I did not expect much from President Trump and was pleasantly surprised. He performed better than I expected. I did not expect much from President Biden. He has performed much worse than my expectations. As a President, he has projected authoritarianism and incompetence. The fall of Kabul did it for me.
Exactly. You have only to look at SECDEF's statement yesterday to see the institutional deaf/dumb/&blindness. We're "led" by empty shirts. Braindead careerists.
From a Vietnam Veteran with memories of Helo's leaving from an apartment building roof instead of cargo planes leave from an airport, the sense of betrayal never quite goes away. I wish we were the last to have to go through it. . .
I don't know if we'll ever seen the recommendations for the Commander of Forces in AFG or SecDef to the President. The President made the decision, it was their duty to carry it out. They could have resigned. That opens a whole new can of worms. . .
Worse, we knew 10 years in that it wouldn't work out like we wanted and yet we stayed and blundered along, racking up more deaths, wounds, and billions of $. We didn't learn from Vietnam.
Thanks for this post, Sal. It was a terrible and humiliating ending that was worse than I wanted to believe was possible, despite its inevitability. As the apocryphal saying attributed to the TB went, "You have the watches; we have the time." The opportunity for accountability has passed and the debt is unpaid.
No one got fired at CIA or NSA for the events of 9/11, either, in fact there were promotions. The original mission in Afghanistan was to hunt down and kill OBL and his staff, and when they scampered out of the country and into Pakistan, that should have been the end of it, no invasion, no occupation, no nothing. What we ended up with was nearly two decades of obscene profiteering by elements of our corrupt National Security State and its military industrial complex - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBNmecVtdU should be instructive.
THIS ADMINISTRATION . . . working so hard at fulfilling prophecy in Revelation, and not in a good way . . . depressed me to no end. I was/am more than disappointed.
Sal, the rank and file military members didn't fail and you should feel no shame. You fulfilled the finest traditions of our country, put yourself in harm's way and attempted to help others. A poorly conceived mission and a distinct lack of courage on the part of both senior military and political leadership caused failure.
The evac plan was in the can. It was tested and evaluated from every angle. President Trump and his Generals had it ready to go. And yet this current "administration" Milley, Biden, Austin, Harris, Pelosi and the rest of them, just shit canned it simply for that reason. It was Trumps' and not their own. Our Nation, our Republic, is no longer feared nor revered.
"No one was fired in DOD or DOS for what happened in Afghanistan."
Are we entirely certain they're not measuring with a yardstick that evaluated Afghanistan as a _success_?
After all, the standing of the Great Satan was sullied -- doesn't look like the 'strong horse' right now, does it? -- and the right people got paid.
As for the butcher's bill, it isn't anyone they know, and probably not many who vote for 'em (unfortunate, yes...but hey, omelets and eggs, amirite?).
I did not expect much from President Trump and was pleasantly surprised. He performed better than I expected. I did not expect much from President Biden. He has performed much worse than my expectations. As a President, he has projected authoritarianism and incompetence. The fall of Kabul did it for me.
Exactly. You have only to look at SECDEF's statement yesterday to see the institutional deaf/dumb/&blindness. We're "led" by empty shirts. Braindead careerists.
You get what you voted for.
From a Vietnam Veteran with memories of Helo's leaving from an apartment building roof instead of cargo planes leave from an airport, the sense of betrayal never quite goes away. I wish we were the last to have to go through it. . .
I don't know if we'll ever seen the recommendations for the Commander of Forces in AFG or SecDef to the President. The President made the decision, it was their duty to carry it out. They could have resigned. That opens a whole new can of worms. . .
Worse, we knew 10 years in that it wouldn't work out like we wanted and yet we stayed and blundered along, racking up more deaths, wounds, and billions of $. We didn't learn from Vietnam.
Thanks for this post, Sal. It was a terrible and humiliating ending that was worse than I wanted to believe was possible, despite its inevitability. As the apocryphal saying attributed to the TB went, "You have the watches; we have the time." The opportunity for accountability has passed and the debt is unpaid.
No one got fired at CIA or NSA for the events of 9/11, either, in fact there were promotions. The original mission in Afghanistan was to hunt down and kill OBL and his staff, and when they scampered out of the country and into Pakistan, that should have been the end of it, no invasion, no occupation, no nothing. What we ended up with was nearly two decades of obscene profiteering by elements of our corrupt National Security State and its military industrial complex - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBNmecVtdU should be instructive.
THIS ADMINISTRATION . . . working so hard at fulfilling prophecy in Revelation, and not in a good way . . . depressed me to no end. I was/am more than disappointed.
Sal, the rank and file military members didn't fail and you should feel no shame. You fulfilled the finest traditions of our country, put yourself in harm's way and attempted to help others. A poorly conceived mission and a distinct lack of courage on the part of both senior military and political leadership caused failure.
I appreciate your service to our country. Ed
The evac plan was in the can. It was tested and evaluated from every angle. President Trump and his Generals had it ready to go. And yet this current "administration" Milley, Biden, Austin, Harris, Pelosi and the rest of them, just shit canned it simply for that reason. It was Trumps' and not their own. Our Nation, our Republic, is no longer feared nor revered.