12 Comments

Very grateful you put this together. 20 years there and it fell apart in 20 minutes. Heart is breaking over the violence happening. The women and children and people who want for a better life, deserve better than the Taliban. When Trump invited them to Camp David, it was the worst thing a president could do. The ilk went on ad nauseum saying to pull the troops out & their anti-refugee compassion was inhumane. Biden shoulders what happens on his watch but 3 other presidents have not been able to manage a plan in Afghanistan. Bush took us into a quagmire that no one has ever won, including the Russians who spent 11 years there. Trump rallies were full of rhetoric about failed wars and bringing troops home. It’s so painful watching this unfold…Twitter is unbearable with all of the volatility…

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Aug 16, 2021Liked by File411

Thank you for this. This entire agreement was a joke in part because they trusted the Taliban. Biden was handed a mess that quickly turned tragic. I too look forward to hearing from him today.

PS This whole thing turned twitter into another drama-laden sh*t storm between JS and DS. Here there are facts, which is much appreciated.

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Aug 17, 2021Liked by File411

Thank you so much for putting all this information together. We likely disagree on whether Biden had to follow through on Trump's deliberate undermining of the Afghan government and that the Taliban broke any agreement, nullifying it. It wasn't a treaty. Any hoo......... I cry for the women and children in Afghanistan in particular. I weep for the husbands/sons/fathers who have to choose to join the Taliban to keep their families safer even under oppression.

People forget that the Afghans were fighting the Taliban before we got there, without the US's powerful weapons and prestige. I expect them to do so again. Also it wasn't the Pakistan sponsored Taliban who defeated Soviet Russia but the Afghans who rejected their rule as well.

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Aug 16, 2021Liked by File411

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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I am appreciative of your analysis and commentary. Negotiating with the Taliban was a reality under Trump as it is under Biden. Pompeo and Radcliffe are not wrong when they say the problem is one of leadership. It was a fatal flaw in the agreement. We will never know for certain whether the withdrawal would have been more successful under Trump but we have some indication that it probably would have and that is my criticism of the agreement. It relied on reputation and leadership of personalities, not the government. Had Trump won the election the Taliban would probably have been more inclined to complete negotiations with the Afghani government. In other words, the Taliban feared a person, not the U.S. Government. In regards to trusting Biden or believing in his judgement I would just remind you of Benghazi and Iran. He has been a train wreck when it comes to foreign policy and just has the wrong instincts. Trump was a necessary evil for the time. He was a wrecking ball and he scared the hell out of the establishment. Without Trump, people would still believe the press and believe the government has its best interests at heart. The curtain has been pulled back and no one, left or right, has any more excuses in regards to what really has been going on in this country. Right, wrong, or indifferent, without Trump and Pompeo's willingness to challenge head on the foreign policy status quo, getting out of Afghanistan would not be in the cards. Our wealthy warmongers would have made sure. As poorly choreographed and in artful as it was, we are out now. We have to clean up the mess and salvage what little integrity we have left and start rebuilding our reputation internationally. Hopefully, we learned a valuable lesson and will use better judgement in the future when it comes to foreign entanglements. I am not optimistic...

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The Gift that keeps on giving, what a beautiful parting gift to Putin from Donald, and what a mess that was handed to the new administration that had almost zero chance of nothing going wrong. I am perplexed though why 100,000 people were lifted out of that situation and so many SIV's were left behind. In addition, I recently learned contracted military dogs were left behind at the airport in their kennels, there is a rescue taking care of them, but they are there and not here.

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Thank you.😉🙋

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