Is the State Department doing more harm than good with the stranded?

The Barbarian said:

Biden unilaterally imposed the Sept. 11 deadline, contrary to the wishes of the Taliban. He managed to get about 98% of Americans out of the country anyway, and now the rest are being allowed to leave by charter.

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Not so for the 13 members of the US Military who were killed in the process.

The Barbarian said:

It's got to be tough to be an anti-Biden troll these days. First the evacuation of Americans got almost everyone out before the end date.

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Must be hard when the internet has reliable news sources disputing the narrative. - First and ONLY evacuation left 200 American citizens, including a group of students the Taliban prevented from getting to the airport.

The Barbarian said:

Then the Taliban lets the rest leave by chartered flights.

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Blinken says Taliban are blocking charter flights from departing Afghanistan

This was 48 hours ago. Should check your sources.

The Barbarian said:

Then the Taliban announces that they are "betrayed" because the Americans disabled almost everything they hoped to use before leaving.

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Don't hand out mud sandwiches and claim they are peanut butter - go to the :52 time look closely - those are American Weapons they are holding.

The Barbarian said:

No one knows what side deals Trump and Pompeo made with the Taliban, but they apparently never even told Biden about them.

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I gotta admit, that made me laugh.

It's got to be tough to be an anti-Biden troll these days. First the evacuation of Americans got almost everyone out before the end date.

hislegacy said:

Must be hard when the internet has reliable news sources disputing the narrative.

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Ah, you read it on the internet. No wonder you believe it.

Then the Taliban lets the rest leave by chartered flights.

hislegacy said:

Blinken says Taliban are blocking charter flights from departing Afghanistan

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Hmm...
Flight carrying Americans, others leaves Afghanistan after Taliban clearance

Blinken says people without documents are being held up from leaving. The U.S. does that, too. So do most other nations. I thought you would know.

Then the Taliban announces that they are "betrayed" because the Americans disabled almost everything they hoped to use before leaving.

hislegacy said:

Don't hand out mud sandwiches and claim they are peanut butter - go to the :52 time look closely - those are American Weapons they are holding.

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Some people abused your trust in them...

“Last night their mood was one of joy, celebration, they were shooting in the sky, there were fireworks,” Al Jazeera reported Wednesday. “The mood here today is quite different.”


According to the Middle Eastern news network, the Taliban took their reporters to the Kabul airport used by U.S. troops to show them wreckage where militants had hoped to find a treasure trove of war machines.


“They are disappointed, they are angry, they say they feel betrayed because all of this equipment is broken beyond repair,” the report said.
Taliban ‘disappointed’ equipment left behind by U.S. forces is unusable

The fact that they got some equipment from the Afghan army, doesn't mean that they US equipment was in working order. As you should expect, American troops left they with inoperable equipment.

They felt betrayed because they had been led to believe we were just going to leave it in good condition. No one knows what side deals Trump and Pompeo made with the Taliban, but they apparently never even told Biden about them.

hislegacy said:

I gotta admit, that made me laugh.

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And lots of other people, when the Taliban announced that they felt "betrayed" by whatever they thought it was that Trump promised them.

The Taliban are far from the first people to learn that Trump's promises are never meant to be kept. Sadder, but wiser.

Given what's happened to Biden's approval rating lately, I think we can have confidence that the efforts by the Biden administration to paint this withdrawal as a success are not working...

spiritfilledjm said:

I wouldn't have pulled out a single soldier until every citizen was taken out of the country. It's common sense. America should not abandon its own.

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A lot of those citizens were going to stay until every soldier was pulled out of the country. The US has citizens all over the world without there being American soldiers in the country. American citizens were living and working in the USSR during the worst parts of the Cold War without there being US soldiers there. American citizens travel to North Korea and Cuba without there being US soldiers there.

The diplomatic dilemma of Afghanistan is that as long as the Afghan government stood, the US had to treat it like a standing--and friendly-- government. The US could not close the embassy--that is, cut diplomatic relations--while at the same time having troops in the country.

There is a way these things are done, and have been done for thousands of years, even mentioned in the Old Testament. The host government protects the diplomats and citizens of friendly nations. Government protocols required that the troops be removed while the embassy was still open and while there were still American citizens in the country. Any president would have had to do it that way.

Nor, for that matter, could any president have ordered all Americans to leave. The only threat the president would have would be, "If you don't leave before the Army does, we'll leave you here on your own."

As far as I know, all US employees at the embassy and such, were taken out
before the military left. The next to be taken out were American citizens then
Afghans who had worked for the Americans as translators and such, whom
the Taliban would thought they would most likely be executed. What's left
are Americans who refused to leave, for whatever reasons.

SoldierOfTheKing said:

Given what's happened to Biden's approval rating lately, I think we can have confidence that the efforts by the Biden administration to paint this withdrawal as a success are not working...

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No matter who was president or how it went, there was going to be a hit. If it continues and Biden drops down into the zone Obama and Trump had in their first terms, he'll be in some trouble. Mid-terms will probably be the major issue.

JimR-OCDS said:

As far as I know, all US employees at the embassy and such, were taken out
before the military left. The next to be taken out were American citizens then
Afghans who had worked for the Americans as translators and such, whom
the Taliban would thought they would most likely be executed. What's left
are Americans who refused to leave, for whatever reasons.

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Apparently, there were a few out in Taliban areas, who were unable to get out because of disorder and misunderstandings on the part of local commanders. The Taliban is now apparently seeking them out, and says that if they have their documents, they will be allowed to leave.

I'm guessing there's going to be a dozen or so that will need intervention to get them out.

...