Or you could provide a reputable cite for your own claims like has been expected of posters on this board for 20+ years now.
Forget it, Jake. It’s Magiver. There has never been a problem he isn’t able to convince himself he can come up with a solution that is better and simpler than the experts. He chose his user name based on it, I guess.
There is no conceivable way he knows better than the actual military who planned this operation, and no conceivable way you will convince him to the contrary.
I’ve never said that. I said don’t close the base down. Why would we send in soldiers to occupy a highway? We had a base that supported the Afghan Army with air support. We had half a year to organize an airlift that we knew was going to happen.
You continue to refuse to address the point that you cannot keep Bagram open with 2500 soldiers.
You think the Taliban are gonna be cool with us running tens of thousands of people 24 hours a day through their territory? Who do you think is gonna be driving and refueling those buses, sweeping the road for IEDs, and feeding and housing the staff for all of that? You may as well be suggesting we drop in motorcycle-riding Green Beret paratroopers.
And wouldn’t you know it, we’ve risen to the challenge and gotten all of our people out along with tens of thousands of our Afghan allies, with minimal casualties and minimal financial and human cost.
it’s highly unlikely that the Generals advised Biden to do nothing, then watch the taliban take over everything and then engage in a shit-storm at a civilian airport 2 weeks before the deadline. We had since the beginning of the year to airlift people out.
But clearly you think this was what was planned.
You’re the one pulling numbers out of your ass, how many were there in June when we still supported the Afghan Army.
More to the point, What is the purpose of the US Military if not to support US citizens and it’s allies?
Do you think we will have evacuated everybody in the next 2 days?
Prior to the Doha agreement there were 13,000 stationed in Afghanistan.
As of three days ago there were only 350 Americans still waiting to be evacuated.
I know little about the detail of the situation. What I do know is that the chances that those who planned the operation know more than you do, and planned better than you could, are close to 100%.
Also -
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complaints are easy, real solutions are hard
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in the real world, the choices are often between the lesser of two evils
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people who just read the news believe it, but people who are in the news know that 70% of the news is bullshit. In a “fog of war” situation, add at least 20%
Who says they are not doing this? Good overall national strategy often involves deciding not to fight certain battles, no matter what the hotheads want.
Your style of thinking is what kept the US in pointless, endless wars in both Vietnam and Afghanistan for decades.
That’s not what I asked. I asked how many were there in June.
Piece of cake. Only 350 Americans. Should have our allies out by then too. And the Afghanis supporting the allies.
You’re comfortable that they’re going to make it out.
Since they didn’t know the taliban was going to take over Afghanistan in a matter of weeks there’s no way this was planned this way in the first place.
Speed of Taliban Advance Surprises Biden Administration, Dismays U.S. Allies
When President Biden this spring announced the decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, his administration expected the Afghan military to defend key cities and perhaps battle the Taliban to a stalemate.
Biden sat back and watched it happen.
2,500, per the terms of the Doha agreement. At this time Bagram was being operated by a skeleton crew that was not actively defending the base, because there was a cease-fire in effect. That would have changed if we were to, say, actively recommission the base, recommence flights and defense, and start using it as a base of operations for civilian evac.
Good. The alternative was getting us back into a shooting war with the Taliban and bogging us down in the country for another 20 years.
So you know that they had no plans against this contingency? I’m impressed by your level of inside knowledge. My understanding is that far better strategists than I know the adage that “no plan survivies contact with the enemy”. But you are going with the idea that the full might of the US military command were unaware of or didn’t allow for that. Gutsy call.
So? You are missing the point. I’ll give you a hint - the point is not that the plan has proceeded without a hitch.
I wanted out sure, most people did…again it was how it was done.
Given everything we know about the deal with the Taliban, the expectations for the existing Afghani gvt/military and all other considerations - exactly what would you have changed?
This evacuation is less about us pulling out and more about the Taliban takeover and the speed at which that happened.
In other words - had the afghan gvt held for 6 months - this evacuation would have happened in 6 months.
I don’t think chaos could have been avoided. We’d accomplished nothing – built no government, no military, that could come close to holding Afghanistan. Of course it was going to be chaos as we’re leaving! I think it’s fine to investigate exactly what happened and what decisions were made and why, but it would have been chaotic no matter what.
So you think the contingency for a secure airlift was to do nothing and let the taliban take over?
What I said is, yes there is going to be chaos it’s how you control the chaos as best you can.
So you believe they didn’t control the chaos the best they could, or the best you could?