The August 31st Deadline
Joe Biden set a deadline of August 31 for all US forces to be out of Afghanistan.
The Question is will he be able to stick to it?
As of now the US military has secured the Airport at Kabul, but not much else. So with the Taliban controlling checkpoints on all the roads leading to the airport, how will Biden get the remaining American citizens out of the country in less than two weeks?
About an hour ago the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley took questions on the situation. As we all know, Joe Biden hasn't taken any questions since the chaos began. The scared deer in the headlights look tells us all we need to know on Biden. Gen Milley seemed confident that they could get all the people out by the deadline although he called it "challenging." Austin was more cautious saying that everything possible will be done.
Gen Milley also made this statement:
"I have previously said from this podium and in sworn testimony before Congress that the intelligence indicated multiple scenarios were possible," he said. "However, the timeline of a rapid collapse that was widely estimated ranged from weeks to months and even years following our departure. There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days."
Milley's comments came after leaks to The New York Times and NBC News indicated that intelligence officials had warned the White House and Pentagon that Afghanistan could rapidly collapse.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/afghanistan-blame-game-white-house-pentagon-intel
You can bet the CIA empire will strike back with more leaks!
The clock is ticking.......Will Biden back off his deadline?
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These are the tough decisions a president has to make.
That's why they voted for Scranton Joe, right?
Ol Joe, needs to send in 5,000 troops to get 4000 out. Great planning there!
The only one excited about the Biden presidency at this point is Jimmy Carter.
Very good. Jimmy Carter and Iran is the correct analogy.
I wonder what Jane Fonda would say? Is it God's gift to the right?
We will all be watching for what happens now to the American citizens still in Afghanistan.
I think there is a lot more to this parallel than meets the first glance.
Race riots, protesting in the streets, generation gap, black swan event crushes the economy, dishonest president impeached (almost). Follow all that with a sweet, feeble old man who makes a mess of foreign policy.
We're re-living the 1970's.
Which means only 2 1/2 years to the next Reagan.
There is nobody of Reagan's stature on the horizon.
Meh.
Reagan wasn't of Reagan's stature in 1977.
We've got some possibilities. The problem is that neither set of wingnuts are going to like them.
When I hear somebody described as a RINO by the right wing and a fascist by the left wing, I consider that an endorsement.
That we do. I'll take the Governor of Florida and if it's not him I'll take the former Secretary of State. Either way the next election will be a referendum on all the radical policies pursued by Joe Biden, (unless Trump runs and gets the nomination.) In the case of Trump running, the media will try and make it about Trump's personality.
Right now Donald Trump is sitting on the sidelines uncommitted. The problem will be that as we get close to 2024, things will be pretty bad for this country. 2020 and 2021 were terrible years for the US. If Trump thinks the Biden legacy is nothing more than a rotten door waiting to be kicked in, he might toss his hat back in the ring. I'm hoping he's wise enough to know how that will change the equation.
If Trump runs it will be about his personality, full stop. That's not the fault of the media, that's who he is. It's always 100% about him.
He's never been long on wisdom in the past. And he doesn't give a shit, apart from a chance for more self-aggrandizement.
Vic, Trump has all but announced he is running. Of course he could change his mind, but unless he's quite ill or in prison that is not going to happen.
Donald Trump is addicted to constant attention. How you dont understand that at this point simply means you arent watching. Trump needs to have the camera on HIM. Not Ron DeSantis, not Mike Pompeo. When he is ready he will squash DeSantis and Pompeo like bugs. Not being truthful or fair to them mind you, but squash them nonetheless.
I think it would be a big mistake.
The man who could be President takes his daughter for ice cream:
I think the GOP has something to win with.
There should be no deadline. They should stay until they get all the Americans and our Afghan allies out.
Yes, John. We all seem to know it. Let's see how long it takes Biden to figure it out.
after watching his interview on abc, I’d say, for the good of our country, joe Biden needs to stay hidden. He’s depressingly dishonest and detached without any of the spirit that at least trump could project that he would hit back if you hit him, maybe irrationally so.
Biden is just a whiny doormat of a man who wants to be left alone to nap.
Can you imagine what will happen over there next? Let's see how long he dig in his heels or have General Milley lie for him?
"Exiled President Ashraf Ghani fled to safety in the United Arab Emirates. Government forces, equipped and trained by U.S. taxpayers' money, in many cases gave up without a fight. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference Wednesday that no one saw the Taliban's offensive successes coming.
But in his first interview since the fall of Kabul Sunday, President Biden told ABC News ' George Stephanopoulos that he doesn't believe the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could have been handled without "chaos ensuing."
Does this mean that Biden should have withdrawn civilians first?
It means the Afghan army should have fought harder.
No, John the withdrawl was a screw-up. Any fully functioning president would have got all our people out before removing the troops.
Joe Biden only had one function. Making important decisions was not it.
If it was common knowledge that the Afghan army was incredibly weak, why did Donald Trump sign a treaty in 2020 that made it inevitable that the Afghan army would have to fight (rather pathetically) to try and save their country in 2021 ?
No John - the correct statement should be "the Afghan army should have fought - period".
We knew the Taliban would take over, everyone knew but Biden. If he had just evacuated the civilians first the Taliban would have held off as long as we had a significant Troop presence. He did it backwards against all common sense, he probably pours his coffee on the floor then gets a cup.
Do you imagine that Biden dreams all this up by himself or does he have military advisers ?
I don't think he listens. I think he wanted out by 8/31 and he didn't much care about anything else.
We'll never know John. Trump wasn't President at the time to complete the deal. The withdrawl fell to BIDEN!
America deserves better than Biden
You're embarrassing yourself.
Yes and that same statement applies in the chain of command down to each of the operating generals. How in hell did the USA military and civilian operational management drop such a fundamental ball?
Just blaming Biden is partisan. Are you not curious as to what caused this failure in execution? Trusting that that the Afghan army had things under control (including enabling the evacuation) with no backup plan is a fuck-up similar to invading Iraq due to the 'certain knowledge' that Saddam Hussein had extant WMD.
Right back at ya! As you took pains to tell us 7 months ago - the buck stops with the president.
I do not remember 'taking pains', but the buck does indeed stop with the PotUS. One thing I have definitely stated is that the current PotUS gets the blame or credit for what takes place under his/her watch.
And I have consistently —in the case of Afghanistan— stated that Biden is indeed ultimately responsible. But that is uber-simplistic. Sure, Biden is politically (and CiC) responsible as would be any PotUS. But I am more interested in how the USA machine (which is the same machine under any PotUS) could allow this level of screwup to happen.
Just blaming Biden (and leaving it at that) is indeed partisan. There is no 'back at ya' because I never just blamed Trump for failures that are systemic and/or beyond his realistic reach to affect. I did not, for example, blame Trump for the pandemic. I blamed Trump for downplaying the pandemic. Do you see the difference?
To wit, don't just blame Biden and walk away. The situation is far more complex than mistakes made at the presidential / CiC level. And that is what concerns me. It should concern everyone ... you included. Move beyond the partisanship.
You think it is the same machine under any PotUS? Really? The personnel surrounding the president changes, mostly to reflect the beliefs of the president. Biden went for "woke" in the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of staff. Well he got "woke", and from the looks of it seriously militarily incompetent individuals. As for the intelligence community; as we can tell with the last president they can be vindictive assholes in their own right carrying out their own agendas (or a political party's agenda they are loyal to).
There needs to be a full investigation (which means the Congressional Democrats had better back the hell off) into what went on. There is ample evidence coming out that the warnings were given at multiple levels from the State Department, CIA, and perhaps even the Pentagon. We need to find out why those reports were not listened too; who was Biden taking advise from; who came up with the withdrawal plan that Biden ultimately approved; and why wasn't the plan changed as the facts on the ground obviously were rapidly changing (which was obvious for anyone paying attention)?
No matter what you say heads will be rolling for this (and it can't just be who the Democrats pick to cut as dead weight sacrificial lambs). Biden sounded far more boarish than Trump ever did with while talking about Afghanistan prewithdrawal; and while defending his withdrawal tactics. Biden is CiC, and ultimately makes all of the decisions. He is the one that selected the people advising him. Impeachment shouldn't be ruled out for him; or his incompetent choice for VP.
Tell us, did you blame the Democrats for downplaying the pandemic when they tried to paint Trump as a racist after putting travel bans in place on China? Or when they were casting doubts on the effectiveness of any vaccines to come out from Operation Warp Speed pre election in order to make it seem that Trump was putting the population at risk? To be truly non partisan they need to be lumped in with Trump on the blame front.
It really does concern me, and the rest of us. It means we not only have an incompetent President; but we have massive incompetence at every level of his administration. Something the Democrats continuously blasted Trump over. At least Trump had those people turning over constantly until he found ones that could do the job.
If Trump were still in charge with this happening the Democrats would already have the impeachment papers signed and heading to the Senate. Don't even try to pretend otherwise.
The machine is the same Ronin. The cabinet and head officials change to those of the president's party (this happens if D or R) but the military and government operations remain the same.
You do understand that the entire government does not change with the PotUS, right? The pentagon, for example, does not fire its staff and replace them with party loyalists.
The leadership changes, but it is the same machine.
You seem to presume I am a D partisan. Where did you get that idea? Maybe to an R partisan everyone else looks like a D partisan.
Don't presume. You do not see me defending Biden. I have stated that Biden is responsible for everything that happens while he is PotUS and that he has acknowledged that. I have stated that he is also clearly responsible for the decisions he made.
But I have also noted the obvious to partisans which is that the government of the USA is fundamentally the same no matter who is PotUS and which party is in control. Again, don't be so naive as to think that the military machinery somehow undergoes a massive transformation when a new PotUS takes the reins. Don't think that all the generals (and key officers) who have the broad and deep logistics and tactical knowledge are replaced by a fresh bunch who have no experience. That is not how it works.
President Biden: "If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid you will also be required to get vaccinated."
This is what he thinks he needs to be talking about right now. What the hell is going on?
80 Million votes?
It didn't take long.... Biden backs down:
"President Biden said U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan until all Americans are out of the country, even past the Aug. 31 deadline, if necessary.
Regarding the 10,000 to 15,000 Americans still in Afghanistan that need to be evacuated, Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday that "Americans should understand that we're gonna try to get it done before Aug. 31st."
When asked about the possibility of the evacuation taking longer than Aug. 31, Biden said, "If we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left."
"If there's American citizens left, we're gonna stay to get them all out," he continued.
Biden noted that there are about 50,000 to 65,000 Afghans and their families that the U.S. is also attempting to evacuate.
"The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone who should come out. And that's the objective. That's what we're doing now. That's the path we're on. And I think we'll get there," he said.
If the numbers are ramped up to 5,000 to 7,000 people are evacuated a day, Biden said, then "they'll all be out."
The rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban over the weekend has caused the Pentagon to send 6,000 more U.S. troops to aid in the evacuation efforts."
Meanwhile Teddy Roosevelt is turning over in his grave.
Good night all.
Such a callous attempt to deflect. As if it had actually occurred a whole 4 days ago would somehow minimize its horror.
Why is it lately every time i see a picture of joe biden , he is either scowling or looking lost or in the midst of a crazed over enjoyment ?
My theory is when he is scowling , ole corn pop inserted a butt plug sideways without any lube .
the lost look is he is realizing someone is inserting his butt plug .
and the crazed delight look is when he realized the buttplug vibrates .
And those are the 3 visuals i have of ole "Buttplug Biden ", cant call him sparky because he isnt a sparkpug , and seems to be misfiring all over the place .
Just so you know, these went on sale at Dulles airport yesterday:
Gaaaad, the R party needs to break free of that damaged character and find a competent leader who at least qualifies as a decent human being who genuinely cares about the good of the nation and its people.
Saw the same type of shirt after bush left office , I can say i dont really miss trump , i never voted for him .
I was going to make that point too. I remember bulletin boards with Bush asking if we miss him yet.
Way i see it , any 2 term president , that has that posted about them doesnt count , they had their allotted time in office law allows .
Now one termers , that could be a different story , mainly because of the what if factor .
the one one termer i have never even thought i would see that posted about is Jimmy Carter , and he is likely the ONLY one termer smiling about whats happening now , because soon he wont be alone in that catagory in recent living memory......
Because we all need the most incompetent president and administration ever putting US lives at risk every damn day.
The left are living in denial 24/7.
If you’re an American overseas, just know this incompetent administration DOES NOT have your back.
Now that picture suggests to me he is contemplating WHY his buttplug ISNT vibrating .........maybe a bad blue tooth connection?
Why do you want Trump back? Many Rs support (and thus could carry out) his policies. His policies were standard R and thus plenty of far better human beings could serve as an R PotUS. So why would you want a lying narcissist like Trump back ... especially after he showed his character in a grand scale with his post election con-job (which he continues to this day)?
What, logically, drives people like you to want that miserable human being as the highest elected official of our nation?
Well said.
If Trump was still in office he would have abandoned the Afghans and his moron base would be praising him for it.
Nope
In your world, would Trump have left thousands of Americans behind too?
Although it's funny you are reduced to defending Biden by claiming the person you've called every name in the book would have done the same.
moron base would be praising him for it.
Is that the card you want to play in the middle of Biden's debacle?
If the same thing that is happening now happened with Trump as president his moron base would be praising him for it.
I dont see too many people praising Biden for what has happened.
When Trump abandoned the Kurds all we heard from the right was applause for him being "realistic" .
Do you have any ideas on how our military and operational mechanics (that which remains the same regardless of PotUS) could formulate a military withdrawal initiative that is devoid of contingency plans for events such as a predictable early surge by the Taliban or a failure of the Afghanistan government and military to defend themselves?
Not a trick question ... I am asking for your opinion here.
This really bugs me because it suggest a scary level of government incompetence in the stable machinery of our system.
I take no blame for what Trumpism has done to this country.
Sure has fucked you up hasn't it?
Welcome home
I know the feeling. It begins to fade with age.
Hardly, I straighten you people out every day.
military withdrawal initiative that is devoid of contingency plans for events such as a predictable early surge by the Taliban or a failure of the Afghanistan government and military to defend themselves?
I find it incredibly depressing. This is a voluntary withdrawal taking place on our dictated schedule with months, if not years, to plan for. Yet our evacuation has been carried out like the Philippines when the Japanese attacked within hours of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
That an entirely foreseeable contingency could cause an operation we had so much time to prepare for to devolve into such unmitigated and catastrophic chaos amazes me. We've somehow been reduced to relying on the good faith of the Taliban.
Cassius Clay had it wrong - You are the greatest!/s
I truly would like to know how this could happen. It is as if all of our logistical talent evaporated. This feels just like the failure in intelligence and confirmation of same that led to invasion of Iraq to find no WMDs.
It's absolutely a failure of intelligence, although we're using two different definitions of the word.
People need to be indicted for willfully participating in the cover up of a man's neurological demise during a campaign. It will go down in history as one of the greatest frauds.
They are forced to keep the truth hidden as even the smartest on the left knows that Kamala Harris has the lowest approval ratings in 100 years as a VP. They are willing to let the absent one shuffle through the greatest office in the world to keep the stain of a VP behind closed doors or in Vietnam licking palms with communists.
We'll look for that development right after all the members of the Trump family, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Kevin McCarthy, Alex Jones , Mike Pompeo, and everyone else involved in the Jan 6th planning are sent to hard labor.