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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 2
He shouldn't run. What Jill is doing to him now is pretty much elder abuse.
He's not up to the job, not now, and never really was, not even in his prime.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-second-term-mi...But the best reason not to run is for the patriotic good of the country. The world is growing more dangerous by the week, and the U.S. faces more formidable adversaries than any time since the height of the Cold War. It will take more than a figurehead President to confront and counter them. In 2008 Hillary Clinton ran an ad saying that she was prepared to take a 3 a.m. phone call in a crisis. Could an 84-year-old Joe Biden take a 3 p.m. call?
Enemies size up leaders as much as they do nations when they make their calculations to seize territory or seek other strategic advantage. There is a strong case to believe that Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in part because he judged that Mr. Biden lacked the determination to resist after his retreat from Afghanistan. Xi Jinping will not shrink from exploiting Mr. Biden out of Chinese respect for his elders.The problem the democrats have is they've got absolutely zero bench strength.
VP Harris? Demonstrably unfit for the job.
Newsome? Presiding over California's first ever population loss.
Who else? A litany of undistinguished Senators, perhaps. But almost no one of any substance. They'd have to reach into corporate America for a Bob Eiger or somebody who could at least demonstrate some nominal skill in something.
No. of Recommendations: 16
Dope1: There is a strong case to believe that Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in part because he judged that Mr. Biden lacked the determination to resist after his retreat from Afghanistan. Xi Jinping will not shrink from exploiting Mr. Biden out of Chinese respect for his elders.
What a load of horsesh!t. Trump wanted to invite the Taliban to Camp David, for crying out loud.
Who approved the Doha Agreement that was negotiated with the Taliban (not the Afghan government)?
Who pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison?
Who drew down American troops in Afghanistan from over 10,000 to 8,500, to 4,500 to 2,500.
Who left office with the Taliban in the strongest position they'd been in in almost 20 years?
Who said: 'I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn't stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn't stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn't stop the process.'
If you guys are so sure Biden will be a drooling mess during the campaign, you should be begging him to run for reelection.
And isn't it interesting that you guys want to elect a president who'll immediately give Ukraine to Russia, fire every government employee who refuses to sign a pledge to Der Trump, and will leave NATO, among a wide range of other anti-American actions.
No. of Recommendations: 2
What a load of horsesh!t. Trump wanted to invite the Taliban to Camp David, for crying out loud.
What's that got to do with Putin rolling tanks into the Ukraine? Oh, right. Not a thing.
And Biden just handed Afghanistan to the Taliban without even so much as a how-do-you-do.
I have to give you credit. The Biden admin has been 1 predictable farce after another from the get-go, yet here you go stepping into the van.
Let's see what else you have:
Who said: 'I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn't stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn't stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn't stop the process.'
Who could have put more troops in and didn't? Who left billions of dollars and thousands of Americans behind? Whose negligence and chaotic retreat resulted in several deaths?
That'd be Biden.
Biden wasn't constrained in the slightest by Doha. You may or may not know this, but every President can make decisions on his/her own. Except this one, of course.
And isn't it interesting that you guys want to elect a president who'll immediately give Ukraine to Russia, fire every government employee who refuses to sign a pledge to Der Trump, and will leave NATO, among a wide range of other anti-American actions.
Which candidate is this?
You should talk to real people, instead of the out of phase voices that come from...somewhere. Seriously, guy. Enough already.
No. of Recommendations: 11
And Biden just handed Afghanistan to the Taliban without even so much as a how-do-you-do.
Just for the record:
Trump, not Biden, negoatiated directly with the Taliban and excluded the Afghan Army.
Trump, not Biden, drew down American forces from 13,000 to 2,000 making them vulnerable to attack.
Trump, not Biden, order the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison, one of whom would become the leader of Afghanistan.
Trump, not Biden, advocated inviting the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of September 11th. Seriously.
Trump, not Biden, agreed to a May 1st exit from Afghanistan, then bragged that he didn't need an exit 'strategy'.
Trump, not Biden, refused to brief the incoming administration on the situation in Afghanistan.
Trump, not Biden, shut down every airbase in Afghanistan, leaving the air force with only one, easily targeted by the Taliban.
Please pay attention. It's not that hard, reputable newspapers and outlets have actual information, not Trumpist fantasies.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Just for the record:
Trump, not Biden, negoatiated directly with the Taliban and excluded the Afghan Army.
Trump, not Biden, drew down American forces from 13,000 to 2,000 making them vulnerable to attack.
Trump, not Biden, order the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison, one of whom would become the leader of Afghanistan.
Trump, not Biden, advocated inviting the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of September 11th. Seriously.
Trump, not Biden, agreed to a May 1st exit from Afghanistan, then bragged that he didn't need an exit 'strategy'.
Trump, not Biden, refused to brief the incoming administration on the situation in Afghanistan.
Trump, not Biden, shut down every airbase in Afghanistan, leaving the air force with only one, easily targeted by the Taliban.- goofy
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And Biden was powerless to change any of it. And he tossed in Bagram Airbase as deal sweetener.
No. of Recommendations: 9
And Biden was powerless to change any of it. And he tossed in Bagram Airbase as deal sweetener.
Actually, politically yes. The American people wanted out. The military wanted out. We had already been there for 20 years . Deciding to go the other way and build up a fighting force large enough to matter would have taken years, and it was not clear that we had any way to execute 'victory' in any meaningful way anyway.
Best way to stop digging yourself into a hole is to stop digging.
Even Trump recognized that, but he was clever enough to leave Biden with an untenable situation. The exit was badly handled, true, but then nearly every war that doesn't end with overwhelming, massive victory ends that way. See: Vietnam, German forces leaving France in WWII, German forces leaving Russia in WWII, etc.
(No matter how many out airlift out, there are going to be more that want to go. I'm glad we got the USians, and a reasonable number of Afghans, but after that *truly* I don't care - except for the humanitarian side of me. However the realistic side of me is that Trump handed Biden a plate of crap, and Biden disposed of it. Probably got a little on him, and to Trumpies, incapable of realpolitik, gave them something to laugh at.
No. of Recommendations: 5
And Biden was powerless to change any of it.
So you're the guy who knew where they hid the keys to the magical GOP time machine Biden could have used to go back and reverse Cadet Bonespur's genius maneuvers?
You and your AR15s and Trump; faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap facts at a single bound.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The exit was badly handled, true,
That's the summary of it. The rest is window dressing.
Nobody told Joe Biden he had to abruptly withdraw in the most slipshod way possible, on an arbitrary timeline, and by 9/11 of that year.
He wanted to score some political points, plain and simple. Only the images of his Foreign Policy triumph will forever be people falling off the landing gear of C-17s.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Just for the record:
Uh, huh. You're deflecting.
Your entire post pretends that Biden wasn't actually President. The withdrawal deal has conditions. Were these conditions being met? Don't think so.
There was no fixed date. Biden wanted a foreign policy win. Instead in his rush to bail he left behind billions of dollars of weapons for the Taliban and THOUSANDS of Americans. Not to mention Afghan allies.
Biden for some reason keeps stranding Americans in foreign countries. Why is that?
No. of Recommendations: 3
Dope1: There was no fixed date...The withdrawal deal has conditions. Were these conditions being met? Don't think so.
The DOHA Agreement, negotiated by Mike Pompeo with the Taliban and approved by Donald Trump, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces. Adhering to the conditions of the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of US air raids, leaving the ANDSF without a key advantage in keeping the Taliban at bay. This resulted in 'a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population'. ANDSF was ill-prepared to sustain security following a US withdrawal, which allowed for the Taliban insurgency, ultimately leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.
The United States also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020.
Insurgent attacks against the Afghan security forces, however, surged in the aftermath of the deal, with thousands killed. However, withdrawals per the agreement continued. By January 2021, just 2,500 US troops remained in the country, and NATO forces fully evacuated by the end of that summer.
At the same time negotiators were working with the Taliban, Trump kept telling the media he was reducing troops to 7,000 or 5,000 or whatever number he decided to pull out of his @ss, hamstringing his own negotiators.
Trump did that.
Trump intentionally handed Biden ten pounds of sh!t in a five-pound bag and Biden got his hands dirty. Congratulations.
Did Biden made mistakes? Sure, it was going to be messy under the best of circumstances and he was dealing with the worst of circumstances. That's why no previous president would actually complete the withdrawal. They were all afraid of getting their hands dirty, including Trump. Biden made a promise to get the troops home and kept his promise.
Dope1: Instead in his rush to bail he left behind billions of dollars of weapons for the Taliban and THOUSANDS of Americans.
So, you expected us to FedEx the weapons home? Weapons are always left behind. The military's job is to render them useless. Republicans trotted out Taliban propaganda suggesting the weapons are as good as new... but that's what republicans do, dontchaknow.
For months, the State Department ordered government employees at the U.S. embassy in Kabul to leave and urged Americans in the country to get out. Everyone there knew the end was coming and coming soon. But not everybody wanted to leave or actively made an effort to get out.
Dope1: Biden for some reason keeps stranding Americans in foreign countries. Why is that?
Republicans keep making sh!t up. Why is that?
No. of Recommendations: 2
You're assuming there was an effective Afghan army. There really wasn't.
Why do you keep deflecting blame from Biden? He did this. It's on him. Full stop.
I love how you people try to pretend that Trump was President in 2021. You sly election deniers, you.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Speaking of disasters, wonder how things are going in the Sudan?
No. of Recommendations: 3
The withdrawal deal has conditions. Were these conditions being met? Biden for some reason keeps stranding Americans in foreign countries. Why is that?
Questions that must be asked in Tucker Carlson's absence to flood the zone with shit.
No. of Recommendations: 4
You're assuming there was an effective Afghan army. There really wasn't.
Why do you keep deflecting blame from Biden
Over and over, ignoring what Trump did wrt Afghanistan...it's like cyber-flatulence.
No. of Recommendations: 6
Speaking of disasters, wonder how things are going in the Sudan?
With the steady headlines of mass shooting in the Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, etc, people in civilized nations are asking the same question about the USA.
No. of Recommendations: 0
At least the Taliban got a nice weapons build up on your dime.
I guess Biden is their Reagan. He'll be one of their favorite Presidents.
