Biden Calls US Afghan Exit 'Secure and Orderly,' Reality Is Different
By: Bill Bostock (Business Insider)
Whoops. Didn't think that through..........or maybe it was. Time to go and let someone else clean it up
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Joe Biden speaks about the Afghanistan drawdown in the White House on July 8, 2021. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
- Biden said Thursday that the US military pullout from Afghanistan was "secure and orderly."
- But US troops didn't tell Afghan allies they were leaving and left 5,000 prisoners.
- The fate of thousands of Afghan civilians who worked with the US military is also unclear.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
President Joe Biden has described the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan as "secure and orderly," but the reality on the ground suggests differently.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Biden said US military activity would cease on August 31. He previously said he wanted the withdrawal by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.
"The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart," he said.
—President Biden (@POTUS) July 9, 2021
However, the US pullout has appeared rushed.
US troops left Bagram Airfield, their key base in Afghanistan, at 3 a.m. last week, the base's new commander told the BBC.
They were ceding control of the base to the US-allied Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, but didn't let them know they were leaving, Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani said.
"We [heard] some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by seven o'clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram," Kohistani told the AP.
The Americans also shut off the base's power as they left, leaving some 5,000 prisoners, the BBC reported.
People also looted the base shortly after the departure of US troops.
Furthermore, the fate of many Afghan civilians who worked with the US military are now fearing for their lives given that their protection has departed.
Biden said in early July that the thousands of Afghans who helped the US "are not going to be left behind," but did not specify how.
The Biden administration is now considering whether to offer fast-track visa routes to Afghan women, politicians, journalists, and activists whom the Taliban could punish, Reuters reported. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Pentagon, also said the military was considering relocating Afghan interpreters and their families to other countries, including US territories, The New York Times reported.
Though Biden said that US forces will be gone from Afghanistan by August 31, about 1,000 troops are to remain to guard the US Embassy in Kabul, CNN previously reported.
And as US forces leave Afghanistan, the Taliban are gaining ground, stoking fears that the country could slide into civil war.
Gen. Austin Miller, the top US general in Afghanistan, told the AP earlier this month that civil war was "certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory it's on right now."
In his Thursday speech, Biden denied that a Taliban takeover was "inevitable," saying the Taliban's 75,000 fighters were no match for the 300,000 troops serving with the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
He also said the US had accomplished all its objectives in Afghanistan, adding: "I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome."
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Guess we didn't learn from the Russian's attempts. From Dubya to Biden.
**disclaimer** Not sure why the Fetch didn't grab the actual title of "
Biden called the US withdrawal from Afghanistan 'secure and orderly' — when in reality it didn't tell allies, abandoned prisoners, and left interpreters fearing for their lives
but there it is.
Not well thought out, desperate, and messy. Kinda like the border problem. But that's how Dems do things
Trump would have done it the right way
[Deleted] It was always going to go like this. Trump wouldn’t have done anything any better.
Agreed. It would have been the same.
Like abandoning the Kurds after a phone call with Erdoğan. This 20 year Afghan war should have ended in first few months with the killing/capture of the top levels of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Tora Bora. But due to one of the biggest military blunders in our history, we have thousands of dead kids and $2T in debt. We've been trying to clean up Bush's various messes since 2008.
But wait...there's more!
From CNN, no less!
Nothing new there, we just need to get out. What good can be said about a 20 year fuckup? Your compatriot Ronin nails it below 3 .
gee, we're finally exiting a 20 year war bush started, for no valid reason and with no exit strategy. get our friends out of there now. then enforce a no fly zone and napalm all the poppy fields for the next 5 years. send all of our military leftovers to the kurds. skip any economic assistance and create a new afghan economy by paying a bounty to the locals for every taliban, russian, iranian, and chinese head collected.
Except............
I read an article that some Afghan pilots were executed.
I saw that too...........
I think we all knew this would happen though. As soon as we leave it was going to revert to the way it was.
Yes we did.......well most of us anyway. Hell same thing happened basically in Iraq. Soon loyal forces will probably drop their weapons at their own peril.
I am of the frame of mind that it is time for some of the middle eastern countries to step up them selves and take care of things in their own backyards.
And that also applies to our southern neighbors. Problem there is just like our friends in Central and South America. There is really no GovCo due to pressure applied by the criminal faction and the citizenry feels helpless to do anything and cowers.........or migrates. And our feeble attempts, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, is not the old and worn out "just throw money at it" won't make it go away.
The difference I can see is that it seems like the Afghans are engaged in a religious war where as in central and south America it is more about cartels and power.
Largely of our making. 1) Our completely ineffective drug war supplies the criminals with incredible wealth. Yet here, these drugs are cheap and readily available. 2) Our lax gun acquisition laws make possible the transfer of hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons to these cartels yearly.
We should legalize and tax all recreational drugs like Portugal. Pharmaceutical grade versions would be a lot less likely to cause overdoses and poisoning. Guns acquisition laws like CA & NJ prevent huge numbers of weapons from falling into the hands of criminals -- In NJ 80% of the guns recovered at crime scenes are from out of state, whereas in adjacent Pa, virtually 100% come from in state.
Yeah… like the interpreters I feel like we should have taken them with us.
Definitely. Not leave them to a tragic fate.
For real, we all know what is going to happen to them and likely their families for the crime of translating for us.
Anyone want to place bets on how long the current Afghan government lasts before the Warlords desert ti to go take refuge in their strong holds; and the Taliban and Al Qaeda come rolling back in to take over?
We are going to find out the same thing that the Soviets did; that Afghanistan has too many factions to ever be a stable country. It is a bottomless pit that can never be filled with money; troops lives; or treaties.
Indeed. I’ve said it many times, the people who live there don’t even consider themselves to be afghans. They are members of their tribe first, Sunni/Shiite second, and then whatever ethnic group third. There is no shared sense of identity.
Although it may be a bit obscure to some, think about that for a moment........real hard and see if you can see a correlation to another country near and dear to your heart.
If you are referring to the US the situation is not similar.
We aren't as old as they but I see your point. And it is and will be similar as long as we don't (we used to but somewhere along the line started losing it) have that same sentiment as far as a common identity as long as willy nilly "cheek turning" takes place. As is proven in Europe, multiculturalism doesn't work well most of the time. Too many differing views and no sense of direction. Too many people to please. And their "humane treatment" of "refugees" proves that and made them do a 180 and rethink their misguided "compassion". You can take the man/woman out of the country but you can't take the country out of the man/woman
Your comment actually highlights the divisions we face. Multiculturalism isn’t a problem but the idea that it is is the problem. We have political divisions driven by people looking to make a buck. Book sales, advertising revenue, PAC donations, getting re-elected etc. Hate sells, and if you are sufficiently low moral character it is a very profitable business to get into. Just start making shit up or blow things WAY out of proportion and there is a certain percentage of people that will empty their wallets for you.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying about the almighty dollar but, for an example, look at at least three of the four on "The Squad". They stay in deep shit because they are expressing something that would be said in other cultures/nations. Think about that for a minute. And I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that a majority of Americans disagree with their ideologies.
Mull this over...............
While I realize this could have actually been virtually anyone, it doesn't make the bolded any less proof that there are whackos out there and they aren't necessarily nice people.
Fortunately they caught this one.
What I don't get is if he hates it so much, why live here.
Agreed unless his perception was to become some sort of sick martyr.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It was time to leave. That government was NEVER going to last and unless we stayed for 50 years with a presence like we had in Iraq our nation building efforts were always doomed to fail.
Since Alexander The Great nobody has ever existed Afghanistan gracefully. Going in was a trap. Nobody who bungles their way in gets out better off for it...
Ask a Russian. Afghanistan broke the Soviet Union!
Ultimately, the blame really is all George W Bush's...
I get the feeling the Chinese will be the next to learn. Although maybe they will simply form a business relationship with the taliban for natural resources and who gives a shit what they do to their people.
Afghanistan isn't half-a-world away from China.
Neither was the USSR.
Rachel Maddow had an interesting interview with Guam's Governor, Lourdes Leon Guerrero, last night. Guam is once again ready to provide harbor to those in need of it. We shall see if Biden responds to her offer, but time is running short by the hour.