We're out of Afghanistan!

[Irwin]

... and a full day ahead of schedule! Our plans to leave were established more than a year ago, so anyone who's left behind and wanted to get out should have acted sooner. We evacuated over 120,000 people over the past four months.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/30/world/afghanistan-news

We have our own problems to deal with. Most of us have had enough of dumping money into other countries that doesn't do them any good and for what seems to be solely for the purpose of enriching U.S. military contractors. That seems to be the common thread with most of U.S. interventions in other countries and the overthrowing of their governments. We're only in it for corporate interests.

It's kind of fitting that we killed some innocent civilians on our way out, or as they're usually described: collateral damage.

 

[Pepper]

Being out of Afghanistan is a good thing.

 

[Alligatorob]

... and a full day ahead of schedule!

Or 19 years behind...

 

[fmdog44]

It is still horrible to know rights enjoyed by those people will be stripped away.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I believe that withdrawal was the right thing to do but I think that this is far from over.

These people have a much different moral compass than we are used to and I’m afraid of the horrors that are ahead for some of those that were unable to leave.

 

[senior chef]

I believe that withdrawal was the right thing to do but I think that this is far from over.

These people have a much different moral compass than we are used to and I’m afraid of the horrors that are ahead for some of those that were unable to leave.

Not to mention the horrors that are ahead for us in the USA. Make no mistake about it; they will be coming.

 

[SeaBreeze]

Being out of Afghanistan is a good thing.

I agree, I'm glad we're finally out of there, about time.

 

[mellowyellow]

The U.S. and other countries around the world launched an ambitious effort to rebuild Afghanistan and invested billions of dollars to bring about a free, western-style government. Such good intentions, it's very sad.

 

[Alligatorob]

It is still horrible to know rights enjoyed by those people will be stripped away.

Absolutely, it is horrible. But doing anything about it is just beyond our capabilities. Unfortunately there are too many places in the world where the population has few rights...

Such good intentions, it's very sad.

I agree the intentions were good, we just took on an undoable task. It is sad.

 

[JustBonee]

... and a full day ahead of schedule! Our plans to leave were established more than a year ago, so anyone who's left behind and wanted to get out should have acted sooner. We evacuated over 120,000 people over the past four months.

On schedule ... it was the 31st in Afghanistan when the last plane left.
Glad we are out of there.

 

[Don M.]

50 years ago, President Eisenhower warned about the ramifications of our Military Industrial Complex. North Korea, Vietnam, and now Afghanistan have all proven him right.

 

[Irwin]

On schedule ... it was the 31st in Afghanistan when the last plane left.
Glad we are out of there.

It depends on how you look at it. It was a minute before midnight on the 30th in Afghanistan when the last plane took off, but it didn't clear Afghanistan airspace until several minutes later, on the 31st. The article says "a full day early," which is clearly wrong. Who the hell wrote that?

So, good catch.

Then again, we Americans are so self-centered, the agreement may have been in U.S. time.

 

[Packerjohn]

Sure I'm puzzled! Can't figure out why our good neighbours, the Yanks are in Afghanistan in the first place. Also, I can't figure why we crazy Canucks are so glued to the idiot box and so worried about what the "hay" is gonna on over there. People are saying that the Americans had a long war there and they are saying that they have lost this war. HA! So soon everyone has forgotten about Vietnam. How the people were desperate to get into that last flight out of Saigon. What people forget is that if you ignore the lessons of history then you just keep repeating the same "bloody" mistakes over and over and over. Ask this ole' Packer and he would say, better to worry about those "exciting" variants of interests, worry about climate change and maybe other things closer to home. I do believe that Hank Williams had this figured out way back in the late 1940s or the very early 1950s when he wrote and sang these very true lines:

Mindin' other people's business seems to be high-toned
I got all that I can do just to mind my own
Why don't you mind your own business mind your own business
If you mind your own business you'll stay busy all the time

 

[HarryHawk]

Back to where we were Sept 10, 2001.

 

[Aneeda72]

Sure I'm puzzled! Can't figure out why our good neighbours, the Yanks are in Afghanistan in the first place. Also, I can't figure why we crazy Canucks are so glued to the idiot box and so worried about what the "hay" is gonna on over there. People are saying that the Americans had a long war there and they are saying that they have lost this war. HA! So soon everyone has forgotten about Vietnam. How the people were desperate to get into that last flight out of Saigon. What people forget is that if you ignore the lessons of history then you just keep repeating the same "bloody" mistakes over and over and over. Ask this ole' Packer and he would say, better to worry about those "exciting" variants of interests, worry about climate change and maybe other things closer to home. I do believe that Hank Williams had this figured out way back in the late 1940s or the very early 1950s when he wrote and sang these very true lines:

Mindin' other people's business seems to be high-toned
I got all that I can do just to mind my own
Why don't you mind your own business mind your own business
If you mind your own business you'll stay busy all the time

One of the reasons was, as I remember, we thought they were responsible for 911. We were wrong. We thought they had “weapons of mass destruction“ we were wrong-then. Course now we apparently have given them “weapons of mass destruction” and the knowledge of how to use them.

We all know who they will be using those weapons against. And the stupidity of our leaders continues.

 

[Alligatorob]

Can't figure out why our good neighbours, the Yanks are in Afghanistan in the first place.

9/11, Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda staged the attacks from there.

Back to where we were Sept 10, 2001.

I don't think so, we got the perpetrators. Unfortunately we stayed long after that was done. And in staying we may have made something like 9/11 more likely again, or maybe not, only time will tell.

One of the reasons was, as I remember, we thought they were responsible for 911. We were wrong.

You are right the Taliban were not directly responsible for 9/11. That was Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, mostly Saudis living in Afghanistan allied with the Taliban at the time.

 

[HarryHawk]

The new more moderate Taliban --

https://news.yahoo.com/taliban-brutally-killed-popular-afghan-122524484.html

• The Taliban killed a famous Afghan folk singer on Saturday, a former interior minister said.
• Fawad Andarabi was reportedly dragged from his village home and shot dead.
• The killing follows an interview with a Taliban spokesperson who said, "music is forbidden in Islam."

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/a-new-era-of-terror-taliban-flies-us-helicopter-with-a-human-hanging-from-a-rope-below

 

[Shalimar]

Disturbing pic. New fodder for PTSD nightmares. Extremists by their very nature do extreme things. Unlikely to be suddenly struck moderate. Why would the Talibani be any different?

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I agree with much of what others replied here but I feel so sad that Americans and Afghans who helped the U.S. had to be left behind. I shudder to think what will happen to them!

 

[Devi]

I agree with much of what others replied here but I feel so sad that Americans and Afghans who helped the U.S. had to be left behind. I shudder to think what will happen to them!

They didn't have to be left behind; they just were. Along with a lot of equipment the Taliban could use against the populace and perhaps other countries. (But I'm sure you know this.)

Very poorly done, in my opinion.

[Edited to add] I am glad we're out.

 

[Sunny]

I'm also glad we're out of there; it's about time.

And yet, I just read a heartbreaking story about that whole family that got wiped out by a U.S. drone strike. The drone was not aimed at them; it was aimed at a car containing explosives heading to the Kabul airport, which got blown up. But 10 people, 8 of them under the age of 18, were "collateral damage", just minding their own business, doing nothing wrong at all.

So who is right and who is wrong in this kind of situation? It's hard to even know how to feel about it.

 

[hollydolly]

 

[Alligatorob]

But 10 people, 8 of them under the age of 18, were "collateral damage", just minding their own business, doing nothing wrong at all.

Happens in all wars, you can try to limit it but some collateral damage is inevitable. One good reason not to get involved in war except as an absolute necessity of self defense.

 

[oldman]

I know of at least one of the Marines that were killed on Friday in Afghanistan will be buried in Arlington. As a Marine and living only 2:15 north of Arlington and Quantico, I am hoping to attend any and all funeral that are open to us. I have

 

[oldman]

Sorry, double post.