General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn Afghanistan. As long as we get US citizens out in the next few days with no one getting killed
this will all blow over. It's a bit of a cluster now but once everyone is evacuated the story goes away as it was Trump's agreement. I would not worry much unless something really tragic happens.
Walleye
(30,697 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Im worried about more than just US citizens.
leftstreet
(36,076 posts)Whether or not it goes away will be up to the corporate media. The same ones that have ignored Afghanistan for years.
And there isn't a GOPer politician alive who isn't working it into something to use against the Biden Administration
Liz Cheney herself is going full steam ahead referring to this as a "Trump/Biden" debacle
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)every single tragedy that occurs among the people who were left behind.
Not sure it's wise to underestimate the impact of the steady drip-drip-drip from our MIC overlords, that own much of the media ...
jimfields33
(15,450 posts)How the Afghanistan government allowed that is a mystery.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)This whole thing stinks to high hell AFAIC (nt)
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)who worked with the Americans. But not to worry. They aren't US citizens, are they?
ansible
(1,718 posts)Willis88
(109 posts)Illegal aliens crossing the border to escape famine and hardship. Screw em their not US citizens so why should we care.
Thousands of Afghan interpreters that risked their lives to work along side US troops have been left behind. They should have been included in the vaccination like the other US personnel.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Also there was never any chance everyone who 'worked with Americans' were going to be offered passage. Weren't there like 300K soldiers? In a country with the highest birthrate outside of Africa ... that was probably well over 1M people counting families.
That sucks, but unless your argument was 'we can never leave', that's not really fair criticism.
Interpreters, OTOH ... yes. We better have gotten them out, or at least all of them that wanted to leave.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)I have no idea what the true numbers are. The current administration totally dragged its heels on getting them out, knowing full well that they'd be targeted by the Taliban.
We did the same thing when we left Vietnam, just abandoned thousands who had worked with us. That's unconscionable. I am not saying we could never leave. Hell, would should never have gone there in the first place, but you'd think after twenty years there could have been a better plan in place.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)I am on record today I'm extremely suspicious about how this all went down, and I think Trump treachery should NOT be ruled out. Russian as well.
Biden would NOT let this happen if he had good intel.
August 13th indeed.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)...or are known to speak English the Taliban will almost certainly kill them. The English speaking Afghani's from all walks of life, be it government, trade, or what have you, would be seen as collaborators with the infidels.
They should all get asylum and we should be sending planes into Kabul into not a single one is left. Sort it all out after the fact.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)And how many are out there, not in Kabul, who didn't decide to avail themselves of the offer within a (proscribed?) time period?
Rescuing them if we can safely do so is not even a question, we should!
But State said tonight that 2,000 are already on US soil. How many are on non-US (but not Afghani) soil, evacuated by other allies? Etc.
DetroitLegalBeagle
(1,904 posts)Only 5,000 h]ave been approved so far. [link:https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-afghan-brothers-plead-left-taliban-offensive/story?id=79439920|
For now, however, Biden's plans for evacuations only apply to an even smaller group -- those who have been granted conditional approval for a visa by the U.S. Embassy. Totaling some 5,000, according to the State Department, these interpreters, guides and other contractors will be evacuated along with their family m
And per my friend who was at the Embassy until yesterday, another 15k Americans(NGO, aid workers, teachers, etc) still stuck in country, but CBS is saying its 10k. [link:https://www.cbsnews.com/video/10000-americans-awaiting-evacuation-from-kabul/|]
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)of depression is worrying about 6 billion people you don't even know. He thought himself clever.
30 years later he now shares my depression.
I will always carry the suffering of people with me. Even those I don't know. I can't stop the suffering but I can do what I can and the very least I can do is to keep them in my thoughts. To acknowledge their suffering. To keep informed about what is happening to them.
I was not blessed with a short memory.
Tetrachloride
(7,721 posts)Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)brer cat
(24,401 posts)Very well said.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)All that death and dying. All that waste. Everything. Just everything.
brer cat
(24,401 posts)We keep sending our young men and women and tons of $$$ to be blown up and ground down. And still the people suffer and die. A waste.
hamsterjill
(15,214 posts)I havent forgotten the Kurds. I shed tears a lot these days.
To be aware can sometimes be devastating.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)I have to disconnect from time to time. Limit my news intake and go do something, anything else. Doesn't prevent the mind from churning but it does act as a filter. It helps slow it all down.
hamsterjill
(15,214 posts)I am in animal rescue. Lots of tears in that. But I periodically take inventory of the good that I have done and think in terms of if I hadnt helped that one, it would be dead now, etc. Its not self-grandure. I look at things realistically. I always wish there was more I could do.
I get away from news, etc. for periods of time. But as you say, the sadness is ALWAYS there. For me, its simply knowing how much potential mankind has wasted. How much good could be accomplished if we all just tried.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)at times, you could have done more. If only...more time, more money, more people to help.
Yes! A thousand times, yes.
meadowlander
(4,358 posts)What makes you think they are going to get bored of a chew-toy like Afghanistan falling back into Taliban control?
Smug blonde know-nothing anchors are still going to be hammering on that from post-Apocalypse bunkers three hundred years from now.
BannonsLiver
(16,161 posts)Theres no scenario in which they will not criticize Biden or any other Democrat in office.
meadowlander
(4,358 posts)BannonsLiver
(16,161 posts)meadowlander
(4,358 posts)racist hasn't worked out great over the past forty years. C.f. the Capitol building overrun with yahoos threatening to lynch our elected officials.
GoodRaisin
(8,885 posts)Nobody knows how to get rid of it.
BannonsLiver
(16,161 posts)greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)BannonsLiver
(16,161 posts)But well be grappling with what we were always going to be grappling with, which is a growing culture war over masks and vaccines and rising cases and deaths in the coming weeks. With any luck that will be followed by a decline in cases. Either way thats going to impact people more directly than Afghanistan. The GOP will have a lot of fun with it for a while, and then get back to demonizing immigrants at the border, AOC, Kamala Harris and whatever else crawls out of their fever swamp.
* if Americans die over the next few weeks then that changes everything.
greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)"...will block out the sun," urging the Greek to surrender.
To which Leonidas replied, "Then we shall fight in the shade."
Apologies for the reference. I was goofing on your expression, essentially.
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)Marcuse
(7,391 posts)DetroitLegalBeagle
(1,904 posts)They have always had limited capability, but with the ANA collapse, they have now likely seized control of the anti air equipment the government had originally. I think they are limited to mainly MANPADS and AA guns, I don't think they have any more sophisticated systems. But they have captured aircraft, no sure if they have any pilots though.
Raine
(30,540 posts)Is not going to just blowover.
ansible
(1,718 posts)obamanut2012
(25,905 posts)I do not trust any anonymous video like this from a random twitter or IG user.