The Biden (interim) Dictator

[sonofdaxjones]

ProgFascist Nation just a little over a year ago melted down over the prospect of withdrawing from Afghanistan.   Even going so far as to join at the hip with the Dick Cheney Neo-Cons to ensure that Trump couldn't do it.   

Now it's, "golly, should have just never been there to begin with". #shrug

[Dugout DickStone]

It doesn't even seem like the Afghan army fired a shot to slow these guys down.  Would bet this was pre-arranged

[Trim]

Religion: net bad?

[CNS]

I think the immediate collapse kind of proves that all the reasons for leaving are even more true. Like there was no state, there was no army, there was no progress. 20 years! 4 presidents!

I fully agree that Biden messaged this badly and probably could’ve done a better job with the airfield evac or whatever but this all was going to happen at some point, better now than in 50 years.

This is where I am too.  It actually makes me mad not because of the horrible crap we are seeing over there right now, but because we mumped up so many people's lives and spent so much time and money we can't get back.  Our rough ridin' government has been more concerned about filling defense pockets than anything else, and the exposure of how big of a lie any report of success or actual progress we made over there is infuriating. 

I am heard today that the Taliban has premade agreements with many of the provincial capitals/govt officials they have overtaken.  When we started the peace process last year, the Taliban went around and basically said they would do this and negotiated the process.  That is why the actual movement to control took no time. 

20 years and the main outcome is an enriched defense industry and a much stronger and more sophisticated Taliban.

[wetwillie]

Aren’t we just going to pick off the taliban with targeted drone strikes?   

[CNS]

I am now pretty sure there are two Talibans.  One that is the hardcore believers and are willing to live in caves and crap, and one that is a bunch of the rest of Afghanistan but aren't as hardline and don't want to live in caves and crap.  I think it's like christians around here.   Some are willing to go all in but the rest just say prayers at Thanksgiving dinner when Grandma comes over and stuff.

[LickNeckey]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/08/16/afghanistan-history-taliban-collapse-504977

interesting cultural analysis

[sonofdaxjones]

Nice work on the delay in order to hit a date of propagandish symbolism. 

Terrible move. 

[steve dave]

lmao

https://twitter.com/fxhedgers/status/1427442997310869509

[catastrophe]

Damn China got us there

[Kat Kid]

I think the immediate collapse kind of proves that all the reasons for leaving are even more true. Like there was no state, there was no army, there was no progress. 20 years! 4 presidents!

I fully agree that Biden messaged this badly and probably could’ve done a better job with the airfield evac or whatever but this all was going to happen at some point, better now than in 50 years.

This is where I am too.  It actually makes me mad not because of the horrible crap we are seeing over there right now, but because we mumped up so many people's lives and spent so much time and money we can't get back.  Our rough ridin' government has been more concerned about filling defense pockets than anything else, and the exposure of how big of a lie any report of success or actual progress we made over there is infuriating. 

I am heard today that the Taliban has premade agreements with many of the provincial capitals/govt officials they have overtaken.  When we started the peace process last year, the Taliban went around and basically said they would do this and negotiated the process.  That is why the actual movement to control took no time. 

20 years and the main outcome is an enriched defense industry and a much stronger and more sophisticated Taliban.

Yeah the freak out among major media and foreign policy types is disingenuous at best.

Don’t get me wrong, the Taliban are real pieces of crap. I also don’t think the past 20 years of drone striking weddings and doing night raids where our operators “canoe” (look it up) civilians has been very effective.

And if we want to talk a little about how the eff Osama bin Ladin was just sitting there in a compound next to Pakistan’s West Point we can go there too.

But here we are. Charlie Wilson, Brezinski, Bush, Cheney, Obama, and all the commanders that enabled this can eff off right there with Biden. eff em all.

[wetwillie]

I want to talk about Osama sitting next to Pakistan’s West Point

[Kat Kid]

I want to talk about Osama sitting next to Pakistan’s West Point

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n10/seymour-m.-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

Have at it. I haven’t read the whole book, but this article is enough to get the gist of the background. Basically ISI agave him up at some point and then Obama got the feather in the cap. Why? Who knows.

On a more pathetic note There are two Fox News dipshits one named John O’Neil that both claimed to have domed Osama for the clout and book deals and the guy that the rest of the unit said did it goes by “Red” and won’t talk because he is still active duty or something.

The entire way we have decided to run our modern wars assumes that we will have this elite group of psychos that runs around doing off the books crap and the rest of the boys from Saginaw and Baton Rouge sit in bases and eat Burger King while the rest of us ignore everything until something doesn’t quite add up on the tv.

Maybe we should do things differently.

[MakeItRain]

Biden and his military staff mumped this up.  Sure he wasn't in a ideal situation, but that's no excuse to be so wrong about the situation.  He needs to own it.

Sent from my hatch using Tapatalk

What was the solution here? If we are resolute that they mumped up, what should they have done differently other than
to continue kick the can down the road or call for a troop surge with the purpose of actively fighting the Taliban?

After 20 years your strategy should not be dine and dash.

I wholeheartedly agree, that doesn't provide a strategy though. We had three choices;
1. bounce like we did, it's not like this is sudden, we've been drawing down troops for literally a decade.
2. Just stay the course which was no real place in place that saw the Taliban control everywhere we weren't anyway and continue to keep our troops in harm's way for no apparent reason.
3. Declare war on the Taliban which, despite dax's moronic posturing, means fighting against a lot of Afghan citizens too. And devoting troops and resources to finishing the job.

[MakeItRain]

I am now pretty sure there are two Talibans.  One that is the hardcore believers and are willing to live in caves and crap, and one that is a bunch of the rest of Afghanistan but aren't as hardline and don't want to live in caves and crap.  I think it's like christians around here.   Some are willing to go all in but the rest just say prayers at Thanksgiving dinner when Grandma comes over and stuff.

You can bet your ass the ones in charge are the "hardcore believers" who will kill and oppress women and kill the tens of thousands of of Afghanis who worked for not only the US and British Armed Forces but for the UN and the Red Cross.

The ones who aren't "hardcore believers" are Taliban so they aren't killed but they aren't going to live their lives the way they did last week. All of the western influences like schools and salons in Kabul have already been shut down.

[sonofdaxjones]

LOL @ #3

[sonofdaxjones]

The most hilarious takes are found in some not to be named Congressional leaders on down the line who think the Taliban was the direct offspring of the Mujahideen. 

The Taliban was created by the Pakistani ISI from the disgruntled refugee displaced youths in the fundamentalist schools who were tired of being brutalized by the Mujahideen warlords in Afghanistan .  The only true Mujahideen direct tie the Taliban was its original leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.  Pakistan used the Taliban to gain greater influence over Afghanistan and obtain a modicum of centralized power in Afghanistan.

The Taliban gained control of most of the country except on the Northern fringes by 1996.  The North is where the US first gain a toehold in 2001 using Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara’s ethnic warlords who actually fought the Taliban. Unlike most of the rest of the country.

[Kat Kid]

Don’t forget the saudis with funding and the US being fine with the Taliban when we wanted a pipeline and being thick as thieves with the intelligence agencies of both the saudis and the Pakistanis.

No clean hands.

[steve dave]

after the massive panic it seems like the airport situation is pretty chill and everyone is flying in and getting people out with no hassle.

[Phil Titola]

after the massive panic it seems like the airport situation is pretty chill and everyone is flying in and getting people out with no hassle.

Bet those wheel hanger dudes feel like real dumbasses

[WildcatNkilt]

after the massive panic it seems like the airport situation is pretty chill and everyone is flying in and getting people out with no hassle.

Bet those wheel hanger dudes feel like real dumbasses

I don't think they are feeling anything. 

[sonofdaxjones]

Taliban set up check points on roads leading to airport, non diplomatic people being stopped, phones being checked for certain types of messages.   

[bucket]

Taliban set up check points on roads leading to airport, non diplomatic people being stopped, phones being checked for certain types of messages.

https://twitter.com/joshrogin/status/1427374373212676106

Ya, definitely not out of the woods despite securing the airport.

[sonofdaxjones]

Can someone please track and post Tweets from those blue check Taliban Twitter accounts (and those other blue check free reign accounts from other hardcore theocratic regimes)? 

TIA

BTW, the ongoing statements by many that the Taliban is the direct offshoot of the mujahideen make me #frown. 

If you’re a K-State Alum:  Cease and Desist immediately

[sonofdaxjones]

Ang Merkel Putin BFF ain’t impressed with Joe’s political theatre.

https://twitter.com/adammilstein/status/1427642856282406924?s=21