Are you claiming that Biden is personally directing the operations? Because otherwise, the military is definitely advising on the current course of operation.
But, on the broader advisory, you’re probably right, because the military, for example, would advise that we never leave, as they have for the last 20 years. However, once the decision to leave was made, I’m sure it wasn’t Biden telling the troops where to go, where to set up roadblocks, whatever.
I’ve wondered if we would have been better off coordinating/negotiating with the Taliban keeping Bagram open and using that as the hub of the withdrawal, rather than the international airport in Kabul. Obviously, it’s Monday morning quarterbacking at this point. The advantage is that the air field itself would have been more secure, but the logistics of getting everyone and everything there would have presented its own challenges. I tend to think that you’ve probably been more right than wrong about the withdrawal, in the sense that we’re all looking at what went wrong with this specific scenario, rather than what could/would have gone wrong in a different one – certainly something would have gone wrong.
Once we miscalculated the strength of the ANA, the dominoes began to fall faster than we could make plans.
Keep in mind that groups like ISIS bombed Kabul because they want more US troops to enter the city. This is the yo-yo that Biden’s trying to avoid. The Taliban want us to leave, but some of these extremists need a cause, and a continued half-assed occupation presents the perfect opportunity for them.
Wow.
Stunning.
You think those advisers recommended this course of action?
Speaking for myself, yes.
Generals don’t set policy. The President decided it’s time to get out, and then he consulted with staff and flag officers to determine the best course of action for getting out. I seriously doubt Biden himself had an opinion about Bagram AFB - he was almost certainly presented with a plan, recommended to him by his advisors, cabinet, and Joint Chiefs, that included leaving Bagram at that time. I’m unconvinced it was the wrong decision (yet, anyway), but if it was, that’s a weakness of the plan that was presented and recommended to Biden. Still his responsibility, of course, as he’s said.
Do you think Biden got down in the weeds of the planning and said “first thing, let’s get out Bagram”?
Agreed.
No.
I was thinking that if nothing happens as deadly as the Babylift plane crash, it will have gone down as well as can be expected.
By that horrid metric, latest casualty estimates say this is worse.
Another metric is number of refugees evacuated. It is too soon to be sure, but the numbers, Vietnam vs. Afghanistan, may be roughly similar.
A third metric is how the refugees were treated after evacuation. The immigrant experience is never smooth, but in 1975, almost all at least went straight to U.S. territory.
What fiasco?
It’s insane to think Trump would’ve been better. He’s the one the hamstrung the withdrawal to begin with.
Yes. Leaving Bagram in the dead of night before evacuating people was logistically the stupidest thing ever. It was literally a solid base of operation for them to work from. This was the opposite of getting down in the weeds. It was made so high up that the view was from space.
Quicker doesn’t mean better. It would have been, well, consider Trump’s handling of COVID. His circle of sycophants would never had allowed refugees, so, at best, he would have needed fewer planes. The abandoned materiel was never going to make it out of the country.
’ Great materiel, the best ,but not enough gold trim. I wanted to sell it to the tallyband but my great generals ,unlike me, couldn’t finalise a deal!’
TheRealDJT
Yes.
But perhaps we could parachute in some troops on motorcycles to help - what do you think?
Kabul airport is walking distance from the center of town. Bagram is 40 miles away.
I’m sure use could have been found for Bagram, such as a staging area for fuel deliveries to Kabul airport. But it would be another perimeter to guard.
As for “stupidest thing ever”, I think there is stronger competition for that title.
Yes, and because of that the taliban created a series of choke points that prevented people from getting to an undefended airport. when they got there there they were sitting targets.
Bagram was isolated and the roads were easier to monitor and defend.
this will go down in history as an epic fail.
And that’s exactly why the Kabul airport is a much better evac site.
The only rational choice was not to go there in the first place.
After that it’s merely a question of how deep a hole you dig before you decide to climb out.
