Biden Set to Announce Withdrawal of US Troops from Afghanistan by 9/11/2021

Noxot

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Okay, how’s about this one?
“Don’t invade countries and then leave them a shambles unless you want more 9/11’s!”
I guess the "don't leave them in shambles" is the key. I do hope USA will realize we can improve ourselves and should focus on that over improving other far away nations. I don't think the military industrial complex would like that idea though nor would some of the puppet master elite factions. max tegmark said something like - democracies are more propagandistic than are tyrannical nations. in soviet russia for instance everyone just kind of rolled their eyes at the obvious propaganda and tried not to get gulag'ed. here in freedom land we take it for granted that many might be pulling our strings in 50 different ways.
 
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Ana the Ist

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US President Joe Biden is set to announce that American troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September, officials have told US media.

The US would miss a May deadline for a pull-out agreed with the Taliban by the Trump administration last year.

The new deadline would coincide with the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the US in 2001.

Hey....old Joe did something I agree with.

Good for him. It's long overdue.
 
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hedrick

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Apparently we didn’t learn anything from Vietnam. The US military can’t create Western democracies from countries that don’t have enough support internally. I think destroying terrorist camps made sense, but taking over the country didn’t. Withdrawing will have costs, as it did in Vietnam. There are people who worked with us, who we should rescue. The biggest casualty will be women’s rights. But Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes, and getting out makes sense.
 
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GreekOrthodox

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Apparently we didn’t learn anything from Vietnam. The US military can’t create Western democracies from countries that don’t have enough support internally. I think destroying terrorist camps made sense, but taking over the country didn’t. Withdrawing will have costs, as it did in Vietnam. There are people who worked with us, who we should rescue. The biggest casualty will be women’s rights. But Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes, and getting out makes sense.

We didn't learn from the USSR in Afghanistan either.
 
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essentialsaltes

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U.S. officials warn collapse of Afghan capital could come sooner than expected

One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity, said Tuesday that the U.S. military now assesses a collapse could occur within 90 days. Others said it could happen within a month. Some officials said that although they were not authorized to discuss the assessment, they see the situation in Afghanistan as more dire than it was in June, when intelligence officials assessed a fall could come as soon as six months after the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

The worsening outlook comes as Taliban fighters, emboldened by the American military departure, have steadily retaken ground from Afghan government forces — including at least seven provincial capitals in a span of days.
...
A Pentagon official, however, said military planners have been working under the assumption for some time that the evacuation of American diplomats and other nonmilitary personnel from Afghanistan could be necessary on short notice, and that some scenarios envision the fall of Kabul within 30 to 90 days.
...
Biden made his decision to pull out U.S. forces with knowledge of the potential consequences, [Psaki] added.

“He asked for a clear assessment for review from his team on what the possible implications could be,” she said. “He asked them not to sugarcoat that, he asked them to lay out specifically and clearly what the consequences could be.”
 
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wing2000

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U.S. officials warn collapse of Afghan capital could come sooner than expected

One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity, said Tuesday that the U.S. military now assesses a collapse could occur within 90 days. Others said it could happen within a month. Some officials said that although they were not authorized to discuss the assessment, they see the situation in Afghanistan as more dire than it was in June, when intelligence officials assessed a fall could come as soon as six months after the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

The worsening outlook comes as Taliban fighters, emboldened by the American military departure, have steadily retaken ground from Afghan government forces — including at least seven provincial capitals in a span of days.
...
A Pentagon official, however, said military planners have been working under the assumption for some time that the evacuation of American diplomats and other nonmilitary personnel from Afghanistan could be necessary on short notice, and that some scenarios envision the fall of Kabul within 30 to 90 days.
...
Biden made his decision to pull out U.S. forces with knowledge of the potential consequences, [Psaki] added.

“He asked for a clear assessment for review from his team on what the possible implications could be,” she said. “He asked them not to sugarcoat that, he asked them to lay out specifically and clearly what the consequences could be.”

Over the past six days, the insurgents have overrun nine provincial capitals across the country, most of them clustered in the north, in a major escalation of their military offensive and a devastating setback for the Afghan government.
Could the Taliban Take Over Afghanistan? Here’s What We Know.

afghan.png




My guess is the Taliban will quickly take over the remaining regions....and wait until the US personnel are out before moving on Kabul. The Afghan government leadership has clearly failed to unify and mount a credible defense. That's a shame after all the billions of dollars spent training the Afghan military....
 
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SoldierOfTheKing

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My guess is the Taliban will quickly take over the remaining regions....and wait until the US personnel are out before moving on Kabul. The Afghan government leadership has clearly failed to unify and mount a credible defense. That's a shame after all the billions of dollars spent training the Afghan military....

The shame is that the money was ever spent in the first place.
 
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essentialsaltes

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A Pentagon official, however, said military planners have been working under the assumption for some time that the evacuation of American diplomats and other nonmilitary personnel from Afghanistan could be necessary on short notice, and that some scenarios envision the fall of Kabul within 30 to 90 days.

That estimate from last week may have been hopelessly optimistic. It's pretty much Fall of Saigon time.

Taliban enters Kabul, leaving Afghan government on brink of collapse
Taliban forces entered Kabul through the city’s four main gates Sunday morning, according to two Afghan security officials and civilian eyewitness accounts, in a move that could trigger the collapse of the national government and signal a return to power for the Islamist group two decades after the United States invaded Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the group’s fighters had been instructed not to push further into the city with force. The militants had made recent gains after negotiating with local leaders. “We want to enter Kabul with peace, and talks are underway” with the government, he said.

The Taliban’s lightning quick advance to the Afghan capital came as helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy early Sunday and armored diplomatic vehicles were seen leaving the area around the compound, the Associated Press reported. Diplomats scrambled to destroy sensitive documents, sending smoke from the embassy’s roof, the AP said, citing anonymous U.S. military officials.

Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that the departure of Americans from the embassy was “not an evacuation,” but rather “a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint."

210815041320-01-kabul-afghanistan-0815-us-helicopters-large-tease.jpg
 
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essentialsaltes

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Afghanistan’s military collapse: Illicit deals and mass desertions
The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan’s military that has allowed Taliban fighters to reach the gates of Kabul on Sunday despite twenty years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government’s lowest ranking officials.

The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and U.S. official.

Early Sunday morning, the government-held city of Jalalabad surrendered to the militants without a shot fired, and security forces in the districts ringing Kabul simply melted away. Within hours, Taliban forces reached the Afghan capital’s four main entrances unopposed.
 
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essentialsaltes

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CNN Headlines

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country

Afghan Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah has also said in a video statement that President Ghani has left the country, referring to him as “former president.”

Canada suspends Kabul embassy operations

Sweden to evacuate all embassy staff in Kabul by Monday
Germany moves Kabul embassy to airport, will evacuate staff

Large prison outside Kabul reportedly emptied
By some estimates there were up to 5,000 inmates at Pul-e-Charki, the biggest prison in Afghanistan.

The prison has a notorious history. Some senior Taliban figures were housed there after the prison at Bagram airbase was closed down. A number of alleged ISIS fighters and members have also been imprisoned there.





 
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Trogdor the Burninator

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That estimate from last week may have been hopelessly optimistic. It's pretty much Fall of Saigon time.

The Taliban’s lightning quick advance to the Afghan capital came as helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy early Sunday and armored diplomatic vehicles were seen leaving the area around the compound, the Associated Press reported. Diplomats scrambled to destroy sensitive documents, sending smoke from the embassy’s roof, the AP said, citing anonymous U.S. military officials.

210815041320-01-kabul-afghanistan-0815-us-helicopters-large-tease.jpg

They would have been hard pressed to make it any more of an exact replay of the fall of Saigon, right down to the smoke from burning documents and the helicopter on the roof.
 
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sfs

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They would have been hard pressed to make it any more of an exact replay of the fall of Saigon, right down to the smoke from burning documents and the helicopter on the roof.
Reboots are quite popular these days -- sometimes even shot-for-shot remakes.
 
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Aryeh Jay

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I was expecting the Taliban to regain power quickly, but even I wasn't expecting them to take over the whole county in a week.

They controlled most of the country for the last 20 years.
 
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wing2000

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I was expecting the Taliban to regain power quickly, but even I wasn't expecting them to take over the whole county in a week.

It seems our government was either unaware or underestimated the ability of the Taliban to negotiate their way to power. But yes, I don't think anyone ever imagined the Taliban would walk into Kabul without a fight.

The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan’s military that allowed Taliban fighters to walk into the Afghan capital Sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government’s lowest-ranking officials.

The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official.

Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces, according to interviews with more than a dozen Afghan officers, police, special operations troops and other soldiers.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/15/afghanistan-military-collapse-taliban/
 
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