This is a response to something Nodack wrote to me in the Local Elections thread. I thought it was more appropriate in here, so as to not clutter up that thread with things that aren't necessarily pertaining to it.
Nodack wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:23 pm
Or not a Republican. Biden was going to be labelled the worst President ever by Republicans no matter what he did or didn’t do. Of course everything is amplified as far as they can take it in their circles. I see what I see.
Issues?
Afghanistan- Trump bragged about starting the withdrawal from Afghanistan and especially bragged about no one being able to stop it. He negotiated the withdrawal with the Taliban. He didn’t withdraw before leaving office. He left the actual withdrawal to Biden. Now he says Biden surrendered to the Taliban. Biden did withdraw. Biden asked his Generals how long the Afghanistan army would be able to hold out against the Taliban and they told him their best guess was two years. The Afghanistan army was gone in two weeks because they deserted their posts. Biden gets the blame but, I don’t hold that against him even though I know Republicans did. They blamed him for leaving the hardware behind. He left the Afghanistan army locked and loaded and they deserted their posts and the Taliban took that hardware. Are they suggesting Biden should have dismantled the Afghanistan army that we spent years training and equipping for the sole purpose of defending themselves against the Taliban? That argument really pisses me off. Biden extended the withdrawal date a couple of days to get as many out as possible and it became the biggest air lift in US history. The situation on the ground at the airport because too dangerous to stick around with the suicide bombings taking off. Several flights did take off long after we pulled out of Kabul. Many more people could have gotten out earlier but from what I read and saw the Trump administration was blocking Visas for Afghans who helped Americans as interpreters etc. Apparently Trump didn’t want those terrorists in America. Could Biden have handled the withdrawal better? Maybe. Was he grossly incompetent as Republicans labeled the withdrawal? That depends on if you are a Republican or not. I give him a C. I’m sure every Republican gave him an F-.
Are you assuming that the dates didn't change? The US signed an agreement with the Taliban to withdrawn by
May 1st. In this agreement, no Americans were targeted and we suffered no deaths or even attacks until well after that date. Biden changed the date and moved it back. You don't think that the Taliban wouldn't have been pissed off with that? Obviously May 1st was after Trump's first term, so should he have made it for after his first term? You could definitely make an argument that he should have. Should Biden have stuck to the date and the plan? Yes, but he was bound and determined to undo everything that Trump put into place that was possible for him to do.
It's the execution of the withdraw that was the disaster, not the decision to do it. The Afghan army could have held back the Taliban with air support, but that was undercut prior to the withdraw of the embassy, the Afghans who helped us, and American civilians there. The air support stopped after the Bagram Airbase was abandoned(in
early July) with US military equipment left behind, which was not the equipment that was meant to be left for Afghan Army. There is a difference. A big difference. The $85 billion of US equipment doesn't include the equipment that was given to the Afghan Army, and was supposed to be removed from Afghanistan. It was left behind by design by the Biden Admin, not for the Afghan Army, but they knew it was going to end up in the hands of the Taliban. You can tell that, as the Military brass specifically ordered them NOT to irreparably damage the equipment before leaving, if they couldn't get it out prior. You don't just leave behind operational state of the art equipment, that is then moved and given by the Taliban to Iran.
Without air support, the Afghan Army wasn't going to have the will to fight, and their demise as quickly as it happened wasn't that out of the realm of possibility except to the incompetent TV Generals like Milley and Austin. This is why the Air Support should have been the LAST thing that was removed, not the first. Everyone knows this, it's not rocket science.
Next, do you remember when Biden said that the withdraw of the US Embassy wasn't going to be like Saigon?
https://www.newsweek.com/clip-biden-say ... ns-1619517
On July 8, Biden discussed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, swatting back concerns that a Taliban takeover of the country would be "inevitable." The president explicitly said that Americans would not see images reminiscent of the U.S. evacuation from Vietnam at the end of that war in 1975—when photos of helicopters evacuating people from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon were widely circulated in the media.
"The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army. They're not—they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable," Biden insisted during a July 8 press conference.
This is exactly what happened. Once again, it wouldn't have happened if the Afghan Army was given the support it was supposed to have prior. This, along with Taliban quickly overrunning the Afghan Army after the TV Generals said it would take 2 yrs, continued to frame Biden as an idiot who is either incompetent or deliberately malicious.
Next, the Administration was obligated to safely withdraw the civilian Americans and the Afghans and families that helped the Americans(those in danger of a Taliban rule). So, allowing the Taliban to overrun the country, they released all the prisoners on their way to Kabul. Some of those prisoners were the ones that were to become suicide bombers. On top of that, we recognized the suicide bomber prior to him going to the gate at the airport and the administration and brass did nothing to stop him prior. They knew he was armed and on his way and were tracking him. We know this because the military personal were told this, and many of the ones killed went out to save as many people as possible prior to the bomb being triggered. They could have easily taken him out, but decided not to. This caused 13 US troops to be killed needlessly, when there hadn't been a US troop killed in 18 months prior.
Next, when Americans were still trying to get evacuated and the Taliban started controlling the airport gates, it was widely reported that the Americans weren't allowed through and had to figure out other ways to get out, and this happened and is still essentially happening. They even sent out communications to Americans to go to the gate, knowing that it was wrong, and then saying it was an accident that they sent out that communication, ffs. Then, there were a large number of Afghans that were let through and in some instances pushed to get on the planes, and Biden made the decision not to vet them prior to bringing them to the US. If we're now having credible ISIS terrorist threats in the US today, is it hard to understand how the Taliban reportedly deliberately pushed ISIS onto these planes, could possibly be a source of those?
Lastly, the US killed 3 adults and 7 children in a drone strike that they were convinced was a terrorist, but weren't sure that it was in fact terrorists. I remember how they patted themselves on the backs for this, only to then say they weren't totally sure, but thought they had terrorist there. Come on, man. Of course, no one is going to be held responsible for targeting an aid worker carrying jugs of water.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1238172.shtml
In review, this is the order that should have happened.
1. Kept the May 1st date of withdraw.
2. Evacuated American Civilians.
3. Evacuated Afghans and families that helped Americans.
4. Evacuated US Embassy personal.
5. Withdrew US military equipment that wasn't meant to fall into the enemies hands, much of which was brand new, to be used by the military elsewhere. If it can't be taken out of Afghanistan, at the very least leave it inoperable and useless.
6. Give the Afghan Army control of Bagram Airbase.
7. Keep some air support personal to assist the Afghan Army, until they could take full control of their own air support.
8. Withdraw the troops.
This is what actually happened:
1. Push back the date of the withdraw, not holding to the agreement set prior.
2. Withdraw troops without withdrawing equipment from Bagram Airbase, which left the Afghan Army exposed.
3. Tell the American people that the Taliban won't make it to Kabul anytime soon, don't worry about it.
4. Once it seems that the Taliban are moving quicker than expected, go on TV and tell the American people that it won't be like Saigon.
5. Evacuate the Embassy from the roof tops, just like Saigon.
6. Hastily evacuate Afghans and hopefully Americans without vetting.
7. Know about the suicide bomber and do nothing to stop them, getting 13 troops & many Afghans killed along with many other troops injured.
8. Leave Afghanistan without getting every American out.
9. Taliban is shown driving US military equipment and weapons to the Iran border to either sell or just give to the Iranians.
10. Americans are bunkered down hiding from the Taliban, while they reportedly are going door to door looking for them and in a lot of instances killing people.
11. Leave $85 million in equipment, weapons and actually pallets of US currency for the Taliban.
12. Send out even more billions of dollars to the Taliban for aid. I guess the pallets of cash wasn't good enough.
Of course this is going to be given a C. Yep totally a C and a bang up job. Thank goodness for Brandon not messing this up. The job of the President is to keep Americans safe, but this was exactly the opposite.