I don't know if Milley or Austin and their staffs advised the President and his ilk of this disastrous course of action, but if they did, they should all - all - be looking for work, either having resigned in protest of fired in disgrace. To say this disaster was preventable is obvious. But how? Start sooner? yes. Longer withdrawal …
I don't know if Milley or Austin and their staffs advised the President and his ilk of this disastrous course of action, but if they did, they should all - all - be looking for work, either having resigned in protest of fired in disgrace. To say this disaster was preventable is obvious. But how? Start sooner? yes. Longer withdrawal time? Yes. Bring out the equipment? Sure. Retain an offensive airbase at Bagram? OK, good idea, arguably. But how could we *prevent* this from happening again? Tougher question. Note that NONE of the Presidents and very few of their 'Think Tank Commando" advisors ever served on active duty (not counting brief preferential Air Guard stint for Bush). If they had, they'd have had a feel for what it's like to be *on the ground* in hostile territory. But, having been cooped up in DC boardrooms for professional chin scratchers, they never knew the smell of blood, the acrid smoke, the screams, the confusion, and death; the gut wrenching grit and grime that textbooks and 2 dimensional camera shots can't show. Colin Powell understood. He tried to advise against unnecessary invasions and nation building. Cheney and his fellow Think Tank Rangers turned a deaf ear. They'd all left the fighting to someone else and made the wrong choices. Ditto Obama, Trump and now especially Biden and his advisors. And that strategy failed, utterly. // Maybe we need to go back to a Draft for all 18 year olds, men and women. Call it National Service, but make It mandatory. Military, Peace Corps, Teach for America, Construction Corps...a hard two years but a constructive avenue for young Americans to pay a little back to their country, instead of coddling the soft, self-focused, iPhone addicted children feathering their nests, complaining about diversity and woke politics while getting a degree in basket weaving at taxpayer expense. It's time for a reality check. Being indoctrinated into the real world at a young age -- being part of an organization greater then self will make for better citizens, better parents, and better leaders who won't continually make these sorts of bad decisions resulting in the mess we're now living through.
I don't know if Milley or Austin and their staffs advised the President and his ilk of this disastrous course of action, but if they did, they should all - all - be looking for work, either having resigned in protest of fired in disgrace. To say this disaster was preventable is obvious. But how? Start sooner? yes. Longer withdrawal time? Yes. Bring out the equipment? Sure. Retain an offensive airbase at Bagram? OK, good idea, arguably. But how could we *prevent* this from happening again? Tougher question. Note that NONE of the Presidents and very few of their 'Think Tank Commando" advisors ever served on active duty (not counting brief preferential Air Guard stint for Bush). If they had, they'd have had a feel for what it's like to be *on the ground* in hostile territory. But, having been cooped up in DC boardrooms for professional chin scratchers, they never knew the smell of blood, the acrid smoke, the screams, the confusion, and death; the gut wrenching grit and grime that textbooks and 2 dimensional camera shots can't show. Colin Powell understood. He tried to advise against unnecessary invasions and nation building. Cheney and his fellow Think Tank Rangers turned a deaf ear. They'd all left the fighting to someone else and made the wrong choices. Ditto Obama, Trump and now especially Biden and his advisors. And that strategy failed, utterly. // Maybe we need to go back to a Draft for all 18 year olds, men and women. Call it National Service, but make It mandatory. Military, Peace Corps, Teach for America, Construction Corps...a hard two years but a constructive avenue for young Americans to pay a little back to their country, instead of coddling the soft, self-focused, iPhone addicted children feathering their nests, complaining about diversity and woke politics while getting a degree in basket weaving at taxpayer expense. It's time for a reality check. Being indoctrinated into the real world at a young age -- being part of an organization greater then self will make for better citizens, better parents, and better leaders who won't continually make these sorts of bad decisions resulting in the mess we're now living through.