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OMG, without reading the report itself, this is a broad indictment of past presidents, and should actually bolster President Biden and his decision. It was never going to end differently, and he at least bit the bullet and is taking the heat. To those who say “I would have stayed,” the question is," how, given the Taliban’s continuing advances?" and “for how long?” and “to what end?”
And, again, to those who say, "but we’ve stayed in Germany, Japan, and South Korea all these years, the question is, “does/did Afghanistan have a stable government? Is active fighting continuing in those countries? Are American’s suffering casualties?”
The more I read the more comfortable I get with Biden’s decision. Whether he weathers the fallout or not.
SIGAR’s report notes that it’s the “11th lessons learned report” in the series, but the heading for the report makes it quite clear that, if the U.S. government is the student, the message hasn’t sunk in. It’s called “What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction.”
The 11th “lessons learned” report. 11th.
If they didn’t learn from the first ten, then they won’t learn from another twenty – unless the incentives are changed. The real lesson to be learned is that it needs to be OK to declare failure, but that kicking the can down the road to avoid a hard decision needs to be punished.
In other words, the exact opposite of what the MSM is now doing with Biden for his decision to call a loss a loss, and pull the plug.
ETA: By the way, that’s what real strength in leadership looks like. Not going around shouting “look how strong I am”, but saying “screw it, this is the right decision, I’m gonna do it and stand by it”.
The money shot of the whole article.
I gotta give ProPublica a shout-out for their always great journalism.
Some veteran/congressman is on MSNBC right now demanding hearings into the pullout.
Fuckers
The military establishment has always been difficult for Presidents to handle, so I wouldn’t put the blame entirely on past Presidents. Once a program gets rolling with enough inertia it’s very hard to stop. That linked article about the “64k” HQ in Afghanistan is a good example.
My pet peeve is the B-21 Raider nuclear bomber, with plans to build 100 of them at a cost that won’t even be revealed to taxpayers because it would supposedly reveal too much about the design. Brilliant!
The idea that we even need a manned nuclear bomber program is insane when we have the other two “legs” of the nuclear triad – subs and silos – that work just fine as a deterrent. I’m hoping Biden can kill this program but the chances aren’t good.
The MSM is working this one hard. I assume they have become bored with 8 months of calm and competence.
I remember reading years ago that the Afghan security forces we were standing up needed to be paid for by US taxpayers in perpetuity because the government of Afghanistan would never be able to cone up with the funds.
Wish they would push just as hard to learn what Pompeo did on that last trip to Afganistan. What intelligence they were hiding during the transition. And who is getting mineral rights.
OMG,it seems the MSM are the only people who still support this 20yr. war…i guess it gave them all something to do and places to go…the USA invaded Aghanistan, for whatever reason…what did they expect the people to do? just stand there and salute?..some took the invaders for whatever they could. some resisted and fought however they could…unlike Germany , Japan and other countries… the Afghans never surrendered…the Viet Cong never surrendered…and both ran the invaders out of their countries…IMO; the lesson America has never learned is that people will fight.to the death, if necessary…against an invader… i think most Americans would also.,should the occasion arise , again.
What we didn’t learn in Afghanistan is the same thing we didn’t learn in Viet Nam; we are an invading foreign army. All the locals have to do is wait us out. It took us twenty years this time, Viet Nam was only ten.
The same thing happened to the English at the end of the eighteenth century.
ETA. Superpower arrogance has no learning curve.
Step #1 What is the objective
Step #2 How to reach that objective
Step # 3 Leave when objective is achieved, or deemed unachievable
I heard Steve Coll on Fresh Air yesterday. He has been in and out of Afghanistan since 1989. His analysis along with a timeline of Afghan’s history prior to 9/11 and the formation of the Taliban was very good.
I sometimes think we forget recent history because we’ve bombarded with “news” 24/7. It’s hard to swift through the important events that will have a long lasting impact.
Let’s hear from Dick Cheney and maybe even shrub as to why it was so important to invade Afghanistan after Iraq. Joe has done nothing wrong but to be in the job in the year 2021 when all his predecessors skated on getting us out.
SIGAR’s report notes that it’s the “11th lessons learned report” in the series, but the heading for the report makes it quite clear that, if the U.S. government is the student, the message hasn’t sunk in. It’s called “What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction.”
Yes, but even MSNBC and CNN are conflating Biden’s actions with those of past presidents. We’re getting into “who lost China” and “stabbed in the back” GOP propaganda.
You’re absolutely right. It gives all the talkers who are employed by MSM something to say in between waiting for a president appear to give them talking points, and of course djt gave them the best. Why didn’t they bombard him with questions about getting out from the day he took office? Too busy quoting his Twitter droppings I guess.
It’s what cable talkers do, they conflate and blather and all in the space of about 43 minutes. They’re not be relied on for details.
Yup. The same thing has happened for forever. It’s why the Vikings would rape & plunder, then go home. I believe it’s also why space aliens have not revealed themselves to us or attacked—they know how tough it is to occupy a planet and they don’t want to kill us all.
Afghanistan was invaded in 2001, Iraq in 2003. There are some that said that Iraq was an unnecessary distraction form doing Afghanistan right.
The latest from the UK’s Boris Johnson (from BBC):
Johnson added that he would work with the Taliban if necessary to “find a solution” for Afghanistan.
“I want to assure people that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan - working with the Taliban, of course, if necessary - will go on. And our commitment to Afghanistan is lasting.”
Great! Let’s hand it over to the Brits, because apparently they have the solution that eluded us for all those years.
