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Civilian airport like Kabul Intl Airport does not design like a defensive fortress like a military airbase (ie blast shield, layers of security to get in and out, machine gun towers, etc)
If the Taliban or ISIS attacks Kabul Intl Airport, we would be sitting duck
It shouldn't have come to this, but, we should have relocated the embassy personnel to Bagram. The air base was defensible, Kabul's airport is obviously not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hooligan
So, moving troops from Bagram to Kabul is not a "withdrawal from Afghanistan". Which was the claim be inquired about.
We should have never even gotten into the predicament where we were deciding whether to abandon Bagram or the embassy in the first place.
I did find a good timeline online, if it is all true. It seems as if Trump's only fault was thinking there would be peace with the Taliban, even with the negotiations, and the release of their prisoners, they were still attacking Afghani forces, at which time, he should have obliterated a few of their (Taliban) higher military leaders, Soleimani style. While this was going on troop withdrawal had already been started. This is also when civilians working there, providing intel, should have also been coming home. That is a tough one though, since I'm sure many of them were the ones providing intel to the military and Afghani forces. Kind of hard to ship them off first, leaving our military blind.
When Biden took over, it was already known that the Taliban were not holding up their end of the deal. At this time Biden should have drawn a line in the sand, either by force or threat of it, to the Taliban. Then later announces that all troops will be out by Sept. 11th, ignoring the May 1st deadline. This is where things seem to have really derailed. Things quickly escalated to the point they are now.
Seems like the fault of all this is the leadership of the United States, going back to 2001. Biden is the POTUS now though, and the buck stops with him. He inherited a mess that has built up over 20 years. I personally think he could have handled things differently. It would still be messy but it might not have gotten this bad. Sadly, had the Democrats worked with Trump, instead of fighting him from the moment he was inaugurated they could have come up with a better solution. The system of checks an balances works, if both sides are willing to work together, we see what happens when they don't. People that helped us are dying or will be. The world is watching.
I should have added that while many of us feel we should be out of those countries and didn't disagree with the withdrawal itself, just the way it was executed, some think we should still be there and others have changed their minds, initially glad we were out but later saying we should continue to have a presence there. Those who think we should still be there are blaming Trump for the deal he made, but Biden already broke the deal in changing the date. He could have broken the deal and said we needed to stay there, since he's undone other things Trump put in place, and also because that's what the Military had advised him.
But it was the execution alone that created the mess and led to 13 Marines being killed.
And now that he's provided the Taliban with that list of Americans and Afghani allies who are still there, along with their location, they're toast.
By July, it became so unsafe, that Gen Milely said he could no longer defend Bagram and the embassy in Kabul at the same time. So he abandoned Kabul in the dead of night, without even informing the Afghan base commander. The Afghan military woke up, the Americans had fled, even cutting the electrical power to the base.
Maybe Gen Milely should have worried less about "white rage" - and more about Islamic terrorism rage!
If folks in Kabul can't make it across town to the airport, how are they going to make it 40+ miles to Bagram?
We can play this game all day. The fact is, Biden so screwed things up that we are discussing solutions for scenarios that should have never even been possible. This is all damage control, for a situation where everything that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong. There is no good solution anymore, just bad ones, and worse ones.
I should have added that while many of us feel we should be out of those countries and didn't disagree with the withdrawal itself, just the way it was executed, some think we should still be there and others have changed their minds, initially glad we were out but later saying we should continue to have a presence there. Those who think we should still be there are blaming Trump for the deal he made, but Biden already broke the deal in changing the date. He could have broken the deal and said we needed to stay there, since he's undone other things Trump put in place, and also because that's what the Military had advised him.
But it was the execution alone that created the mess and led to 13 Marines being killed.
And now that he's provided the Taliban with that list of Americans and Afghani allies who are still there, along with their location, they're toast.
It's disgraceful.
He just handed them a list of to-be American hostages with that list. He's either an idiot or a traitor.
Maybe Gen Milely should have worried less about "white rage" - and more about Islamic terrorism rage!
That's because generals like Miley are politicians, not military tacticians and military leaders. Even news reporters were sounding the alarm bells, and Miley was clueless
We can play this game all day. The fact is, Biden so screwed things up that we are discussing solutions for scenarios that should have never even been possible. This is all damage control, for a situation where everything that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong. There is no good solution anymore, just bad ones, and worse ones.
It's not a game, and you didn't answer.
If the ~6K troops we have in Afghanistan right now can't make it safe for people in Kabul to get across town, how would they make it safe to get 40+ miles to Bagram?
If we're withdrawing from the country, we're "abandoning" Bagram at some point.
That also doesn't answer the question asked.
Geez, at this point you are purposely ignorant. I just spelled all of this out for you in post 536, and yet all you want to do is shoot spitballs.
We were supposed to have already pulled out all of the US civilians and Afghanistan war-time friends BACK IN MAY. Withdrawing from Bagram in July would have been a moot point.
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