rgio wrote:

I do appreciate black321's point.  One US neighbourhood is very different from another.    At one level, numbers do not matter so much as competence, energy, purpose and neighbourhood cohesion.   That comes from special interest/grass roots politics 101.  

Funny though to think of an Aussie making hay while deliberately and successfully misleading Americans.   Well maybe not so funny.  Like it ain't funny when large numbers of Canadians fall for the Trump movement rhetoric.    

 black321 wrote:
You mean like the folks attacking school board members for attempting to protect teachers and their own children by having them wear masks?

The idiots are getting into office based on the votes of those good people in your neighborhood.   To get your neighbors to act irrationally, all you have to do is tell them their Constitutional right to freedom is being violated.  No facts are required.   It took an outsider (Australian) to figure out how to get rich saying that... and down we go!!!

 miamizsun wrote: 
Hello. Wears blinders and feeds on itself. Them and they, curds and whey. Plus its excruciatingly boring...

 rgio wrote:i would agree in general that partisan nuttery is the norm
and for the most part it is toxic
principled thought/behavior should play a larger role in leadership
politicians come and go, but policy hangs around
and our foreign policy leaves a lot to be desired

 rgio wrote:
Idiots are/have been in control, but as long as we have good people in the neighborhoods and streets, we are not lost, just sidetracked. 

 miamizsun wrote:
Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in Feb of last year and ran for re-election on his ability to end the war. 

Biden ran for election saying he was getting out.

Only when there are pictures of people in turbans carrying guns does anyone in the US (or the rest of the world) worry about human rights.

It's amazing to watch the "America First" crowd suggest they would never have done this.  They applauded when he did these things... yet want to crucify Biden for doing exactly what they've been wanting for years.

We're lost.  The idiots are now running the asylum.  

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:

that and i'm freaking gobsmacked that we left (or are leaving) a bunch of people behind to face the hoard/barbarians
women/girls especially will suffer the giant leap backwards in human rights
trying to change someone's philosophy with force, violence and coercion is a giant flashing sign of stupidity
one hundred eighty degrees of changing the human operating OS
and yet this isn't obvious to the US or the taliban
expect human flourishing to evaporate 
just so disappointed

 Steely_D wrote: 
Agreed, though I still can't believe the allies put their faith in the local police force to hold off the Taliban while they made an orderly evacuation. That there is the very definition of western hubris.
 

I appreciate 
1) no one has bothered to do this in 20 years although we all knew it was necessary
2) he didn’t leave it to the next President, sparing us from sending more soldiers over on a fool’s errand
3) if, after twenty years, the nation still wasn’t ready, then they weren’t going to be ready and we were wasting our resources (and citizens)

 westslope wrote: 
doh!

 kurtster wrote:
In the last 20 years over 200,000 more settlers have established homes and communities in now an over half a century long Israeli occupation of the West Bank.    Is that not what the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was all about?

 VV wrote:
The Chinese and Russians negotiated conditions for keeping their embassies open.

The USA will do the same one day after the sting of defeat and failure wears off.

 steeler wrote:
Yea, wouldn't that be something that would have been discussed and game-planned every which way to Sunday? Interestingly, I heard that the China & Russian embassies are not evacuating and are staying put. 

 VV wrote:
He said in his speech just now that he and his administration were taken by surprise by the speed of the Taliban takeover, but not the takeover itself, which he said they knew was possible and they planned for as a contingency. Interestingly, he revealed that Afghan officials in Kabul inveighed upon he and his administration to hold off on starting an evacuation because they feared it would create a crisis of confidence.

I think there clearly was an intelligence failure. I read earlier today that leaders in Afghan localities had been talking with Taliban about surrendering for weeks/months now.  Our guys were not aware this was going on?

So who wants to ask our military intelligence why they didn't anticipate/see this playing out the way it is? Or did they see it but misjudged the speed at which everything would collapse?
 
I'm thinking it is the second scenario but it's not a good situation any way you cut it. If it comes out that Joe was warned that this could play out this way and he dismissed the warnings until the very last minute... then yeah... he's got some 'splaining to do. 

I have rather profound reservations about the withdrawal and what is happening now in Afghanistan. That said, that was a strong speech by  Biden.

 kurtster wrote:
Indefensible. The deal made by Generalissimo Trump clearly said May 1st 2021. Was Joe asleep for more than 3 months?

 kurtster wrote:

is there ever a graceful way to end a fool's errand?

So who wants to defend Biden's handling of Afghanistan ?

It would be nice to have separate elections for the Head of State and the Head of Government.