Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
This is where I'm torn. The isolated costs of just maintaining Afghanistan as it was are objectively small. But staying would just continue to set the precedent that we can march in wherever we want and uphold an unstable nation with just a few thousand soldiers. Easy to enter, impossible to leave. That's a war hawk's wet dream and ignores all of the damage we did by being there in the first place and all of the future terrorists we created with every missed drone strike that landed on a child's head.
The conspiratorial part of me thinks that there were a lot of hawkish players within the military and intelligence community who orchestrated this mess to boost future propaganda of "look what happens when leave". They knew how disastrous such a quick exit would be, and with Biden painting himself as a "no more wars" kind of president, they saw a useful idiot who could be manipulated into signing off on this hasty mess.
Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
This is where I'm torn. The isolated costs of just maintaining Afghanistan as it was are objectively small. But staying would just continue to set the precedent that we can march in wherever we want and uphold an unstable nation with just a few thousand soldiers. Easy to enter, impossible to leave. That's a war hawk's wet dream and ignores all of the damage we did by being there in the first place and all of the future terrorists we created with every missed drone strike that landed on a child's head.
The conspiratorial part of me thinks that there were a lot of hawkish players within the military and intelligence community who orchestrated this mess to boost future propaganda of "look what happens when leave". They knew how disastrous such a quick exit would be, and with Biden painting himself as a "no more wars" kind of president, they saw a useful idiot who could be manipulated into signing off on this hasty mess.
Update: I was right. This is exactly the kind of shit the military apparatus has been pulling for decades. Good thread from Greenwald, as well as Richard Hanania. Withdrawal was always going to be tainted by the generals. They were never interested in putting in place conditions that would allow for a seamless withdrawal.
Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
This is where I'm torn. The isolated costs of just maintaining Afghanistan as it was are objectively small. But staying would just continue to set the precedent that we can march in wherever we want and uphold an unstable nation with just a few thousand soldiers. Easy to enter, impossible to leave. That's a war hawk's wet dream and ignores all of the damage we did by being there in the first place and all of the future terrorists we created with every missed drone strike that landed on a child's head.
The conspiratorial part of me thinks that there were a lot of hawkish players within the military and intelligence community who orchestrated this mess to boost future propaganda of "look what happens when leave". They knew how disastrous such a quick exit would be, and with Biden painting himself as a "no more wars" kind of president, they saw a useful idiot who could be manipulated into signing off on this hasty mess.
Update: I was right. This is exactly the kind of shit the military apparatus has been pulling for decades. Good thread from Greenwald, as well as Richard Hanania. Withdrawal was always going to be tainted by the generals. They were never interested in putting in place conditions that would allow for a seamless withdrawal.
Escalate? The generals never put plays that would win the game. But then neither did Bush or barry. Trump did know that the game was up and wanted to end the forever war.
Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
I'm not sure that I completely agree
Like he said, we have an almost 3x presence in South Korea ... so to me it's about how do we allocate resources.
Nobody wants to fuck with a strong US ... never have and never will.
The problem with all of this is that Biden has basically given a 3.5 year blank check to anybody around the world that wants to expand their reach, will laugh while doing so, and look at the US by saying "what are you going to do about it." China's already ramping up pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
His last point is one that I've been asking my friends that have pushed back ... this idea that we couldn't be there for the long haul but also asking what's the price for avoiding another 9/11? All of the obvious things combined with the fact that we have literally no control of our Southern border is going to create a massive security issue. Who knows what form it will take going forward but anybody that doesn't think that we're at a far greater risk of terrorist activity than we were 2 weeks ago is fooling themselves. The fact that the current Administration thinks that the biggest threats are domestic based is staggeringly wrong.
Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
I'm not sure that I completely agree
Like he said, we have an almost 3x presence in South Korea ... so to me it's about how do we allocate resources.
Nobody wants to fuck with a strong US ... never have and never will.
The problem with all of this is that Biden has basically given a 3.5 year blank check to anybody around the world that wants to expand their reach, will laugh while doing so, and look at the US by saying "what are you going to do about it." China's already ramping up pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
His last point is one that I've been asking my friends that have pushed back ... this idea that we couldn't be there for the long haul but also asking what's the price for avoiding another 9/11? All of the obvious things combined with the fact that we have literally no control of our Southern border is going to create a massive security issue. Who knows what form it will take going forward but anybody that doesn't think that we're at a far greater risk of terrorist activity than we were 2 weeks ago is fooling themselves. The fact that the current Administration thinks that the biggest threats are domestic based is staggeringly wrong.
Only place I disagree with him is the assessment that we should have stayed forever. Disagree strongly. But, other than that he nails it. We could have continued to slowly turn over the reigns and at least given them a chance to hold onto their country. Reality is Afghanistan is probably eventually lost no matter what we did. Pakistan, shitheads that they are, do support the Taliban materially. Without support the Afghans were fucked, but we could have at least resettled those who helped us. This entire debacle is just fucked.
This is where I'm torn. The isolated costs of just maintaining Afghanistan as it was are objectively small. But staying would just continue to set the precedent that we can march in wherever we want and uphold an unstable nation with just a few thousand soldiers. Easy to enter, impossible to leave. That's a war hawk's wet dream and ignores all of the damage we did by being there in the first place and all of the future terrorists we created with every missed drone strike that landed on a child's head.
The conspiratorial part of me thinks that there were a lot of hawkish players within the military and intelligence community who orchestrated this mess to boost future propaganda of "look what happens when leave". They knew how disastrous such a quick exit would be, and with Biden painting himself as a "no more wars" kind of president, they saw a useful idiot who could be manipulated into signing off on this hasty mess.
I missed the “No more Wars” in his campaign. I mean it really wasn’t a campaign. It was him stammering in front of 6 people saying something about somebody.
And popular opinion is that He,.. er,uh Susan and Valerie ignored the Chiefs and moved on their own.
And we needed to be there in the first place.
And edit to add: I happened to come across Bongino on the radios today. And He spent time there. And his main point above all was outside the Capitol, few considered themselves to be citizens of a country. Most that are fighting on either the Taliban or the other side. Only the Taliban and really Pakistan cared about a country. Those fighting them only care about their little slice of the world.
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Worse, imagine supporting and defending it.
Like he said, we have an almost 3x presence in South Korea ... so to me it's about how do we allocate resources.
Nobody wants to fuck with a strong US ... never have and never will.
The problem with all of this is that Biden has basically given a 3.5 year blank check to anybody around the world that wants to expand their reach, will laugh while doing so, and look at the US by saying "what are you going to do about it." China's already ramping up pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
His last point is one that I've been asking my friends that have pushed back ... this idea that we couldn't be there for the long haul but also asking what's the price for avoiding another 9/11? All of the obvious things combined with the fact that we have literally no control of our Southern border is going to create a massive security issue. Who knows what form it will take going forward but anybody that doesn't think that we're at a far greater risk of terrorist activity than we were 2 weeks ago is fooling themselves. The fact that the current Administration thinks that the biggest threats are domestic based is staggeringly wrong.
And popular opinion is that He,.. er,uh Susan and Valerie ignored the Chiefs and moved on their own.
And we needed to be there in the first place.
And edit to add: I happened to come across Bongino on the radios today. And He spent time there. And his main point above all was outside the Capitol, few considered themselves to be citizens of a country. Most that are fighting on either the Taliban or the other side. Only the Taliban and really Pakistan cared about a country. Those fighting them only care about their little slice of the world.