We fly with our weapons on military flights when flying into or out of theatre…
Not to detract from @Bekloppt 's comment because I agree. I think it shows failure more than propaganda. That’s the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division.
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I’ve been a bit conscious that I never got back to you. I’ve been traveling though, so haven’t had enough time on the internet really to do except on the match day, where I wanted to focus on something a bit more fun.
This won’t be a very good answer either, except that I have a couple of very recent (because most older sources I have for such opinion requires a real effort to dig up, and I am not at home) sources that supports the argument that a withdrawal in orderly fashion which could have given the Afghan Army far better chances of holding ground than the rushed “escape in the dead of night without informing Afghans” became. This is of course if one ignores that the Taliban broke its deal with the USA and launched a nation wide offensive around May 1st, and before that had were hitting a lot of Afghan Army targets, with the US doing little to uphold its deal with the Taliban. It is of course my crystal clear opinion that it was the responsibility of the US and NATO to fight back the offensive when the Taliban did not honour their part of the deal with the US (a deal that was criminal from the start in my view). So ignoring the horror that Biden is responsible for by adhering to the Trump plan, the criticism that I am then interested in is that which points to glaring military errors in the withdrawal process, a process that damned the Afghan Army and helped along with other important factors such as endemic corruption and ghost soldiers as well as dubious leadership:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/27/marine-us-fatalities-afghanistan-506999
(what the battalion commander here points to, the glaring military issues and political and military psychology (towards the Afghans) are things the Long War Journal have said since the start, that for instance evacuating Bagram in the dead of night without telling the Afghans was a psychological body blow and meant also that the US could then only evacuate from an airport located in an urban area)
As for Hashtag Responsible Withdrawal. That is my own extreme resentment against the hashtag that Centcom actually used daily in their awful twitter updates up until the day the Taliban took Kabul. They should be reminded of it as often as possible in my view.
As for what you write concerning the quite many that were left behind, I can’t comment on individual fates, although I don’t think it is as straightforward of everyone being irresponsible in the face of warnings. But to be blunt, I care more about Afghans in general. It is 100 % unacceptable to leave them in the hands of the Taliban after 20 years of occupation. 100 % unacceptable in my eyes. And no argument can persuade me that this is not abominable ethics, a betrayal of Afghans, coercion of allies, which marks the US as no longer fit to lead anything at all. Because this was a betrayal and Biden is responsible for enacting it even though Trump planned it. It also gives Al Qaida the base of operations that the US claims Al Qaida should not have, as well as invigorating every single jihadist organisation on earth. The US is now giving the Taliban international legitimacy, that is damning in my eyes. Opinion piece on this:
Don’t Let Them Blame the Americans Trapped in Afghanistan for Getting Left Behind – Commentary Magazine
Personally, I will not ever support another NATO operation in my life time if the US leads it (or never say never, but then only if it has the best of reasons and the clearest mandate and goal, which is not likely anyway with the US in charge). For me, the second betrayal from the US in extremely short time after first having back stabbed SDF, this changed everything fundamentally concerning US credibility (because Trump’s betrayal could be explained away with Trump being an anomaly and a mad one at that). In my eyes it is now worthless and I think this proves that fundamental change needs to come to NATO.
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With what forces? The last round of real fighting was one in which the US forces were not able to gain the upper hand, and that was fought with a force over 5 times larger than the level of troops on the ground Biden inherited and against a weaker taliban force than they are now. There is no way around the fact that there was no way to engage them without some sort of troop surge, and at that point you’re talking about very confused motivations and goals. If you believe the US needs a significant military presence there for another 20 years years to support the Afghan army/government then a troop surge makes sense.
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Is it not possible that you’re being a little emotionally-driven over this issue? I’m not saying you don’t deserve to be emotional over this, but more that the (rightful) sorrow that you’re feeling is clouding your judgement here.
As @Limiescouse has just pointed out, by the time that Biden came to power, his hands had already largely been tied by Trump (who we all know is absolutely unreliable on anything anyway), since most of the troops had already been drawn down.
Furthermore, considering that there was no long-term strategic objective in Afghanistan apart from stabilising it and strengthening their armed forces, staying is just going to perpetuate the status quo without anything to show for it. And the Taliban, having more at stake than NATO, would ultimately win this war of attrition anyway.
No, I don’t believe the US needed a significant presence there for another 20 years. Not if things are done correctly. Yes, Biden had the responsibility to beat back the offensive (a clear responsibility too and I find it absurd that this is not recogniced), no it would not have taken a very large troops surge, but lets not pretend that having 8000 troops or so would be a major deployment that would strain the US in any possible way. Not evacuating strategic bases would have been a damn good start. The Afghan Army would not have collapsed like the did if the US had supported them with marginal forces, since the collapse psychology would not have been there.
In the US, it has been common the last few weeks to spin this and feel good about this abhorrent withdrawal and belittle Republicans (for good reasons) for their phony criticism, but this is no game. This is not internal US kindergarten politics, this is the real world and Biden had a responsibility and he utterly failed. This cannot and should not be spun in any other way. There will be consequences.
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Taliban won because the US let them win. I don’t accept that this “had to happen” at all.
Anyway, enough for today. I am on holidays.
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I can. Some in the US don’t.
Where are you getting the 8,000 troop number from? The last round of significant conflict was undertaken with a force of around 15,000 troops and even that was not enough to stop a weaker Taliban gaining ground. So, lets just assume that the number is irrelevant and we commit enough forces to win…what does that mean? What is the goal? What is the line to draw down again? How do we achieve that eventual draw down without exactly what we’re seeing now?
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Yeah, nah. Can’t agree with that. The man inherited an inherently flawed policy where he would have been dammed either way i.e. If he’d decided on a troop surge he’d have been slaughtered when the body bags started coming home again just like he’s being damned now for coming home. There is no way they could have stayed on indefinitely as it is now clear they would have had to do in order to keep the Taliban out so he chose the path that saved the lives of his countrymen.
The Afghans knew of the withdrawal and we can debate the rightness or wrongness of it all day but they needed to determine their own destiny and they have, it’s just the one nobody wanted for them.
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But that’s the job mate. That’s why it’s a stupid job. But nevertheless, Presidents will always bear the burden of their decisions. One of the biggest cultural problems in the US right now is that it’s anybody’s fault except your own. This will go down as a massive failure on President Biden’s resume. Even though he inherited less than stellar operating conditions. It sucks. But the failure has to lay at his feet or the US will never learn from it (we probably won’t anyways)
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But we keep saying its a failure without critical evaluation of whether it really is. the fact so many people are imaging there was a way out that went meaningfully different from this is to me the demonstration of how we cannot learn our lessons.
The US’ presence there perpetuated the humanitarian crisis of an extended civil war in which Afghans were dying. That at least has to be factored in as a counter balance to the idea that we’ve created a humanitarian crisis with our exit.
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isnt that pretty much historically most wars?..
im not a modern military buff, i love my history though…be hard to argue you havent explained most medievil wars with this, though…
German election, CDU below 20% in latest poll. Lowest ever recorded.
I know it’s just a poll, but just let me have this moment 
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Link?
Impressive. Who profits from this? The SDP, Die Grünen?
Mostly SPD atm, maybe FDP to a degree. Coalition building will be very interesting if this holds.
Although even SPD/Greens coalition might be possible, IF the trend continues, which would have been absolutely unthinkable just a few months ago.
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