It wouldn’t have been a big deal if they’d done it in an appropriate way – an army and government appropriate to the country and culture – as has been pointed out many times in these discussions.
Instead, they tried to set up an American-style army, backed by hordes of highly expensive contractors, and a puppet government that would jump when they said jump, and was paid to do so.
And the Taliban lay down their weapons, as they held hands and sang songs of love with the Tajiks, Hazara, and and Uzbeks
And from that point forward, Afghanistan became a beacon of liberal democracy and self-governance to the rest of the world, a shining city upon a hill.
Well, they’ve got one now, don’t they?
Of course. Setting up a government and military that functions is “no big deal”, Mr. Rumsfeld.
And the kind of army you try to to set up doesn’t make any difference at all, Gen Petraeus?
It probably does, but it’s going to be an enormous deal and extremely challenging no matter what kind. Setting up a government and military in another country is just a monumental job. Especially a place like Afghanistan, with very little national cohesion.
The idea that it could ever be “no big deal” is the kind of thinking that got us into these foolish and wasteful wars in the first place.
I tend to feel this is unlikely. If American aircraft could be disabled by a remote computer message, there would be too much danger of our military being subject to a cyber attack during a battle.
I think the more likely long term inhibiting factor is that the Taliban now has some American aircraft - but it doesn’t have access to America’s support infrastructure. How long will these captured aircraft remain usable without maintenance and spare parts?
How can they even start them with the key fob 6 thousand miles away?
Also, I don’t think geopolitics and vengeance are asides, especially given the recent admission that the U.S. had no intentions to engage in nation-building.
Why am I not surprised?
Biden, from 2007:
This guy seems displeased.
I still cannot for the life of me grok how after 20 years of training, material, etc, etc of the Afghan Army how we could not have possibly anticipated such an outcome as abject surrender by them. Did we learn nothing about the culture there? How did we not plan for such a contingency?