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US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to crush the Taliban.
The US failed.
Beginning in 2019 ( maybe earlier) the Trump Admin began negotiations with the Taliban for the complete withdrawal of US troops. Trump ingested to host the Taliban at Camp David on 9/11/2019. Taliban blew up some stuff in Kabul so the meeting was called off - bad optics. Trump tweeted about it.
Nonetheless, negotiations continued. On 2/29/2000 Pompeo and Taliban leader agreed in writing to a complete withdrawal of troops by 5/1/2001 and for the US to facilitate the release of 5000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons. That agreement empowered and legitimized the Taliban.
By 2020 year end, all but 2500 troops were withdrawn and 5000 Taliban fighters had been released from Afghan prisons. No surprise the puppet Afghan president and parliament saw the writing on the wall and departed the country in the dead of night.
After 20 years, 2500 US military fatalities and $2 Trillion + spent, the US DID NOT CRUSH THE TALIBAN. A reasonable person would call it a loss.
I am not a Biden fan but can acknowledge Trump left him in a no- win situation which likely was intentional for political gain.
The strange thing is that two weeks before the signing of the peace agreement with the Taliban, the website of the American newspaper Time published on February 13 - according to 3 people familiar with it - that the deal that was made with the Taliban contains 3 secret appendices:
The first is for US counterterrorism forces to remain in Afghanistan.
The second concerns the Taliban's denunciation of terrorism and violent extremism.
The third is for a monitoring mechanism if all parties respect the quasi-truce while talks continue between the Afghan warring parties.
(there was another provision referring to provincial capitols, but I am unable to find it in unclassified print, at this time, if anyone knows where it can be found, I would appreciate it)
Frankly, as the Taliban began accelerating their violence, last Feb, Biden should have halted the departures. Again, in Aug, when the Taliban began military take overs of provincial capitols, it was obvious they had no intention of following the agreement.
In fact, Biden did decide to follow a changed course of action. Instead of following a plan of departure based on the deal Trump made, which required certain behavior from the Taliban, he decided to withdraw, unilaterally, based only on a date he chose for political optics. In doing so, he abandoned the support of multiple NATO forces, and has now stranded thousands (yeah, they are pretending it is 100) of our citizens and allies behind enemy lines.
"Secret appendices". Suuuuuuure.
Why would they be "secret", exactly?
You are making it more and more obvious that you have never worked in foreign affairs.
A lot of stuff the State Department does is secret.
The appendices I quoted were leaked and published over a year ago.
(Thanks to a Deep State that hates Trump, more than they love America.)
US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to crush the Taliban. The US failed.
No the U.S. did not fail in crushing the Taliban. They invaded and drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and killed thousands, maybe tens of thousands of them in the process.
The failure was in holding the Afghan government to responsibly spend our money and govern. There was zero oversight on where U.S. dollars were going, zero attempts to reign in corruption and no audit of the supposed Afghan army units.
The Taliban never won a single engagement with U.S. troops. The U.S. decided to leave. No one forced the U.S. to leave.
No the U.S. did not fail in crushing the Taliban. They invaded and drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and killed thousands, maybe tens of thousands of them in the process.
The failure was in holding the Afghan government to responsibly spend our money and govern. There was zero oversight on where U.S. dollars were going, zero attempts to reign in corruption and no audit of the supposed Afghan army units.
The Taliban never won a single engagement with U.S. troops. The U.S. decided to leave. No one forced the U.S. to leave.
We will be fighting this 'war on terror' for the next 40-50 yrs!! (or until a larger threat comes along)
I think, looking at it from how it changed the US...9-11 and Islamic terrorism has been very successful overall, the changes following 9-11, are slowly and methodically transforming the US into something it was never meant to be...safety/security now trumps freedom/liberty, (well the safety/security of the US Govt that is), not exactly the US as a country.
We will be fighting this 'war on terror' for the next 40-50 yrs!! (or until a larger threat comes along)
...
IIRC, it was John Adams (it may have been one of his peers) who said, we should be prepared to fight them forever. Our mistake was, in the 20th century, we forgot what man's nature is, and failed to see multiple ideological threats (Islamist, Marxist, Atheist, etc) for what they were, and allowed them to grow out of control.
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