Joe Biden

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, Taylor said:

This is an interesting change of narrative. We were still devoting resources, money, and personnel in a country to keep an enemy contingent at bay. If that's not war, I don't know what is.

Actively engaging in combat operations?

[Taylor]

Board conservatives on the War in Afghanistan, 2020:
 

On 7/2/2020 at 1:16 PM, Lhalo said:

He's trying to end wars but Congress won't let him.

Rand Paul blocks defense bill that would delay Trump’s Afghanistan drawdown

“They really don’t care about their theory of an all powerful commander in chief, they care more about perpetuating the Afghan war,” Paul said.

This defense authorization bill could more aptly be called a bill to prevent the president from ending the Afghan war,” Paul added.

https://nypost.com/2020/12/10/rand-paul-blocks-bill-that-would-delay-trumps-afghanistan-drawdown/

 

On 2/4/2020 at 12:10 PM, Blarg said:

Last year the US spent $52 billion in Afghanistan alone. The budget for cancer research is 1/10th of that. Imagine if we had our priorities straight how many lives worldwide we could have saved.

 

On 7/2/2020 at 1:16 PM, Lhalo said:

They can't let Trump be known as the President that withdrew from Afghanistan. 

 

On 2/8/2020 at 12:26 PM, fan_since79 said:

There are reports that "numerous" U.S. Special Ops forces were killed today in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan, possibly by Afghan security forces they were training.

Get the U.S. the hell out of there!

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/02/08/report-says-multiple-us-troops-killed-in-afghanistan-firefight/

 

On 9/17/2020 at 6:11 PM, fan_since79 said:

COVID-induced shutdowns nationwide crashed the economy, and Trump has worked to bring troops home from Afghanistan. Much more than Obama or Bush did.

And your snarky use of quotes around the word President is cute.

 

[Kevin]

Trump had troops die under his watch and so did Biden and they both had months of no U.S. deaths.

The Afghan government was corrupt and their military didn't want to risk their lives for them thus causing the country to collapse forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and overwhelm what little troops we had left. I don't think using Bagram would have helped in the end but I'll defer to @ten ocho recon scout on the that. 

Let's just be glad it's over. 

[Kotchman]

Actually it isn’t war. If we would get back to declaring war and whipping ass, we would be more successful 

[Taylor]

Just now, Kevin said:

Trump had troops die under his watch and so did Biden and they both had months of no U.S. deaths.

The Afghan government was corrupt and their military didn't want to risk their lives for them thus causing the country to collapse forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and overwhelm what little troops we had left. I don't think using Bagram would have helped in the end but I'll defer to @ten ocho recon scout on the that. 

Let's just be glad it's over. 

It wasn't a war, though.

[Kotchman]

1 minute ago, Kevin said:

Trump had troops die under his watch and so did Biden and they both had months of no U.S. deaths.

The Afghan government was corrupt and their military didn't want to risk their lives for them thus causing the country to collapse forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and overwhelm what little troops we had left. I don't think using Bagram would have helped in the end but I'll defer to @ten ocho recon scout on the that. 

Let's just be glad it's over. 

Bagram was a huge mistake. I still think that falls on military more than Biden. No plan should have been presented that didn’t include Bagram as the logistics centerpiece 

[Lhalo]

5 minutes ago, Kotchman said:

Actually it isn’t war. If we would get back to declaring war and whipping ass, we would be more successful 

It's crazy that wars are started on a whim completely bypassing Congress.

[Jason]

1 minute ago, Lhalo said:

It's crazy that wars are started on a whim completely bypassing Congress.

 Crazy? The word you’re looking for is normal 

[Kevin]

2 minutes ago, Kotchman said:

Bagram was a huge mistake. I still think that falls on military more than Biden. No plan should have been presented that didn’t include Bagram as the logistics centerpiece 

I understand the Bagram angle but my opinion is with too little troops and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, that canceled out the strategic advantage of Bagram. 

Trump left 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when he departed (something I supported). Let's say that was how many troops were left in the waning days of our presence there (Biden probably withdrew more). With AT least 100,000 people trying to escape, could our troops handle being outnumbered 40 to 1 while at Bagram? That's an honest question. I really don't know. On the surface it just looks like we were overwhelmed.

Like I said, the Afghan government is who I hold responsible in the end. Biden has his responsibility but the situation has more depth than that and this whole thing was twenty years in the making. 

[Kotchman]

14 minutes ago, Kevin said:

I understand the Bagram angle but my opinion is with too little troops and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, that canceled out the strategic advantage of Bagram. 

Trump left 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when he departed (something I supported). Let's say that was how many troops were left in the waning days of our presence there (Biden probably withdrew more). With AT least 100,000 people trying to escape, could our troops handle being outnumbered 40 to 1 while at Bagram? That's an honest question. I really don't know. On the surface it just looks like we were overwhelmed.

Like I said, the Afghan government is who I hold responsible in the end. Biden has his responsibility but the situation has more depth than that and this whole thing was twenty years in the making. 

That’s a valid point. Honestly I don’t believe there was really 100k people that  needed to come back. You definitely need more than a few thousand troops for that. Between the military and state department there was poor communication. If we had 100k there than that shit needed to start months ago with a screening process. I think Biden just said fuck it and left them behind. I’m actually ok with that as long as it wasn’t Real Americans and military left behind. The reps war hawks raised hell and then we created a total cluster fuck by going back. We basically dropped a bunch of terrorist and rapist on our military communities 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Kotchman

[St1ck]

24 minutes ago, Kevin said:

I understand the Bagram angle but my opinion is with too little troops and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, that canceled out the strategic advantage of Bagram. 

Trump left 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when he departed (something I supported). Let's say that was how many troops were left in the waning days of our presence there (Biden probably withdrew more). With AT least 100,000 people trying to escape, could our troops handle being outnumbered 40 to 1 while at Bagram? That's an honest question. I really don't know. On the surface it just looks like we were overwhelmed.

Like I said, the Afghan government is who I hold responsible in the end. Biden has his responsibility but the situation has more depth than that and this whole thing was twenty years in the making. 

Bagram is also 30 miles from the city. Not sure busing people back and forth would be any safer. 

[Lhalo]

Just now, St1ck said:

Bagram is also 30 miles from the city. Not sure busing people back and forth would be any safer. 

It was supposed to be done earlier. The delay is what really screwed things up.

[St1ck]

1 minute ago, Lhalo said:

It was supposed to be done earlier. The delay is what really screwed things up.

People were told multiple times to leave. 

[gotbeer]

2 hours ago, Kevin said:

I understand the Bagram angle but my opinion is with too little troops and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, that canceled out the strategic advantage of Bagram. 

Trump left 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when he departed (something I supported). Let's say that was how many troops were left in the waning days of our presence there (Biden probably withdrew more). With AT least 100,000 people trying to escape, could our troops handle being outnumbered 40 to 1 while at Bagram? That's an honest question. I really don't know. On the surface it just looks like we were overwhelmed.

Like I said, the Afghan government is who I hold responsible in the end. Biden has his responsibility but the situation has more depth than that and this whole thing was twenty years in the making. 

Don't know either way either.  But some of the logistics would change considerably.  

Bagram would be military controlled.  So it would fully fall under US military jurisdiction.  it's also outside of Kabul.

Where Kabul was technically an international airport, and in the middle of the city.  You had everyone getting the fuck out from there.  Brits, US, French, Germans, etc.  This was also pieced together in such a shitshow that I don't even know if there was a centralized command trying to coordinate with each entity or if they were all on their own trying to get their people out asap.  

JMO, but if Bagram was open.  Military could have flown out of there, i.e. citizens of other countries, high military targets.  And the Humanitarian could have flown out of Kabul.  

[Jason]

1 hour ago, St1ck said:

People were told multiple times to leave. 

It was probably wise to never go there in the first place 

[gotbeer]

2 hours ago, St1ck said:

People were told multiple times to leave. 

Yes, and many had tickets to leave.  Then the shitshow happened before they could leave.

[Tank]

2 hours ago, St1ck said:

Bagram is also 30 miles from the city. Not sure busing people back and forth would be any safer. 

Buses? Sure, if we’re in 1947 and you’re going to meet Andy Dufresne to restore boats along the beach in Mexico.

 

They should’ve taken an Uber or Lyft.

[Tank]

[St1ck]

34 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

Yes, and many had tickets to leave.  Then the shitshow happened before they could leave.

Should have left earlier. 

[UndertheHalo]

[Jason]

41 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

[Taylor]

2 hours ago, Tank said:

Sounds more like Jose Mota.

[Tank]

4 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Sounds more like Jose Mota.

I’m not sure there’s much of a difference.

[Jay]

11 hours ago, St1ck said:

Should have left earlier. 

Biden is a potato-head.

 

[St1ck]

6 minutes ago, Jay said:

Biden is a potato-head.

 

Ok