[Newfie]

While surely not for everyone our personal power down has been a refreshing disconnect from a false reality. We enjoy the simpler life. It was a big step up in our personal life.

I think that is the trick. People think power down would be hell. But that ain’t necessarily so.

We are not living a bums life and enjoy many fine things. We are happy. Happier than before.

[Newfie]

Well CNN has turned in Biden pretty hard. Now replaying his past new conferences where he promised/assured an orderly drawdown.

NPR did a piece noting Trump kept the war hawk Republicans at bay and noting the mid-terms, not usually good for the majority party, are coming up.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'W')ell CNN has turned in Biden pretty hard. Now replaying his past new conferences where he promised/assured an orderly drawdown..

[Plantagenet]

The DOHA peace treaty was conditional.....the US agreed to withdraw as the Taliban met certain conditions.....like entering into negotiations towards a peace treaty with the government.

But Biden decided to ignore the peace treaty and pull all US troops out without the Taliban having to meet any of their obligations under the peace treat.

So this is all on Biden.

The mess is 100% Biden's fault, and Joe even admits it. Joe proudly just said everything in Afghanistan is happening just as he planned it.

SHEESH!

[dissident]

The facts on the ground speak to little value in the domestic US blame game. Some other president would not have produced a totally different outcome. Afghanistan folded in 9 days to the Taliban. That "300,000" (more like less than half this number) "trained" army was just giving over their US supplied equipment to the Taliban without a fight. So the regime in Kabul was pathetically lacking in local support. There is no way any US president through some more of the same policy convert this into any sort of win. Afghanistan was lost years ago and was just a rotten facade that dissolved into thin air.

[Newfie]

Dissident,

Probably correct.

And the outcome was likely inevitable.

And there should have been some acknowledgement of that preparing the American public for the eventuality.

And if that was not possible for strategic reasons, under mining the Afgan government then those reasons are now gone. And Biden should say, “Americans, we could not share the truth at the time, but we can now.”

But he did not.

We have left behind a far better foe, including an air force, that we met 20 years ago.

There are still thousands of potential refugees on the ground. That suould have been better handled no matter what.

We are not out of this bloody woods yet.

[dissident]

One take on this issue that seems credible to me is that the move to delay the withdrawal after the agreed to date by Biden was a stupid move. Apparently the Taliban had signed on to a transition process but when the US in a single sided fashion broke the terms of the agreement, they washed their hands of any commitments. So here Biden does deserve blame for screwing up the withdrawal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZto99zFIoc

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissident', 'O')ne take on this issue that seems credible to me is that the move to delay the withdrawal after the agreed to date by Biden was a stupid move. Apparently the Taliban had signed on to a transition process but when the US in a single sided fashion broke the terms of the agreement, they washed their hands of any commitments. So here Biden does deserve blame for screwing up the withdrawal.

[vtsnowedin]

May I predict that this and the ongoing border debacle have now sealed the mid term elections solidly in the Republicans favor.
The Democrats can not point to a single thing they have tried to do that has come out as a success.

[Plantagenet]

Its fascinating watching Biden and the Ds all lying about the debacle in Afghanistan.

They all claim they couldn't have known the Afghanistan regime would collapse.

But they are lying.

They were warned by our own people in Afganistan.

And then Biden and the Ds tried to hide it. They tried to do a coverup.

But the memo WARNING in advance that Afghanistan would collapse has just been leaked to the press.

they-knew-leaked-state-department-memo-warned-afghanistan-collapse

SHEESH!!!!

[Newfie]

CNN Report on that same matter.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Washington (CNN)A group of US diplomats wrote a classified cable to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in mid-July warning that swift action needed to be taken because they believed the situation in Afghanistan could rapidly deteriorate and they feared a catastrophe.

They laid out how the department should act quickly to process and evacuate Afghans who had assisted the United States and get them out of the country quickly.
The diplomats decided to send the dissent memo because they felt previous warnings and recommendations they had made were being ignored and labeled alarmist, two State Department officials told CNN.
The classified cable, signed by more than a dozen US diplomats, urged specific steps to be taken, including starting a biometric enrollment program for the Afghans applying for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) or refugee status ahead of the evacuation, so they wouldn't waste time before what they believed would be the imminent collapse of the Afghan government as the US withdrew

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'M')ay I predict that this and the ongoing border debacle have now sealed the mid term elections solidly in the Republicans favor.
The Democrats can not point to a single thing they have tried to do that has come out as a success.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'C')NN Report on that same matter.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Washington (CNN)A group of US diplomats wrote a classified cable to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in mid-July warning that swift action needed to be taken because they believed the situation in Afghanistan could rapidly deteriorate and they feared a catastrophe.

They laid out how the department should act quickly to process and evacuate Afghans who had assisted the United States and get them out of the country quickly.
The diplomats decided to send the dissent memo because they felt previous warnings and recommendations they had made were being ignored and labeled alarmist, two State Department officials told CNN.
The classified cable, signed by more than a dozen US diplomats, urged specific steps to be taken, including starting a biometric enrollment program for the Afghans applying for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) or refugee status ahead of the evacuation, so they wouldn't waste time before what they believed would be the imminent collapse of the Afghan government as the US withdrew

[Plantagenet]

[$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'C')NN Report on that same matter.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Washington (CNN)A group of US diplomats wrote a classified cable to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in mid-July warning that swift action needed to be taken because they believed the situation in Afghanistan could rapidly deteriorate and they feared a catastrophe.

They laid out how the department should act quickly to process and evacuate Afghans who had assisted the United States and get them out of the country quickly.
The diplomats decided to send the dissent memo because they felt previous warnings and recommendations they had made were being ignored and labeled alarmist, two State Department officials told CNN.
The classified cable, signed by more than a dozen US diplomats, urged specific steps to be taken, including starting a biometric enrollment program for the Afghans applying for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) or refugee status ahead of the evacuation, so they wouldn't waste time before what they believed would be the imminent collapse of the Afghan government as the US withdrew

[Newfie]

Outcast,

Neither VT or I said anything about the Republicans doing anything right.

What we were noting is how BAD Biden looks. VT thinks that may hurt the D’s. Seems logical to me.

And I was posting links to news stories.

I believe you are miss-reading.

[Newfie]

Plant and VT,

I don’t know what the repercussions will be.

IF the story ends with the evacuation then things will likely die down and Biden will be OK.

IF the Taliban take American citizen hostages, as I believe likely, then this could hurt Biden and the Democrats very badly.

They do not need many hostages, a couple of hundred would be more than enough. My understanding is the Taliban is a loose group of tribes under war lords. So even if the central government keeps no hostages the various tribes may keep a few, to squeeze the central government. I am purely guessing there are 5 to 10 tribal entities with the ability to take and keep hostages so I think the possibility of hostages is high.

Hostages can keep this debacle on the news, in our face for long time and severely undermine the administration.

The other potentially negative is if there is some significant difficulty in Europe due evacuees. Say a large influx that destabilizes some governments. That could start a blame game against the USA, which would drag on and Biden would own.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', '
')IF the story ends with the evacuation then things will likely die down and Biden will be OK.
IF the Taliban take American citizen hostages, as I believe likely, then this could hurt Biden and the Democrats very badly. They do not need many hostages, a couple of hundred would be more than enough.

[Newfie]

Plant,

Yup.

And yet you see very, very little of this kind of consideration in the press.

I am not surprised as humans are nearly 100% REACTIVE in orientation when under threat. The tiny PROACTIVE ability we have apparently requires a calm mind.

Just part of humans nature, we run from the lion, but must continue to live on the veldt, so the future danger is repressed.

Humans are the only animal that can out run a horse. But we can’t outrun time.

[Newfie]

Reading a LA Times story and came across this passage….

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')because of the closings, students were forced to cross gang boundaries, something Emanuel did not initially consider. His solution? Creating safe passage routes using police and school employees. Eventually, he had to bring in the city’s firefighters to double as security guards.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'R')eading a LA Times story and came across this passage….

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')because of the closings, students were forced to cross gang boundaries, something Emanuel did not initially consider. His solution? Creating safe passage routes using police and school employees. Eventually, he had to bring in the city’s firefighters to double as security guards.