[rtb72]

This is 20 years in the making. If you're putting the blame on just one politician then you're just missing it.

There were a ton of failures there and a lot of reasons this was never going to be a success but "woke generals" has ZEEO to do with it. Turn off Tucker and show just a little respect to veterans who are really processing a ton of stuff the past week or so. I have friends who died there. I have friends who lost friends and family members there. But sure. It is "wokeness" in the ranks destroying it all. It is your boogeyman after all.

A friend of mine that spent several deployments there shared this yesterday.

Alleviating suffering is never in vain, even if the final outcome isn’t permanent. I know a young lady from Afghanistan who recently attended the same boarding school I went to in Europe, and is now about to graduate from college here in the States. This is because she was able to get an education while a child in Afghanistan, which she would not have been able to do without the sacrifice of you and your brothers and sisters. I know a family of refugees down the road who were able to start a new life here 7 years ago. They also would not have had that opportunity without the work of our service members who served in Afghanistan. These are just two examples out of millions. There are countless success stories of young women getting an education, becoming successful and thriving. The mission for a permanent peace may have failed, it may have been unrealistic and impossible, but striving towards that mission helped a lot of people over the past 20 years, and that should not be forgotten.

A lot of mistakes were made in our campaign there. But I don’t want a service member to think that their service and sacrifice there was in vain. If a doctor treats a cancer patient and gets it into remission for 20 years, only for the patient to succumb after that, it doesn’t mean the doctor’s work didn’t matter. You and your brothers and sisters held back this cancer for 20 years. That at least should be remembered.

This is obviously hitting hard with me and many within the military community. One can be critical of Afghanistan without crapping all over the service of many great leaders.

Its hitting hard with me as well. I agree that one administration cannot be blamed in general. Bush 43 had no long term plan whatsoever, Obama kicked the can, Trump wanted us out and never really resolved a solid plan on how to remove resources, and Biden...I have no idea what he was thinking. We did our job in the military, and all the efforts were admirable and "not in vain". However, the process of HOW we withdrew was unprecedented and without any consideration for allies or native peoples there. The vacuum that has evolved so quickly is in large part due to that withdraw "strategy". A term I use very loosely. I joined the Marines in 1989 and never have seen a withdraw or repurpose of forces like this...and THAT falls squarely on who is in office right now. From Bush all the way to Biden....this and Iraq is the crap that happens when politicians try to play soldier and don't yield to the experts. And our faithful kids in uniform bear the brunt of cleaning up the disaster....often with great sacrifice. So here we are, once again, putting our young men and women in harms way to try and fix another politically inspired s**tshow. I fear we have not yet seen the loss of American lives that will ultimately result.

[rtb72]

I want to know how you have the most advanced and powerful military in the world training another country for nearly 20 years and as soon as they take off the training wheels they fall apart more easily than a house of cards in the wind despite having a 4-to-1 advantage in troops. What a joke.

If that's how poor they trained the Afghan military, that doesn't exactly paint a rosy picture for the training practices with the US military, especially given all the military failures that the US has had since World War II. Think it's time to sound the alarm on the military and demanding significant structural changes or start cutting funding.

If you think this is the military's fault, you are clueless. Most training of forces was done by contractors. Secondly, the troops that eat the dust and dirt know their jobs and do them with excellence. It's politics that often dilute the results of what our military is capable of. I would argue the military setbacks we have endured over the years are more at the feet of our civilian leaders moreso than our military. Putting this on the military is either ignorance or simply trying to spin it so it makes you feel better.

[stokesjokes]

Vaccines might be buying us time to find a treatment. I wear a mast indoors but I’m afraid its a waste of time. Doctor following the Science said if you are wearing a mask and walk into a room with someone smoking and you can smell it your mask mask failed.

Bidens open boarders is doing the most damage now. If we had a real president he would be fast tracking treatments like last one did the vaccine.

I think you’re right in a certain way about the vaccine. I’m disappointed about the possibility of breakthrough infections, but the data is very clear that it at least greatly reduces severity, hospitalization, and death. If everyone’s vaccinated that can be, then it does become basically like the flu as far as risk and severity, maybe even less risk.

[TH Spangler]

Military leadership has been politicized if you ask me. It was recently fundamentally changed. It needs another overhaul.

[thepostman]

Are you talking about civilian leaders in the defense dept that are appointed by the President or are you talking about military leaders? If it is the former, then yes those positions are always political. That is nothing new. If you are talking about the latter then I would respectfully disagree. Are there some bad military leaders? of course. But the vast majority are some of the most amazing people you will meet.

Everybody in the military is well aware of how the ebbs and flows of what is going on at the White House will alter things but I am on my 3rd Commander in Chief at this point and in the grand scheme of things, things haven't changed THAT much. We still have the strongest, most resilient military in the world and I am proud of them and their service.

[TH Spangler]

I like to watch the DNC network CNN once in a while. This is who they chose to be their expert guest today. This is a 2018 article about him. Many more about him can be goggled. If the Bible is true you will start hearing more and more about interfaith. Just a thought. One world religion could easly take root within this group.


https://www.wave3.com/story/37684636/ar ... the-quran/

[TH Spangler]

Vaccines might be buying us time to find a treatment. I wear a mast indoors but I’m afraid its a waste of time. Doctor following the Science said if you are wearing a mask and walk into a room with someone smoking and you can smell it your mask mask failed.

Bidens open boarders is doing the most damage now. If we had a real president he would be fast tracking treatments like last one did the vaccine.

I think you’re right in a certain way about the vaccine. I’m disappointed about the possibility of breakthrough infections, but the data is very clear that it at least greatly reduces severity, hospitalization, and death. If everyone’s vaccinated that can be, then it does become basically like the flu as far as risk and severity, maybe even less risk.

Stokes this is one of the best vids I've seen on how the vaccine works. Basically turns on your immune system temporarily. How many boosters are you willing to take? Trump would be full on pressing cure/treatment.

[TH Spangler]

Are you talking about civilian leaders in the defense dept that are appointed by the President or are you talking about military leaders?

Obama cleaned house and his appointments reflect his ideology. We're paying the price today. So both.

[stokesjokes]

I get a flu shot every year, I’ve had boosters of plenty of other vaccines, I’m not that worried about it. Hopefully it’s a placeholder until something better is developed. We got lucky that they had decades of research to build off to make this vaccine. It will take some time to identify and develop better therapeutics and I’m doubtful we’ll ever get to full-blown “cure.” We don’t really have those for other viruses either.

Also, you’ve gotta think bigger than Biden/Trump dichotomies here. This is a global pandemic. Everyone around the globe is throwing weight behind developing treatments and preventatives. Don’t get me wrong, I think Project Warp Speed helped us get large amounts of vaccines available to the American public quickly, but it’s not like they were even developed in America.

[rtb72]

Are you talking about civilian leaders in the defense dept that are appointed by the President or are you talking about military leaders?

Obama cleaned house and his appointments reflect his ideology. We're paying the price today. So both.

ALL Presidents have disregarded or dismissed military leaders they didn't agree with or didn't "tow the line". I have the utmost respect for Colin Powell and General Maddis. Both of these men were excellent and competent leaders who should have been listened to...but because they weren't admiring the vision of civilian leadership at the time...they were disregarded or dismissed. This is just two examples. Military leaders know that they hold the lives of thousands of young men and women in their hands. They respect and appreciate that. Some of our leaders fail to recognize the cost associated with military action or inaction, and play it like some kind of game...to them, it is a game (political). And I have seen it with disgust by Rs and Ds! So I would disagree that it was Obama or any one leader who contributed to our military issues.

[paradox]

This one has the potential to come back and bite Biden hard. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out, but it's not looking good. Really weird decision-making. Gotta wonder?

[olldflame]

I get a flu shot every year, I’ve had boosters of plenty of other vaccines, I’m not that worried about it. Hopefully it’s a placeholder until something better is developed. We got lucky that they had decades of research to build off to make this vaccine. It will take some time to identify and develop better therapeutics and I’m doubtful we’ll ever get to full-blown “cure.” We don’t really have those for other viruses either.

Also, you’ve gotta think bigger than Biden/Trump dichotomies here. This is a global pandemic. Everyone around the globe is throwing weight behind developing treatments and preventatives. Don’t get me wrong, I think Project Warp Speed helped us get large amounts of vaccines available to the American public quickly, but it’s not like they were even developed in America.

We have never developed a vaccine for HIV, yet a diagnosis with that disease has gone from being an absolute death sentence to something which is now deemed to be quite manageable.

[stokesjokes]

They’ve even got HIV prep drugs now, which are really good preventatives. Hopefully we’ll see more effective stuff developed, but it took decades and millions of deaths before getting there with HIV. Hopeful that we can get COVID under control quickly.

[TH Spangler]

This one has the potential to come back and bite Biden hard. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out, but it's not looking good. Really weird decision-making. Gotta wonder?

Getting worse by the hour. One of the ladies I know who spent 10 years over there working with girls posted that the Taliban and ISIS have obtained our biometric eqip and are preforming eye scans to see who work with us. You have to think China has finger prints on some of this.

[paradox]

Media outlets are reporting that the Taliban is going to door to door in search of US allies. 60K lives in immediate danger. .....due to crazy chaotic exit strategy....Biden press conference @3:45

[TH Spangler]

https://www.outkick.com/taliban-spokesm ... 1629130447

[paradox]

Biden press conference virtually incomprehensible. Guy creates a disaster. Then blames the victim. Seems confused. Incompetence on a very high level. Prez has zero professional talent.

[thepostman]

Though I didn't get all of that from his speech, you can't say the buck stops with me and then 2 minutes later deflect. I obviously don't think this is all his fault but that speech is not that time to point that out.

[Purple Haize]

Sorry not sorry but this Afghan debacle is squarely on Biden. To blame this on anyone else is a cop out. Biden gave the orders. Biden made a move when no move needed to be made. Next in line should be his Military Advisors on the situation, starting with the Sec Deg followed by Miley. Either resign because of policy difference or sheer incompetence. They knew this was coming for 7 months and they have demonstrated a failure of leadership every step of the way. People we promised to protect are going to die because of this. People who have helped us for twenty years are going to be raped beheaded and sold into slavery. All of this could have been avoided by doing nothing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. But leave it to the man who has been wrong on every foreign policy matter in his life

[thepostman]

If it ain't broke?? What are you talking about?

[Purple Haize]

If it ain't broke?? What are you talking about?

How many combat deaths did we have in Afghanistan the last 2 years?
By every measure the Taliban was contained. Everyone was on board with the fact that the US would always have a residual 2-3000 person force there to bolster the Afghan Army and continue what had become a very successful mission. We had finally figured out what success looked like in Afghanistan and were prepared and willing to invest in it. Until The Biden Administration pulled this out of there butt

[stokesjokes]

Obviously since I’m a pacifist, I don’t think we should have military forces in Afghanistan, but this seemed to have been done with no consideration for the people. There’s a right way to withdraw, and this wasn’t it. This seems like it was a show. We should have taken all the refugees this country can hold first.

[LU 57]

This one has the potential to come back and bite Biden hard. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out, but it's not looking good. Really weird decision-making. Gotta wonder?

Disappearing for the weekend was not a good look. Press secretary had an out of office message on her email. Terrible optics.

[rtb72]

Biden press conference virtually incomprehensible. Guy creates a disaster. Then blames the victim. Seems confused. Incompetence on a very high level. Prez has zero professional talent.

I will say this. He flat out lied about the Afghans not being willing. The reason there have been fewer to no US casualties the last 18 months is because the Afghan regulars had taken over the ground fighting WITH US air support and tactical planning, which we withdrew in the middle of the night without even letting our allies know! Secondly, to provide extraneous babble about why we would not bring innocents out before withdrawing of troops is simply without justification. He tried to blame it on the Afghans and "our credibility", but that fails miserably if you have any regard for noncombatants lives. The press conference was not a good look at all. He should have just said he messed up the withdrawal and leave it at that. Blaming, deflecting, and then laying a lot of it on the Afghans is reprehensible. I want even get started on everyone from his administration being on vacation during this crisis.

[lynchburgwildcats]

If it ain't broke?? What are you talking about?

How many combat deaths did we have in Afghanistan the last 2 years?
By every measure the Taliban was contained. Everyone was on board with the fact that the US would always have a residual 2-3000 person force there to bolster the Afghan Army and continue what had become a very successful mission. We had finally figured out what success looked like in Afghanistan and were prepared and willing to invest in it. Until The Biden Administration pulled this out of there butt

Trump was the one to initiate the plans to start the withdrawal, Biden just continued to carry it out. Though I’m going to assume parts of it changed along the way, not that I would be privy to what any of the “plan”
Was.

And if the USA needs to be in a never ending war in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from taking over, that’s not success. In less than a week, the Taliban went from having control of half the country to taking over the whole dang country with barely any resistance at all from the Afghan military that had been trained by the US for nearly 20 years. That’s a failure of the highest order.