05 Sep 2021, 12:44 am
05 Sep 2021, 2:01 am
Dox47 wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Biden was constrained by the negotiated timing of the Trump deal.
I don't find this to be a particularly convincing point, incoming presidents often renegotiate or even violate treaties made by the previous administrations, and it's not like the Taliban was some sort of valuable ally who we needed to keep our exact word to. Joe Biden has also been on the record since at least 2011 about wanting to get out quickly, so it's not as if this came out of the blue, though apparently even our actual allies were shocked by how it was carried out, to judge from the British response.
It was a stuff up.
Most Amerians think so.
Most of the world thinks so.
Time to move on.
05 Sep 2021, 3:06 am
Pepe wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Pepe wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
I don’t like to spend time saying “but Trump.” But it isn’t appropriate to ignore the constraints put on Biden by a treaty negotiated by the Trump administration. We cannot, as a country, regularly ignore treaties negotiated by prior administrations without huge costs to our ability to act on an international stage. We have to stand by our word, even when we don’t like it.
My understanding was that *neither* party wanted to stay in Afghanistan.
If I am correct, why are you pushing this fact to one side?
Biden wasn't pushed.
He jumped at the chance.
I know Biden was eager to get out, but it isn't as simple as wanting to get out. If it was, no one would care how well it was handled.
Biden was constrained by the negotiated timing of the Trump deal. And the fact that the negotiated agreement left no incentive for the Taliban to play nice with the Afghan government at the time. Even, so Biden did get an extension of 3 months, which hopefully helped. What the perfect timing would have been we will never know.
I think people are just upset, even if they agreed we had to get out. There is no pretty way to take such a step, especially knowing what life is like with the Taliban, and it's hard to watch.
But you do accept some ways are better than others, right?
As people keep on saying, it wasn't getting out of Afghanistan that was the problem, here.
It was the way it was implemented.
I am not in a position to say if there was a better way. I don't think most people are. What most people know is that they don't like the way it happened, and neither do I. If there was a better way that could have and should have been used, the postmortem analysis will show it. Whether or not you or I will ever be privy to the results is an open question.
I understand one large potential issue to be the order in which they choose to close bases, but that was a main recommendation from the military advisors. Not sure what else was Biden v. Pentagon.
I'll read what comes out when it comes out; I haven't seen that much yet.
05 Sep 2021, 3:14 am
