US and Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan...- threadbanned users in OP

There was massive corruption in the government bribery and contracts going to relatives crony was common the taliban were simply waiting for the USA army to go the taliban were never really defeated they just retreated and waited the Americans did not build up a proper civil society and democracy and a strong independent well trained army buy no one expected the taliban to advance on kabul in a short time

It's basic military strategy the taliban will capture the airport as soon as they can they want to stop rich people from leaving and Politicans or adviser's who were close to the American government

The taliban are sadistic and ruthless they don't follow the rules of law or the Geneva convention.

The average person in that country does not respect the taliban no more than most Irish people did not support IRA bombing civilians in the 80s

Yes American has bombed weddings and killed civilians with drones and called them enemy combatents eg America has never admitted killing innocent civilians in the middle East so there's blood on both sides I think we, ll see a flood of refugees from that country if they can escape in time it's well known what the taliban do in areas they control the country will go back a 100 years

How much do you this multiple advanced technology aircraft cost to develop,and build , along with ships , helicopters and other craft

The next generation stealth bomber ,F35 program ,ships and helicopters they don't come cheap

It's a public relations disaster for Biden and does a lot of damage to the US's standing in the world.

It raises the question whether US Intelligence was really poor or if they were giving good advice but Biden chose to overrule / ignore them.

Not securing the airport as a first priority was a major mistake.....unthinkable! Unless even at the 11th hour, they have managed to land a few thousand marines, and a couple of attack helicopters, the chaos will continue. And you are dead right about the Taliban closing it down to prevent "escapes". Not a good place to be.

It's a very dangerous situation.

They clearly have enough troops to take back Kabul and more if they have to but that would put every one of those families in danger. I guess they are relying on discipline being a thing among the Taliban forces and nothing insane happening.

Yanks acting true to form, normally takes them around 20 years for it to dawn on them they have lost. Kudos to biden for realising whether it was a year or 5 years, the result would be the same.

I don't understand why everyone is so shocked by speed at which the Taliban have taken back control on the country.

Trillions of dollars and countless lives later, what did the US achieve - they updated the Talibans arsenal, plenty of helicopters, Apcs, humvee and the likes.

The world is acting like its the end of days, meanwhile in the land of the free toddlers are shooting their siblings with handguns. War on terror fizzled out and went no where.

The US hasn't "lost". They could have stayed as long as they liked but Trump and then Biden made a deliberate decision to leave abruptly.

The chaos now is because Biden ignored advice. They could have staggered an exit over weeks and avoided this.

Make no mistake that whole country could be taken within days very easily if the US really wanted to.

If Biden had sent more troops over and tore up Trump's agreement with the Taliban he'd be getting called a "warmonger" by the same gobshites. It has nothing to do with an honest appraisal of the situation. It's only about cheap shots.

Are you denying the US military could with extreme ease clean out Afghanistan again?

Of course it could. Same as in 2001.

There was no fighting. The US let them walk in. They didn't have to. That's the Trump/Biden policy.

Trump and allies caught trying to revise history on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Trump calls for Biden to resign, just months after praising Biden for sticking to the withdrawal, back in April - however he criticized Biden for not doing it sooner than September:

“I wish Joe Biden wouldn’t use September 11 as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, for two reasons. First, we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long,” Trump said in self-published remarks, adding: “September 11 represents a very sad event and period for our Country and should remain a day of reflection and remembrance honoring those great souls we lost.” (CNN)

"A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for forever war in the Middle East," Donald Trump Jr. wrote last September. "A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to finally bring our troops home."

The RNC rapidly nuked a page on its website praising Trump for, and detailing his "Historic peace agreement with the Taliban," noting it was Trump that signed the Peace agreement in February 2020, agreeing to withdraw troops in exchange for (empty) promises that Afghanistan would not "be used for transnational terrorism."The RNC page noted "The deal has been called 'the best chance to end this conflict,' a 'decisive move' toward peace, and 'the best path' for the United States. The RNC noted that the war cost us 3,5000 US and NATO troops and 900 billion dollars.

...We were supposed to leave May 1st, and this WAS the staggered exit.

To be fair to the US, if the Afghans were not willing to fight the Taliban, then their was little they can actually do. The Afghan government was clearly absurdly corrupt, and as such unable to defend their country and now the average person will pay for the corruption of their leaders, especially the Women of Afghanistan.

The US can't make the Afghans fight the Taliban if they don't want to.

The US increasingly marginalised the Afghan govt. They weren't even at the negotiations with the Taliban in Doha. It, honestly, wouldn't surprise me if the Afghan govt. simply "fuck it, let them have it" because they knew they were going to get no help in the long run.

That’s not what the agreement we were tied to allowed for it would seem.

But they should have anticipated this sudden collapse. They overestimated the strength of the Afghans and underestimated the Taliban - it's a catastrophic failure of intelligence (either that or Biden overruled good intel).