’ve heard is that Dr.Jill or somebody wanted everybody out before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 for political publicity purposes, so screw the conditions on the ground, get out.
Supposedly, President Trump was intent on a conditions-based withdrawal. There’s a video of a couple of members of the military talking about this – they claim President Trump threatened the Taliban leaders – actually showed them a satellite photo of their home. At any rate, if you have the U.S. military and are prepared to use it, you could manage this withdrawal a wee bit better than the disorganized bug-out it was.
“Best to avoid anything including the words Wikipedia,”
I thought he was looking for woke crap that said “this is fine.” No?
@Esteban
President Trump was intent on a conditions-based withdrawal. There’s a video of a couple of members of the military talking about this – they claim President Trump threatened the Taliban leaders – actually showed them a satellite photo of their home
Correct. This was discussed on Fox earlier this week