Stranded in Afghanistan

[Valletta]

California children stranded in Afghanistan:

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article253866873.html

What efforts should Joe Biden make to get Americans left behind out of Afghanistan? Should he provide money to the Taliban to free American hostages?

 

[Brihaha]

Biden is sending the Cyber Turtles over to audit the number of "hostages" left behind.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Why didn't they get out in March ? When Biden warned people we would be leaving Afghanistan.

 

[royal priest]

They're too busy playing with their new toys

 

[Valletta]

Why didn't they get out in March ? When Biden warned people we would be leaving Afghanistan.

The contractor who is being held hostage may very well have been needed to service our military needs. The same for the CIA people who are stranded, we needed intelligence support, communications support, etc. Many Afghanis, interpreters and others, were told that their paperwork was not satisfactory and it would take more months for the Biden administration to process the paperwork. Once all of the paperwork was complete and all civilians safely out of the country, THEN was the time to start a military pullout, not before.

 

[Jesus is my Superhero]

When you've lived long enough, you notice this is the standard U.S. departure.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

The contractor who is being held hostage may very well have been needed to service our military needs. The same for the CIA people who are stranded, we needed intelligence support, communications support, etc. Many Afghanis, interpreters and others, were told that their paperwork was not satisfactory and it would take more months for the Biden administration to process the paperwork. Once all of the paperwork was complete and all civilians safely out of the country, THEN was the time to start a military pullout, not before.

They were warned before even March. Sadly it becomes our problem. When Americans visits or live in dangerous countries. And don't listen. I don't go to places like North Korea and other dangerous countries. It's called having commonsense, or brain cells.

 

[wing2000]

Once all of the paperwork was complete and all civilians safely out of the country, THEN was the time to start a military pullout, not before.

...easy for you to say

...you are not responsible for the lives of our service men and women who were acting as front line immigration officers at the airport gates. What you are proposing would have taken several weeks if not months to accomplish.

 

[Belk]

View attachment 305184

They're too busy playing with their new toys

Did Taliban Hang a Man From a Black Hawk Helicopter?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Many Afghanis, interpreters and others, were told that their paperwork was not satisfactory and it would take more months for the Biden administration to process the paperwork. Once all of the paperwork was complete and all civilians safely out of the country, THEN was the time to start a military pullout, not before.

If paperwork was important to getting people out of the country before the withdrawal, why did the Trump administration slow down the SIV vetting process and trigger a huge backlog of applications?
How Trump broke the system that offers protection to Afghan allies
Fact Checking Jake Sullivan claim Trump admin didn't process Afghan visas for a year - CNNPolitics

 

[RDKirk]

The contractor who is being held hostage may very well have been needed to service our military needs. The same for the CIA people who are stranded, we needed intelligence support, communications support, etc.

I don't think any of those people are left in Afghanistan. Certainly not any CIA officers (except those on covert operations who are there under orders) or contractors attached to US military units.

Many Afghanis, interpreters and others, were told that their paperwork was not satisfactory and it would take more months for the Biden administration to process the paperwork. Once all of the paperwork was complete and all civilians safely out of the country, THEN was the time to start a military pullout, not before.

The problem of evacuating interpreters and their immediate families has been a thorn in the side of the DoD since Vietnam. It was most recently ripped open again with the removal of US troops from Syria, which caused a huge uproar within military ranks about the way the Trump administration handled it.

Clearly, that's still an unresolved issue, as I've already asserted in these forums. It wasn't fixed after Vietnam, it wasn't fixed after the Persian Gulf War, it wasn't fixed after the Iraq War, it wasn't fixed when the US pulled out of Syria, and it's not fixed yet.

 

[RDKirk]

California children stranded in Afghanistan:

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article253866873.html

What efforts should Joe Biden make to get Americans left behind out of Afghanistan? Should he provide money to the Taliban to free American hostages?

I'll point out that those were Afghan-American students visiting relatives, so their State Department paperwork was not an issue.

The question is: Why did they delay when the writing has been on the wall for months.

 

[Desk trauma]

If paperwork was important to getting people out of the country before the withdrawal, why did the Trump administration slow down the SIV vetting process and trigger a huge backlog of applications?
How Trump broke the system that offers protection to Afghan allies
Fact Checking Jake Sullivan claim Trump admin didn't process Afghan visas for a year - CNNPolitics

That it was made a tangled mess is on the past administration, that it wasn’t made enough of a priority to be untangled once that administration was no more is on the current administration. Both have shamed us.

 

[Pommer]

That it was made a tangled mess is on the past administration, that it wasn’t made enough of a priority to be untangled once that administration was no more is on the current administration. Both have shamed us.

Wasn’t the transition delayed somewhat, too?

 

[Desk trauma]

Wasn’t the transition delayed somewhat, too?

My understanding is that the date of withdrawal was moved back from an earlier date.

 

[rambot]

Uh Oh!!!
CNN factchecks Jake Sullivan! This is going to blow up in his face! Poor guy.
"
Fact checking Jake Sullivan's claim Trump admin didn't process Afghan visas for a year"
Fact Checking Jake Sullivan claim Trump admin didn't process Afghan visas for a year - CNNPolitics

Oh maaaaan!. Oh wait.
Hold on.
He DID lie!

This is incorrect. Between March 2020 and the end of December 2020, at least 523 Afghan Special Immigrant Visas were issued.

Wow! Look at all the good the Trump administration did to help Afganistanis! a total of 2300ish people. in 8 months! Wow! Good for you!

I mean......

. That being said, the Biden administration did inherit a significant backlog of SIV applicants -- more than 17,000 -- due in part to policies enacted under the Trump administration which slowed down the SIV review process.

To be clear, I would NEVER argue:
1) That Biden and the US govt. handled this pull out well. The folks on the ground did great and I thank them desperately for helping those people. But the sitting and previous government (including Obama) SERIOUSLY dropped teh ball on this.
2) the US should have been in Afghanistan to begin with.
3) that this pull out should have happenned now. Because of 2), there WAS no good time to pull out.


Lastly, what I don't understand is why the army didn't just blow up all the equipment before they left. That would seem like a capital idea.

 

[wing2000]

Lastly, what I don't understand is why the army didn't just blow up all the equipment before they left. That would seem like a capital idea.

The US military did just that with US owned equipment (if not blown up, at least rendered inoperable). The equipment owned by the Afghan military is another matter of course. In any case, the Taliban don't have the skills or parts to maintain equipment such as a Blackhawk helicopter.

"... as the U.S. military wound down its mission, it turned over facilities and equipment to the Afghan security forces — which may have added to the total seized by the Taliban. But Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that before leaving Kabul airport on Aug. 30, the military “demilitarized” 70 MRAPs, 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” he said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.” (Demilitarized is a term that means damaging in place, sometimes with explosives.)"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/31/no-taliban-did-not-seize-83-billion-us-weapons/

 

[rambot]

The US military did just that with US owned equipment (if not blown up, at least rendered inoperable). The equipment owned by the Afghan military is another matter of course. In any case, the Taliban don't have the skills or parts to maintain equipment such as a Blackhawk helicopter.

"... as the U.S. military wound down its mission, it turned over facilities and equipment to the Afghan security forces — which may have added to the total seized by the Taliban. But Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that before leaving Kabul airport on Aug. 30, the military “demilitarized” 70 MRAPs, 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” he said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.” (Demilitarized is a term that means damaging in place, sometimes with explosives.)"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/31/no-taliban-did-not-seize-83-billion-us-weapons/

Perfect! So the lies like the one put forward in the meme in post #4 are just a bunch of rancid nonsense then eh?

Wow. Colour me surprised.

 

[Pommer]

Perfect! So the lies like the one put forward in the meme in post #4 are just a bunch of rancid nonsense then eh?

Wow. Colour me surprised.

It could be an honest mistake…maybe dizziness from the tar fumes that they were heating up?

 

[Valletta]

I'll point out that those were Afghan-American students visiting relatives, so their State Department paperwork was not an issue.

The question is: Why did they delay when the writing has been on the wall for months.

The US military did just that with US owned equipment (if not blown up, at least rendered inoperable). The equipment owned by the Afghan military is another matter of course. In any case, the Taliban don't have the skills or parts to maintain equipment such as a Blackhawk helicopter.

"... as the U.S. military wound down its mission, it turned over facilities and equipment to the Afghan security forces — which may have added to the total seized by the Taliban. But Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that before leaving Kabul airport on Aug. 30, the military “demilitarized” 70 MRAPs, 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” he said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.” (Demilitarized is a term that means damaging in place, sometimes with explosives.)"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/31/no-taliban-did-not-seize-83-billion-us-weapons/

The Russians and Chinese have the expertise to fix equipment, both countries want to strengthen their ties with the Taliban, they would both trade fixing equipment for access to American databases, the new high tech American weapons, and Americans with high tech knowledge.