The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: How do you think Afghanistan falling to the Taliban will affect America’s future?
Talk about it….
Yes! I expect it will mean more terrorist attacks starting in the next year or two. These terrorists won’t give up now and they’re emboldened. And with a naive president and Democratic leaders that are more concerned about transgender bathrooms and wokeness than they are national security I expect problems to come! Wake up voters!
Exactly.
And a lot of these terrorist will come here through open borders.
@Badge1104 Let’s not forget the Taliban released 5000+ of the terrorists locked up there, who are now free to go wherever they want, and we have a wide open border south, where there are no impediments from these very people crossing. The Chinese are there (with access to many US weapons, no idea to what level they can reverse engineer our technology [that they do not already have], as are the Russians, to provide funding to these people to move to where they want to attack the US at will. Many potential allies/friends are now thinking they will not risk their lives because eventually, they will be hung out to dry.
We should have never been there. It is obvious with all the time and money spent training the Afghan military that either we failed at training or they don’t mind the Taliban running the country. After 20 years the only thing that happened were thousands of American lives were lost. At the very most we should have walked away after 2-5 years. There is a reason that Afghanistan is known as a “nation killer” Just ask the British and Soviets.
Afghanistan is a “tribal” society. Something we don’t understand and the British and Soviets before us did not understand. There will always be a revolving door of who runs the country based on tribalism.
We need to stop invading countries trying to force our ways. It doesn’t work. Until we can take care of all our own at home we need to stop the stupidity of long useless wars.
And remember that Bin Laden was a member or the Saudi Royals. You know the royal family we seem to always cozy up to. The royals of the country that stirs the pot in the middle east constantly as they have the money to do so.
Yes, Well Folks! And all should remember that 15 of the 9/11 terrorists were SAUDI….. not Afghan at all.
Cant believe Biden failed so hard that Taliban was about to take over so quickly.
You think the failure of a 20 year war for cultural and political transformation is at the hands of Biden?
Jim,
I do. Joe is the boss now and he made the decision and gave the order for the abrupt pullout and it’s timing. Anything and everything that was accomplished has now been wiped out by Joe.
@Jim – everything is the President’s fault. You get a crappy cup of coffee it’s either Trump or Biden’s fault, no in between.
Stove – do you know anything about Afghanistan or the tribal culture. Perhaps you need to speak local Afghans about it. No amount of time was going any foreign presence gave will eliminate the Taliban. It’s a tribal nation and currently the Taliban is the dominant tribe. In 10, 20 year another tribe will dominate. We just like the British and Soviets before us we stupid for going in there and thinking the people would change.
I honestly can’t believe how many of you just blame Biden or who ever but don’t bother to pick up a freakin book and read or speak to a local Afghan about how the power in Afghanistan flows. I guess i’t easier for you people to just not bother to educate yourselves.
Nothing was ever accomplished in Afghanistan by the United States. Prove me wrong.
They trained the Afghan army for 17 years and they disintegrated in 3 days after the US abruptly left. This was an army of nearly 200,000 troops at one point. It’s very clear they were never interested in taking on the Taliban without US support. How this is Biden’s fault is baffling.
All you people saying it’s not biden’s fault are wrong. biden voted for the iraq war. biden voted to go into Afghanistan. biden failed to uphold the deal made by us the USA to leave. Anyone playing the game acting like the outrage is due to us not staying is using manipulation and side stepping the issue. Obviously we shouldn’t have been there nation building in the first place. Obviously we shouldn’t be there for another 20 years. These are gaslighting statements made to distract you from the failures in leadership.
Although I use the term “failure” I think it was done on purpose. China has already partnered with the taliban. joe is a traitor doing exactly what hunter was paid by china to do.
Just remember democrats, elections have consequences. You voted for this. 47 years in politics, hidden in a basement and touches little girls inappropriately, what did you expect?
Jim,
Nothing was accomplished? According to Whom and what? Please enlighten us, beyond what we’ve already heard from the propaganda infused news media.
Sam, You’re an idiot. You do understand 1 person that is NOT president can’t make troops go right? What about all the other people that voted to go in? I don’t see you blaming them. Trump was going to pull all troops out on May 1st, Biden did do it later but when is ever a good time to pull troops out? You run the risk of something happening no matter what. You do understand how allies work right? Don’t blame Biden for any of this. Again, 1 person dated back many years ago unless it’s the president you can’t fault. Even if they did pull out on May 1st, It wouldn’t have matter. You do remember who actually sent the troops there right? A Republican by the name of George W. Bush Jr. Keeping talking out your ass when it was a republican who sent them.
I do support that they stay and that it was right. If you remember which I doubt you do. The whole reason why we went there in the 1st place was due to the 9/11 2001. To be with the allies. And even till this day we still protect our allies. Sorry you don’t understand this.
Trump already had May as the month to pull out our troops! So what exactly is the difference? Well Tweetalini had invited the Taliban to party 🎉 with Trump only that did not happen. Good grief.
@me
you are an idiot. by your logic those that don’t kill are worse than those who do. President Trump wanted to do something but didn’t because of his advisors, whereas biden is too stupid to listen. stop watching CNN and think before you post.
@me
Being called an idiot by you is a badge of honor.
So let me make sure I understand you correctly. You believe we had business going into another country, killing their people, spending billions of tax dollars in the efforts of catching one guy hiding in the mountains. Then attempting to convert them into our vision of what they should be. Attempting to indoctrinate them with lgbt propaganda, usury banking schemes and our values, all of which are in direct conflict with their culture and religion. When that doesn’t work, then bailing on the people who “assisted” us, leaving them to die. It’s obvious who is the idiot here by how quickly they went back to their culture and the beheadings. Trump had a plan and an agreement. biden purposely broke that agreement causing more death and chaos.
Osama bin laden aka CIA asset who’s family was escorted out of the United States after the buildings fell, when you or I weren’t allowed to board a plane. Yeah the guy who our own intelligence agencies say was the mastermind was working with the intelligence agencies. The hi jackers all came from saudi arabia remember? I didn’t see us voting to destroy and rebuild them.
Only an idiot would have thought it was ever a good idea to do the same thing we did in Vietnam and Iran and expect different results. The arrogance it takes to believe you have the right to invade another country to tell them how to live is off the charts. You didn’t export democracy, you created a new generation of terrorists. You didn’t help anyone, you assisted in the murder of people and the pillaging of resources. We haven’t had a valid reason for war since WW2. Actually, was there even a war declaration for Afghanistan or Iraq? You can’t be defending an illegal war could you? You wouldn’t do that. Per the constitution the war was completely outside of the law. We literally had no business there (legally)
We are talking about biden here. There are many more politicians who are responsible for the pitiful failure. Again, using the word “failure” is not truly accurate. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were epic success if you look at the profits made by Haliburtion and big pharma among many other criminals posing as politicians AKA war criminals.
Again you are wrong on everything you post here. Masks don’t stop viruses. COVID is a HOAX, biden is an idiot, vaccines can’t be forced, forensic audits prove Trump is your president. Cry more pro war lib.
Well Folks and all the rest of the blind Biden supporters , It is not about the fact that we pulled out of Afghanistan . I think most people agree with that . It’s how he did it .A 100 % encompetant, foolish disaster .This is just another example of his failures .
@ Jim.
Staying so long in a country made up of people that don’t have the backbone to stand up longer than 3 days to protect themselves was wrong. We should have gone in there, removed OBL, and got out.
That said, everything that is happening right now is on Biden. While others, Trump included, had plans to leave, the timing and style of our departure was the work of Biden. He vacates the military so fast that he left many Americans behind. Now he needs to send our troops back to ensure their safe escape. There was no need for a departure like that. Do it in waves and see how it’s working. We would have seen their military was falling apart in time to get our people and our billions of dollars worth of highly sophisticated equipment out. All Biden has done is equip the Taliban like they’ve never been equipped before. This will most definitely come back to haunt us. Timing and style are squarely at his feet. He will go down in history for this blunder!
Oh, and while all this is going on, the infrastructure bill is working it’s way through, and all the other important issues facing our county are on the table, what is our President doing? He’s on vacation at Camp David planning trips to California to campaign for our failed governor! The guy, and the whole radical element of the Democratic Party (which seems to be the majority of them these days) are a train wreck. Hopefully we can come back from the damage to our safety and our reputation within the world community.
Ilovepopcorn,
Anyone who knows what just happened there can clearly see that it’s not the occurrence of the pullout itself; it’s how it was done. Your Trump argument is ridiculous(unless you were part of the team that was planning the May pullout, when Trump was president, and you know exactly how that would have happened).
Minimally if we keep our nose out of it.
Joe’s capacity to understand anything should show everyone that his spending of trillions of dollars is no better thought out than his exodus from Afghanistan. That could be the only good thing. However we have just lost face around the world. The people of Afghanistan are sc**** . People fell off of departing airplanes to their death. In a way the press is also responsible for not telling the story properly of what can happen in Afghanistan when we leave. Joe is washed up now. He has less than zero credibility. His administration is over. He can go back to his basement for his remaining term.
When Joe gets on TV today and tries to spread the blame I will have to make sure there is nothing around me to throw at the TV. I will only accept his resignation.
We need to be careful here Ricardoh, if Biden resigns, then Harris becomes president, which is even worst. If we can get rid of her, then Pelosi becomes president…..I believe we are in deep trouble until the next election cycle, if we make it that far.
If Harris is put in she will have no standing.. Essentially Biden’s term is kaput. They can not come back.
Ricardoh
We’ve lost American blood during the 20 years we were there. We tried to nation build with tax payers ,hard earned American money and it took Afghan forces less than a month to throw it all away. We should have been out a long time ago
It won’t. Let’s face it – the choice was between continuing to siphon billions of dollars into a failed administration or pulling out and letting Taliban to take over.
Ghani’s administration ruled for the last 7 years, cost the US ~$350 billion dollars and failed in all possible ways: GDP went down, unemployment shot up, poverty rate nearly doubled. Opium production reached a record of 9,000 tons in 2017. Taliban isn’t any better, but at least they are funded by someone else, not the US taxpayers. So the decision to pull out was the right one.
But the way it was eventually done was typical of Joe Biden administration: bungle everything, then blame Trump. It’s complete BS that US had no choice because of the agreement signed in 2020. The exit was already delayed once, mainly because Ghani refused to negotiate with Taliban. There was nothing preventing the US from going over his head and renegotiating an orderly surrender, to avoid the repeat of Saigon. Instead we’ve got an epic fail.
However, other than a lot of hurt feelings and a tremendous hit to the international reputation of the US, there won’t be any additional consequences. No terrorist attacks or anything like that.
You are overlooking one thing. When you show weakness and stupidity like what Joe just did anything can happen in many places in the world. To top that off we will have to see how many will die, be raped and denied an education in Afghanistan. Beside Joe there is the United Nations at fault here along with the press. In these last twenty years something could have been done to get a better outcome. We were lied to by our own intelligence on the fitness of the Afghan army.
IF only Trump could have done something about it during his four years. It’s not like he was bragging about the freeing of Afghanistan at a rally a month ago.
@Ricardo. You allude to something that, strangely feels like a personal crusade for me, though I think it should be a universal crusade for EVERYONE. It is an elephant in the room in any political discussion of the Muslim world, and other parts of humanity as well. I’m talking about the absolute subjugation, disenfranchisement, and often horrific abuse of roughly one half of the population.
We all seem to get very righteous and ready to use violence when there is racial or ethnic apartheid, and rightly so, but what about the extreme gender apartheid still practiced in much of the world?
@Ricardoh
You mean until this debacle the US has never showed weakness and stupidity? I don’t think anyone in the world has any illusions about the intellectual power and moral qualities of the US elites. Maybe except you?
As for “many will die, be raped and denied education…” Here is official statistics from 2017: two thirds of the girls weren’t getting any education. 15% were married before they were 16, 60% were married before they were 19. A quarter of all boys didn’t attend the school either because they had to work to support their families. Literacy rate among boys was about 60%, among girls 30%. The numbers didn’t change much last year. That’s a stellar achievement worth $2 trillion, no?
And nobody lied to you about the fitness of the Afghan army. Again, you’re forgetting that even in 2019, with 15,000 US troops stationed there, government controlled only about half of the territory. The rest was either contested or firmly in the hands of Taliban.
The “civilizing mission” of the US has failed miserably. Everywhere it was tried. Time to take a bite of humble pie.
tashaj Evidently you did not hear Biden talking about the 300,000 thousand strong well equipped Afghan military a couple of weeks ago. One third of girls getting educated is not good but better than none. Maybe in a short space of time it is hard to make every point but in away this is not just the fault of the US. Where is the rest of the world. Where is the money of the middle east. Where is their help for that mater. Europe helped a little but they could have done more. Why is it that the US has to take care of the worlds problems with no help? We had something like 1200 troops in Afghanistan and they were enough to keep the country calmer and no trooper has been killed there in over a year. Where was the United Nations? Answer no where. Where was honest news reporting? Answer no where. Maybe the rest of the world needs some humble pie.
@Ricardoh
Nope, it’s you who can’t distinguish facts from propaganda and lies, and then blame everybody. Sort of like Biden administration.
First, Biden never claimed that there is a 300,000 strong Afghan army. The official statement is that US funded training of 300,000 Afghan troops. Which is not the same thing at all.
As we all know, the majority of these US-trained troops deserted at the first sight of Taliban or defected to Taliban. Must be some training, no?
Second, Middle East (specifically Gulf States) has been sending billions of dollars to Afghanistan. Except that they were sending it to Taliban and not to the US-supported official government. In fact, Taliban senior management is stationed in Doha, Qatar.
Mind you, this didn’t prevent the US from considering these countries our allies and trade partners.
Third, US had military casualties in Afghanistan every year. Even when you believe it to be “calmer”. They weren’t as high as in 2010, but even in 2020 US troops were killed by roadside bombs.
Lastly, about the UN’s role…
The fact is that Bush didn’t bother to secure UN’s authorization to invade Afghanistan. So from UN’s point of view, US war in Afghanistan is illegal. Oops.
Now, of course, you want to blame the UN for US failures. That’s as rich as Biden blaming Trump. By the way, you and Biden seem to have a lot in common. Are you a fan of Biden, by any chance?
America and the rest of the world will suffer, especially the people of Afghanistan. There have been many troubling news stories recently, but this is the worst I have seen in quite a while.
Joe has 40+ years experience with what’s going in in Afghanistan. The guy sits there and blames the afghans and trump. Terrible. The withdraw, which is what he’s focusing on, I’m ok with. His execution of not getting people out is where he shines the light on himself as a lifetime government employee.
@Mike
I’m talking about the Americans and American allies out.
Mike Not enough information was put out by the press on the many good things that were getting accomplished in Afghanistan. We heard about the drugs and the Taliban. Nothing about the torture that would go on when we left. The united nations and the west left Afghanistan to the wolves. With such a gloomy picture painted for years people wanted out. In hindsight we should have given the Afghans something to fight for.
Ricardoh
What good. Destruction of a country. Afghans had made the choice long ago to let the Taliban be the dominant tribe. Eventually another war lord will rise up an take down the Taliban. But in the Afghan culture they never have or never will trust westerners. The US got into something thanks to Bush II and had zero clue about the structure of Afghan society.
I know you and others find it hard to believe but MOST of the world does not want to be like the US: The Afghan military by not even attempting to fight pretty much proved that. THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE LIKE AMERICA
Get ready for some Revelation-grade atrocities in the near future.
You want a headache? Try to imagine the level of brainwashing required to attempt pinning this on Trump
I heard an interview on the radio today that did blame this atrocity on Trump.
It is a situation that will never have an ending. The Afganis were so reliant on the US they were doing nothing for themselves anymore. That being the case, it was time to pull out. Not saying the way it was done was the right thing to do, but it was time to do it
It won’t, as long as we have secure Borders. Oh wait….
It’s just one more example of what a weak country we are.
1) We don’t keep our promises
2) We don’t pay for the government we want (enormous deficits).
3) We don’t save (huge trade imbalances)
4) We can’t reach agreements (incoherent immigration policies)
+1
… with Biden signing Afghans death warrants – especially the educated and women – now we have an emboldened Taliban & Al Quieda – we need to be super vigilant now for more terrorism by these same organizations… we’ve really shown our weakness and our allies are now thinking the same could happen to them…. Taiwan & South China Sea to China soon? Ukraine to Russia? Iraq to Iran? as Biden stands by and watches … we’re the laughing stock of the world ….. disgusting
… did you watch Biden’s news cast? …again.. just walkws away and couldn’t stand to the media to take questions… how weak …no leadership 🙁
I can’t watch him without crying for our country. He is a lying POS.
Biden is a disgrace, he needs to be impeached.
It was time for ice cream.
Ricardoh, your idol Trump was just bragging about the deal his administration made for withdrawal with the Taliban at a recent rally. Would you be crying for our country if he were still in office and pulled out troops? He is the one that set the time table for complete troop withdrawal and drew down some troops in December.
Both the right and left wanted the withdrawal. 20 years and 300,000 troops trained. Afghan troops folded in days. How many more U.S. troops were you willing sacrifice?
DLo Pretty sure Trump would have not put the cart in front of the horse. That is the problem. Pretty sure Trump wouldn’t been so ignorant of the capabilities of the Taliban or the weakness of the Afghan forces.
DLo Did you know we only had around 1200 troops there and haven’t lost one in over a year. It was enough for a moral boost. Those twelve hundred kept the Afghans fighting and held the country together.
Ricardoh, Pretty sure you don’t know what you’re talking about. This is the “deal” the great deal maker made directly with the Taliban.
Silva. I am afraid you are the one who is ill informed. The deal Trump made was if you interfere with our withdrawal you will be bombed.
I can’t imagine an American not fighting to save their Country. I also noticed all those trying to leave on planes were men.
@FPN,
If it gets to that, I’m sure you won’t have to imagine it. There will be plenty of skinny jeans and man buns lined up to get on the planes heading to China.
That’s a huge training ground for terrorists. 5,000 were just set free by the Taliban from prison, so there will be plenty of teachers. It will be almost impossible to monitor terrorists in an area that large. Movement in and out of Afghanistan will be easy.
How many refugees from Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East will turn out to be terrorists? I don’t think I want to know the answer. The BLM/Antifa domestic terrorists are already doing grave harm.
@chuckie the troll, Part of the February 2020 peace deal that Trump signed with the Taliban required the Afghan government to release 5000 Taliban prisoners, which the Afghan government eventually did by August 2020 under pressure from the Trump administration.
Al-Qaeda has just been resurrected…be prepared for 9/11 level terrorist attacks coming our way. This presidency most certainly is making decisions reactively not proactively. God be with our soldiers as they evacuate or mop up a mess of Afghanistan.
Thank God we have a president who finally brought this 20 year nightmare to an end. Nothing we did over 20 year produced an Afgan government that sought to protect or serve its citizens. It is not our responsibility to continue doing that.
Since 2001 we have developed many robust intelligence gathering tools that will assist in protecting us more than have our service members in bunkers in Afganistan.
The hell with Afghanistan and all those third-world countries over there that are constantly having religious wars for the past 2000 plus years it’ll never stop America needs to keep their noses out of that crap going on over there and let em kill each other off.
If we want to interfere and get the job done we just need to wipe the whole country out every living person, there is no other way.
Go ahead America have some balls and put an end to the madness over there over all these religious wars the hell with them all.
Bdpirate
If we start “wiping out” other countries then we open the door for Russia, China and other to get together and wipe us out. And at that point the few allies we have will let it happen.
The bottom line is we have no business what so ever sticking our American nose in anyone’s tribal or religious war. We need to let all of them fight it out and may the strongest win
This is only the beginning of tough tough times for the USA, our allies won’t trust us, our enemies will be stronger, and start throwing their weight around, China, North Korea,Iran, Russia,also the economy will probably go down the drain, and then there is the border, Good Job Joe, it only took you 8 months to flush the country down the toilet
Pete,
Most of the world has not trusted the US since Vietnam. And out allies lost trust when Trumo deserted the Kurds, who by the way has done the US’s dirty work in the middle east for decades. Once that happen nobody on this planet trusted the US
+1
It’s all about your batteries (so was Vietnam). 😉
For those who don’t know both countries are rich in lithium deposits. The Pentagon Papers revealed that’s why the US was interested in Vietnam in the first place. Remember it’s not about democracy or freedom, that’s the spiel they sell you, it’s always about money and keeping the money junkies rich.
So Mr. President… tell me, how is this Trump’s fault?
https://tinyurl.com/6jb8vwcu
Nature abhors a vacuum. Who will fill it? Iran? Pakistan? China? You can’t police it with satellite images and finger waving, so keep your eyes open!
George W. Bush and his administration didn’t know what they were doing when they invaded Afghanistan. They shouldn’t have started something they couldn’t finish. Plus, Cheney and a bunch of other wealthy boneheads made a lot of money on the war.
I’m honestly waiting for Russia and I’ll take over the Ukraine and communist China to now take over Hong Kong / Taiwan.
They know they’re dealing with the feeble president and a Democrat party preoccupied in their politically correct bubble.
I wouldn’t actually be surprised if Russia took back Alaska and China or North Korea took Hawaii away from us. And with the Dems bankrupting the country we’re going to be in pitiful shape.
Badge1104
Did you miss that in 1999 Hong Kong went back to China? Don’t keep up on world event much do you
@ Well Folks ~ 1997
We should have left 10 years ago. This is another version of Vietnam. How many other countries have gone in and tried to do what we just spent 20 years trying to do? Perfectly willing to let the Chines step and give it a try.
Agree Dorothy. Let China be the next victim in the “Graveyard of Nations’ which is what Afghanistan is known to be.
I think failure will spill over to other issues. I don’t think many americans will trust the current administration and will start questioning and resisting, such as the vax and mask mandates.
Taliban funded by Saudi’s. How else do they get their money. 9 tons of heroin ain’t going to cover the costs of a country. Plus the money involved in growing heroin is small compared to the shipping and distribution money. Very small.
Same as Belarus. EU should make fly overs and all air traffic shutdown from the country to the EU.
Keep them in their country. It’s a long way to North America.
Taliban hates America because we’ve been occupying their country for 30-40 years. It’s been a Cold War hot spot for decades.
Now that the U.S. has left, they can only blame themselves and no longer will a US soldier kill someone’s father or mother cycling the hate system to another generation.
Let’s face it Taliban (now controlling Afghanistan) is one of many countries that hate The US. Get in line folks. Let’s see. North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, Iran…the list goes up.
It’s time to let the European Continent handle that country.
momosfriend
Wow someone who has taken time to lean about Afghanistan and it’s tribal culture. It is actually refreshing to see someone on Claycord with intelligence and ability to research, read and make an educated statement.
Other than the millions more refugee’s that will start to arrive soon ?
What did anyone else expect? We created the problem in the Middle East by funding these extremists during the Cold War. We fought a war in Afghanistan for what purpose? We didn’t even get the leader of Al Qaeda until years later. We spent $2.26 Trillion on that failed war where government contractors got rich off all that money. Imagine if we spent that money on our own citizens. We could have fixed our own infrastructure, or have established universal healthcare, or worked on revamping our education system, or a number of other projects. Instead we wasted money and more importantly 10’s of thousands of American soldiers lives.
This is 20 years of failures that land squarely on Biden, Trump, Obama, and Bush. Biden is the current President and deserves just as much blame for how poorly this went. However, what should we have done at this point? Continue to pour billions of dollars and thousands of American lives into that failing country? At the end of the day, the people that will suffer the most are the Afghan people. All free countries (including us) need to step up and take in refugees like what happened after the Vietnam war.
Pyrrhus,
Totally on point.
I find it incredibly sad that president Biden is laying most of the blame on Afghanistan.
The new chain of command for America.
George Soros
Jill Biden
Americans
What a brilliant strategy….pull out the military BEFORE the civilian embassy staff and the civilians who helped the U.S. Then send the military back in to rescue them. And on the way out leave our vehicles and weapons for the enemy to use. If they didn’t ship out the supplies they should have been destroyed. Biden and his top brass need to feel the heat for this blunder.
Exactly. If the situation had been explained to a kindergarten kid they would have figured out a better way to exit. Beside the people I would like to see a full list of the military equipment we left behind.
It’s not only America’s future that is a concern, it’s also the future of our allies. Biden’s poorly planned withdrawal is a national security disaster, a humanitarian disaster, and a diplomatic disaster.
The UK’s DailyMail noted: ‘Media outlets across the political divide in the US and Britain are condemning Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis amid what is being billed the biggest foreign policy catastrophe in 65 years. ‘https://bit.ly/2UqeYWo
Do any of you know anything about Afghanistan or the tribal culture. Perhaps you need to speak local Afghans about it. No amount of time by any foreign presence would eliminate the Taliban. It’s a tribal nation and currently the Taliban is the dominant tribe. In 10, 20 year another tribe will dominate. We just like the British and Soviets before us we stupid for going in there and thinking the people would change.
I honestly can’t believe how many of you just blame Biden or who ever but don’t bother to pick up a freakin book and read or speak to a local Afghan about how the power in Afghanistan flows. I guess i’t easier for you people to just not bother to educate yourselves.
Look at the Kabul Airport pictures and you will see some Afghans that get it.
Ricardoh
That was a mere handful of Afghans. Better question is why did the Afghan military negotiated with the Taliban in the north letting them take province’s rather than fight. And why did they not fire one shot around or in Kabul. They opened the door and handed the keys to the city to the Taliban. The Afghan military we spent trillions on arming and training did nothing. The Afghan military never planned on fighting for themselves. They always planned to walk away.
The only thing we have to do is use the troops we have their to get those that helped the US military out. Screw the visa process we just need to get them out. If all our military does is go get those that helped us get out, the Taliban will let it happen. They won’t waste their time on US troops that are their for a New York minute to get that done. Get those interpreters, guides and their immediate families out of there and be done. We owe them. It’s a humanitarian thing, not a right thing, not a left thing but a humanitarian thing as our military would have been defeated if not for them
More countries will view the U.S. as weak and inept, and perhaps not as invincible as claimed.
Even if this withdrawal happened to be the right thing to do, the execution was clearly not well planned. And for Joe to talk about saving money? Well, there is a first time for everything I guess.
The Biden administration beats on its chest about being humanitarians. The way they handled this makes it pretty clear they are not.
Thank god they have Donald Trump to blame.
The world has viewed us inept since Vietnam. Vietnam also proved we were not invincible at that point. Vietnam was 10 years with no resolve. This was 20 years with no resolve. I guess whatever next war we stupidly get involved in will go 30 years with no resolve.
Maybe what has people so unglued is the leaving but the horror of war, especially when it’s unnecessary war
Islamic/Muslim atrocities/suppression of human rights, will lead this administration to undertake military actions, “humanitarian efforts” (some in direct conflict with each other), adding billions to the deficit resulting in further division between an a) outraged, b) ignorant or c) apathetic populace.
Now our country can start working on helping our own citizens with the money we were wasting on a war we could NEVER win…wait, there is no profit in that..never mind.
@Wellfolks
$3.5 trillion is not enough for you? Taking care of our own with freebies and handouts? Prosperity does not eminate from government. And as far as this whole “tribal” nation thing you say makes the war unwinnable, you are dead wrong.
You ever hear the phrase “war is hell”? Sherman said during his brutal invasion of the south. He did not say it to justify the atrocities afflicted on the general populace, he said it to make sure everyone knew the devestating inhumane cost of total war.
Americans do not have the stomache to watch, read, or listen, to reports about our soldiers killing 5 million Afgan fighters and civilians. Our military was never unleashed the way it needed to be, to win this war. Our politicians, generals, and most of all, our citizenry made this war unwinnable. I don’t think it’s bad that we as a people don’t have the will to inflict mass destruction on humanity, but we collectively as a nation must realize that we have to stop with these nation building police actions. American blood should never be spilled over seas unless we as a nation are willing to destroy our enemy by any means necessary and achieve total victory.
God bless those that made the ultimate sacrifice.
Well Folks that’s funny. There is profit in every penny our government spends. It comes later in book deals and kickbacks.
don’t forget AOC (she hates America) said “why not $10T?”. they are only about half way there…
#ReadyToDumpTheSquadYet
Here’s a way to to help citizens(that has worked since creation of the country). Citizens:
1. Get a job.
2. Be responsible.
3. Stop depending on the government to wipe their behinds.
As long as we don’t get lured into any more ill conceived adventures or mission creep it should be a net positive for Americans.
Afghanistan is known as “the graveyard of nations”. Now the USA can be found in the graveyard.
Captain Bebops
You are correct. Neither the British or the Soviets could succeed.
Again.
Our reticence in dealing with those 5,000 prisoners permanently will eventually cost American lives here and abroad. It’s a given.
You don’t jail murdering Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, you kill murdering Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters so they can’t kill you now or in the future.
Our obsession with applying American jurisprudence to uncivilized savages with sub-80 IQs will be our downfall.
We will be seeing terrorist attacks on our own soil within a year, maybe two. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something happen this Sept. 11 which is the 20th anniverary of 9/11. I would also expect an increasing number of terrorist attacks on Americans overseas and possibly to international flights.
So many of you don’t realize that we’ve spent over a trillion dollars to train and equip an army that would not stand up and fight the Taliban. What the Afghan military, that the US spent money on weaponizing and training did was put down their weapons and walk away and it took less than a month for them to do so. There was ZERO fight in the army that the US created.
How much more American blood do you people want shed in a country that will always have tribal wars lead by warlords. A country that still lives by an ancient doctrine of warlords and tribes and the strongest rules for now but another eventually will rise up.
Four presidents have dealt with this. What do you want a fifth, sixth, seventh etc president to deal with this. Do you want this nonsense to go on another 10 to 50 years or more with no resolve? Today it’s the Taliban but in 10 years another tribe and 20 years after that another tribe, warlord after warlord after warlord. That IS what Afghanistan is about and it’s just the way things are. There was no win and there never would have been. And the only Afghans we need to “rescue” are those that worked with our military as translators and guides. We do owe them and their immediate families.
It is time for the next country to enter the “Graveyard of Nations” as the US has spent it’s 20 years there
Investigative reporters constantly told the United States public that …. just using the SURGE monies and materials alone as an example…. the Afghans would only put approximately 25% of our largess to use for their fighters’ support, weaponry, and training. The other 75% they have have been paying to the Taliban to keep the latter from raiding Afghan homes and businesses….. as in rape, steal, burn, or execute.
i.e. We the People have been paying for the war to continue.
We should get as many of our personnel and allies out as possible, close the Embassy, and stop interfering with their tribal culture IN ANY WAY. It will probably be excruciating to watch what happens; but the longer we stay, the more brutal their transition will be.
Afghanistan will be renamed bannastan. No blame on biden ,
as joe caused this problem, it will be bad for America and all Americans
The Donald had to be talked out of doing this last December. He was convinced to extend the date to May 31st. Biden extended it to August 31st. Don’t you people ever read anything before you go flapping your gums? And while we’re pointing fingers at who caused this problem, we can all thank Bush Junior, the second worst President in my lifetime for this catastrophe, Afghanistan was his baby. It’s been bad for America and all Americans for 20 years.
you lefties never cease to amaze
so because President Trump didn’t do this, somehow he is worse than biden for actually doing it. by that logic people who didn’t commit murder are worse than actual murders.
Listen to an interview with Mike Pompeo, and then listen to Blinken. Which one understands foreign affairs?
The execution of this plan was shoddy.
Its doubtful Afghan people spend much time thinking about which American President to blame. They are probably more concerned with keeping their families alive.
I have to admit, the GWBush regime turned out to be so lame duck as to pave the way for the game changing Obama. RINO! Deep State, whatever you want to call it. If we continue to ignore history, we might attempt it again.
As for the worst president, I know Carter and Obama were in the line up. But I think Biden is the champion.
I wonder if Xi can knuckle under the Tribes? Utterly horrific, but interfering then abandoning a tribal culture to to this fate is pretty horrific.
Silva…. are you admitting that Trump actually LISTENED to his Generals & Admirals, assorted military advisors, etc. and did NOT dive in head over heels with no idea what he was doing like Joe did?
I doubt that Trump would have ever allowed things to happen the way Bumble F. Biden did, but we’ll never know that now will we?
Hindsight is 20/20 Yes, Bush had a mission to rout Al Queda & eliminate Osama bin Laden… everyone supported that, but OBL was still at large when Bush left office. It would have been up to OBAMA to end the mission after Al-Qaeda and it’s leader were vanquished
(remember Obama took all the credit for killing Osama bin Laden).
Why don’t you blame Obama for what happened then, and Biden for what is happening now?
Or is that just too inconvenient?
I think Afghanistan’s fall will make it less likely that we will intervene militarily unless we have a clearly defined mission with a clearly defined reason why it is in America’s vital interests to get involved. Some of that John Wayne swagger and American hubris is gone. Remember the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? The Neocons told us they would be easy wins, resulting in pro-American democracies in country after country and peace throughout the Middle East. Funny how people don’t like us when we bomb the heck out of their country, invade it, and install a puppet government, forcing American economic and political theory on them, ignoring their history and culture. And we’re totally clueless as to why they aren’t kissing our feet in gratitude.
It was an ugly end to an ugly war. Why didn’t we get out the thousands of Afghan people who worked with us? Why didn’t Trump ramp up the effort to get them out as soon as he made the deal with the Taliban? Probably because he couldn’t care less. He ran for office on a pledge to keep Muslims out of the US. Why would he let these Muslims in? Why didn’t Biden ramp up the effort? I don’t know. I can only believe he, as well as the military and intelligence experts, actually believed the Afghan army and government would continue to fight, so he would have more time. Goes to show how little we understood a country we’d been deeply involved with for twenty years. It will certainly go down as one of America’s more shameful moments, but it probably couldn’t have ended any other way. This war was a disaster from start to finish.
Really Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer(?)-Newsolini-OAC and the rest of the green and entitlement, socialist controllers of our government-so all of you who voted Demented Joe and Job Jumping Harris in, how do you like it now?
Prices are through the roof, inflation is out of control, the pipeline was stopped and now Biden is begging other countries to increase oil production. In California, especially, and in other border states just let anyone and everyone come in and get freebies. We are over run by illegals not contributing to the system but sucking it dry as well as the generarational welfare crowd. Many of the homeless want to be homeless as they do not want to follow the rules and continue to destroy what others have built, just like rioters who don’t want to work but keep taking from the system, because they need something or just want it.
Afghanistan is such a repeat of prior mistakes the US has made. History does repeat itself. Try to hide and take away the past history by not teaching it to its fullest extent to people and students and this is what you get.
God help the US. What a joke that our President is hiding at Camp David, Harris is no where to be seen, Newsolini is showing his true colors of being the spoiled rich kid who rides on others coat tails, lies to get into office like so many termed out politicians on both sides.
We best get back on track and fast.
Trump has his faults that is a given but he was for America not like these idiots who are in power.
Yesterday the Biden administration said they will remove 22,000 afghans from the country. Today the Taliban is blocking people from getting to the airport. Yesterday I said a kindergarten kid could have pulled this off better today I say my dog could have.
Taiwan wants to know whats up.
@Greg
No, our People in Uniform should not be ashamed! They went and did as they were told and everyone of them has paid a price that most of us cannot ever imagine.
The people that should be ashamed are the political leaders that started this thing and kept it going. We as a people also bare responsibility as we are the ones that appoint our political leaders, and they do what they think will keep us happy.
Yes, the planning of the withdrawl was WAY FUBAR! The top brass should be sent to pasture. However, this was gonna be messy anyway it was cut so it may be that there weren’t any good options.
Name a war after the revolutionary war where the government hasn’t lied to us about how easy it will be, why we are there, etc. Then name a promise our government has kept after the fighting has ended? Ho Chi Min? The Philippians? The Native Peoples of this land? South Vietnam? Reconstruction?
The good option would have been to put the cart behind the horse,
I don’t know but the whole thing seems staged to me! Something feels very off about it all.🤔
To Everyone, Republician or Democrat…
Just watched movie, based on facts & events in 2004 called The Outpost.
That idiot Gavin Newsom has announced California will accept all the Afghan refugees that want to make the trip. He said California is a state of refugees. That may be true, but:
Will they be Covid tested? Unlikely
Will they vet out any terrorists sneaking in? Unlikely
Who is going to finance it? California citizens
Who’s jobs will they compete for? California Citizens
California unemployment is 7.7% now. Will this make it worse? Yes
Newsom is always generous with our money, lievelyhood, and health.
Recall this zero.
Where is all the Socialist Democrat support for Biden?
Aside from Silva’s incomplete history lesson blaming Bush, none of you Pro Joe regular commenters are saying anything.
We already know don’t like Republican Presidents.
Can’t we see just one HONEST opinion of Biden’s performance from you guys, or will you continue to maintain your shame in silence?
You boldly declared your support for this senile babbling fool !
All that he has done is your fault, you voted and cheated for him….
Say something!
Wow. So many know it all’s on this site. How many of you have spent time there? How many have studied the history there? How many know the anything about the actual politics involved?
I spent multiple years on the ground there. I saw things I will never forget. I performed my duties as commanded to do. I may not be the smartest or know all the details, but I do know this was never going to end in a positive way. It was time to leave years ago. What is happening was inevitable as you can force your way of life on another culture. People want humanitarian actions then we need to kill have the population or more there. How humanitarian is that? The past two years there I saw more destabilization that I saw the previous 10. This was done. The only way to have fixed it would be bringing back military action and tens of thousands of our troops. Who wants that? Lose more American lives in a place we should not be. Great idea.
I must have missed something here Sgt. So who are the “know it all’s” posting here?
Who posted any opinion favoring staying in Afghanistan?
The mission was done there after we got OBL in 2011…. but Obama kept us there.
Obama took alot of heat for the rise of ISIS when he pulled the last troops out of Iraq so maybe that was why he shied away from doing anything like that in Afghanistan…. so aside from Obama… “who wants that?”