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USA abandoning embassy in Afganistan

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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 10:48 am

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(CNN)The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday.

The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/15/politics/us-embassy-kabul-afghanistan/index.html

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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 12:05 pm



Dox47
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15 Aug 2021, 2:52 pm

I've wanted us out of Afghanistan for a long time, but the way we're going about it is just embarrassing.


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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 7:43 pm

I haven't been able to find any details about what the President has said when addressing the nation about this event (and the overall Afganistan situation as a result of events of the past 24 hours) - Are there any links with information regarding this?



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15 Aug 2021, 7:48 pm

Brictoria wrote:
Quote:
(CNN)The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday.

The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/15/politics/us-embassy-kabul-afghanistan/index.html

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Twenty years and thousands of lives didn't bring democracy to that miserable God forsaken hellscape of a country. Guess we forgot the lessons of Vietnam. Oh well at least Bin Laden is dead.



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15 Aug 2021, 7:51 pm

This should have happened long ago. Afghanistan was as much of a quagmire as Viet Nam; and in both cases, America got involved for all the wrong reasons. If anyone thinks otherwise, they should get involved themselves.


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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 7:55 pm

Dox47 wrote:
I've wanted us out of Afghanistan for a long time, but the way we're going about it is just embarrassing.

Was there even a plan for the exit?

From the outside, this certainly looks like there wasn't any plan in place: It will be interesting to know who was responsible for this...



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15 Aug 2021, 8:44 pm

Brictoria wrote:
It will be interesting to know who was responsible for this...


Don't worry, the spin doctors are furiously finding ways to pin it on the Bad Orange Man as we speak.


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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 9:02 pm

Dox47 wrote:
Brictoria wrote:
It will be interesting to know who was responsible for this...


Don't worry, the spin doctors are furiously finding ways to pin it on the Bad Orange Man as we speak.


I guess he didn't address enough mean tweets to the Taliban recently...

As a side note: It is interesting to see a real insurrection in progress...



Dox47
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15 Aug 2021, 9:05 pm

Brictoria wrote:
I guess he didn't address enough mean tweets to the Taliban recently...


Funny you should bring that up, the former President of the United States still being banned from Twitter, while the Taliban has an official account.


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Brictoria
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15 Aug 2021, 10:17 pm

Dox47 wrote:
Brictoria wrote:
I guess he didn't address enough mean tweets to the Taliban recently...


Funny you should bring that up, the former President of the United States still being banned from Twitter, while the Taliban has an official account.


I'm just trying to imagine how this would all be reported were the former President still in power,compared to how things are being reported at present...



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16 Aug 2021, 1:40 am

Dox47 wrote:
Brictoria wrote:
It will be interesting to know who was responsible for this...


Don't worry, the spin doctors are furiously finding ways to pin it on the Bad Orange Man as we speak.


It was engineered by W not Agent Orange.



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16 Aug 2021, 2:16 am

Axeman wrote:
It was engineered by W not Agent Orange.


The original invasion, sure, though I'm sure you also remember that it was a very bipartisan endeavor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoriza ... ce_of_2001

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The only representative to vote against the Authorization in 2001 was Barbara Lee, who has consistently criticized it since for being a blank check giving the government unlimited powers to wage war without debate.


Quote:
On September 14, 2001, Senate Joint Resolution 23 passed in the Senate by roll call vote. The totals in the Senate were: 98 Ayes, 0 Nays, 2 Present/Not Voting (Senators Larry Craig, R-ID, and Jesse Helms, R-NC).


Even I was a little surprised looking that up at the two abstentions in the Senate, not who I would have expected.

Given that we're three presidents past W, it's a little tough to blame him for the pull out debacle, and even Donny can't really be blamed for what certainly seems like the complete lack of a plan and the wildly optimistic view of the ANA forces that Biden was touting quite recently.


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Last edited by Dox47 on 16 Aug 2021, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

auntblabby
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16 Aug 2021, 2:25 am

it is not clear to me what has changed that means we have to leave there now. did we have a mission there that was definitively completed? why did it take 2 decades?



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16 Aug 2021, 4:07 am

auntblabby wrote:
it is not clear to me what has changed that means we have to leave there now. did we have a mission there that was definitively completed? why did it take 2 decades?


We've been trying to get out for a while, Obama used some reclassification trickery to essentially fake pulling out, and then Trump tried to do it for real but was blocked by hawks in congress. Biden actually went through with it, but executed the pull out very poorly, and that's what's all over the news right now. Basically, it was recognized that we would have to stay there forever if we wanted to keep the Taliban out of power, and that wasn't feasible indefinitely.


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16 Aug 2021, 12:59 pm

auntblabby wrote:
it is not clear to me what has changed that means we have to leave there now. did we have a mission there that was definitively completed? why did it take 2 decades?


Mission was killing bin Laden and ousting the Taliban. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan and part two obviously didn't work.