The Biden Presidency

[thethe]

Syria

Again, nobody is saying Biden failed by risking the Afghans future. Taliban running the country backed by the ccp and Pakistan was always the future and would have been the same under a trump withdrawal.

He failed because they took the military out before American citizens. They abandoned a more important airbase. They waited till fighting season to leave. THEY GAVE A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION 100b IN STATE OF THE ART WEAPONRY!

I understand why the conversation is shifting to these types of things because the regime sees that they are losing the American people dangerously fast. If the midterms were today the republicans would gain at least 50 seats in the house and maybe a few senate seats.

This has been an unmitigated disaster and no false equivalency to the last administration will change a thing.

[Jaw]

Leaving was the correct decision, I don't care what the neocons or anyone else says. It's a decision that's 20 years overdue and I applaud both Trump and Biden for it finally happening.
The execution of the withdrawal is exactly what zb said, an unmitigated disaster. The timing was awful, the decision to abandon the more easily defended airport with twice the capacity was foolish, the delay in evacuating civilians and allies will cost thousands of lives, and I don't even have the vocabulary to accurately describe how terrible the decision was to withdraw military before those civilians and allies.

Honestly, I can't imagine our adversaries coming up with a plan better suited to make the nation and President look weak and incompetent. Biden was a US Senator during the fall of Saigon, it's not like he hasn't seen this before.

[Krgrecw]

Who's defending Obama?

I’m just saying that You can’t say Syria was a foreign policy disaster for Trump when it was a **** show before he took office.

[striker42]

Leaving was the correct decision, I don't care what the neocons or anyone else says. It's a decision that's 20 years overdue and I applaud both Trump and Biden for it finally happening.
The execution of the withdrawal is exactly what zb said, an unmitigated disaster. The timing was awful, the decision to abandon the more easily defended airport with twice the capacity was foolish, the delay in evacuating civilians and allies will cost thousands of lives, and I don't even have the vocabulary to accurately describe how terrible the decision was to withdraw military before those civilians and allies.

Honestly, I can't imagine our adversaries coming up with a plan better suited to make the nation and President look weak and incompetent. Biden was a US Senator during the fall of Saigon, it's not like he hasn't seen this before.

Whether leaving was the right choice is something that can be debated. I'm not going to crucify Biden for leaving and I wouldn't crucify him if he'd decided to stay. There are risks and rewards for both. But I 100% agree with your list of mistakes. I'll add the lack of a timely boost in forces to stabilize the situation until we could get everyone out was a swing and miss as well.

[sturg33]

What has Biden ever gotten right in FP?

[goldfly]

I’m just saying that You can’t say Syria was a foreign policy disaster for Trump when it was a **** show before he took office.

Lol

Irony is truly dead

[goldfly]

Syria? You forget about Obama and his red line comment?

I’m waiting for someone to come and reply

Obama Obama Obama


Everytime you bring him up

[zbhargrove]

I’m just saying that You can’t say Syria was a foreign policy disaster for Trump when it was a **** show before he took office.

I certainly can criticize Trump for Syria as well as Obama… Because both screwed it up. But I know you’re a partisan and thethe lap dog who loves what about isms. You don’t even try to hide it or act objectively.

[thethe]

How many Americans were left stranded in Syria?

How many billions in weapons did we hand over to the 'bad guys' in that region?

[Runnin]

THEY GAVE A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION 100b IN STATE OF THE ART WEAPONRY!

Who did? Are you talking about the pickup trucks they left on the tarmac? I don't know the choices Biden had so I can't say how much of a screwup his withdrawal has been. It looked terrible at first, especially from a public relations standpoint, but they seem to have recovered some.

I'm sure you want it to be an unmitigated disaster, but the evacuation of people is far from that. I think the media rollout of the withdrawal was a disaster at first and they should've sold it better. OTOH, maybe Biden and the Pentagon chose to surprise people with a quick evacuation and not give naysayers the time to bitch and moan about it. It would be interesting to know how long the Pentagon and the Cabinet knew this was going to happen and if they were all in agreement beforehand.

[57Brave]

By Lara Jakes and Michael Levenson
Aug. 25, 2021


WASHINGTON — At least 1,500 American citizens remain in Afghanistan with just days left before the scheduled U.S. withdrawal from the country, but officials on Wednesday acknowledged the reality that tens of thousands of Afghan allies and others at high risk of Taliban reprisals would be left behind.

The sound of gunfire, and clouds of tear gas and black smoke, filled the air around the international airport in Kabul, the capital, as thousands of Afghans massed at the gates on Wednesday, desperate to escape ahead of the American military’s final departure on Aug. 31, after 20 years of war.

The U.S. Embassy warned Americans later in the day to stay away from the airport and told anyone outside the perimeter to “leave immediately.” The British and Australian governments issued similar warnings.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential assessments, confirmed that the United States was tracking a “specific” and “credible” threat at the airport from the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which has carried out dozens of attacks in recent years and is a rival of the Taliban.

As military and government charter flights took off every 45 minutes as part of an airlift, Biden administration officials said they had evacuated about 82,300 people since Aug. 14, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban. Around 4,500 of them were American citizens, with 500 more expected to depart soon.

But Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the government was trying to track down around 1,000 American citizens still believed to be in Afghanistan who had not responded to a frantic flurry of emails, phone calls or other messages offering to evacuate them.

“In this critical stretch, we’re focused on getting Americans and their families onto planes, out of Afghanistan, as quickly as possible,” Mr. Blinken said at the State Department.

He also sought to assure Afghans who had worked with the U.S. military or embassy, and potentially hundreds of thousands of people who challenged the Taliban’s extremist ideology, that “they will not be forgotten.”

Likening images and reports of Afghans being trampled at the Kabul airport in the crush to evacuate to “getting punched in the gut,” Mr. Blinken said it would be incumbent on the Taliban to guarantee their safe passage.


He signaled that such an arrangement could be reached with a mix of economic and diplomatic pressure, and the lure of international aid, but he would not discuss his level of confidence in the Taliban to keep their word beyond vaguely citing what he called their public and private commitments to allow people to leave.

“Let me be crystal clear about this: There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so, along with the many Afghans who have stood by us over these many years, and want to leave, and have been unable to do so,” Mr. Blinken said. “That effort will continue every day past Aug. 31.”

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Wednesday that Afghans with valid travel documents would not be prevented from entering the airport if they were allowed in by American and Afghan forces there.

In his first sit-down interview with a Western media organization since the Taliban’s arrival in Kabul, Mr. Mujahid disputed reports that the group would begin to keep Afghans away from the airport, which had been based on his statements during a news conference a day earlier.

“We said that people who don’t have proper documents aren’t allowed to go,” he said. “They need passports and visas for the countries they’re going to, and then they can leave by air. If their documents are valid, then we’re not going to ask what they were doing before.”

He also insisted that the Taliban would forgive those who fought against them, and that women would be allowed to attend school and work, within what he described as Islamic principles. Human rights officials have dismissed such assurances as disingenuous, and many Afghans have hidden in their homes, fearing harassment and violence.

Mr. Mujahid acknowledged that women would need a male guardian on journeys of three days or longer. He said that rumors that the Taliban would force women to stay in their homes or cover their faces were baseless, but he confirmed that music would not be allowed in public.

“Music is forbidden in Islam,” he said, “but we’re hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things.”

White House officials said on Wednesday that 90 U.S. and allied planes had flown out an estimated 19,200 people in a 24-hour period.

At least 500 were American citizens and their families, Mr. Blinken said, joining Afghans who were employees of the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy in Kabul and others who had worked for the American military and other government agencies, some since 2001, who qualify for a special immigration visa to live in the United States.

Congressional officials said earlier this week that the Biden administration had identified an estimated 50,000 Afghans who were eligible for the special visa. Former security forces, government officials and people who advocated women’s rights, the rule of law and other pillars of democracy also have been evacuated.

A new estimate from the Association of Wartime Allies released on Wednesday concluded that at least 250,000 Afghans — and perhaps more than a million — could be eligible for expedited immigration status. The advocacy group worked with American University to analyze employment contracts and other documents that those Afghans would need to prove their eligibility.

[thethe]

Who did? Are you talking about the pickup trucks they left on the tarmac? I don't know the choices Biden had so I can't say how much of a screwup his withdrawal has been. It looked terrible at first, especially from a public relations standpoint, but they seem to have recovered some.

I'm sure you want it to be an unmitigated disaster, but the evacuation of people is far from that. I think the media rollout of the withdrawal was a disaster at first and they should've sold it better. OTOH, maybe Biden and the Pentagon chose to surprise people with a quick evacuation and not give naysayers the time to bitch and moan about it. It would be interesting to know how long the Pentagon and the Cabinet knew this was going to happen and if they were all in agreement beforehand.

The media?

How about different parts of the regime contradicting each other within minutes of each other?

How about the state department now telling US nationals to stay away from the airport?

How many Us citizens are there now? Are we going to get a number?

[thethe]

We couldn’t vet these people when we controlled the country. We still had our ‘Afghan allies’ killing our troops.

We shouldn’t be taking anyone for a while.

[thethe]

Reports of IED explosion at Kabul airport.

People have been killed and some may be Americans.

[thethe]

In addition, its being reported that there was also gunfire so it was a complex/organized attack.

[thethe]

But seriously, this is definitely the medias fault.

What a tool these idiots are.

[thethe]

I miss the mean tweets.....

[thethe]

Lets raise a glass to the return of competency.

Thanks God we don't have a guy who talks about being tough on crime or protecting the suburbs.

Priorities....

[thethe]

Such a series of events has to make one wonder if this is deliberate.

Maybe people should start learning what was found on Hunters laptop.

[thethe]

So if Trump got impeached for a phone call what should we be doing to this illegitimate regime for leaving Americans behind enemy lines at the tender mercy of the Taliban?

When can we get the adults back in charge?