Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Kabul Airport Attack Kills 13 U.S. Service Members, at Least 90 Afghans [View all]Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)but the US Marines didn't make that decision. Also, I'm not sure what kind of systems were in place up until recently to get the Afghan SIVs out of the country. They may have been ready and willing to leave at any team, but couldn't because there wasn't any large scale system to get them out.
If your comment was directed more toward the Biden administration waiting until the fall the Afghan Army and government to begin large scale evacuations, then there may be a valid point there. However, we have to also consider what side-effects would have had it back in February they sent back 5,000 or 10k more troops along with translator and other personnel to process SIVs to begin the process. Would have the obvious visuals of western contractors and critical Afghans leaving the country had any negative impact on the morale and capabilities of the Afghan government? How things went down after US troops packed up suggests it wouldn't have went well. Seems likely that the government would have fell even sooner. Perhaps it would have been slowed during the winter until fighting season begun, though. Either way, the situation would be a complete shit show. It was bound to suck no matter what happened, and we would eventually be at a point where the airport would be surrounded by Afghans wanting to flee.