August 26, 2021
"Two blasts struck near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed..."
"... just hours after Western governments warned of a security threat there and urged people to leave the area immediately... One Afghan health official said at least 30 people were confirmed dead and at least 120 wounded. Another health official said at least 40 were dead and 120 wounded.... A Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, said in a statement that 'a number of U.S. service members were killed' in the attack, and that 'a number of others' were wounded.
In one part of one hospital alone, a New York Times journalist saw dozens of severely wounded or killed people....."
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147 comments:
You could see this coming through the Lincoln Tunnel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_retreat_from_Kabul I imagine the Taliban have heard of this.
From "Dunkirk, yah, how wonderful Biden is!" to Custard's Last Stand as Biden eats his soft serve and cowers as it all falls to ruins in Afghanistan.
Poor troops and those Biden is abandoning.
This is all happening because the people in Washington DC want it to happen.
They stole an election to make this happen.
Everyone who kneels to the illegitimate regime in DC has blood on their hands.
Recall that just yesterday LLR Chuck assured us this very sort of thing could never happen with the supreme leadership of Installed *"president" Ice Cream Cone.
And our LLR is on record deferring to the military strategy "insights" and "acumen" of one George "Walrus Sans Tusks" Conway.
And this very day we have our hopeless and feckless and idiotic Secretary Of State admitting the Ice Cream Cone Administration has literally no idea, at all, of the following due to ZERO vetting of evacuees:
- how many Americans are in Afghanistan
- where those Americans are
- how many Americans have communicated directly with Embassy officials to request rescue
- how many Americans have been evacuated
- how many Afghans have posed as Americans and been evacuated
- how many Afghani evacuees are actually "sleepers"
And on and on it goes.
America and Americans Last....again.
And even after Biden completely outfitted their entire army with advanced weapons as well as gifted the terrorist Taliban with the 46th largest Air Force in the world....
Under similar circumstances, Trump would already have been removed from office by both parties establishment in coordination with their deep state allies and media assets.
Mark Green (R-TN) says that the response should be to declare the deal is off, the deadline no longer applies, and we reserve the right to return in force (e.g. to Bagram). But of course that won’t happen. More likely we lock down the Kabul airport and accept no further intakes from the people crowded at the gates.
Details, details. Details don't matter. The fact that aircraft supporting the Afghan Army were grounded by Biden's order to end maintenance by withholding contractors, or that the more defensible air base was abandoned weeks ago are just details. Nobody could have pulled this off more smoothly than Joe Biden.
"Can’t Make This Up: Update from White House on Kabul Bombings – “There Is No Update”'
This right after reports emerge that 4 US Marines are dead with 3 more seriously injured.
Installed *"president" "Ice Cream Turn Away And Answer No Questions" has apparently not ingested a sufficient volume of chemicals necessary to appear before the public with massively dilated pupils and a dead vacant stare to make jokes with his legacy media allies.
Achilles — Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?
"How does this possibly help him or his party?"
It helps the Chinese Communists who coincidentally funneled billions to his family, and that's all that matters.
You think this is bad? Wait until 9-11-21.
Blood is all over Joe Biden. HE did this. HE didn't have to, but playing politics so he could celebrate 9/11 by bragging that HE ended the war in Afghanistan has consequences when you don't do the right thing. HE left Americans there. HE did. I am ashamed of this country under him.
This was one case where I fervently hoped Chuck was right, that we had a lot of sound and fury from the right about a crisis, but that there really was no crises. II was not optimistic, I am less so now. Real people are being harmed. Let's not fall into a statistics mind set. Remember that a lot of innocent people will likely have their lives ruined or ended. Undeservedly so, even if they made stupid choices along the way.
Uhr when every policy change leads to chaos then chaos is the policy goal. For all the alleged chaos the media tried selling during Trump’s first term everything went pretty smooth until the Chinese bio warfare attack. Biden’s decisions here and abroad have had chaotic effect on the economy, employment, security and everywhere else. Kabul is simply the most chaotic of current cockups but not isolated by any means. And it’s far from over. Why does he allow it to continue Steve?
steve uhr said...
Achilles — Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?
We had the taliban utterly defeated and helpless before us.
The leadership just ran to Pakistan and we caught and released their flunkies over and over again.
Because the people in DC made it happen.
We knew the Afghan army was led by corrupt people. We knew the Afghan government was corrupt. Everyone knew all of this.
Because the only people more corrupt were the gladhanders in DC laundering money through Afghanistan back to themselves.
Your problem is you think they are operating in good faith. They are not. They are corrupt evil shitheads and they are in power because of stupid people like you.
Anyone who supported Joe Biden in any capacity has blood on their hands.
The ultimate goal in all of this is to start a war with China.
And then to make the US lose that war.
In as humiliating a fashion as possible.
steve uhr: "Achilles — Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?"
Since this is nothing more than "play stupid" and pretend you are "just asking questions" exercise, suffice to say that there is no way possible, given the US experience and capalities to conduct egress operations under formulaic plans and common military tactics principles, even under the most difficult of combat conditions, again, no way possible this was all just a series of improbable "mistakes".
Leaving hundreds of thousands of weapons including advanced weapons? Leaving 200 combat aircraft? Leaving hundreds of thousands of vehicles including combat vehicles? Leaving hundreds of millions in advanced equipment and personnel gear? Leaving a mountain of ammunition and armaments?
Stranding likely hundreds or thousands of Americans with no way out?
Shutting down Bagram early which was the perfect location for the final departure point?
And this is after gifting the Mullahs of Iran billions more in cash, giving the ChiComs everything they want (did you see the Huawei giveaway just yesterday?), giving Putin whatever he wants for russki energy exports, and in just 6 months turning the US from an energy exporter back to importer and begging OPEC (like its 1977 all over again) to increase oil production.
So, yeah. All of this is no "accident" at all.
I would tell you to stop playing stupid after all this, but I actually now believe you arent "playing"....
Of course Biden didn't want this to happen, but given the chaos generated by this f*CK up of a bug out, it was predictable. It appears it was ISIS-K this time, but it could have just as easily been some of the Taliban's "new, not trained enough" recruits. To the extremist mind, lots of soft targets in a small area are impossible to resist.
Slow Joe was prophetic the other day when he said: "no one has been killed - yet." He needs to driven from office, regardless who is VP. He's just a tired old man with no energy and no ability to focus. But, this fiasco like the border, inflation, the divisiveness, etc is not on him; it's on the people and the press who hid his senility from the voting public. What shameless traitors!
"Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?"
Steve Uhr needs to re-evaluate his assumptions, otherwise, nothing that's happened since last November makes sense.
Lara Logan, in her long interview with Tucker Carlson, stated that the present chaos in Kabul is the desired result for those around Biden. Humiliation for this racist, colonialist nation is their desire and they are being successful.
Dang. I was hoping there was a covert plan to get the Americans out. In my mind, I knew there was not. The closing of the air base first - points to either gross incompetents or flat out evil intent. Some back room deal to arm the Taliban? Sad state of affairs that I can even think our government might do that.
Deal with a snake and it will bite you. The Taliban can can claim it was not them, but some group they have no control over. Seems we have heard that story before.
Will the American public accept hundreds or more Americans left behind? I guess we will find out. I hope not.
I'm so glad the adults of the hyper competent Biden Administration are in charge!
After all, they promised us that they would swiftly respond to any terrorist attacks, so I expect a strongly worded note to the Taliban to be delivered any day now.
Hey Democrats, are you tired of all the "winning" your side is doing?
My bet is Biden resigns by Labor Day; Thanksgiving at the latest.
Mark Green (R-TN) says that the response should be to declare the deal is off, the deadline no longer applies, and we reserve the right to return in force (e.g. to Bagram).
And how is that going to happen?
You think the Taliban hasn't boobytrapped the hell out of Bagram, now that the US left it?
Bagram WAS secure, before teh Biden* Admin abandoned it.
Was
Jen Psaki said, "I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded, they are not..."
And she's right! They aren't stranded.
They're cornered, surrounded, trapped, and doomed.
Steve Uhr: The US military death count is now 10 and dozens wounded; 60-plus dead Afghanis and hundreds wounded. “How does this help Biden?” I think it helps Biden by imposing a state of “learned helplessness,” on all of us who claim any common sense and a moral bone in our bodies. We will be forced to watch, through tears of rage and pity, as this insane debacle plays out. We will have to pretend that our “leaders” deserve obedience. The more we live this lie, the more it will break our will. See also Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless.”
steve uhr said...
Achilles — Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?
His Party hates America. His Party, and especially the people running teh show at teh Biden* White House, hate Marines, enlisted troops, and anyone else who is actually trying to fight for America, rather than fighting for "Diversity training".
What part of "We support the Troops when they're shooting their officers" did you not understand?
What part of "that's the mindset of the people running the Democrat Party and Democrat Administrations" do you not understand?
The reasons why 4 Americans died in Benghazi on 9/11/12 was because no one in the Obama Administration leadership gave a damn about any of them.
What makes you think the Democrats have gotten more patriotic sense then?
By the way, if this is AQ doing the bombing, what prevents them from shooting down every departing aircraft?
Apparently the only secure base was Bagram, which was shut down and abandoned almost 2 months ago.
An absolute brain-dead decision, for which nobody will be held accountable.
This nation and its previously revered institutions have lost their way.
That was like four or five hours ago!
This has gone from bad to apocalyptic in a span of a week.
The side by side of happy talk from DC next to real time footage in Kabul would be comical if it wasn’t so horrific.
I’m not sure what is worse here: either The Biden Admin is lying to Americans or they’re incompetent.
I didn’t vote for Biden, but I didn’t think it would be the end of the world if he got elected.
He and the people around him are doing far worse than I ever imagined. It’s quite unnerving.
When the news of the dead Marines arrived, how many in the White House were more upset that now their student loans might not get paid off?
" Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?"
Well,
A) it helps Biden be even More in favor with his party
B) it helps his party be able to access Afghanistan's resources, since America is now just a paper tiger
...
You Do Realize, that his party; is the Chinese Communist Party, don't you?
Of COURSE you do, They write your checks as well What? You thought George Soros was an indenpent actor?
Wait until Jen Psaki takes issue with Peter Doocy's characterization that the Marines were "blown up" at the checkpoint.
She will prefer he state they are "resting comfortably" while the State Department determines whether they wish to come home or remain in Afghanistan.
The left will never admit their failure in Afghanistan. In this forum, leftists blame trump. Biden is on record bragging what a great job he is doing, and the media is joining in.
They intend to forget all this- and move on to important issues like the insane infrastructure and voting bills.
Now that they have demoralized our military, they can continue to push gender, race propaganda.
The left is always happy to see America lose. Always.
steve uhr What does "help" mean to Biden? To what end is he working? Until you know the latter, you don't know.
As of 11 PM on August 26, 2021, Talking Points Memo and Media Matters had nothing whatsover to say about the carnage at the airport in Kabul. Unexpectedly.
This just so sad because it was so very preventable. This isn’t just Biden’s fuckup, the list of bureaucrats, generals and admirals is lengthy and vile.
Re: Steve Uhr:
Achilles — Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?
To pile on a little more, I think it's obvious that what Biden wanted was troops out, Afghan government holds on for a "decent interval," as it were, and he gets popular acclaim for bringing a tidy end to a long war.
Contra Achilles, Washington is full of people who were and are strongly opposed to withdrawal.
They didn't want this -- they wanted permanent occupation. If we suppose malice, rather than sheer incompetence, then perhaps the civil service slow-walked preparations for withdrawal in the hopes that they could talk Biden out of withdrawal by saying that preparations weren't complete, or the operational risks were too high, or the usual stuff. And then they were caught by surprise when it turned out that Biden told them we're withdrawing anyway. Bagram had to be closed because they didn't have enough troops for both HKIA and Bagram. The backlog of visa applications that bureaucrats at State had been sitting on for months or years would have to be abandoned.
And then the Taliban conquered the entire country in ten days, and everything came tumbling down all at once.
Biden cancelled a call with the Israeli PM. Maybe he should call him back and ask him to send in the Israeli special forces.
They are not politically correct and know how to kill terrorists...
This is the natural progression from the Obama presidency.
If we don't flatten the US Embassy, the presidential palace, Karzai airport, and Bagram air base on the way out, then we're doing it wrong.
After this attack, if Biden does not call off the 8/31 deadline, then even his own party will be asking him to leave...
Dave Begley said...
You think this is bad? Wait until 9-11-21.
Then wait for 10-7-21, the 20 year anniversary of the official start of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
I'm very happy that I have lots of guns, lots of ammo, multiple refrigerators and freezers, and don't live anywhere near a big city, or the border
I wish good luck to everyone who didn't vote for a Democrat in 2020. For the rest? I wish they get exactly what they voted for. If you're wondering what that is, take a look at Kabul, and the US Southern border
Just curious to know if white supremacists are still our greatest threat.
Joe has no agency. He is a drone. An NPC. What CHINA wants controls Joe’s actions. What CHINA says to do sets his agenda. Apparently his insistence on this disastrous plan wasn’t anticipated by the Deep State in time to plan decent contingencies. How odd, right? No option other than muddle through? Well that’s what CHINA wants. Hang your hat on that Mr. Uhr. It’s the only option in which Joe’s not 100% at fault.
Five hours since the attacks. Where is Feckless Joe?
This is what fecklessness will get you.
@MalaiseLongue, At 1:34, you wrote that nine and a half hours later, "As of 11 PM on August 26, 2021, Talking Points Memo and Media Matters had nothing whatsover to say about the carnage at the airport in Kabul." That's an amazing crystal ball you have there.
Still eight hours till it happens!
@Balfegor 1:34 PM, I think you nailed it.
Quaestor: "Steve Uhr needs to re-evaluate his assumptions, otherwise, nothing that's happened since last November makes sense."
The complete and utter inability to re-evaluate assumptions, take in and internalize new information and develop workable theories is the very hallmark of what it means to be a lefty/democratical/LLR.
You are recommending a course of action that steve uhr cannot perform because he cannot even comprehend it.
He'll just "reset" (as the left/LLR-left do every 15 minutes) to "this was all Trump's plan" as he has done since the beginning.
The Biden Administration will send Susan Rice out to say that this was "spontaneously inspired" and triggered by the release of an anti-Muslim video on YouTube.
It worked before.
You think this is bad, wait until 1000+ American citizens who were left behind start being beheaded.
You people seem quite pleased for this opportunity to dump on Slo Joe and are praying for more bloodshed. You are not real Americans, just Trump deadenders anxiously awaiting for the apocalypse.
We are all culpable in this disaster that will hopefully end for our service members in a week. Look in the mirror rather than a convenient scapegoat.
Just to be Clear; to Feminists; the Real evil, is Still Christians...Right?
"If they go to school, the office, university, or the hospital, they don’t need a mahram," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an interview with The New York Times, explaining that women need a chaperone, or "mahram," during journeys of three days or longer.
Mujahid also explained that music in the country will be banned as it "is forbidden in Islam," adding that, "we're hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things, instead of pressure them."
oh! and Serious Question (and i'm Really Serious, i don't know)
What do the Taliban think about 'women' using women's toilets and showers?
Are they TOTALLY OKAY, with Chicks with dicks?
Will Transmen have to have a mahram? What about Transwomen?
This clusterf*ck isn't due to just one man. It takes a team to f*ck up so badly. Joe Biden is the team leader, followed by SOS Blinken and CJCS Milley and the rest of the JCS. Joe's been taking China gold for decades. He's given them a solid gold gift. Impeach him now.
If this doesn't convince Biden to clean house at the Pentagon and CIA then we can expect 4 years of these kinds of f*ckups.
There are several dozen jarhead officers hoping they're way down on the Notification roster. Then there's Survivor Assistance Officer. My last family connection is just over fifty years. What may as well be my grandkid, generationally speaking, is an Air Force loadmaster.
Biden should resign. Joe, please just pardon Hunter and resign.
I didn't have much hope for Biden, but I held out some wan hopes for the Taliban. I thought they might have wanted to live in a country where you could schedule a dental appointment or interact with a woman who wasn't illiterate. Guess not. ISIS is probably more attractive to some of their young warriors than the Taliban. I don't trust the Taliban to keep ISIS and Al-Q under control any more than I would trust Biden to contain the Taliban....Afghanistan is going to pass from endless warfare into endless nightmare.
The tragedy clearly falls on former President Trump. If he had not reneged on the Paris Climate Agreement then the temperature in Afghanistan would have been several degrees cooler. The academic research models indicate that the Taliban would have acted more reasonably in a more moderate climate in spite of the egregious American colonialism efforts that have been constant since the presidency of George Washington, the infamous slave master.
I'm becoming convinced that Robert Jackson and Arthur Goldberg were wrong, and that it's a gradual one that is transitioning to a sudden one.
Lara Logan, in her long interview with Tucker Carlson, stated that the present chaos in Kabul is the desired result for those around Biden. Humiliation for this racist, colonialist nation is their desire and they are being successful.
That mean that Obama's handlers are in charge of the Biden Administration. No surprise there.
The humiliation will get worse over the next few weeks, much worse
I didn’t vote for Biden, but I didn’t think it would be the end of the world if he got elected.
Yeah, but many of us DID speak out and make very clear that this was a CONSEQUENTIAL election and that it would effectively be "the end of the world" if Biden-Harris were elected.
Too many Americans did not listen.
Their folly. And ours.
IT. WILL. GET. WORSE.
U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate
“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official.
The people in DC know what they are doing.
They are evil.
So is anyone that supports them.
We are at the mercy of the Taliban and the other parties to decide how many casualties they want to inflict on our way out. Their is little our troops could do to prevent the single runway in an urban area could being closed by a few dedicated Taliban and or ISIS. Also in the next day or so we will quit evacuating civilians and start drawing down our troops to get them out by the 31st. As the troops are flown out and troop levels drop the remaining troops will have trouble keeping the crowds out and the pictures of C-17's being mobbed will be worse than we saw before not to mention the last plane out with no troops remaining on the ground.
How does this help Biden or his party? It helps the hard left by making America look stupid. Then, when we dump Biden, we'll have Kamala who is further left but not far enough. So she'll get it, too, one way or another. Then Pelosi or the appointed VP and so on until the hard left gets in. Meanwhile suicide bombings will begin. So what about We, the People? How should we act? Stupid and corrupt didn't save Biden. Fear is useless. Maybe courage and love of country are also useless - but, if you are alive, what is there to work for except a return of democracy to this country? Maybe night will come and all we'll know is that, by the sound of the bombing, our flag is still there - somewhere. Maybe we'll be enough. What else is there to work for?
For the record --
Trump was WRONG to pursue a withdrawal, even if he would have obtained an orderly and "peaceful" withdrawal.
Leaving Afghanistan, no longer having the capacity to neutralize that area and keep it from being a haven for terrorists, was a MAJOR mistake. And was obviously a mistake when Trump was pushing it.
One of the main reasons that we went to Afghanistan in the first place was that either we fight the enemy there, or we fight them here. Since we now have said "no mas" and walked/run away in the delusion that we can walk/run away from the war, that war will now have to be fought on battlefields and streets throughout the world, having been launched from that sanctuary for death and terror.
And that leaves out entirely the basic humanitarian decency of not standing around and shrugging your shoulders, as if you are a POS like Biden, in the face of rape and dismemberment and beheadings that have happened and will continue to happen to innocent people in Afghanistan, even if they are not Americans (as if that really matters -- they are human beings).
Politico:
"In written and verbal communications, Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, and Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, head of U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan, have referred to the Taliban as “our Afghan partners,” according to two defense officials."
No doubt these officers will express their extreme disappointment in how our Taliban partners are handling airport security. If that doesn't shape 'em up, nothing will.
The sheer incompetence of Biden Harris has a force multiplier in the form of the US military general staff. Americans would be fools to entrust their sons to the US high command.
What if these jihadists start shooting down aircraft trying to leave Kabul, making it difficult, if not impossible, to continue evacuating ?
Mid-Life Lawyer: "The tragedy clearly falls on former President Trump. If he had not reneged on the Paris Climate Agreement then the temperature in Afghanistan would have been several degrees cooler. The academic research models indicate that the Taliban would have acted more reasonably in a more moderate climate in spite of the egregious American colonialism efforts that have been constant since the presidency of George Washington, the infamous slave master."
I guarantee that in about 6 months this will be considered "truth" and will become the new received wisdom that will be pushed at Althouse blog by our team rabid lefties, and in particular one LLR-lefty who claims to be from MI.
via Belfegor:
Contra Achilles, Washington is full of people who were and are strongly opposed to withdrawal.
They didn't want this -- they wanted permanent occupation. If we suppose malice, rather than sheer incompetence, then perhaps the civil service slow-walked preparations for withdrawal in the hopes that they could talk Biden out of withdrawal by saying that preparations weren't complete, or the operational risks were too high, or the usual stuff. And then they were caught by surprise when it turned out that Biden told them we're withdrawing anyway. Bagram had to be closed because they didn't have enough troops for both HKIA and Bagram. The backlog of visa applications that bureaucrats at State had been sitting on for months or years would have to be abandoned.
Oh, my people.
I'm clinging to the possibility that this horror is the "sheer incompetence" of which Balfegor spoke, on the principle that, as the man said, you should never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. But the level of stupidity required to eff this up so thoroughly, from so many angles, is so mind-boggling - has literally anything gone well in Afghanistan since Biden took office? - that I keep coming back to malice. Balfegor offers me the malice of entrenched, Cold-War-style bureaucracy as an alternative to the malice of active enemies of the State.
This makes a lot more sense than the bewildering alternative - that the Democrat party really is in the hands of people whose sincere desire is to destroy the United States as a world power, presumably because they fondly hope they'll be able to...
...uh-oh. To Build Back Better. shudder
Howard: Do you want to tell us that Donald Trump would have given the names of all our allies and citizens to the Taliban like Joe Biden did? Plus give them all our biometric data on those who don't have an id, so there's no way to hide?
Because that's what Joe Biden did.
Guess who has put out statements on this disaster? Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and the Taliban.... but not Joe Biden.
They cannot wake him up, apparently.
@ Roger Sweeny: "Still eight hours till it happens!"
Time stated was time in Kabul, which is in a different time zone. Genius.
Chief Lefty Projectionist Howard: "You people seem quite pleased for this opportunity to dump on Slo Joe and are praying for more bloodshed."
Recall that Howard, LLR Chuck and that gal nurse from WI spent weeks into months regurgitating apocalyptic diagnoses of the incident where the Iranians sent a couple missiles flying into an American base in Iraq and a couple US soldiers, who were all safe within their bunkers, supposedly suffered "traumatic brain injury". Spoiler: none of that happened. At all. It was another Howard/I*** lie.
Howard went on and on and on about this nonsense for, as previously noted, weeks into months on end as if this were the equivalent of D-Day and Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Bulge all rolled into one.
It is hardly surprising that he has now, after all that, and every other thing he embellished and/or simply made up from 2016 thru 2020, is going full "Republicans Pounce" to try and change the subject from this horrific failure of his beloved democraticals.
Nice try Soleimani fanboy.....and by "nice" I of course mean "pathetic".
Howard,
You people seem quite pleased for this opportunity to dump on Slo Joe and are praying for more bloodshed. You are not real Americans, just Trump deadenders anxiously awaiting for the apocalypse.
What a slanderous thing to say. I don't see anyone pleased by this opportunity. I am certainly sure no one is praying for more bloodshed. You are acting in a vile and contemptable manner. We are very clearly saying it is a tragedy and laying the blame were we are thinking it should be. That is worlds away from cheering on the debacle. I am sure I can find cases where you castigated Trump for some tragedy that happened under his watch.
Can we say that you were praying for greater tragedy so it would make Trump look worse?
Maybe you are tying to make us the bad guys so you can assuage your own guilt for advocating for the guy that screwed the pooch on this one.
@Howard: "You people seem quite pleased for this opportunity to dump on Slo Joe and are praying for more bloodshed. You are not real Americans, just Trump deadenders anxiously awaiting for the apocalypse. We are all culpable in this disaster that will hopefully end for our service members in a week. Look in the mirror rather than a convenient scapegoat.
Emphasis added.
No, Howard, we're not. But you are despicable. (Viva Frei: "Projection as confession.")
And the tone deaf speaker of the house is tweeting like a madwoman about today being Women's Equality Day. Too bad for the American women and children her administration left behind that will be tortured and raped...and probably put on video to show the world what Biden left behind....Nancy Pelosi
@SpeakerPelosi
Join me live in San Francisco with Mayor London Breed, elected officials and community leaders to commemorate Women’s Equality Day. There is a whole slew of tone deaf tweets that she put out here....Just goes to show once she rammed her pork filled multi trillion spending bill through...she doesn't give a sh*t about Americans........
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2021/08/26/nancy-pelosi-on-twitter-repeatedly-promotes-womens-equality-day-but-hasnt-yet-mentioned-something-else/
Apocalypse...
Nikki Haley
@NikkiHaley
"Should Biden step down or be removed for his handling of Afghanistan? Yes. But that would leave us with Kamala Harris which would be ten times worse. God help us."
Tragically for both America and the free world, Democrats elected to hitch their wagon to a white dwarf and a black hole.
We've lost 2500 men in Afghanistan, and now that we just lost 12 men pulling out, people are finally paying attention. We need to get out of Kabul NOW. Not next year and not next month. None of these men would've died if hadn't insisted on flying out 60,000 unvetted Afghan "Translators".
Anyway, we've given a medal to the man who killed Ashli babbitt. 50-60 other innocents died last year in the BLM/antifa riots. And 20 people got killed in Chicago last weekend. what do all these deaths have in common? No one in the Regime Media gave a damn. But they're in hysterics over this.
When are people stop cheering bombing in Syria or wars in the Middle east, with tough talk about "Turning those ragheads into glass" and thinking all the deaths are going to happen on the other side? You know how you REALLY prevent another 911? You stop invading the world and inviting the world. But Americans get too much of a kick out of playing "Risk" and being a Super-power. I'm sure Lindsey Graham and Lynn Cheney are having orgasisms over "Retaliation" right now.
These were the first 2 suicide bombers, there will be many more. Soon, there will be ransom demands as Taliban, ISIS, Al Queda and others start gathering American hostages.
"U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate"
My God. It is getting harder and harder to attribute all this to mere stupidity.
The President on down the chain of command to the commander of the forces on the ground in Kabul are guilty of murder. They knew this was coming and marines were killed. These people should stand a short trial and be summarily shot. Period.
A third blast is being reported.
The biggest problem here is that Biden is currently non compos mentis (probably for the last 18 months, but let's be generous and say it's a new condition).
Because he is unable to make competent decision as CiC, and since no one else has Constitutional authority to do so, decisions aren't being made.
Decisive leadership is lacking because of all the ass-covering.
God, the book that will be written about this in 50 years will be scathing, assuming there are printing presses in 50 years.
Elections have consequences. Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.
So most likely some of the dead Marines were women, there to search female Afghan refugees.
Nancy Pelosi's "women equality day" sure isn't thinking of those women, is she?
'We are all culpable in this disaster...'
Many of us did not vote for Joe.
I watched the Q&A by General McKenzie...he said Americans had to search everyone coming it to keep them from smuggling a bomb on a plane. Makes sense.
But who says you have to search that person near crowds of people? Don't allow groups of people to congregate...put them in cages like Obama built at the southern border if you have to.
But separate them...make each person walk singly across empty space to get to the search area. Make them disrobe before getting within bomb's reach of the searchers. You want to leave? Strip down...don't give a fuck about Muslim women's modesty.
Of course, this would require space...what's the name for it? Oh, yeah, a 'perimeter.' Something you can secure, like you could have done at Bagram air base.
Let's just take a look here. Hillary "Lost Track" of billions over there. Barry Soetoro kicked in 1.7 Billion In the Pallets O' Cash Night. Now 800 Million of world class weapons and munitions in the hands of suicide bombers left up for grabs by Biden. Whose side are the Democrats playing?
The chyron under Biden's speech on Afghanistan this afternoon is "We will not forgive, nor forget". I say that's bold talk for a dementia patient who can't remember what he had for breakfast this morning. And being a sort of mean snarky little twerp for all of his political career, I doubt that Joe has forgiveness in his heart--or in what's left of his mind.
So he will forget it all--and enjoy his tapioca pudding tonight.
Biden sounds robotic. This man isn't all there.
Trump had his chance and passed because he knew it would be a clusterfuck. It would have tanked his campaign. You people would have blamed the generals and via. At least the loudmouth asshole started the withdrawal, so I give him credit for that.
I feel sorry for you petty vindictive little men.
Biden is playing the Clint Eastwood role...perfect as his eyes have gotten squinty from dementia and god knows what drug cocktail he is on.
Now he says the commanders have all contacted him, mostly 'by letter.' Good thing we still have a pony express...not like time is of the essence.
He is now blaming the Taliban for not securing the perimeter. Why putting this most vital task in their hands? Why are you not dictating terms? He's absolving them of colluding with the bombers...
He's trotting out his son's service (which I commend, btw), but his son was a lawyer and served in an office...quit dipping into that well.
So far sticking to the 31st as the date...he looks incredibly weak and by reflection makes the US look weak. The Chinese and Russians are rolling on the ground laughing.
Not a good time to crack a smile when calling on a reporter.
Now he says he's a 'student of history'...holy fuck.
Re: Bagram...he's throwing the military leaders under the bus...even though the buck stops with him. Will any of them resign? Of course not. And now he wanders off into another subject (busses).
At least he has the balls to call on Doocy of Fox...but deflects the question. He is holding the line that he 'had to' pull out. Many agree, but it is the incompetent manner of the pullout that is in question.
Everyone, please welcome president Harris. Notice how she's been verrrrrry cagey about being on-camera or speaking about this.
She's dumb, but she's not that dumb.
The troops should be honored...the president and the generals should be ashamed.
'And the tone deaf speaker of the house is tweeting like a madwoman about today being Women's Equality Day.'
So is the Sergeant Major of the Army...
Pathetic weakness. Go woke, lose a country.
Biden like Blinken looks defeated. Biden looks extremely ill.
Biden speaks of counting on the “self-interest” of people who wouldn’t think twice of blowing themselves up for an objective.
Sounds logical, no?
Will Joe meet the coffins at Dover AFB?
Maybe. But if he does, I'd be shocked if we see it.
Should get a purple heart for listening to (most of) Biden's word salad press conference.
Summary: Me good, Orange Man bad.
U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate
“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official.
The story at Politico of all places...
There is no good reason to comment on the obvious projection from one of our commenters. It frustrates me because I imagine that there are lefties who truly believe that claptrap. However, arguing with people like that serves no purpose except to distract and annoy.
The tragedy clearly falls on former President Trump.
I'm pretty sure this was sarcasm.
If Biden can't organize a proper withdrawal, then how-in-the-hell did he win an election??
Just watched Joe explain how he's building back better and how he had complete consensus from his crack team of military advisors (just another reason for them to be asked to resign). And I saw him ask us to shower some praise for getting _____(fill in the number) of people out of there, The Largest Airlift in History. While he said that, the world was thinking, 'Well, yah. You created the mess that made it necessary to do emergency airlifts, duh!" Like asking for praise for putting out the fire you set.
But nothing that happened today is the climax. This was just the opening act. Wait. This will happen. ISIS (with help from Taliban or Al Queda) will find leftover Americans. They will find them. And then they will execute them, in a horrific way, on camera. And you can bet that Twitter and You Tube will allow it, because at no time will they suggest that the vaccine does not work or that the US election was rigged and filled with fraud. And, of course, they are not Donald Trump.
Did anyone in the world feel better after watching Biden today? I mean outside of Afghanistan.
Oh...one last question. Does the Covid virus not know how to get into Afghanistan? Just wondering aloud.
At this moment Twitter is allowing me to see the first tweet in a thread but blocking all the others…
…as if we needed another reason to…
Why has the 6,000 figure been accepted (almost) without question? Early on the number was 10-15,000. At that time many said it sounded low to them. Just a week or so ago Psaki said we were in communication with 11,000. The morning of the official 6,000 number the State Department said there were 4,100 still to get out in addition to the 4,500 already brought out. They back tracked on that saying State misspoke.
One, plausible to me, rational is State sat down and estimated how many they MIGHT be able to get out. 4,500 already out, 500 identified and likely to go out today. Why that only leaves 1,000 and we have/had 3 or more days to go. Now THAT sounds like a great job.... Hence 6,000 becomes the number that (EVER) wanted to get out.
I fear that post withdrawal we'll find out there are a much larger number of hostages.
"I feel sorry for you petty vindictive little men."
Howard, petty vindictive little men blame others for their own decisions. YOU voted for this.....Suck it up buttercup. Don't be a petty vindictive little man like the President you voted for is.
Howard is outraged anyone might be a tad put off by the Installed *"president's" astonishing incompetence.
Further, that we notice said incompetence makes us "vindictive".
Howard is having a difficult time dealing with reality lately.
Not quite as difficult a time as a certain LLR, but its getting closer.
Howard: "Trump had his chance and passed because he knew it would be a clusterfuck. It would have tanked his campaign. You people would have blamed the generals and via.(sic)"
Howard, like Left Bank, steve uhr and LLR C****, will be spending more and more time in Make-Believe Projection Land as time moves on.
'Trump had his chance and passed because he knew it would be a clusterfuck.'
So you're confirming for the record that Trump is smarter than Joe?
Good to know...
I think it was Dana Perino that said it yesterday. "When you sink the ship, you don't get to brag about the lifeboats."
Blogger Drago said...
Recall that just yesterday LLR Chuck assured us this very sort of thing could never happen with the supreme leadership of Installed *"president" Ice Cream Cone.
I did no such thing you hateful lying sack of shit. You didn’t quote me. I said I hoped nothing like this would happen.
This is the level of revulsion and hatred that now divides American conservatives. Those of us who hate Trump, and those of you who love Trump. Forget for a moment about nearly half of America that never much like any Republicans; I’m talking about you Trumpists being a fanatical minority within a minority.
The Tweet of the Day:
George Conway Retweeted
Conor Rogers
@conorjrogers
·
41m
In interviews last year, I was asked for my thoughts on the general state of politics. I said something hypothetical that was somewhat borne out today:
If a foreign terrorist attack were to happen in the current era, unlike 2001, it would rip the country apart, not unify it.
"Howard: "Trump had his chance and passed because he knew it would be a clusterfuck."
What is it that our esteemed hostess says about "Sometimes not doing anything is..."?
Howard, like his co-lefty LLR C****, gets very very upset when you remember the things he said in the past that puts the complete and utter lie to the things he is saying today.
Temujin mused,
Oh...one last question. Does the Covid virus not know how to get into Afghanistan? Just wondering aloud.
Covid is smart. It took the first c17 out of there.
Playing the "But Trump" card is lame.
Crook Biden plays the "but Trump" card. AS if Biden was stuck with a plan. BS.
Biden has trashed everything Trump did.
Trump didn't do this.
Joe was instructed to call on someone at NBC. A specific person. Telling!
Nora O'Donnell should have responded: "who told you to call on me?"
and - Joe went on an on about his son Beau - who did not die in any combat. How gross and tacky of him to bring up saint beau.
American lives were needlessly lost and he yammers on about HIS family. ugh. So gross.
Biden wanted this to happen? How does this possibly help him or his party?
He thought he could blame it on Trump. Most people ain’t buying it.
No one is pleased with what happened. Not everyone is displeased for the same reason though. Most of us are displeased because a number of American service men and women lost their lives in a senseless attack. Others are displeased because it points out quite clearly the ineptitude of the current administration. I would gladly have been proven wrong about this cluster fornication and have those service people be alive. That's not what happened though. This screw up just got lethal, and the folks responsible should be held accountable.
Francisco D.... What troubles me is that 21% of Americans polled think Biden is doing OK in Afghanistan. Probably all over medicated Xanax crowd... Chuck? Chuck? Take a pill.
"Joe went on an on about his son Beau"
Did he mention how Hunter was screwing the widow Biden? Asking for a friend.
"We are all culpable in this disaster"
No, Howard- Biden and his team are culpable. Secondary culpability goes to everyone who voted for President Shitforbrains. I assume that is you. So, take your "we are all culpable" and stick up your withered ass.
Note that the September 11th dead-line Biden and his media wanted, is all but memory-holed.
Lifted quote:
“The punchline to Biden claiming his hands were tied is that he already did flout Trump’s May 1 deadline, pushing it to September 11 because he wanted to be able to give a big speech congratulating himself for having Americans out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the attacks. He could have insisted on a New Year’s deadline instead, when the climate would have held off the Taliban. Why didn’t he? At least he mourned the dead. Pelosi spoke earlier today and didn’t bother.”
Pro-marxist LLR Chuck: "This is the level of revulsion and hatred that now divides American conservatives."
You are not a conservative. You have never been a conservative.
The NeverTrumpers are not conservatives. They have never been conservatives. They lied and glommed onto the republican party because that was the vehicle they could ride toward Forever Wars and incredibly lucrative grift as the "controlled opposition" for their (well paying) democratical masters.
Trump exposed them all, as he did you....and he did it without breaking a sweat.
Trump caused you to expose yourself as a far left marxist-endorsing democratical-adoring Maddow-worshipping Lawfare Blog fangrrrrrrrrlll who is as dishonest as any poster on these boards has ever been, or ever will be.
You have launched misogynistic attacks on women and attacks on children in addition to vomiting up incredibly racist comments...but only against conservative blacks like Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson (and that one was the worst). I shudder to think what you will come up with now that Herschel Walker has declared to run against your previously endorsed openly marxist hero Warnock in GA. It's going to sound like a circa-1940's KKK revival meeting when you begin to go after Walker.
You admitted repeatedly that you were only here at althouse to 1) smear Trump and 2) drive a wedge between Althouse and her readers.
Spoiler: your Reid Hoffman-inspired "project" failed, and failed miserably. Yet you keep attempting to animate that corpse of a "fakecon" online persona like some sort of digital Dr Frankenstein screaming "I am alive as a real live "conservative" who just happens to worship democraticals!!" (maybe it's more pinochio than Frankenstrein, hard to say sometimes))
Chuck said...
I said I hoped nothing like this would happen.
This is the level of revulsion and hatred that now divides American conservatives. Those of us who hate Trump, and those of you who love Trump.
Bzzt, wrong.
The division is between those who hate Trump, and those who love America. You're clearly on the "hate Trump more than you love America" side of this.
Because no one who loves America votes for Democrats, any Democrats, because the top Democrats, and the soul of the Democrat Party, hates America.
Assuming you're not lying, you're such a tool of the establishment that you voted for an obviously senile buffoon who's never succeeded at anything other than corruption, or a President who actually loves America, and was consistently far more competent than Biden could have ever hoped of being (see: ISIS and their "Caliphate". See Suleimani. See, turning the US Economy around after Obama had it heading into a recession).
You own this Charlie Foxtrot. Tell whatever lies you want, no one is buying them.
If you had the slightest shred of self respect, you'd STFU, slink away, and never be seen again. But instead you'll continue to whore yourself out for the corrupt and incompetent Biden* Admin
I am so glad I'm not you
Howard said...
You people seem quite pleased for this opportunity to dump on Slo Joe and are praying for more bloodshed. You are not real Americans, just Trump deadenders anxiously awaiting for the apocalypse.
How many disasters did you pray for under Trump?
I'm very sad about the American troops killed.
It appears most of the Americans stuck in Afghanistan are people who were feeding at the NGO trough. Which is to say, a bunch of Democrats with worthless majors from "elite" colleges who got high paying "jobs" because of connections.
No, I couldn't care less what happens to them. They voted for this, I hope they get it good and hard.
We are all culpable in this disaster
Go fuck yourself.
All you Biden voters are culpable in this disaster. None of us Trump supporters are. You got your f'up in office, you own it
Mark said...
Trump was WRONG to pursue a withdrawal, even if he would have obtained an orderly and "peaceful" withdrawal.
Leaving Afghanistan, no longer having the capacity to neutralize that area and keep it from being a haven for terrorists, was a MAJOR mistake. And was obviously a mistake when Trump was pushing it.
Thank you for playing, now FOAD.
1: Trump isn't President, Biden* is. This isn't Trump's withdrawal, it's Biden's*. Nothing forced Biden* to follow any part of the Trump policy here. So stop trying to deflect
2: What Trump would have done would have been to pull out of Bagram last, not first. So we'd have had a way to easily hit the Taliban if they pissed us off before we were gone.
Once we were out of there, the Taliban would have understood they could be Soleimani'd any time they pushed us. And if they didn't understand it, Trump would have killed their leadership, and kept on killing them until they did understand it.
The Taliban know, OTOH, that the Biden* Admin poses no threat to them, and thus they can act as they please
The major mistake was allowing any Democrats anywhere near power
Howard said...
Trump had his chance and passed because he knew it would be a clusterfuck.
GFY. Trump got slow walked by the sh!t Generals who've been f'ing this up under Biden
It would have tanked his campaign.
No, you petty vindictive little man, pulling US troops and civilians successfully out of Afghanistan, while hitting back from Bagram Airbase any time the Taliban got uppety, would have been great for Trump's campaign.
Which is why the left wing PoS "Generals" slow walked it
You people would have blamed the generals
If the Generals screwed things up, of course we would blame them.
Unlike you, we believe in punishing failure, not rewarding it
I feel sorry for you petty vindictive little men.
Stop projecting Howard
So what's the over-under? How many Americans can get killed without Mr. Biden having to restart the war? [Afghanis and other nationals don't matter, of course.]
Well, we now know that the number is >13. A hundred? A thousand? There are more than ten thousand Americans in Afghanistan and the Taliban could stop all of them from leaving by the end of the month. In fact, this attack (not their fault, of course, of course, they wouldn't want to do that, what idiot would think that!) seems to have stopped evacuation for a little while.
Whatever the number is, I think the Taliban will aim to hit it exactly. Or assume that one more won't matter either.
Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics:
Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.'
Rules two and three explain it all. Trump was right about the swamp. The Biden Administration and a Democrat Congress proves Trump and Conquest were right.
Glen Beck tonight told Tucker that he and his organization have gotten 4500 Christians out of Afghanistan in spite of active opposition by the US State Department. He was in Macedonia when interviewed. Chartered planes. Privately funded.
A wise man once said, "There is a great deal of ruin in a country."
Biden, his generals, and his civilian staff seem hell-bent on determining the extreme depths of that proposition.
"You cry, who killed Kennedy? And all the while it was you and me."
OK as a song lyric, straight up lazy bullshit partisan defensiveness as a comment about history.
The only political texts and emails I get--"See how smart we are in this club?"--come from lefty-lib friends. The last was on 6 January, and said "Trump exposed!" I replied. "System exposed. No longer a serious country."
Because I have better manners than my lefty-lib friends, I have resisted the urge to send gloating messages to them. Also because it's too damn serious.
Michael K said...
Glen Beck tonight told Tucker that he and his organization have gotten 4500 Christians out of Afghanistan in spite of active opposition by the US State Department. He was in Macedonia when interviewed. Chartered planes. Privately funded.
8/26/21, 8:12 PM
Privately funded. Over 20 million dollars raised by his radio listeners.
@ Greg the Class Traitor: It appears most of the Americans stuck in Afghanistan are people who were feeding at the NGO trough. Which is to say, a bunch of Democrats with worthless majors from "elite" colleges who got high paying "jobs" because of connections.
"It appears . . . " To whom, exactly?
Aren't you painting with rather a broad brush? I can say from personal experience (anecdotal, I know) that there are some "very fine people" in that mix. If you truly don't care what happens to them, that says more about you than about them.
Biden managed to kill more US soldiers in two weeks than were killed in the last couple of years.
Greg. Why do you think we would have kept control over the anagram Air Force base? Trump agreed to pull out everyone. And shut down all the bases. You really don’t know what you’re talking about. Read the agreement. It’s only a few pages. We withdraw. The Afghan government releases 1000 Taliban prisoners. And the Taliban makes some empty promises
“To those who carried out this attack…we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
I wish Joe Biden had enough common sense not to make such an empty threat. After abandoning the Afghans who openly assisted us I find it wildly unlikely that the CIA has HUMINT assets (human intelligence, a.k.a. spies) who trust us enough to take any level of risk, no matter how small, to find out who did it and it’s even less likely that we have warfighter assets available to carry out the threat (make them pay) even if we did identify the perpetrators. Serious people don’t make empty threats because they know that serious people on the other side just laugh, and view the people making the empty threat with raw contempt.
I don’t know who is stuck in Afghanistan. Is it Americans working in NGO land? If so, Team Biden is about to suffer a world of hurt from its most enthusiastic supporters, the parents and friends of these people. There is a long tradition in Islamic countries of holding captives for ransom. We have seen it over and over, from the Barbary pirates to the US embassy personnel in Tehran. We will see it here.
This cannot be done in public, but can you imagine the frantic calls to the State Department from big Democratic donors who have friends or children stuck in Afghanistan? A list of these Americans was handed to the Taliban. I suppose the big hitters have extraction contracts with Blackwater-type organizations.
Yipes!
This is the level of revulsion and hatred that now divides American conservatives. Those of us who hate Trump, and those of you who love Trump.
Very false. You eagerly lied to yourself and others so you could pretend that your jealousy of Trump was somehow noble, and then you lied to yourself and others about Biden’s competence and character. The dead marines are 100% on you and yours.
"This is the level of revulsion and hatred that now divides American conservatives. Those of us who hate Trump, and those of you who love Trump."
How about those of us who don't like Trump, and think Biden screwed the pooch on this? Do we not have a place in your brave new world?
"Trump agreed to pull out everyone."
Trump wasn't the president when this cluster f*ck happened. Trump didn't make the decisions that got those service people killed. As much as I'd love to be able to blame Orange the Clown for this shit, Biden (the guy who is actually President and has not been the least bit bashful about reversing other Trump policies) is responsible. Using Trump as an excuse for Joe's f*CK ups is not a valid argument.
steve uhr said...
Greg. Why do you think we would have kept control over the anagram Air Force base? Trump agreed to pull out everyone. And shut down all the bases. You really don’t know what you’re talking about. Read the agreement. It’s only a few pages. We withdraw. The Afghan government releases 1000 Taliban prisoners. And the Taliban makes some empty promises
8/26/21, 9:36 PM
DID Trump shut down the bases and the Bagram AF base?? NO. Joe Biden did that all by himself. Go cry yourself to sleep steve, because YOU voted for this.
And the way Bagram was shut down was...special. The US cut off power in the middle of the night and didn’t tell the Afghan commander. There is an AP (not an anti-Biden source) about it dated July 5.
Biden is bad, but the toadies and SJWs that populate the senior ranks of the military are worse because their principal mission to save their careers and kiss up to authority. Obama put them there. They are completely worthless and shouldn’t be commanding more than a battalion. I mean Milley, Austin, and that Marine tool at the head of Central Command.
Amazing.
steve uhr said...
Greg. Why do you think we would have kept control over the anagram Air Force base?
I'm going to pretend you're asking an honest question.
Any pull out that was even remotely competently run pulls out of Bagram Airbase, a place we controlled, with a secure perimeter,last.
Which would mean that at this point in Trump's evacuation, there would be a place that people could go to to be evacuated, that the Taliban could not surround, block, or threaten.
And where if they tried those things, we could kill them all without worrying about collateral damage.
Which is not something we can do in Kabul.
The point, which you lefties seem desperate to avoid, is that they're a competent way to handle an evacuation from Afghanistan, and an incompetent one.
And at every step of the way, the Biden* Admin has handled things in the most incompetent way possible.
And the cause of that is not that a who bunch of Republican civil service employees decided to sabotage the pullout.
From the Obama / Biden "surge" in to Afghanistan, to the Biden* Admin giving the Taliban a complete list of the people they (the Taliban) want to kill, this has been a problem grown and f'ed up by the Democrats.
You own it. Lying about it just makes you look worse
MalaiseLongue said...
@ Greg the Class Traitor: It appears most of the Americans stuck in Afghanistan are people who were feeding at the NGO trough. Which is to say, a bunch of Democrats with worthless majors from "elite" colleges who got high paying "jobs" because of connections.
"It appears . . . " To whom, exactly?
Aren't you painting with rather a broad brush? I can say from personal experience (anecdotal, I know) that there are some "very fine people" in that mix. If you truly don't care what happens to them, that says more about you than about them.
1: I've asked in the Althouse comments, as well as elsewhere. To the extent I've gotten an answer, the consensus is that the vast majority of the Americans in Kabul are people on the NGO payroll.
If you have different information, I'm very happy to learn more. I wrote "it appears" because that's my level of confidence. ("It appears" == "there's a strong likelihood that this is true, but I don't have nearly enough hard evidence to back up the belief, so I could easily be convinced otherwise")
2: I've known some very fine people who volunteer and / or work for charities. But those tend to be small charities distributing private money, not large groups feeding at the government trough.
The point of the NGOs in Afghanistan is not to make the lives of the Afghan people better, the point is to get nice paying "jobs" with a great per diem to societally useless but socially connected drones, while funneling a good bit of the money back to the people who approved the expenditures in the first place (see: "How did Joe Biden get so rich?" and the Hunter Biden laptop).
If you find that hard to believe, I invite you to turn the question around. Why were there > 15 American civilians, plus some many other Western civilians, in Kabul? What were the total expenses of keeping all those people there? What was accomplished with all that money?
They certainly weren't there to block corruption, because if they were Karazi wouldn't have been able to flee with > $160 million in his pockets.
3: I'm sure there are some people there who actually want to do good while getting well paid to be there. I am far less sure that any of them accomplished any significant amount of "good", by the definition of someone's who's not a Gender Studies major. I am pretty much positive that the amount of "long term good", as in "will survive the arrival of the Taliban" accomplished is essentially indistinguishable random noise in the pool of "their total actions".
I'm also greatly sure that 80%+ of those people voted straight ticket Democrat in the Nov 2020 elections.
And I do not now, never have, and hopefully never will have the slightest shred of sympathy for people how vote for something, then get it good and hard.
Joe Biden was obviously heading into dementia. The Democrats as a Party are obviously corrupt and anti-American.
4: At the point where the Biden* Admin had US troops sneak out of Bagram in the middle of the night, it was flamingly obvious that teh "Biden withdraws" was going to be a complete Charlie Foxtrot. Anyone there who looked at and didn't immediately get teh heck out of there?
Idiot.
I'm not God. I'm not a Christian. I do not love my enemies, or those who hate me. I'm absolutely sure that there are some Americans there who did everything right, but are still stuck in a sh!t situation for which bad things will happen.
I feel sorry for them. But the huge mass of "you voted for it, now you're getting it" people there mean those few good people are going to sadly slip through the cracks. And while that's too bad, what's happening to the rest is richly deserved.
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