Afghanistan

[Keith_Indy]

This may be, but as others have pointed out, our training of the Afgan Forces was heavily reliant on providing ground troops with air support. When we pulled out that air cover was gone, leaving the Afghan Forces essentially feckless.

Do we see a repeating pattern, Democrats pulled support and aid from South Vietnam and then the North rolled over them...

 

[DadSmith]

EXC: Joe Biden's State Dept Halted a Trump-Era 'Crisis Response' Plan Aimed at Avoiding Benghazi-Style Evacuations Just MONTHS Before Taliban Takeover. - The National Pulse

Joe Biden’s State Department moved to cancel a critical State Department program aimed at providing swift and safe evacuations of Americans out of crisis zones just months before the fall of Kabul, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.The “Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau” – which was...

thenationalpulse.com

 

[DadSmith]

EXC: Joe Biden's State Dept Halted a Trump-Era 'Crisis Response' Plan Aimed at Avoiding Benghazi-Style Evacuations Just MONTHS Before Taliban Takeover. - The National Pulse

Joe Biden’s State Department moved to cancel a critical State Department program aimed at providing swift and safe evacuations of Americans out of crisis zones just months before the fall of Kabul, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.The “Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau” – which was...

thenationalpulse.com

 

[mmpsteve]

From what I understand (and I'm no expert either) the weapons stolen by the talibans (from armored Humvees to M4 rifles) were US weapons given to the Afghan government.
Not weapons left behind by the US military on their way out.

I think the US left military bases with gym equipment and such but I don't think they left weapons, drones and piles of high-tech stuff.

Thank you. I did overlook that a lot of it was Afgan.gov controlled hardware. Still though, knowing the Taliban was going to seize it, I would have blown that **** up out of spite!

Of course, according to US.gov, how could we have known the bad guys were gonna do bad ****?

Lousy US.gov bastards. May they all rot in hell.
.

 

[grillak]

Maybe our UN Ambassador can send Xinnie the Pooh a terse email.

or threaten to call in our markers...oh s***! we're in their pockets....

 

[grillak]

Wow. When you're a Dem president and you're being called out by Wolfie, damn...

to be fair to potus...he doesn't remember what flavor pudding he had last night

 

[grillak]

I wonder how long before the Taliban are given a seat on the UN Council for Human Rights.

they don't care about the un council. they have been recognized by the irs as a financial entity.

Today's Taliban uses sophisticated social media practices that rarely violate the rules

For a group that espouses ancient moral codes, the Afghan Taliban has used strikingly sophisticated social media tactics to build political momentum and, now that they're in power, to make a public case that they're ready to lead a modern nation state after nearly 20 years of war. In accounts...

www.yahoo.com

 

[1DOWN4UP]

Must keep stone age Heroin growing civilation stocked up with modern weapons, so when Iran and Pakistan and ISIS begin using them,the blame will rest with those evil Taliban........This clusterFK is no accident...We will be back in the future to test our newest ground weapons...This has OBAMAS FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER IT. As far as the media,they are merely playing "Squirrel ". Post 885 .......

 

[BugI02]

We will be back in the future to test our newest ground weapons..

Does Cyberdine Systems get the contract to develop killer robots?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I want to say that I have a great respect for the historians on this site, and those of you with military backgrounds. I am neither of those, but I respectfully ask:

Hasn't it been a standard military practice for, I don't know ... eons, that you destroy assets on your way out? I mean, at worst, we could have used military stockpiles to lure in the bad guys, and then done strategic strikes to demolish everything.

I know it's not that simple, but jeez, it's so disheartening to see them scooping up our hardware. How freakin pathetic does it have to get (in addition to the human tragedy, obviously)?

.

Yes.

There's two issues here.

#1: We equipped the Afghans who were supposed to fight the Taliban. That equipment could not be withdrawn before the fighting for obvious reasons and after the fighting it was too late.

#2: The Biden Express Withdrawal left us without the ability to remove all of our equipment.

We don't always bring things home. Tanks from the Korean War were dropped off ships into the ocean because they were outdated or damaged and weren't worth bringing back, for example. Sometimes extracting equipment isn't worth the risk to human life or is simply implausible, so it's destroyed in place.

 

[Sylvain]

Thank you. I did overlook that a lot of it was Afgan.gov controlled hardware. Still though, knowing the Taliban was going to seize it, I would have blown that **** up out of spite!

Of course, according to US.gov, how could we have known the bad guys were gonna do bad ****?

Lousy US.gov bastards. May they all rot in hell.
.

I don't think it's that easy to "blow stuff up" especially when part of that stuff is literally bomb-proof, like MRAPs and such.

Not all Afgan forces gave up their gear/weapons ...

SAS-trained Afghan troops will fight to 'last drop of blood' against Taliban

SAS-trained Afghan commandos are regrouping as they vow to fight till their “last drop of blood” to take their country back from the Taliban. Afghan forces who are still determined to c…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I don't think it's that easy to "blow stuff up" especially when part of that stuff is literally bomb-proof, like MRAPs and such.

Not all Afgan forces gave up their gear/weapons ...

SAS-trained Afghan troops will fight to 'last drop of blood' against Taliban

SAS-trained Afghan commandos are regrouping as they vow to fight till their “last drop of blood” to take their country back from the Taliban. Afghan forces who are still determined to c…

www.thesun.co.uk

You don't have to literally blow it up to render it junk. Part of my training as a Combat Engineer was how to disable vehicles, including tanks, with minimal explosives. Sort of like scuttling for ships. There are even devices specifically made for this. They function much like a grenade (pull pin, let spoon fly, wait) but instead of blowing up they burn incredibly hot from the bottom and make a one use acetylene torch. Put one on the hood, pull the pin, step back, and it will burn through the hood and most of the engine block before it burns out.

 

[Leadeye]

Yes.

There's two issues here.

#1: We equipped the Afghans who were supposed to fight the Taliban. That equipment could not be withdrawn before the fighting for obvious reasons and after the fighting it was too late.

#2: The Biden Express Withdrawal left us without the ability to remove all of our equipment.

We don't always bring things home. Tanks from the Korean War were dropped off ships into the ocean because they were outdated or damaged and weren't worth bringing back, for example. Sometimes extracting equipment isn't worth the risk to human life or is simply implausible, so it's destroyed in place.

The people making the decisions, and a cut of the money have been paid, why would they care who gets it unless they can make more money selling spares.

 

[1DOWN4UP]

Does Cyberdine Systems get the contract to develop killer robots?

It will be a joint venture btwn Cyberdine and Halliburton called
HALLICYBERBURTONDINE Killer Robot Mfg. Co.LLC

 

[Twangbanger]

This is the biggest face-plant self-own I've seen us do yet. It requires imagination to get inside what the hell we were thinking. Our people still are not out of this hellhole. Now the evac timeline is moving out, it appears our fighters are confined to "base" per agreement with the bad guys...and, it's disappeared off CNNs front page.

If you're the type who believes in praying, you best be doing it because this is starting to feel like the Georgia Senate election all over again. We are not out of the woods on this by a long shot. It appears the Taliban are hindering our ability to remove our people, almost as hostages while they consolidate their grip on the country. Wrapping my head around: The Islamic Pedophilate of Afghanistan has a FIVE DIGIT QUANTITY of AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THEIR POSSESSION. What's their incentive to give up that leverage? What is our leverage, really? Shrink-wrapped pallets of cash?

Really starting to get a bad feeling about this one. Any other President would have been on TV TELLING US A TIMELINE OF HOW WE'RE GETTING EVERY LAST AMERICAN OUT OF THERE!!!

We are not getting that...and the media doesn't care.

This is Tehran all over again. Prove me wrong.

 

[Leadeye]

I don't see how they will get people out if the Taliban close the airport. Maybe small groups like Bull Simons was able to get out for Ross Perot.

Once the hostage taking gets started every tin can warlord over there will want a piece of that action.

 

[Sylvain]

You don't have to literally blow it up to render it junk. Part of my training as a Combat Engineer was how to disable vehicles, including tanks, with minimal explosives. Sort of like scuttling for ships. There are even devices specifically made for this. They function much like a grenade (pull pin, let spoon fly, wait) but instead of blowing up they burn incredibly hot from the bottom and make a one use acetylene torch. Put one on the hood, pull the pin, step back, and it will burn through the hood and most of the engine block before it burns out.

Yeah I've seen those termite grenade stuff.
But do the Afghans forces have access to those, and in large enough quantities?

We're probably talking about hundreds, or thousands, of vehicles across the country.
I know you disable vehicles (for a while anyway) with just some low-tech wire cutters but it requires time.

I assume those Afghan folks, previously in charge of a bunch of US-made military vehicle, had to leave the city with their families.

Destroying those vehicles was probably not their number one priority.

 

[bwframe]

Lemonade out of lemons?

Will this be the supreme **** up that starts to expose the rest of the dem/lib insanity in the administration's policy?

Forget about the lost ball president, we already knew we had. Or the absent VP, supposedly pulling strings. The "generals" and their leaders being so, so, so inept...

You don't have to be a gun guy to identify that the terrorists are now predominantly carrying our state-of-the-art modern gear. That shoots our ammo, of which they seem to have plenty! While it is so scarce for us?

Will the press and the world finally see and report this?

Will it spawn looking into other areas, suck as the 'rona policies and the border debacle?

 

[funeralweb]

What "high tech" did we give them?

Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban's new U.S.-made war chest

I'm sure the tally is ongoing.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Yeah I've seen those termite grenade stuff.
But do the Afghans forces have access to those, and in large enough quantities?

We're probably talking about hundreds, or thousands, of vehicles across the country.
I know you disable vehicles (for a while anyway) with just some low-tech wire cutters but it requires time.

I assume those Afghan folks, previously in charge of a bunch of US-made military vehicle, had to leave the city with their families.

Destroying those vehicles was probably not their number one priority.

Oh, I meant us and our stuff. I wouldn't expect them to destroy their equipment. That'd slow down the running. Also, how many units just defected, gear intact?