Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 19 2021 04:19pm)
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).
It's actually your argument that makes no sense, because you don't seem to understand even the basics of the agreement. Bringing in forces to make sure the air field stays secure does not violate the agreement. We are allowed to have 8,600 armed soldiers in the country until August 31st. We aren't violently fighting the Taliban to secure the air field, we are there as deterrence in case the Taliban breaks the agreement, which they so far have not to my knowledge.
If we deployed those troops to actively resist the Taliban alongside Afghani forces we would be in direct violation of the agreement and fighting would immediately resume.
So no, we can't deploy troops to keep Kabul and other areas from falling as quickly. Best we could do is the green zone but that does basically nothing to avoid the situation we have right now. It gets us a few more square miles and that's about it.
This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Aug 20 2021 10:49pm