I’m inclined to think there will be a hostage situation in the news within 24 hours. Hope I’m wrong.
1 Like
First, what makes you assume that? Second, who would be the hostage, considering that it appears that the Taliban has thus far allowed at least foreign nationals to head to the airport to get out?
10 Likes
Yeah considering that “getting foreign nationals the hell out of their country so they can go back to being horrible despots” is pretty much their whole goal it does seem like taking American forces or diplomats hostage would be counterproductive from their point of view.
16 Likes
The CH46 is in the Vietnam photo, & the CH47 is in the Afghanistan photo.
The layout for both helicopters is similar, but look at the landing gear. The former has 3, and the latter has 4. The '47 is bigger, but it’s hard to tell unless they are side by side.
No kidding.
This was always going to be a Charlie Foxtrot.
So the Military Industrial Complex can make new stuff. The old stuff was used, after all.
Yeah, but the usual suspects made out like bandits, & that’s what counts: Keeping the Machine Fed.
No reason we still can’t. I hope the DOJ is conducting numerous investigations of You Know Who & his regime.
12 Likes
It’s not like we BROUGHT corruption into Afghanistan. It was already there. But we DID ally ourselves with warlords that disliked the Taliban in large part because of the Taliban’s anti-opium policies. And the fact that without tons of opium they couldn’t get their cut of the drug money.
5 Likes
The problem is that the Taliban fighters are NOT a disciplined bunch of orders-obeying soldiers any more than the Afghan National Army. One of the ways that they have been growing in force is emptying out the jails and giving guns to the prisoners. They have been putting a few of their more trusted people outside foreign embassies and government departments to make sure that the foreigners are not slowed or molested in hurry to leave. Stuff is pretty chaotic at the moment, and people waving guns around and reveling in their newfound authority are everywhere. Sure the Taliban will deal with those fighters that disobey orders VERY harshly, but they have to find them first.
So right now, in the chaos of their victory is probably when foreigners are in most danger. Of course as they cement their control and impose their particular brand of harsh mediaeval Islamic law on the country it will become far worse for women, non-Muslims, and anybody that they think challenges their view of Islamic-law.
The CH-46s are no longer in use by the US military, but a few were taken out of mothballs to be used by the State department in Afghanistan.
10 Likes
2 Likes
In all fairness we were successful in protecting and propping up South Korea. Our failure was in our efforts to eliminate the North Korean regime. To this day South Korea is a democratic economic power.
1 Like
More accurate to say that the US created the systemic corruption.
The Bush strategy of ‘nation-building’ was about bribing everyone with pallets of $$$ (while creaming off much of the money for themselves). It naturally resulted in a polity where all the most bribable, bribe-hungry, corrupt people gravitated to the top.
No-one could possibly have predicted this.
10 Likes
Only since 1987.
11 Likes
You take the victories where you find them. 
2 Likes
I’m talking about all of it, not just the last 4 years, which are a drop in the bucket. Trump did not make this country corrupt and racist, he just helped to undo a good deal of the work many have done to try and change that.
14 Likes
Only recently has that been true. It was an authoritarian regime until relatively recently.
13 Likes
Yes! I was sure I read, not less than a week ago, there’d be lotsa time, 60-90 days to go before the Taliban is a serious threat, we’ll be gone by September.
I saw the first “helicopter over the embassy” photos last night. Immediately brought back memories from my childhood. Seems like a serious failure of situational awareness.
3 Likes
I mean, while we should have stayed out, the Taliban would have remained in power for the last 20 years. So it isn’t like they are in power now due to Bush.
2 Likes
3 Likes
I’ve got a Trumpist uncle who’s going off about how the American withdrawal from Afghanistan would have been conducted in an orderly fashion under Trump. Meanwhile I’m thinking “Trump couldn’t even leave THE WHITE HOUSE without creating violence and chaos.”
27 Likes
If you’re just looking at the flag flying over the capital, sure. But we’ve been at best complicit, if not directly involved in, the deaths of over 100,000 people and trillions of dollars wasted in the last 20 years. I’d rather than have not happened.
4 Likes
Bush the First did play a non-trivial role in putting those guys in power in the first place both in his role as Director of the CIA and as President. Backing the Afghan mujahideen through programs like “Operation Condor” turned out to be a pretty bad idea.
15 Likes
