What’s the answer to your question? Do you have an estimate? We should also ask how many Americans were killed or went missing over the preceding years during this conflict, and how many could we project would have died or went missing if we prolonged it.
At the end of the day, as a country, we had to decide if we were going to stay in Afghanistan forever or not. If we couldn't prepare them after 20 years ( a generation of fighters), then we pretty much would have to provide security from the Taliban (which could hide out in Pakastan) forever. Also, Trump making a deal with them didn't help. The execution of the withdrawal could have obviously be better but the Taliban taking over was just a matter of time.
I haven't a clue. That's the job of the military brass and Biden. But if you want me to take some guesses... Good point on the embassy. I think if we can go back to the deal, we would negotiate safety for the embassy and for it to operate post-American military exit for some time (whoever is in power, be it the Taliban or the Afghan gov). That we also negotiate a safe exit for Americans, our allies, and Afghans that wish to leave and can obtain a visa with us. We speed up the special visas application and keep the Bagram air base operational until we have processed through those visas. Then we are out of there. Plan B then includes emergency exit for the embassy, but not for anyone else.
One of the the worst quotes I've seen on this site and I was a lurker dating back to 2004 before I officially joined in 2013.
Do you think Trump working to get released from prison the now leader of the Taliban who has declared himself president helped or harmed the Taliban's efforts to take over Afghanistan?
Fleeing Afghan president's helicopter was too small to fit all his money so he could only take $169 million
And that's why the Taliban walked all over the Afghan government. One side had all their positions filled by grifters who had zero national identity or cause while the other side were idelogical with a strong identity and a reason to fight. The Taliban are horrible but they have a sense of identity, ideology and purpose they believe is worth fighting for.
We never wanted a strong national leader who could actually make Afghan better and stronger. We want a puppet in charge that we can control.
The Us would never do such a thing! Signed, Fulgencio Batista former President of Cuba Ngo Dinh Diem Former President of South Viet Nam Syngman Rhee Former President of South Korea
South Korea ended up being a great and rich country. Maybe because they invested in making high quality OLED displays @Ziggy
I think we can all agree that there is plenty of blame to go around and there was never going to be a clean way to get out of this mess. In hindsight we realize we wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives to no benefit. The question is after failing yet again to stabilize a government in a third world country have we finally learned to stay the hell out of it?
