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but seriously, no pay, no real need to fight, under strength, under equipped, corrupt everything(goes with the previous two), and you can go on from there.
How about "protect your wife and children?" How about "protect your own life?"
The Afghan army was vastly superior in numbers and equipment, and they were protecting their own homeland--the Taliban are, in fact, invaders, not rebels.
Apparently the Afghan troops don't really believe life under the Taliban will be that bad.
How about "protect your wife and children?" How about "protect your own life?"
The Afghan army was vastly superior in numbers and equipment, and they were protecting their own homeland--the Taliban are, in fact, invaders, not rebels.
Apparently the Afghan troops don't really believe life under the Taliban will be that bad.
You make one key error. They won’t fight for Afghanistan. They’ll fight for their tribe.
The Afghans rejected our attempt to remake them into a neoliberal society.
Gender studies, which we imported to Kabul University as a major. We forced gender diversity on them, forced them to accept women as their leaders in some cases.
They aren’t dumb. The leaders of that country see what we are doing back in the US. We are changing genders on children. We are legalizing drugs. People can steal in San Francisco with zero repercussions. We punish men with toxic masculinity charges.
I can go on and on about how our society is frightening to someone from Afghanistan. It’s frightening to me, and I’m much more lenient on deviant behaviors than they are.
Back during WWII, the US had the moral high ground. When we went to fight, or influence other countries, we had decency and freedom on our side to fight against repression.
Nowadays, when we spread our message outside our borders, many countries in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, etc, they all find our neoliberal message to be grotesque and immoral.
If I was a normal dude in Afghanistan, why would I sacrifice my life so they can continue to practice gender studies at Kabul University? So they can turn Kabul into San Francisco?
Anyway, that’s a big part of why they didn’t fight.
How about "protect your wife and children?" How about "protect your own life?"
The Afghan army was vastly superior in numbers and equipment, and they were protecting their own homeland--the Taliban are, in fact, invaders, not rebels.
Apparently the Afghan troops don't really believe life under the Taliban will be that bad.
None of that was threatened by the taliban. Of course next week will be a different story, but the taliban's only foe was the GOA. When the taliban promises city leaders not to go all Rape of Nanking on them, they handed over the keys quickly.
The average Afgan doesn't really care about the concept of government, so why should he fight for it.
They didn’t threaten the tribes. Maybe a few warlords. Americans just can’t seem to grasp that the government in Kabul had no legitimacy to the average Afghan.
They didn’t threaten the tribes. Maybe a few warlords. Americans just can’t seem to grasp that the government in Kabul had no legitimacy to the average Afghan.
Oh, I completely get that. The US attempted nation-building from the top down, but nations are not built from the top down, they are built from the bottom up.
They didn’t threaten the tribes. Maybe a few warlords. Americans just can’t seem to grasp that the government in Kabul had no legitimacy to the average Afghan.
Most Americans are pretty stupid, but the small percentage who are capable of understanding, and then actually care enough to read about it, fully understand that the supposed 300,000 troops were not loyal in any way to the Afghan government. They now understand that the 300,000 number wasn’t even the correct number.
Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and John Kirby all firmly believed it, though. Why did they believe it and who told them it was so? I don’t believe they were briefed that the Afghans would fold, and then ignored it, and said the opposite publicly. Nobody is that stupid. I think they were all duped. I’d like to know by who.
Someone needs to be held accountable for this mess, and I’m expecting many resignations over the next few months. I don’t see how Milley or Austin can, or even should, survive this.
Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and John Kirby all firmly believed it, though. Why did they believe it and who told them it was so? I don’t believe they were briefed that the Afghans would fold, and then ignored it, and said the opposite publicly. Nobody is that stupid. I think they were all duped. I’d like to know by who.
I've personally seen a couple of situations where the president was briefed something and said, "Nah."
It does happen. I served under six presidents, and the only one who really trusted and paid attention to Intel above his own opinions was the elder Bush. That was probably because he had been a director of the Intelligence Community himself.
But I saw a couple just flat out ignore what they were briefed.
And I did see one that was duped--the younger Bush was duped about Iraq...but that was by his VP and SECDEF, while the analysts of the IC were beating their heads on their desks in their cubicles, saying, "That's not what we briefed."
Last edited by Ralph_Kirk; 08-17-2021 at 08:10 AM..
Most Americans are pretty stupid, but the small percentage who are capable of understanding, and then actually care enough to read about it, fully understand that the supposed 300,000 troops were not loyal in any way to the Afghan government. They now understand that the 300,000 number wasn’t even the correct number.
Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and John Kirby all firmly believed it, though. Why did they believe it and who told them it was so? I don’t believe they were briefed that the Afghans would fold, and then ignored it, and said the opposite publicly. Nobody is that stupid. I think they were all duped. I’d like to know by who.
Someone needs to be held accountable for this mess, and I’m expecting many resignations over the next few months. I don’t see how Milley or Austin can, or even should, survive this.
Actual ETT vets that I've talked to the last few days are actually surprised that they made zero effort. Most expected a token effort.
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