We're out of Afghanistan!

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I had a long conversation with an old friend named Ghulam who immigrated to the US from Afghanistan back in 1997. We worked for the same company for about 6 years. He's talked to several friends and family still in Afghanistan.

This is what they told him : They love America for what it did for them over the past 20 years. They are disappointed and very angry that the Afghan military leaders ordered all soldiers to relinquish their weapons to the Taliban, but they understand that no one had a choice. The Taliban was able to achieve a quick take-over because, as soon as they knew the US was set to pull out, they sent hundreds of heavily armed Taliban soldiers to surround the Afghan government's offices. They held gov't officials at gunpoint and forced a surrender, giving gov't officials a choice to either die or leave the country. The Afghan president was ordered at gunpoint to order the Afghan military to surrender their weapons and vehicles. A few government officials were killed by Taliban soldiers. Killings and abductions are ongoing.

(and this is me talking...) Our primary mission was to rid Afghanistan of terrorist training camps. That's the only connection our objective had to the 9-11 attacks. We were successful. Another objective was to protect the rights of Afghan citizens. We achieved that objective until the Taliban successfully usurped the Afghan government while the US military was busy hastily organizing an earlier-than-planned withdrawal.
 
Aneeda72 said:
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.
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Glad you used leaders plural since the original reason fell by the wayside & the loss of life continued. What we don't know now is, what's next?
 

I was with the understanding that our main mission was to find and kill bin Laden, which I would have gladly done had I had the opportunity to do so. Once we knew he was hiding in Pakistan, we should have left Afghanistan.
 
Aneeda72 said:
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.
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Actually, the U.S. knew it was a Muslim terrorist group that committed 9-11 from the tapes in the airport. al qaeda was responsible for 911 with bin Laden taking responsibility.

The weapons of mass destruction were thought to be hidden in Iraq.
 
oldman said:
I was with the understanding that our main mission was to find and kill bin Laden, which I would have gladly done had I had the opportunity to do so. Once we knew he was hiding in Pakistan, we should have left Afghanistan.
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Our primary mission in Afghanistan was to rid it of terrorist training camps. That's the only connection our objective had to the 9-11 attacks and Bin-Laden. We'd already been in Afghanistan for 10 years before Bin-Laden was found and killed. His killing wasn't a reason for us to leave.
 
oldman said:
Actually, the U.S. knew it was a Muslim terrorist group that committed 9-11 from the tapes in the airport. al qaeda was responsible for 911 with bin Laden taking responsibility.

The weapons of mass destruction were thought to be hidden in Iraq.
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It was long ago, I do not really care anymore
 
Murrmurr said:
(and this is me talking...) Our primary mission was to rid Afghanistan of terrorist training camps. That's the only connection our objective had to the 9-11 attacks. We were successful. Another objective was to protect the rights of Afghan citizens. We achieved that objective until the Taliban successfully usurped the Afghan government while the US military was busy hastily organizing an earlier-than-planned withdrawal.
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Actually, the agreed upon withdrawal date in the Doha Agreement was May 1, 2021. That was extended to August 31st by the current administration.
 
Irwin said:
Actually, the agreed upon withdrawal date in the Doha Agreement was May 1, 2021. That was extended to August 31st by the current administration.
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The Pentagon was, to put it mildly, extremely reluctant to withdraw at all. Among the most seasoned officers were many who opposed a withdrawal, and probably all of them knew the Taliban would move right in. But they want to focus on the China Sea right now.

Besides, we knew as well as the Taliban did that neither side intended to keep their end of the Doha bargain. That was garbage.
 
I just heard 75% of the Afghan population is under 25 years. So they have never lived under their rule. What a shock that is going to be and I wonder if they revolt/protest they will be slaughtered by the thousands.
 
Murrmurr said:
The Pentagon was, to put it mildly, extremely reluctant to withdraw at all. Among the most seasoned officers were many who opposed a withdrawal, and probably all of them knew the Taliban would move right in. But they want to focus on the China Sea right now.

Besides, we knew as well as the Taliban did that neither side intended to keep their end of the Doha bargain. That was garbage.
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I still can't believe that the U.S. agreed to the provision in the Doha Agreement that we release 5,000 hard-core terrorists from prison in exchange for the Taliban refraining from attacking us while we were leaving. That's frickin' crazy!

But thank god we're out of there. We can still blow up people using drones flown in from elsewhere. And the neanderthal religious tribes can fight each other with the weapons we left behind.
 
Good to be out of there, very bad way to do it. Hasty, disorganized, 6 service members and many civilians dead. American passport holders left behind. Afghanis who helped the US left behind. Chaotic. Humiliating. Where does that buck stop now?
 
To paraphrase Arnold Schwarzenegger, "We'll be back..."

What choice will we have once Afghanistan is a full-fledged terrorist sanctuary again? (I don't mean that we'll reoccupy Afghanistan, but we will certainly be conducting air and ground missions there in the future.)

Going in may have been dumb. Leaving (imho) was dumber. A very small investment in troops -- less than a division -- plus air support could have kept the Taliban out forever. Until last week we had zero combat fatalities in more than a year.

We've been in South Korea for 70 years with many more troops. That's kept the North from invading, which they certainly would have in our absence.

Our departure was conducted in a hasty, disorganized, shameful manner. Our allies would be silly to trust us again and our enemies would be foolish to fear us again.

I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but my brain is full of unpopular opinions. (For example, I prefer Steely Dan to the Eagles.)
 
100-200 Americans left behind as we put our tail between our legs & run .... Disgraceful !!

63 billion dollars worth of equipment & weapons left behind as well. Not only the cost but the current technology just turned over too our enemy .

Anyone other than myself have concerns about the upcoming 9/11 20 year anniversary ?
 
rgp said:
Anyone other than myself have concerns about the upcoming 9/11 20 year anniversary ?
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I live in NYC. I have no concerns about the 20th anniversary.

Most of the people left behind want to stay. They are Afghani-Americans and have reasons not to leave. They have dual loyalties as their families live there. Should their family members be allowed to come here & live? I don't know.
 
Pepper said:
I live in NYC. I have no concerns about the 20th anniversary.

Most of the people left behind want to stay. They are Afghani-Americans and have reasons not to leave. They have dual loyalties as their families live there. Should their family members be allowed to come here & live? I don't know.
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Pepper, how do you know that? Maybe they were afraid to go to the airport due to Taliban beatings, massive delays, suicide bombers and other reasons. Our State Department was telling people not to come to the airport while also saying that "anyone who wanted to leave" had left.
 
We spent 20 years and multiple billions in trying to force our way of life on a nation with different ethnic, religious, and political values. And for all that we attempted to do in Afghanistan was swept away in just a few days. For the US and its allies, Afghanistan is going to be a problem if we stayed, or left.
 
JimBob1952 said:
Pepper, how do you know that? Maybe they were afraid to go to the airport due to Taliban beatings, massive delays, suicide bombers and other reasons. Our State Department was telling people not to come to the airport while also saying that "anyone who wanted to leave" had left.
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Gotta admit I heard this over & over from CNN, ABC, MSNBC. I'm sure there are a mixture of reasons. I think when some people hear there are "Americans" left behind, like blonde, blue-eyed cheerleaders on a school trip, that's what they picture.

This is a war-like situation and really bad things happen to civilians. Maybe they shouldn't have gone to "visit" during a war.
 
Extending the withdrawal timeline means planning should have eliminated leaving behind documents, technology & equipment all useable by the Taliban. Doesn't seem like questioning that lack in planning is on the minds of investigative journalists or congressional committees.
 
Murrmurr said:
Our primary mission in Afghanistan was to rid it of terrorist training camps. That's the only connection our objective had to the 9-11 attacks and Bin-Laden. We'd already been in Afghanistan for 10 years before Bin-Laden was found and killed. His killing wasn't a reason for us to leave.
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I respectfully disagree.
 

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