BUT LIKE JOSEPH BIDEN HAS SO MUCH FOREIGN EXPERIENCE OR SOMETHING

[OSA]

so why does a trained and equipped army of 300,000 collapse against an army of 75,000?

probably because they weren't being paid...so where did their pay go?


my guess: taken by Afghan govt officials that bugged out with it to Europe

I saw a military guy saying that 300k army was like 40k with 260k with their name on a list collecting a check, but didn’t even show for the most basic shit.

:sfrolled

I could understand if thats the reason Biden said fuck them

[GrenadaRoger]

so why does a trained and equipped army of 300,000 collapse against an army of 75,000?

probably because they weren't being paid...so where did their pay go?


my guess: taken by Afghan govt officials that bugged out with it to Europe

I saw a military guy saying that 300k army was like 40k with 260k with their name on a list collecting a check, but didn’t even show for the most basic shit.

:sfrolled

not consistent with the stat quoted of 60,000 Afghan army casualties over the last 3 years...the story is that until the US pulled out, the Afghan army was fighting

if only 40,000 actual fighters, those would have been exhausted long ago..

and Sont, if indeed there were covert deals between Taliban and Afghan army officers, then why fight? just phony war until the US leaves is what i'd expect, with zero.zero casualties

(ghost soldiers and ghost casualties? possible...with mil officers & govt leaders pocketing the ghost pay)

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

supposedly this whole boondoggle cost $275-300M per day for 20 years...

think about how many twinks OSA could have banged out for just a fraction of that cost...

[country978]

relax

2 months from now nobody will give a shit. think you're tired of virus talk, something happening in your neighborhood? all news media but OAN, Fox, newsmax and Bannon will have moved on with the last US flight out. how many conversations about Afghanistan have you had with anybody IRL in the last 15 years?

thanks cleatus - I'm sure you're correct - nobody will care about Afghanistan in a couple months. Maybe sooner than that. IRL I've had many talks about this issue and about Iraq but agree that most/many people are too wrapped up in whatever else in distracting them to truly think about problems Not too long ago a couple soldiers were killed in Iraq the same day Lady Gaga's dogs were stolen. Guess which story got more coverage?

[BCR]

I saw a military guy saying that 300k army was like 40k with 260k with their name on a list collecting a check, but didn’t even show for the most basic shit.

:sfrolled

not consistent with the stat quoted of 60,000 Afghan army casualties over the last 3 years...the story is that until the US pulled out, the Afghan army was fighting

if only 40,000 actual fighters, those would have been exhausted long ago..

and Sont, if indeed there were covert deals between Taliban and Afghan army officers, then why fight? just phony war until the US leaves is what i'd expect, with zero.zero casualties

(ghost soldiers and ghost casualties? possible...with mil officers & govt leaders pocketing the ghost pay)

I have no clue, just what he said. Said they list police as part of the army and many enlisted were routinely no shows and the army had constant attrition. Like it certainly didn’t sound like the American military where they own you for x amount of years.

I had no idea that many Afghan soldiers died. Or reportedly died.

Like most Americans, Afghanistan hadn’t entered my thoughts often since like the time I was reading Kite Runner.

For years, some dude I went to school with who worked for a private contractor would post pics from ever there, but even that was probably like 7-10 years ago. I know he made a lot of money over there from what his buddies said.

When Trump announced we were pulling out, I was aware we still had troops there, but just assumed we’d always have troops there. Some minimal amount.

I recall looking up the death toll, and at that point last year it was something like 2000-2500 range deaths iirc over almost 20 years. I think it was like 5k in Iraq. Clearly a lot of maimed and hurt, but found it kind of amazing we lost more people on 9/11 than in the war the following 18 years or whatever in Afghanistan.

I thought to myself if you were a kid from inner city Chicago or a kid with drug problems in rural America who was steered towards the military, that you’ve been much safer in a war zone than staying at home. I would guess a bad weekend in Chicago has more death than any battle the last 10 years. When you think of past wars, it just shocked me how few died for such long conflicts. How few of our own. Clearly a ton of locals and their fighters died.


So if they lost 60k, then clearly we were telling them what to do and backing the fuck away or something? Don’t know why they’d fall apart so quickly. Have no idea if the guy was talking nonsense or not? Just some military correspondent/former general or intelligence, who was interviewed when I was watching the coverage. Can’t remember his title, but he just laughed off the 300k number.

[limitles]

Compared to who? The majority of electives everywhere are not planet savy. At the least you have a President who's been in and around world politics unlike a sociopath who cared about himself only. duh

[MumblesBadly]

i read an interesting post from a military intelligence guy who was talking about how shitty enlistee eyesite is, and how we gave these people tens of thousands of dollars worth of kit but never gave them $5 glasses so they could shoot straight.

Hardly surprising. Defense contractors probably make hardly any profit on providing eyeglasses to military personal.

[Kalam]

Maybe the Afghan army didnt show up because a lot of them believe that Islam is right about women.

Seriously though, even in Afghanistan a lot of people have smart phones. They see Cardi B simulating sex acts in music videos and then interviewing our President. They see the degradation, sin and perversions that we worship, and they want no part of it; especially for their young girls.

[NickyPipes]

Maybe the Afghan army didnt show up because a lot of them believe that Islam is right about women.

Seriously though, even in Afghanistan a lot of people have smart phones. They see Cardi B simulating sex acts in music videos and then interviewing our President. They see the degradation, sin and perversions that we worship, and they want no part of it; especially for their young girls.

Was just going to post: Did you ever think they want the Taliban in charge?

[limitles]

Maybe the Afghan army didnt show up because a lot of them believe that Islam is right about women.

Seriously though, even in Afghanistan a lot of people have smart phones. They see Cardi B simulating sex acts in music videos and then interviewing our President. They see the degradation, sin and perversions that we worship, and they want no part of it; especially for their young girls.

A good example among others. It what make's religion so neat

[country978]

Maybe the Afghan army didnt show up because a lot of them believe that Islam is right about women.

Seriously though, even in Afghanistan a lot of people have smart phones. They see Cardi B simulating sex acts in music videos and then interviewing our President. They see the degradation, sin and perversions that we worship, and they want no part of it; especially for their young girls.

Was just going to post: Did you ever think they want the Taliban in charge?

really good question pipes. I dont think so but they definitely didnt put up much of a fight either. I think it didnt help that the president skipped town with a helicopter full of cash. Probably bad for morale

[Walter Sobchak]

Maybe the Afghan army didnt show up because a lot of them believe that Islam is right about women.

Seriously though, even in Afghanistan a lot of people have smart phones. They see Cardi B simulating sex acts in music videos and then interviewing our President. They see the degradation, sin and perversions that we worship, and they want no part of it; especially for their young girls.

Was just going to post: Did you ever think they want the Taliban in charge?

There’s currently fierce civilian resistance in Kabul. I don’t think they have a chance though.

[v12cl]

I can't believe this crap has gone on for 20 years.

Those that co-signed it should be shunned from public life forever. GWB should never show his face again, the Cheney family should disappear entirely, and Biden, ohhhh, don't even get me started on racist war monger Joe Biden.

Go home to Delaware and sleep old man.

Both parties signed on to this for 20 years, anyone who has been there or whose family has been there throughout (Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Romney, Cheney) needs to go.

Time to tell the boomer generation to GTFO, and physically drag them out of the building. Guillotines for those that resist.

If we are going to needlessly recreate history, it might as well be the French Revolution, not Nazi Germany.

[Walter Sobchak]

I can't believe this crap has gone on for 20 years.

Those that co-signed it should be shunned from public life forever. GWB should never show his face again, the Cheney family should disappear entirely, and Biden, ohhhh, don't even get me started on racist war monger Joe Biden.

Go home to Delaware and sleep old man.

Both parties signed on to this for 20 years, anyone who has been there or whose family has been there throughout (Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Romney, Cheney) needs to go.

Time to tell the boomer generation to GTFO, and physically drag them out of the building. Guillotines for those that resist.

If we are going to needlessly recreate history, it might as well be the French Revolution, not Nazi Germany.

Getting rid of the Boomers won’t solve the problem.

[TheXFactor]

You idiots need to STOP.

STOP pretending that you give a shit about Afghanistan.

Nobody gives a shit about that country.

[Sanlmar]

I can't believe this crap has gone on for 20 years.

Those that co-signed it should be shunned from public life forever. GWB should never show his face again, the Cheney family should disappear entirely, and Biden, ohhhh, don't even get me started on racist war monger Joe Biden.

Go home to Delaware and sleep old man.

Both parties signed on to this for 20 years, anyone who has been there or whose family has been there throughout (Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Romney, Cheney) needs to go.

Time to tell the boomer generation to GTFO, and physically drag them out of the building. Guillotines for those that resist.

If we are going to needlessly recreate history, it might as well be the French Revolution, not Nazi Germany.

Getting rid of the Boomers won’t solve the problem.

Millenials politics…. gonna be interesting …. will it all be AOC?
Try not to gag but they are calling themselves the new “greatest generation”. There will be a lot of change one must admit.

[Sanlmar]

Chinese dealmakers have their bags packed, and will arrive on the first flights after the airports open,” said Byron King, geologist and mining and energy writer for Agora Financial.

“People who understand exploration have long looked at Afghanistan with desire,” he told MarketWatch, adding that Afghanistan has routinely sent representatives to international mining conferences in the past 20 years to “give talks about the mineral endowment.”

Afghanistan may become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” per an internal Pentagon memo ….

I personally don’t see the chaos in Kabul that Sonatine does. I mean there will be some head cracking but not a political fall.


The word Taliban means ‘students’ or ‘seekers’ in Pashto, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. That whole refugee history where a generation of kids fled the bombing and got schooled in Pakistan and came back angry and educated.

I keep mulling this over since the fall.

I have always espoused the effect of pissing off a generation of young boys by carpet bombing their families. They don’t forget especially if they are poor. Give the TSA agents a raise. Yeah, we wanted to limit terrorism. Lol

Forever disrupting the Mideast. It’s what we have done there since the last day of WWII. I contend it’s where we first flexed the NeoCon Truman Doctrine bullshit. We suck at it.

[Jayjami]

my wish is for a law that forces this or anything with the same central idea to be read aloud in the Senate and House of Reps and by the prez on tv whenever talk of nation building or invasion with occupation occurs in DC.

At the root of nation-building is the idea that if the United States applies pressure at the appropriate points just right, then it can transform – or at least radically redirect – the politics of another nation. What’s more, the effort has to be undertaken with large knowledge deficits about the nation in question. The United States cannot afford to maintain thousands of personnel who are intimately familiar with the politics, history, and culture of every single country in which it might become involved in a war – and by the time the war starts, it’s usually too late to train them.

There is an imperial logic underlying this enterprise, one which assumes that the politics and culture of a less-developed nation are blank slates onto which the United States can paint whatever it wishes. U.S. policymakers would consider it risible if told that Russia proposed to invade California and establish a kleptocratic oligarchy that will win the assent of the Californian people, because they know that Californians have their own institutions, customs, and history that they will defend against outside encroachment. But too often policymakers don’t think twice when the United States proposes to export its own institutions somewhere else. This can only be because they see countries like Vietnam and Afghanistan – and their people – as somehow incomplete, lacking in depth and complexity, a simple caricature in need of saving. How else can Americans propose to save somewhere they barely understand?

If the US took over Mexico, it would be 100% better off, and 100% of Mexicans would hate Americans.

[GrenadaRoger]

and to think, a week or two ago there was talk of an intervention / US supported coupe of Cuba

HELLO NO!

[Sanlmar]

and to think, a week or two ago there was talk of an intervention / US supported coupe of Cuba

HELLO NO!

Don’t kid yourself. Regime change is still a thing. There’s a long “to do” list that starts with Somalia, I suppose.

We will keep issuing sanctions and depriving women & children of food and medicine, as well.

I’m so proud.