Afghanistan after a Year – Is Biden Ashamed?
This isn’t really about Afghanistan. This is about the weakness, apathy and incompetence of the Biden Administration.
We left Afghanistan with our tail between our legs, scrambling to meet an artificial schedule set by the Biden Administration. It was quite probably the most embarrassing moment in American history. It sent the message that no ally could depend on America to keep its word. That any support given could be stripped away at a whim, despite promises made.
We left behind $8 Billion in weapons and military equipment.
Frequent contributor George McMillan comments that it is no wonder that India is upset with us. We armed the Taliban in the 1980s and then left adding to the instability of their northern regions. Then we armed them again. By negligence this time.
But we left some even more important in Afghanistan.
Americans.
Over 800 Americans have left Afghanistan since August of 2021. Biden had promised the last soldier would not leave until all Americans were out. But he lied. Guess he had to make the schedule.
The Americans got out by the grace of the Taliban. Imagine that, we depended on people we considered terrorists to safeguard our citizens. We are lucky that any of them survived. I wonder what backroom deals were made? I’m sure they didn’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts.
The government that we maintained (very expensively) for 20 years collapsed pretty much the same day we left. Without our support, no one had the heart to fight.
In case you are wondering, Trump actually had a plan. He was getting out, but there was no fixed timetable, and he intended to maintain the status quo, with the Taliban agreeing to stay out of Kabul. There was a substantial chance that negotiations could have maintained rights as they had been in Kabul. In other words, girls would still have been able to go to school. This was not certain by any means, but it wasn’t out of the question.
Instead, we lost all goodwill, all leverage in Afghanistan, a great deal of international reputation, and worst of all, we allowed some good people to die, and others to be enslaved within strict and barbaric sharia law.
Oh, yes, our adversaries are taking advantage. Did you know Afghanistan is sitting on the largest lithium deposits in the world? Valued at over $1 Trillion. And guess who is taking advantage of the power vacuum that we left? Yes, there are Chinese geologists on the ground there right now, only one year after we left.
How deep does the incompetence go? If, as I have speculated in the past, Joe Biden were under control of the Chinese, could he have made worse choices for America? Or better choices for our adversaries?
Joe, The ignorance you display in this post is only outdone by your hypocrisy. Trump negotiated with the taliban without involving the legitimate afghan government-can you say formula for failure? Trump didn’t have a timetable-wrong, we were scheduled to leave by May under trump-Biden pushed it back because the trump administration had made no plans for evacuation. And no ally can depend on the US to keep their word? How about the Kurds in Syria who trump abandoned to Erdogan? Or the treaty we signed with Iran along with numerous allies? Or the Paris protocol also signed by numerous allies? If I were king-I would have renegotiated the idiotic deal that the trump team had in place, but Biden decided to honor the treaty and pull out. Was that the right decision? Not in my opinion, but we were set up for failure by number 45, idiot in chief. Check your facts before you write any more ignorant posts such as this….
Mike, you are not correct. Trump’s timetable was flexible and certainly not the most important feature. Trump’s exit would not have caused the massive damage that Biden’s incompetence did. I’m ignoring the rest of your rant because it doesn’t make sense.
Joe, Apparently my words don’t make sense because you are too ignorant to understand the hypocrisy of your words “no ally can trust the US to keep its word”. I pointed out the numerous occasions that trump did not keep our word with our Ally’s, you can’t understand that? Stupid is all I can say. If anything, Biden is to be faulted for sticking to a horrible agreement negotiated by 45. You folks are too one sided to admit that however….
It’s too bad that we cannot have discussions based on facts and instead devolve into name calling, bickering, and inaccurate stereotypical generalizations. In this one, you stated some assumptions, did not provide source material, and Mike Firmin responded back with a series of facts that anyone could check. Joe’s response was to tell Mikey was wrong, that Trump was perfect, and that since the rest of his comments did not make sense, Joe not respond at all. That is not a fact-based response. Mike’s response to that may have been factual, but when the lead is “Joe you are too ignorant… “I really doubt any amount of faxes gonna help.
My point is it would be nice to have fact-based discussions instead of what we are doing here. We can all have different opinions, but we should be able to have a common set of facts that we are dealing from. We should be able to discuss facts and even decide that the ones we are looking at are inaccurate or accurate. And sure, some fact bases are very complex, especially the ones drawn from very complex surveys and statistics. But again, we should be able to discuss those and determine when perhaps someone is cherry picking statistics in order to bolster their opinion, better known as spin. But if we are dealing from a common set of facts, we should be able to wade those waters and come up with a common set of facts on the far side. I don’t think any of us are going to move our discussions forward until we can agree to get to that point.
And yes, we will always have that set of people that must engage in ad hominem attacks because they are unable to do better. For some reason, Joe’s concept of free speech wants to keep that around. But it would appear that a small set of us should be able to take the highroad. It’s too bad we don’t.
Yeah. There was a guy who used to post here that was notorious for name calling. Can’t recall his name. Don or whatever. I thought that after he dropped out that the dialogue would improve. But we still have leftist trolls who throw bullshit and have to be corrected. MAGA!!!
Mike you are brainwashed. Take responsibility. That was horrific what Biden did in Afghanistan. It’s 100% on him. He could have done anything he wanted and what he did is on him. You know in your heart that President Trump would have done a much better job (I could have done a better job). Oh and check your facts none of what you speak about is an actual treaty……Iran , Paris. Just BS the NWO put in place with our puppet presidents.
+1 for Mike.
I am glad we are gone, I am glad we did not wait. Trump had four years to prepare, he made the deal, nice job. The US had over 20 years, I think if Joe coulda done better, he already would have. And to continue, as Joe wanted, would just mean more of the same, under Trump or Biden.
I am sad we didn’t leave more elegantly. Shit happens and here it did, in spades. Might not have been so bad if Trump had not signaled our imminent departure over a year early, with timelines.
I am troubled by Americans being detained, although many remained of their own free will after being warned. Not sure what exactly happened after that, how many more, etc. Information just seems so muddy and with agenda(s).
But in the end, I am glad it’s over and now the next part: how to deal with Afghanistan’s harboring of terrorists flying in the face of what they said they would do. Killing one by drone is a good start.