Quote (NetflixAdaptationWidow @ 19 Aug 2021 02:36)
It would have been a 40+ year affair to actually build them into a stable nation. We would have basically created a nation from nothing. A noble endeavor if done properly, but we obviously weren't interested in doing it properly, so we should have been out around 2009 when our intelligence said there were less than 100 Al Qaeda operatives left in the country.
I think you are misunderstanding the agreement. We aren't allowed to fight the Taliban and they aren't allowed to fight us. They have largely abided by our attempts to evacuate. If we brought in 10k troops to support local leaders and the Afghani army in pushing off the Taliban then the entire agreement is off and the Taliban starts slaughtering the people we are trying to protect. Your suggestion would be the perfect opposite of what needs to happen and is the only way to absolutely guarantee we can't get anybody out. It would actually guarantee we remain in the country, which is again the exact opposite of the goal.
You don't get the benefit of hindsight when making preparation. Again, nobody thought they would take Kabul within a few days. The preparation you are suggesting would have resulted in the current situation being a guarantee, which is not what you do when you prep for the worst case scenario.
I get your argument, but I think it makes no sense. The US did bring in 3-6k troops since last weekend who are in a standoff with the Taliban at the airport. Technically, this deployment is just as much of a violation of the agreement as bringing in 6k soldiers two to three days earlier would have been. And back then, the Taliban's main force was not in Kabul yet, so there would have been enough time to extend the security bubble which is currently surrounding the airport to the nearby green zone. Apparently, the Taliban have accepted the current argument that the soldiers at the airport are only there to secure the evacuation. I see no cogent reason why the Taliban shouldn't have accepted the same logic if it extended to the entire green zone, combined with a promise along the lines of "2 weeks max, then we're out".
This approach would not only have ensured a more orderly evacuation of the embassies, it would also have given the local helpers enough time to make it to the airport and wait for their evacuation flight instead of getting trapped behind Taliban lines.
And while nobody thought they would take Kabul within a few days a week prior to the city's fall, it had become absolutely clear that they would face no resistance anywhere in the country and steamroll right through by Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. The Biden admin's
sleepy reaction to a rapidly developing situation wasted 2-3 absolutely crucial days. In the end, they barely got a quick response force over there in time before the Taliban could take the airport as well and trap the foreign personnel (instead of just the local helpers who, let's be honest, are rather dispensable).
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 19 2021 03:20pm