Intelligence indicates about 100 left. And they just got a few more out this morning. Originally about 5,000 according to best estimates. No way to be sure, since some of them likely found ways out on their own,and others don't want to leave.
Exactly. You don't know. Far higher estimates have come from the Biden administration itself...
Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after Taliban takeover
With such a discrepancy in the figures, hundreds or even thousands of Americans could have been killed and intelligence would be none the wiser.
You make an unsubstantiated assertion, I challenge it, and you ask me to "show us"? No, that's not how it works.
Yes. They protected the Americans and their comrades at the airport. I realize that many of Trump's followers agree with him that such people are "suckers"and "losers." It's probably hard for you to comprehend, but when we swore to defend the Constitution, we were willing to put our lives on the line make the mission happen. If you think we're suckers, then you have my pity.
You swear to defend the Constitution - and you get sent overseas to die for something else entirely, like saving face for an inept administration...
You're grasping at straws, because the operation extracted all those people, and Biden, when informed by military intelligence about an impending ISIS attack, made sure US civilians were not outside the airport until the area was cleared. Our troops knew the attack was coming but they didn't flinch; they did their duty bravely and well.
...and when two hadji fighters are able to get into a position to kill 13 US troops a wound who knows how many more, that's a serious operational failure however you look at it. If intelligence knew the attack was coming and it happened anyway, it only further underscores the incompetency of the leadership. Let me repeat: I am giving Biden the benefit of the doubt over this. He only had limited control of who he was working with. I blame lack of competent military leadership in the US. They were routed by a band of ragtag peasant guerillas. Might as well try to spin Pearl Harbor into a victory.
(presents Taliban propaganda images of a few working vehicles)
ABC News is Taliban propaganda now? Who knew?
So you thought that if any of it was working, that means most of it is usable? As you learned, the Taliban is bitterly disappointed, and feels that Trump betrayed them by not making sure all that equipment was usable. There's new management, now. No matter what Trump promised, that equipment was going to be disabled.
Again you don't know how much of it is unusable; much of it was given to Afghan troops who surrendered
en masse. Apparently enough of it is in working condition to cause a serious security breach. The Taliban is now among the better armed regimes in the world just from what you've seen. Certainly the only terrorist group with an air force.
When I was in the service, we weren't allowed to leave a single rifle behind. Of course, that was in the Bush yearss, when military commanders were competent, even if their civilian leadership wasn't. I'm sure it's still the rule for grunts, but apparently for commanders it's a completely different set of rules. After all, what's a Black Hawk and a few MRAP's between friends - or enemies? All that classified information about the capabilities of the Black Hawk, and likely other US aircraft, are not hidden from the Taliban anymore. But this is perfectly OK in the Biden administration, because look, nobody got fired. It's a paradise for incompetent political hacks who have assurance they get to keep their jobs no matter how badly they botch them.
Trump was given that deadline by the Taliban. Given the way he botched the process, there was no way to get it done by that time. Biden told the Taliban that May wasn't acceptable.
No way for Biden to get it done by that time? A lot of good that extra time did him - what came of his insistence that the Afghan army would hold up? It could hardly have been any worse if we did pull out in May, of for that matter if we pulled out in 2002. So what do we have to show for that extra time? More dead Americans...
Oh yes, a cartoon. How... desultory.
Cliché as it may sound, a picture
is worth a thousand words.
...and from what we've seen from Biden's approval rating over the past few weeks, it doesn't appear that the American public is fooled by the kind of garbage spin doctoring you keep posting on this thread. Up to you if you want do go down on this ship. If that's what you want to do, props for being the most statist Libertarian I've ever run across.
