I'm still so pissed off that no politicians challenge the Afghanistan withdrawal propaganda. The USA strategy from day 1 was regime change and nation building. We followed that strategy for 20 godamn years. Turns out both areas were monumental failures exposed by the withdrawal. GOP politicians that voted for these wars and propped this up get absolutely no blame when the "Afghanistan was a failure" conversation comes up. Like no challenge from a single democrat saying "your plan failed" or "GOP strategy created this". It's maddening.
Not so much GOP as DC consensus. When you get into it, the R's and D's don't disagree on much. They play baseball together, the snarling and slavering is just for show.
I still don't know how whoever controls Biden got a withdrawal. I guess it'll be another decade or two before we find out. They were planning on occupying Afghanistan for another 50 years.
They were basically forced out of Afghanistan, the withdrawal negotiated with the Taliban was in lieu of being embarrassed even worse by the Taliban forcibly removing the US troops themselves, with the only alternative to that being a massive increase in the number of US troops which would have not had any buy in from the American public. They lost the war, similarly to how they lost the war in Vietnam, and the idea that they were somehow winning but just decided to leave is just cope. The Afghanistan papers showing that the Pentagon knew the war was unwinnable and had been lying about it being anything else came out years ago.
It wasn't winnable but it was certainly continuable. The Taliban were never going to forcibly evict the Americans. They had been in that situation for two decades, what's another five?
Whoever forced the the Americans to withdraw was in DC, not anywhere in Afghanistan.
The taliban were never going to forcibly evict the Americans
Yes they were.
They had been in that situation for two decades
The situation changed continuously over two decades with varying levels of US troops and Taliban fighters, the latter had grown considerably in the last couple years, and the only way for America to maintain a presence on the ground in the face of that would have been to commit significantly more troops of their own once again. You're Joe Biden and you're faced with leaving Afghanistan and thus being the president that finally ends the unpopular forever war and brings the troops home, or doubling down and sending more Americans to Afghanistan. You're going to be running for reelection in a couple years, what do you do?
Trump admin is the one that reached the agreement with the Taliban for withdrawal. When he did so there were 13,000 US troops there and by the time Biden took office there were like 2,500. Biden admin has indeed pointed the finger at his predecessor for the sloppy withdrawal. So essentially, you would have done exactly what Biden did in this situation. So what's the mystery?
I’m still so pissed off that no politicians challenge the Afghanistan withdrawal propaganda
Because they all voted for it? They all voted for every increase in military spending and for every time congress needed to authorize something. Also, the moment some politician speaks out, their opponents will just attack back with “you don’t love America and our brave troops!? Maybe you should move to China!” or whatever. And being accused on not being sufficiently patriotic is like the worst fear of every US politician.
I'm still so pissed off that no politicians challenge the Afghanistan withdrawal propaganda. The USA strategy from day 1 was regime change and nation building. We followed that strategy for 20 godamn years. Turns out both areas were monumental failures exposed by the withdrawal. GOP politicians that voted for these wars and propped this up get absolutely no blame when the "Afghanistan was a failure" conversation comes up. Like no challenge from a single democrat saying "your plan failed" or "GOP strategy created this". It's maddening.
Not so much GOP as DC consensus. When you get into it, the R's and D's don't disagree on much. They play baseball together, the snarling and slavering is just for show.
I still don't know how whoever controls Biden got a withdrawal. I guess it'll be another decade or two before we find out. They were planning on occupying Afghanistan for another 50 years.
They were basically forced out of Afghanistan, the withdrawal negotiated with the Taliban was in lieu of being embarrassed even worse by the Taliban forcibly removing the US troops themselves, with the only alternative to that being a massive increase in the number of US troops which would have not had any buy in from the American public. They lost the war, similarly to how they lost the war in Vietnam, and the idea that they were somehow winning but just decided to leave is just cope. The Afghanistan papers showing that the Pentagon knew the war was unwinnable and had been lying about it being anything else came out years ago.
Who said they ever wanted to win?
It wasn't winnable but it was certainly continuable. The Taliban were never going to forcibly evict the Americans. They had been in that situation for two decades, what's another five?
Whoever forced the the Americans to withdraw was in DC, not anywhere in Afghanistan.
Yes they were.
The situation changed continuously over two decades with varying levels of US troops and Taliban fighters, the latter had grown considerably in the last couple years, and the only way for America to maintain a presence on the ground in the face of that would have been to commit significantly more troops of their own once again. You're Joe Biden and you're faced with leaving Afghanistan and thus being the president that finally ends the unpopular forever war and brings the troops home, or doubling down and sending more Americans to Afghanistan. You're going to be running for reelection in a couple years, what do you do?
First I've ever heard of it, and I've followed it on and off since the invasion.
I would have let Trump take the blame, since he was so adamant about ending wars by forcing America (DC) to lose them.
Trump admin is the one that reached the agreement with the Taliban for withdrawal. When he did so there were 13,000 US troops there and by the time Biden took office there were like 2,500. Biden admin has indeed pointed the finger at his predecessor for the sloppy withdrawal. So essentially, you would have done exactly what Biden did in this situation. So what's the mystery?
This novel idea that the Taliban were about to evict the US from the country. Wasn't going to happen without a plan out of DC.
OK I guess the 13,000 US troops were going to hold out for 50 years against 200,000 Taliban or something
Because they all voted for it? They all voted for every increase in military spending and for every time congress needed to authorize something. Also, the moment some politician speaks out, their opponents will just attack back with “you don’t love America and our brave troops!? Maybe you should move to China!” or whatever. And being accused on not being sufficiently patriotic is like the worst fear of every US politician.