Quote (Goomshill @ Aug 15 2021 10:57pm)

The outcome could have been worse, this was a mostly bloodless takeover and the Taliban have no interest in retribution. Now they are in control and permitting US evacuations.
The mismanagement couldn't have been worse. Until a few days ago official US policy was to pretend the comet doesn't exist until it impacts the earth. They were still saying Ghani would stay in power in a deal with the Taliban, anticipating indefinite deadline extensions and holding all the cities.
This will go up in history with the worst US strategic commands alongside the fall of Saigon, the Dieppe Raid and invasion of Libya.
Everyone and their mother knew the Taliban were going to take over as soon as the US left, and we had decades to prepare an exit strategy and plan around it. And instead we got pure denialism up until the Taliban took over the whole country. Even if there was no victory condition, there was every opportunity to exit cleanly, with a structured withdrawal. Not cramming 800 people into a single cargo plane and hand over billions of dollars of state of the art weaponry to tribal militias.

So I think those are the two things that need to be stressed. This isn't a bad outcome by any stretch. If the Taliban were always going to win, then having the war end without any battles, without any massacres, without any humanitarian crisis, is remarkable. And the US couldn't have flubbed its military strategy any worse and completely fucked up in profound ways, at every level of leadership and planning, and there is no shortage of blame to go around for just how incompetent this affair has been handled. In fact, the primary reason why the ANA disbanded and cities fell without any brutal conflicts, is because the Taliban leadership was so adept and planned their strategy well. They bribed local leaders, gave guarantees of safe passage, appealed to local tribes. They negotiated with each regional chief to just relinquish the cities without needing to fire a shot.

Quote (Plaguefear @ 16 Aug 2021 08:38)

Bomb the palace, right now, that's the best option available.

Quote (Santara @ Aug 16 2021 04:03am)

I've seen a list. Mi-24s (Soviet - not Russian, Soviet), a couple dozen SH-60 helicopters (does the Taliban have pilots and spare parts to operate?), a bunch of Cessna aircraft, MRAPs (big whoop), etc.
This is over the top hyperventilating.

Quote (Goomshill @ Aug 16 2021 04:16am)

On top of the 5 already killed during the gunfire/stampede at the airport, more video footage shows at least 2 people falling off a plane taking off in the last hour, apparently clinging to it on the runway in a futile attempt to escape. It was high enough it definitely wasn't survivable.



Everything that we equipped the ANA with now belongs to the Taliban. Not just the helicopters and MSFVs and shitty aircraft and that black hawk with its nose blown off, but vast amounts of modern small arms. They're not running around with just soviet era AK47s and RPGs, they've got billions of dollars worth of small arms that rival the standing militaries of a bunch of european states. And when it comes down to what a bunch of militants equipped with captured US weapons and armor can do, look at ISIS.
All those decades of 'building an afghan army' was really just 'equipping the taliban'
And this wasn't just foreseeable, it was foreseen, and plenty of people were predicting it 20 years ago

Quote (KrWWW @ Aug 15 2021 10:38pm)

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1427102120902266880/pu/vid/720x1280/1WYSt5cMdFsPBUKx.mp4

edit:

https://twitter.com/ahmermkhan/status/1427113173069352966?s=20

Quote (SunnyvaleTrailerPark @ Aug 16 2021 01:20am)

Man... Had to log in to say you guys are such a fucking joke lol. Shit administration, shit citizens. America now is barely 1/10 of what your ancestors America.

Yet, you guys still sitting being nonchalant sitting in front of yall device eating cheetos, magic finding and watching anime as grown men while you guys just handed 80B$+ in Blackhawks ,missiles, munitions, guns , anti tank to talibans/China over a war you guys lost after 20 years of Bankrupting America, Removing any chance of having free healthcare/better infrastructure/better education system all that for what? a LOSS HAHAHAHA. You guys bankrupted your country over it yet you fucking lost 20 years later...

No wonder you guys obese with obese kids and also believe in Covid/9-11 lol. Bunch of clowns.

Keep voting for people like Trump and Biden you dumbfuck.

Keep giving full month to transgenders who are the poison of this world while you guys only give one day to yall veteran who died for this country which is a fucking shitshow in 2021.

Good thing i'm Canadian. I'd be fucking ashamed to be American aka the laughing stock of the world.