It was inevitable the Taliban were taking back over but this is the best "the most powerful military in the world" has to offer for a withdrawal?

Thats right! We are the invader. The Taliban are the locals. Technically they are religious nuts, may be some pissed off locals but we had no right to equip and train them and keep the country at war for decades.
Maybe angering the taliban wasn't the best if options.m if you know they are taking over anyways.

I think where we part is “recognition” doesn’t require negotiation.

The Taliban is basically demanding unconditional surrender in all but name… and they have it. The Afghan government is fleeing and handing over “administrative control.”

True, also as VP to Obama would have had a hand in spreading poo on bread.

The transitional government, ‘negotiations’, is about getting Talibs inserted in international organizations. So that the UN ambassador is, in a few weeks, a high ranking Taliban. They send a Taliban to the world bank. There’s no question of who controls the country, it will again be the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan.

There’s no slaughter and in return the Taliban get approved as legitimate international actors.

US ambassador is gone

You remember that sign Harry Truman kept on his desk.

The country was fairly stable, by Afghan standards, with just 3,500 US troops and supporting air power in place. (The enemy don't like to fight US troops because that would bring the air power in.) Which wasn't such a bad result, but Biden chucked it away. He thought, of course, that the thing would rot down slowly and he could put his hands in his pockets and whistle and walk off. Instead of which, we have an abrupt, all too literal helicopters-on-the-embassy-roof situation, of the kind that Americans find deeply humiliating for obvious reasons.

Bit of a miscall there, then.

Except they're the Pakistani ISI's proxies.

Pompeo was in over his head. Never should've been placed in such a position of power. Having so many critical positions held by incompetent tools is one of the lasting legacies of the Trump administration.



US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar amid talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, in Doha, Qatar on November 21, 2020.

Biggest gravy train in history

Reality is if your a young woman between the ages of 15-20 your going to be in for a big reality check

It's embarrassing.


If Biden knew this would make him look impotent on the global stage seeing Taliban run over Afghanistan within 2 weeks of troops being pulled out.... I don't think he would have done it.


Was it that impossible to leave 1000-2000 troops hunkered around? Yall already spent 2 trillion, yall about to print a few trillion and throw it around at infrastructure and global warming, I can't imagine spending a few more billion more a year was a non starter.

The women under 40 are spoils of war. They already making a list to marry them off to their soldiers. Disgusting to see this happen.

In poker terms, no matter how bad your hand is, there's too much in the pot to just fold your hand and walk away from the table after your opponent makes a 2% of the pot sized bet. Your soldiers aren't dying, positions weren't being overrun.

I remember 1975 and I still have one of that day's newspapers with the bloody awful helicopter-on-the-roof front-page picture. I'm not liking this one bit. And all those ex-ANA men executed, and all those girls given as 'brides' to Taliban creeps. Jesus wept.

Biden: there will be no helicopters evacuating people from the embassy.
Taliban: challenge accepted.

How would a so called "orderly" evacuation even happen? The only thing keeping the Taliban at bay was the presence of the US. So the very act of withdrawing means they have less means to protect civilians and creates the power vacuum that triggered the recent Taliban offensive.

I guess you have to either a) do it in secret which is basically impossible or b) do a mini-surge to occupy and secure the parts of the country you will withdraw from. And even in that case you are leaving the non-occupied parts of the country to the Taliban. I assume they are doing an ad hoc version of that now with the 5000 troops that were sent there.

It seems this was a tragic inevitability as the result of years of mistakes, poor strategy and corruption in both the US and Afghan governments.

Great new laws now in Afghanistan.

Im listening to the news here. If the taliban is in control these are the new laws:

Wear nail polish - your finger gets cut off

Be a journalist and a woman - you are getting skinned (alive or not alive) that is barbaric. You can imagine the rest of the laws. WTF is going on? Whos responsible for this. Who was in charge of this country? Whoever it was did some terrible mismanagment. This country is worse than north korea now. Its the worst country of the world now run by a morder mob. Mexico is run by saints compared to this.

The taliban is bombing school for girls because they dont want any education for women. They want every woman masked and in a robed. And thats by law now.

You are teaching these women what freedom looks like for 20 years just to bail on them and leave them with the ultra extreme idiots. The women feel betrayed now and you would too. They are leaving them alone now. Great f job, we can pad ourselves on the back for this one.

Is Paksitan under sharia law too?

Kind of?

https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...my-in-pakistan

Bold move young Cotton

This is spot on. It really is enraging that Trump negotiated a deal with the Taliban to just abandon these people.

Oh no, Ill have to change my name!

This guy went backpacking with his pregnant wife through Russia , Kazakhstan ,Tajikistan, some other place and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan they took them hostage killed his child and raped his woman. This was 3 years ago, so it wasn't so much better then I guess.





Taliban fighters inside the presidential palace now



The president has fled the country now



Yep, looks like a stable country. Mission accomplished boys.

Reports of Taliban brutality are largely hyperbole. Afghanistan is not a country, never has been....just a loose bunch of fighting tribal factions. Taliban takeover is the best thing to happen to the place in decades. They can determine their own destiny now, they never wanted the americans there