Trump, then Biden Afghanistan Debacle

[dneal]

No President in recent history would have any idea of what to do. That's ok. That's why they have cabinet folks, staff and advisors. The biggest differences you see between administrations revolve around that, not really the President. I can pick a topic for any of them - Obama, Trump, Biden, Bush, whoever... - and demonstrate a flip-flop. That's ok too, depending on the particulars.

Trump didn't destroy ISIS. Mattis did. We would have probably seen something similar were he to have been reelected, but I'm not sure Esper was up to the task. To Trump's credit, he let the dogs of war off of the chain. No hand-wringing, no polling, just a decision. Again, it was Mattis that made it happen though.

Biden's administration is largely former Obama folks. Those were the guys who just left Iraq. Those are the guys who gave the Queen of England an iPod and had the President bow to a Saudi. They're largely idealists and/or machine types. They have no idea why their ideas don't work in practice. The border, gas prices, Afghanistan, etc... That's ok, the Republicans have theirs too; ranging from the RINO old-school republican to the John Bolton's / H.R. McMaster / Don Rumsfeld etc... Those morons happily got a President and Congress to invade Iraq while we were at it, and then spent a shit-load of money. Just google "OCO dollars" or "OCO budget". That was the whole separate budget just for the wars and anything remotely related to them. But I digress...

Afghanistan was always doomed to failure. The British period is about as relevant as the Greek invasion. Interesting history, but not much more. The Russian occupation is relevant. There are still minefields. The "Russian-fighters", whether Northern Alliance or Taliban or Arab Al-Qaeda type are still alive.

I spent a year living in the middle of Kandahar. Afghans live a 9th century life, with some modern conveniences in the cities. Fly out to a remote village and it's a little green patch from what little water there is in the middle of a mountainous desert. You're never going to change this place, and anyone is an idiot for pushing it against whatever natural course it takes.

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This is a place where Hobbes' State of Nature rules. Everyone is armed. It is tribal. It is harsh and brutal.

There are Americans (not to mention our allies, to a lesser extent) all over the place. World Health Organization. World Food Organization. UN High Commission for Refugees offices. Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Contractors like you can't imagine. All these people should have been evacuated before the first major base closed. They're spread all over the country. Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar e Sharif, etc... Getting them out now is near impossible. Looks like DOD handled their move, and the NGOs either were blindsided or didn't prepare (a whole-of-government failure).

This was inevitable. Reason Magazine has a pretty fair article about it HERE. Two West Pointer Captains wrote a "From the Taliban" sort of letter. They are exactly the type of red-team critical vulnerability thinkers we have many of - which is why I'm surprised no one thought of the NGOs.

Anyway, I did my part. I tried to push against the Titanic to make my little piece of it better. Doesn't matter if I was successful or not at this point. I'm already seeing my terps sharing who has been hung in the Kandahar stadium, etc... I had six interpreters. All young men, early twenties. I know all their stories. One was killed. His name was Farhad and he was a brave Pashtun warrior who loved Bollywood. He was the most optimistic person I have ever met. He was perpetually happy. He's gone now. Here's to Farhad.

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The other five have lived safely in the United States for the last 5 or 6 years. Most have wives and children now. Here's to them too.

---edit---

The link to the Written in Taliban piece is HERE