The Scientific Calculation That Kabul Would Fall In Less Than Two Months

[tabs]

All iI had to do is figure out how long it would take the Afghan army to drop 300,000 guns.

[javadog]

He didn’t even take that many. A sizable chunk of the Afghan “army” was only there on paper, no actual bodies behind the names, to allow the leaders to pocket their paychecks too.

I think there is one province that hasn’t laid down their weapons. Whatever tribe lives there has told the Taliban to go **** themselves.

[fintstone]

When we pulled our air support and intel after making their forces dependent upon them...there was no reason to expect them to succeed. Once the new administration stopped allowing contractors into the country to repair the aircraft and stopped providing munitions for the aircraft...they were pretty much expensive paperweights. It is exactly what they did in Iraq when ISIS rolled down out of Syria.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by javadog

He didn’t even take that many. A sizable chunk of the Afghan “army” was only there on paper, no actual bodies behind the names, to allow the leaders to pocket their paychecks too.

I think there is one province that hasn’t laid down their weapons. Whatever tribe lives there has told the Taliban to go **** themselves.

OMG you you...meann that all tjose metrics and stats that the Afghans were telling the DOD about how well their army was doing was a FIB?

They certainly had Biden and whoever was advising him snowed..for him to come on the tube and tout those 300k as a stout forve.

[javadog]

The only reason we stayed in Afghanistan for 20 years was because a lot of people were stealing a lot of money. We will never know where it all went but I would imagine more of it came to the US than stayed in Afghanistan.

[thor66]

inevitable after Rump made his "deal" with the Taliban

[tabs]

Originally Posted by fintstone

When we pulled our air support and intel after making their forces dependent upon them...there was no reason to expect them to succeed. Once the new administration stopped allowing contractors into the country to repair the aircraft and stopped providing munitions for the aircraft...they were pretty much expensive paperweights. It is exactly what they did in Iraq when ISIS rolled down out of Syria.

So you think that the Afghans army would have succeeded if the US didnt ditch them.

Clue you they were never going to succeed. It was all about milking the USA for everything they could get.

When Afghan had a king , he was more less elected by the warlords..having little power except to settle disputes. There never has been a central govt in Afghan.

The Tallyban even got a taste of that money. In the footage of the Tallys in the Presidential place one of them was sporting a very expensive 308 AR..maybe a Knights sr25..thats a 5k rifle. He was promiently showing it.

[javadog]

Not a chance, unless we exterminated the Taliban first.

And, maybe, we could’ve listened to the boots on the ground more, I’m sure they had a better handle on what was really going on than the clowns in Washington.

It would’ve helped if Biden had brought the Taliban to the table and finished the deal, but that wasn’t an option apparently. That was a point where the Afghan government was going to get a steak in it and that never happened.

[javadog]

I think we should’ve kept a small force at Bagram, to use as a jumping off point for exterminating any terrorist activity that pops up in the area. It could’ve been a mixture of air assets, boots on the ground, spooks, whatever someone that was engaged thought would’ve been effective.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by thor66

inevitable after Rump made his "deal" with the Taliban

BS..Trump is just stupid..he thinks with his art of deal he can make a deal with the devil..

From day one in country the USA was gona fail just like Alexander the Brits and USSR.

Your fked up thiinking belies that you think with the right leadership the USA could have succeeded.
WRONG..the moment the US went in with the big bureaucratic foot print..the USA lost.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by javadog

I think we should’ve kept a small force at Bagram, to use as a jumping off point for exterminating any terrorist activity that pops up in the area. It could’ve been a mixture of air assets, boots on the ground, spooks, whatever someone that was engaged thought would’ve been effective.

The Brits lost an entire army up beyond the Khyber Pass.. Alexander couldnt get er done and he was the best ever. So what makes Americans any better?

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by tabs

The Brits lost an entire army up beyond the Khyber Pass.. Alexander couldnt get er done and he was the best ever. So what makes Americans any better?

Because they are. Turn them loose on any enemy and see.

[oldE]

Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Best
Les

[jyl]

Was time to leave - was time a decade ago actually. Afghanistan has never been a country, it’s always been a bunch of tribal fiefs sometimes held together by force but never in spirit. We gave them billions of dollars and too many American lives. They failed to make a country. So be it. We made a deal with the Taliban last year, pulled out most of our troops, had a May 2021 deadline to go. Only alternative to finishing the withdrawal would have been to send 10,000s of US troops back in - no f-king way. Four Presidents over twenty years tried to find a solution. The Soviets tried, the British tried, there isn’t one. Over, done.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by tabs

The Brits lost an entire army up beyond the Khyber Pass.. Alexander couldnt get er done and he was the best ever. So what makes Americans any better?

Flight and assorted other technologies.

_

[oldE]

I remember thinking when the Soviets went into Afghanistan, "Here is their Viet Nam" As mentioned above, the place has been where empires go to die.
You can suppress hostile activity from the air, but you will not control all activity all the time.
Why spend that kind of money to change the culture of a region half way around the world?
Why would you try to use force to try to reshape a people into your idea of what a country should be?
The idea 20 years ago was to pacify an area which supported terrorism. It turned out to be a trillion dollar game of whack a mole.
It probably would have been cheaper to offer free flights out and a new life for anyone who wanted to escape back then.

Best
Les

[TCracingCA]

The Mujahideen just like living in the mountains, forced goat marriages, and just fighting whoever comes along. A real problem when you can't get cable or internet and you can't even go out for fast food!

[oldE]

That's probably why they're in Kabul now, for the internet.


Best
Les

[tabs]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Because they are. Turn them loose on any enemy and see.

Ohhh BS. You can have the very best weapons systems but when run by fools you lose.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by tabs

Ohhh BS. You can have the very best weapons systems but when run by fools you lose.

Nah...we were told it was impossible to defeat the Taliban in 2001...it took two months to topple the regime when our troops were turned loose. The same happened in Iraq. It took a few months in the Gulf War in 1991 and then again in 2003. Then, in each case, the politicians put a muzzle on our military and made them occupiers...neither bringing them home nor allowing them to root out and destroy the enemy. We were told that the ISIS "Caliphate" was impossible to defeat, and our political class played footsie with them for years until a new President decided to get serious about shutting down the group...and rolled up/destroyed the Caliphate in a few months. The Taliban only exist because we allow it. They could be eradicated in months if we had the will.