Race to oblivion ! Afghanistan vs. South Vietnam edition

[Jason]

31 minutes ago, failos said:

That’s true in some regards, but I think the point I’m trying to make is that the Iraqis and their government were united in defeating ISIS (in addition to having a somewhat competent military). With Afghanistan, it seems like a good chunk of their population want the Taliban to take over.

It’s probably because the government in Afghanistan sucked at governing. I heard reports that police an military personnel there hadn’t been paid in months. Hard to be motivated in that situation. I’m sure the Taliban just gave those people some money and that’s all it took 

[Kevin]

4 hours ago, mmc said:

[failos]

20 minutes ago, Jason said:

It’s probably because the government in Afghanistan sucked at governing. I heard reports that police an military personnel there hadn’t been paid in months. Hard to be motivated in that situation. I’m sure the Taliban just gave those people some money and that’s all it took 

Afghanistan is just a bunch of disparate tribes, so it’s tough to govern in addition to the incompetence—and yeah you have the Taliban bribing/threatening to kill people.

[mmc]

 

[failos]

2 minutes ago, mmc said:

 

Hopefully he mentions Corn Pop

[Jason]

4 minutes ago, mmc said:

 

it will be interesting to hear what his plan is going forward 

[Jason]

3 minutes ago, failos said:

Hopefully he mentions Corn Pop

I don't get the corn pop reference 

[ten ocho recon scout]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

It’s probably because the government in Afghanistan sucked at governing. I heard reports that police an military personnel there hadn’t been paid in months. Hard to be motivated in that situation. I’m sure the Taliban just gave those people some money and that’s all it took 

It started before this. Even when getting paid, the vast majority were just there for the pay.... nothing more

[failos]

Hahaha fuck this guy.

[failos]

Already playing the blame game

[ten ocho recon scout]

Nay not be popular, but Biden is right in what hes saying right now...

[T.G.]

 

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Nay not be popular, but Biden is right in what hes saying right now...

I think what he's saying makes sense. I support the plan he's laying out 

[mmc]

20 straight minutes of Biden blaming past administrations, repeating the same points 10 different times, and leaving without speaking to the media lmao.  Him not speaking at all would have carried just as much substance 

[mmc]

No one is arguing him getting the troops out of Afghanistan is a bad thing.  They wanted him to explain why the fuck he botched it so badly which he completely ignored.  Probably knew that’s what the media would press him about so he completely ignored them

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 minutes ago, mmc said:

20 straight minutes of Biden blaming past administrations, repeating the same points 10 different times, and leaving without speaking to the media lmao.  Him not speaking at all would have carried just as much substance 

I tried to stay for the whole thing. But yeah.... kind of kept just repeating himself.

I hate the news clips. I hate whats happening. I hate that i lost friends there. I hate that friends lost legs there. I hate after all that, in a long weekend, its back to October 1, 2001 there.

 

But Biden is right. Whether we left this month, or 1000 months from now, the results would be the same. 

[Jason]

4 minutes ago, mmc said:

No one is arguing him getting the troops out of Afghanistan is a bad thing.  They wanted him to explain why the fuck he botched it so badly which he completely ignored.  Probably knew that’s what the media would press him about so he completely ignored them

This is the part he fucked up with. I'm glad he will send troops back over to get these people out though. 

[Amazing Larry]

Biden already on his way back to Camp David. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

16 minutes ago, True Grich said:

 

This

There were good ones. Professionals. But the masses were always useless.

[UndertheHalo]

47 minutes ago, Jason said:

It’s probably because the government in Afghanistan sucked at governing. I heard reports that police an military personnel there hadn’t been paid in months. Hard to be motivated in that situation. I’m sure the Taliban just gave those people some money and that’s all it took 

Insanely corrupt, awful administrators.  Of course the scum bags involved in that were there to steal international money and skim the drug trade and not really govern ( I could really go off on that….but I digress)

In contrast with the former Afghan government the Taliban is relatively good at administering local affairs.  Not in the way we like or understand but for the majority of  Afghans they want sharia governance.  The Taliban is very tough but if you look at the information that’s out there many Afghans actually do regard the Taliban as fair.  A significant difference vs the other regime.  Who again, very corrupt - unfair - or just completely ignored wide swaths of the country.  The Taliban literally went into these areas settled disputes and governed.  So they won the support of those people.  I think it’s really important to understand that the Taliban has got the support of most of the ethnic minorities now.  Particularly noteworthy, the former northern alliance groups.  Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen.  They spent the last 20 years building popular appeal and they succeeded.  
 

I do hope they do as they say they will and allow girls to go to school etc.  no matter who it is that’s in charge in Afghanistan, it’s not a nice place for women.  Anyway time will tell. 

[Rico]

 

[Kevin]

9 minutes ago, Rico said:

 

It would be kind of funny if one of those things accidentally detonated. 

[mmc]

 

[Amazing Larry]

And you thought your flight was packed...

[mmc]