https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/us/politics/biden-taliban-afghanistan-speech.html Good speech. I agreed with Trump's decision to accelerate our departure. In the end, I'm glad Biden stuck with it, despite enormous pressure (probably within his own cabinet as well as the military establishment) to back off from it. I think there are questions that need to be answered on all the Afghan collaborators/partners we're leaving behind. That seems totally bungled to me. But the central point that the Afghan leaders and military are ultimately responsible for dealing with the Taliban seems inarguable to me. How much money are we going to pour into that project? I'm not too concerned that this will impede our counter-terrorism efforts. And I really don't care about whether this makes us look "weak" on the world stage. The potential for a human rights catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan is what bothers me. Biden says we should use diplomacy, economic tools, and global partnerships to deal with that. I agree. And that is the responsibility we should accept -- not nation-building or permanent military occupation. So I’m left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not? How many more lives, American lives, is it worth, how many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery? I’m clear on my answer: I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past. The mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces. Those are the mistakes we cannot continue to repeat because we have significant vital interest in the world that we cannot afford to ignore. I also want to acknowledge how painful this is to so many of us. The scenes that we’re seeing in Afghanistan, they’re gut-wrenching, particularly for our veterans, our diplomats, humanitarian workers — for anyone who has spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people. For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan, and for Americans who have fought and served our country in Afghanistan, this is deeply, deeply personal. It is for me as well. I’ve worked on these issues as long as anyone. I’ve been throughout Afghanistan during this war, while the war was going on, from Kabul to Kandahar, to the Kunar Valley. I’ve traveled there on four different occasions. I’ve met with the people. I’ve spoken with the leaders. I spent time with our troops, and I came to understand firsthand what was and was not possible in Afghanistan. So now we’re focused on what is possible. We will continue to support the Afghan people. We will lead with our diplomacy, our international influence and our humanitarian aid. We’ll continue to push for regional diplomacy and engagement to prevent violence and instability. We’ll continue to speak out for the basic rights of the Afghan people, of women and girls, just as we speak out all over the world. I’ve been clear, the human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments. It’s with our diplomacy, our economic tools and rallying the world to join us.
This War was ALWAYS going to end the same way: Taliban taking back control. The US couldn't stay there forever. The Afghan people have to take control for themselves, but they were not willing to do so. 20 years is enough. This war was lost when GW Bush couldn't crush the Taliban while he was in office.
This is all proof that we never should have been there from the start and I give Biden enormous credit for keeping his promise to end the occupation.
Did he really head straight back to Camp David after his address where he scurried off without taking any questions?
Biden was close to my last choice for President, but I can guarantee you he was one of the only ones who was going to have the stones to get us out of there. One of Biden's odd perks is that he's so damn old he kind of doesn't mind throwing curve balls every now and again. He's still a kool-aid Democrat to his bones, but his own convictions do shine through from time to time.
His team did a good job writing that. You had a better idea of what was going to happen back in June than Biden did.
Rumor is that he's trying to clean his pentagon staff and will demand resignations from intelligence agency. I hope biden stays safe hes exposing the scam
all they do is lie, lying about the severity of the border crisis lying at how bad inflation is lying about gas prices and are now looking to other countries to produce oil( when trump had us oil independent) lying about not trying to destroy the middle class you arent gonna get the truth from mainstream media at all.. whether thats fox or cnn.. social media is your best bet if you want up to date accurate news, but now they are even censoring us free-thinkers and labeling their content as "misinformation" their is no swearing, no racial slurs in any of the videos or content. All they have is a differing opinion to the mainstream medias and they get censored.
yea i dont just blindly follow ANYONE, i sit back observe both sides.. whether one is perceived good or bad. And make the decision i feel thats best for myself and myself only
whatever i dont care i just know the cost of living in red states especially florida and texas is miles better than living in new york or california where you have people with bachelors degrees on the streets homeless
If you are a capitalist supporter you would understand why that is. It's called supply and demand. There is more demand for property in states with more expensive property. When people brag about the cheap cost of living in places in Texas compared to Cali they are essentially bragging about how Texas is less desirable than Cali.
The events we’re seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, secure Afghanistan, as known in history as the graveyard of empires. What’s happening now could just as easily happen five years ago or 15 years in the future. We have to be honest, our mission in Afghanistan made many missteps over the past two decades. I’m now the fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan. Two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president. I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference. Nor will I shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today and how we must move forward from here. I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me. That's one tough cookie to swallow, but we were already dead in Afghanistan a decade ago. We just didn't know it. I would've applauded Trump for ending that Forever War, even if the pullout was dirty and messy. But that's the game, even if you agree to the principle, can always nitpick the execution.
Got it, but I'm talking about refugees in general. These people are as desperate and a much larger group. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of Afghan refugees. No one wants to take them. Compare that to the Vietnam war where the US moved 120k Vietnamese and eventually settled close to 500k in the US. If there was not so much anti-refugee, especially Muslims today, we and Europe would welcome more of these people in.
This is what I really hate about Trump. He planted that time bomb in the event he lost the election. Trump wasn't afraid to say what Biden said tonight. If he won again, he would have made a sweet heart deal with the Taliban. Intelligence always knew it was a puppet government. Afghanistan is not a failed state. They simply refuse our ways. Meanwhile, GWB is sitting back chilling as everyone is blaming either Trump or Biden. When it was Obama who should have ended it during his first year of his first term.
