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Afghan War ending, foretold by The Onion 10 years Ago [DT thread ruined by politics]

crash_davis

By crash_davis
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CHIEF
CHIEF

One of CHIEF Jr.'s best friends (a Marine) just got orders they are shipping out to Kabul in 24 hours. The thing he is worried about is exactly who is in the Hummer that pulls up beside you. It's goin

wildcat09
wildcat09

Counterproposal: let's let all Afghan women in who want to come and let's send you to Afghanistan.

Muy Frio
Muy Frio

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

WTF?

The Taliban raped and beat a gay man in Kabul after tricking him into a meeting with a promise of escape from Afghanistan, says report

https://www.yahoo.com/news/taliban-raped-beat-gay-man-081611760.html

Note to self, do not fall for the old Kabul sheriff's roundup phone call, "Mr. Lobo, you have won a brand new center-console saltwater fishing boat from Kabul Sport & Ski.  Please come to the following address on Saturday to collect your prize."  

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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19431

Posted
Posted
On 9/4/2021 at 9:42 AM, Lobo said:

Note to self, do not fall for the old Kabul sheriff's roundup phone call, "Mr. Lobo, you have won a brand new center-console saltwater fishing boat from Kabul Sport & Ski.  Please come to the following address on Saturday to collect your prize."  

damn, they'd have gotten me for sure with the center console. I'd have been up there getting gang raped in a Columbia fishing shirt and flip flops. 

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52-80

52-80 19268

Posted
Posted

NYT investigsting says our drone bomb targeted a long-time US-ally doing humanitarian work for NGO.  His family had also applied for asylum 1 week before?  They had *extensive* video footage of him documenting movement of every minute of every day. 
 

we have remote capabilities to target a drone bomb but not visual capabilities to have accurately assessed that “threat”

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DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt

DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, 52-80 said:

NYT investigsting says our drone bomb targeted a long-time US-ally doing humanitarian work for NGO.  His family had also applied for asylum 1 week before?  They had *extensive* video footage of him documenting movement of every minute of every day. 
 

we have remote capabilities to target a drone bomb but not visual capabilities to have accurately assessed that “threat”

What a perfect disaster to end a 20 year disaster of a war.

”at least we did…something.”

- @DonkeyCigars

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Bullneck

Bullneck 19216

Posted
Posted

By Farah Stockman

Ms. Stockman is a member of the editorial board.

The war in Afghanistan wasn’t a failure. It was a massive success — for those who made a fortune off it.

Consider the case of Hikmatullah Shadman, who was just a teenager when American Special Forces rolled into Kandahar on the heels of Sept. 11. They hired him as an interpreter, paying him up to $1,500 a month — 20 times the salary of a local police officer, according to a profile of him in The New Yorker. By his late 20s, he owned a trucking company that supplied U.S. military bases, earning him more than $160 million.

If a small fry like Shadman could get so rich off the war on terror, imagine how much Gul Agha Sherzai, a big-time warlord-turned-governor, has raked in since he helped the C.I.A. run the Taliban out of town. His large extended family supplied everything from gravel to furniture to the military base in Kandahar. His brother controlled the airport. Nobody knows how much he is worth, but it is clearly hundreds of millions — enough for him to talk about a $40,000 shopping spree in Germany as if he were spending pocket change.

Look under the hood of the “good war,” and this is what you see. Afghanistan was supposed to be an honorable war to neutralize terrorists and rescue girls from the Taliban. It was supposed to be a war that we woulda coulda shoulda won, had it not been for the distraction of Iraq, and the hopeless corruption of the Afghan government. But let’s get real. Corruption wasn’t a design flaw in the war. It was a design feature. We didn’t topple the Taliban. We paid warlords bags of cash to do it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/opinion/afghanistan-war-economy.html

 

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DonkeyCigars

DonkeyCigars 143

Posted
Posted
On 9/11/2021 at 9:10 AM, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

What a perfect disaster to end a 20 year disaster of a war.

”at least we did…something.”

- @DonkeyCigars

Saw this over the weekend, and wanted to tie off with you-- as you rightly stated I was, and still contend, that a response had to be made. I stand with you in disappointment and shame and disbelief that we continue to suck at doing the basic things right. It's like the U.S. Military is Texas football in that way.

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aggie08

aggie08 21555

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

Saw this over the weekend, and wanted to tie off with you-- as you rightly stated I was, and still contend, that a response had to be made. I stand with you in disappointment and shame and disbelief that we continue to suck at doing the basic things right. It's like the U.S. Military is Texas football in that way.

It's almost like drone strikes are a bad idea, and retribution against shape-shifting, hidden-in-plain-sight enemies is never going to be as satisfying or "message-sending" as you hope.

If only someone had told you as much beforehand.

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DonkeyCigars

DonkeyCigars 143

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

It's almost like drone strikes are a bad idea, and retribution against shape-shifting, hidden-in-plain-sight enemies is never going to be as satisfying or "message-sending" as you hope.

If only someone had told you as much beforehand.

I'll be a good sport and afford you your victory lap and grandstanding here, because as it turns out you were right.

I do still contend that a response had to be made-- "Attention must be paid!"-- and obviously with the benefit of hindsight, would have opted for a different strategy. This is likely Biden's exact stance as well.

Though to maybe your unstated point, the US Military might just be wholly incapable of executing in a succesful way retribution against a modern enemy (re: shape shifting, etc.) and/or with unmanned drones. That is pathetic if that is the case, but at this point, I wouldn't doubt it.

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dcar00

dcar00 14379

Posted
Posted
On 9/11/2021 at 5:39 AM, 52-80 said:

NYT investigsting says our drone bomb targeted a long-time US-ally doing humanitarian work for NGO.  His family had also applied for asylum 1 week before?  They had *extensive* video footage of him documenting movement of every minute of every day. 
 

we have remote capabilities to target a drone bomb but not visual capabilities to have accurately assessed that “threat”

2 words "aspirin factory"

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aggie08

aggie08 21555

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, cabowabo said:

Terrible.  That's some fine "over the horizon" action there Sleepy Joe.

If we're going to start blaming Presidents for ill-targeted drone strikes now, then the last 4 Presidents have equally sucked shit through a straw.

Yet, we'll keep doing them for god knows why.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105445

Posted
Posted
If we're going to start blaming Presidents for ill-targeted drone strikes now, then the last 4 Presidents have equally sucked shit through a straw.
Yet, we'll keep doing them for god knows why.

This.

Not a fan of drone strikes for this reason (among others). We just end up creating more generations of enemies.
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Willfully Horn

Willfully Horn 8057

Posted
Posted
On 9/13/2021 at 6:02 AM, Bullneck said:

By Farah Stockman

Ms. Stockman is a member of the editorial board.

The war in Afghanistan wasn’t a failure. It was a massive success — for those who made a fortune off it.

Consider the case of Hikmatullah Shadman, who was just a teenager when American Special Forces rolled into Kandahar on the heels of Sept. 11. They hired him as an interpreter, paying him up to $1,500 a month — 20 times the salary of a local police officer, according to a profile of him in The New Yorker. By his late 20s, he owned a trucking company that supplied U.S. military bases, earning him more than $160 million.

If a small fry like Shadman could get so rich off the war on terror, imagine how much Gul Agha Sherzai, a big-time warlord-turned-governor, has raked in since he helped the C.I.A. run the Taliban out of town. His large extended family supplied everything from gravel to furniture to the military base in Kandahar. His brother controlled the airport. Nobody knows how much he is worth, but it is clearly hundreds of millions — enough for him to talk about a $40,000 shopping spree in Germany as if he were spending pocket change.

Look under the hood of the “good war,” and this is what you see. Afghanistan was supposed to be an honorable war to neutralize terrorists and rescue girls from the Taliban. It was supposed to be a war that we woulda coulda shoulda won, had it not been for the distraction of Iraq, and the hopeless corruption of the Afghan government. But let’s get real. Corruption wasn’t a design flaw in the war. It was a design feature. We didn’t topple the Taliban. We paid warlords bags of cash to do it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/opinion/afghanistan-war-economy.html

 

The USA achieved revenge. Lots and lots of revenge. Guess it wasn’t enough.

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Nivek

Nivek 16992

Posted
Posted

By Farah Stockman

Ms. Stockman is a member of the editorial board.

The war in Afghanistan wasn’t a failure. It was a massive success — for those who made a fortune off it.

Consider the case of Hikmatullah Shadman, who was just a teenager when American Special Forces rolled into Kandahar on the heels of Sept. 11. They hired him as an interpreter, paying him up to $1,500 a month — 20 times the salary of a local police officer, according to a profile of him in The New Yorker. By his late 20s, he owned a trucking company that supplied U.S. military bases, earning him more than $160 million.

If a small fry like Shadman could get so rich off the war on terror, imagine how much Gul Agha Sherzai, a big-time warlord-turned-governor, has raked in since he helped the C.I.A. run the Taliban out of town. His large extended family supplied everything from gravel to furniture to the military base in Kandahar. His brother controlled the airport. Nobody knows how much he is worth, but it is clearly hundreds of millions — enough for him to talk about a $40,000 shopping spree in Germany as if he were spending pocket change.

Look under the hood of the “good war,” and this is what you see. Afghanistan was supposed to be an honorable war to neutralize terrorists and rescue girls from the Taliban. It was supposed to be a war that we woulda coulda shoulda won, had it not been for the distraction of Iraq, and the hopeless corruption of the Afghan government. But let’s get real. Corruption wasn’t a design flaw in the war. It was a design feature. We didn’t topple the Taliban. We paid warlords bags of cash to do it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/opinion/afghanistan-war-economy.html

 


While I only read the excerpt that is cute how they do not include the Americans who made bank.

Something about the guy who signs Shaq’s check. (/Chris Rock)
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Captainant

Captainant 27828

Posted
Posted

Trump initially gave the order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, Joint Chiefs Chair Milley confirms

Quote

 

Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that he had received an "unclassified signed order" from former President Donald Trump on Nov. 11, 2020 to withdraw all armed forces from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, confirming previous reporting on the matter.

The Military Times' Meghann Myers notes the order came two days after Trump fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was worried about such a move. Trump did eventually pull the order back after further discussions, Milley says. The Jan. 15 date is notable because it would have taken place five days before Trump was set to leave the White House, though at the time Milley says he gave the order, the presidential election results were still somewhat up in the air, at least from Trump's perspective.

Milley also addressed the Trump administration's 2020 negotiations with the Taliban, which many critics argue helped set the stage for their rapid and successful offensive to retake Afghanistan this summer. He said the Taliban failed to honor nearly all of their commitments, including cutting ties with al Qaeda. Additionally, both Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, agreed the deal negatively affected the morale and performance of the Afghan army.

 

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