Could the evacuation have been handled better? Probably, but I think the only way that

[JohnSJ]

could have been done is if we added significantly more troops, and extended the deadline indefinitely. Obviously we sure could not depend on the Afghan government or army, and it would be naive to assume that the so-called “low risk” operation would not become hot very fast

We would be fighting the Taliban, because we would have to disregard trump’s agreement with them, and also fighting ISIS-K, and who knows what else

If what the President said is true, that we told Afghans and Americans months before to evacuate, but it wasn’t until the last two weeks when that really happened when the hard deadline was set,
I think that implies that the reality of the hard deadline was the motivating factor, along with the realization that that deadline was not going to be change for the evacuation

Even listening to some of the reporters that bears out. They were saying the Afghans didn’t really believe it when trump negotiated the deal with the Taliban, and they didn’t believe it when Biden said it would happen.

I think human nature procrastinates until they finally can’t

I have seen that in the workplace where layoffs were announced, with the WARN act, and people had trouble grasping that until it happened

[Skittles]

1. ouf course it could have been handled better

they should have known the Afghan military was NEVER going to be in control - jeez, what does TWENTY YEARS OF TRAINING tell anyone???

[USALiberal]

6. 100% agree!!! Nt

[DURHAM D]

2. The point of the evacuation was to get out.

We did that. We evacuated an extraordinary number of people.

However, we did not meet the needs of the press. So, fuck them.

[chowder66]

5. +1

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Yeah people could have left when they were told to

[chowder66]

4. +1

[dalton99a]

7. The U.S. government had reached out nineteen (19) times since March

to tell American citizens in Afghanistan to leave ASAP

Let them find their own way back

[moondust]

8. The military may have originally planned

to evacuate "x" number of people and set up the dates to allow them time to evacuate that many. Then when the army and government unexpectedly collapsed that "x" number may have suddenly become maybe "20x" due to many more Afghans who now desperately wanted to escape the Taliban.

I don't know that but it may be a possible explanation.

Of course the evacuation may not be over and may in the future include land routes to bordering countries that are being encouraged to act as transit points.

[honest.abe]

9. I really dont see what specifically could have been done differently,

Perhaps convincing more people to evacuate before leaving. Most didnt want to go because they thought the Afghan army would hold. Not sure how to force to them to leave against their will.

[JohnSJ]

10. It is easy to predict what happens today, tomorrow

[honest.abe]

11. Indeed.