Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameOn
No... this is what a hastily thought out retreat from a country that had massive insurgent elements looks like.
Ending a war and putting in the proper elements to modernize and stabilize the country would have looked a lot more like Korea, Japan, or Germany... but Afghanistan had 50 years of prior war, religious tribalism, no clear sense of national identity, and urban/rural divide that would have taken generations to fix in a stable modernized society.
Americans did not have the political will to properly do this longer term since it would have required a long term permanent military presence and significant investment capital. There was no real driving force or huge enemy to motivate this type of investment nor resources they could gain from Afghanistan. Not to mention Trump or not talking about the US should never have been in there in the first place.
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I think most of us would agree that regardless of how the US would have left, the Taliban would have taken over.
The issue seems to be with 4 things.
Issue 1: Lying by the Pentagon & US Department of State when it comes to the state of the Afghan Army. This has been going on much longer than Biden has been President, and isn't actually a 'POTUS' issue in my opinion. Every single US commander that had anything to do with operations there has been lying to the world for over 15 years about the state of Afghanistan.
Issue 2: Not properly making sure that the people most at risk of execution were given adequate resources in order to leave before the inevitable happened.
After the US left Vietnam, they gave refuge to roughly 130,000 people. Between the US, Canada, UK and others, I'm sure we could have done a MUCH better job at getting as many people out of Afghanistan, if not more.
Issue 3: Once the poop hit the fan, politicians did what politicians do, and didn't commit to all hands on deck in order to get everyone out. And I'm not just talking about the Afghans, but actual Canadian, American, Brits, etc, etc. Everyone from the media to diplomatic staff are stuck there in danger.
There are also numerous reports of Canadian resources being held back from helping.
Issue 4: Not making sure Kabul Airport is secure. How the US screwed this up is beyond me.
What a bloody mess.