The Character of Nations and Failed Leadership

Anyone up for admitting that this was the end result of the ill-conceived and poorly managed withdrawal Trump initiated?

This is hardly a surprise no one should have thought Biden so reckless when it comes to sacrificing human life that has no collateral for him. Obama left Iraq and what filled the vacuum? ISIS. It isn't like Biden had no idea this would be the outcome of his cut and run strategy and has left another mess of the democratic socialists making, ideological untruths to clean up and bury.
The taliban now is flying over Kabul hanging its adversaries from helicopters Scarface style. One woman who escaped her sexual slavery to the Taliban is now saying not only do they shame woman by stripping them naked and dishonor them by raping them, they do it to the dead to. Way to go Joe.
Whether we had a manual for a planned evacuation or simply followed the Vietnam Obama Iraq template, Obama continued to harp Iraq was just like Vietnam, self fulfilling his own prophecy now Biden has done the same.
They had funding to put 25,000 National Guardsman on the Hill to protect the Democrats unholy shrine and temple mount on the hill and wanted to retain 5,000 permanently. We could not spare 2,500 Americans all volunteers to remain in Afghanistan?

Till now I thought it was a cardinal rule for armies to destroy ALL military equipment they cannot take in a retreat, but not with the United States. In fact, even now if its leaders wished, it could destroy most of he equipment in Taliban hands, but with its contemptible political and military leadership we can can bet this will not happen. The technology, developed at great expense, we can bet will be lost to China and Russia. What a pitiful, stupid and cowardly mess America has become. Like that in Canada and much of the West, the leadership is pitiful, almost non-existent in terms of real 'leadership'.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1978: "The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party,.... A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. "Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.
"Political and intellectual functionaries exhibit this depressing passivity and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in their self-serving rationales as to how realistic, reasonable, and intellectually and even morally justified it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice."

Was the US military equipment abandoned in Afghanistan (USMEAA) part of a prior withdrawal agreement between USA and Afghanistan? Was USMEAA really necessary? Could it have been minimised with long term careful planning and realism?

Estimates of value of USMEAA vary considerably from 20 billion US dollars to 80 billion. Whatever the correct figure is, it would still be a highly significant portion of 2020 annual GDP of Afghanistan which is estimated to be 19.1 billion US dollars. One would
expect a massive spike in 2021 Afghanistan GDP.

Compared to value of 2020 GDP of USA at 21 trillion US dollars, the value of USMEAA compared to GDP is approximately between
(20 ÷ 21000) × 100% = 0.095 %
and
(80 ÷21000) × 100% = 0.38%
These percentage losses may not seem large but it is so typical of the left that they do not appreciate the value of goods and services paid for by government ie by taxation.
Thanks for nothing, Joe!!

In Afghanistan who will become owners of USMEAA and become accordingly enriched?
Almost certainly it will be the top millitary political, religious leaders of the Taliban? Almost certainly it will not be the lower ranks of the Taliban.
It is very likely that some of USMEAA will be sold at very much reduced prices to openly hostile enemies of USA.

Again thanks for nothing, Joe!!
Your generosity with other peoples money is truly overwhelming ...unlike your political leadership!!

As an ex UK serviceman it has amazed me that despite the obvious mental condition of Biden the armed forces didn't make sure that if they had to leave so much equipment behind it was made unusable, it seems to have been the common sense thing to do.

Perpetual (and not recoverable) shame on Biden and on the USA

The Left wish to see the destruction of the West - it really is that simple.

What a bunch of idiots! A high school student would have been wiser.

This Afghan withdrawal can lead to the conclusion that America is an unreliable ally.

I disagree with the conclusion that Biden was wrong in how we left Afghanistan. Our exit was handled as well as it could have been. If we started earlier or stretched out our withdrawal more lives would have been lost. Every president dating back to Bush should have done what Biden did.

It is truly terrifying to see the state of all western countries governed by weak and pathetic leaders today who do not support their indigenous populations and are more than happy to allow those with alien cultures and beliefs to settle in predominately Christian countries. Hundreds of illegal immigrants pouring into the UK on a daily basis while Boris Johnson does nothing. Thousands pouring across the southern border in the USA courtesy of Joe Biden. Those from Afghanistan arriving with no vetting in most cases. What could possibly go wrong?

These recent developments in Afghanistan have left many people across the world, particularly in the West, with not just disbelief - but fear. Where DID these fools emanate from? Abandoning friend and ally - 'funding' a deadly terrorist enemy with billions of dollars worth of the most sophisticated armaments in the world- and betraying the hopes and dreams
of Afghan women and their families - all the while back home, denigrating both the religious and political history that made the US a great country - where did they come from? The halls of elite colleges and universities who prized Socialism/Communism, and from the American voter who swallowed all the garage that they were fed by those same ideologues. The Democratic Party under Jack Kennedy would NEVER have cut and run as this administration has. Cuba was a far more deadly threat than that promised by the motley bunch of ignoramuses in Afghanistan - but Kennedy faced down the enemy.
What a tragedy these developments have wreaked on the soon to be murdered victims of these savages, and on all concerned in the US.

The problem arose initially Americans chose an old man with obvious white hair to run as President.
The appearance of white hair is a distinctive feature of old age; this appears to have been lost on rank and file Americans.
Now it's obvious to all and sundry.
What's worse is who will take over... the big question mark.
The ultimate sting is loss of American PR, as the article points out.

Thank you for this very good analysis of this catastrophic Afghanistan pull-out.

So true! So tragic!

Agree- horrible how this went down and Biden's legacy will certainly be judged heavily by this.

I can't help to wonder though, where was the conservative outrage when Trump abandoned the Kurds, who had fought shoulder to shoulder with our troops, to be slaughtered by the Turks.

Lawrence Kadish, you are so correct.
The current USA administration is the most corrupt 'western' leadership, EVER.
They have messed with honesty and integrity so much that there is none left in the authorities. They have abrogated their right to govern and have become thoroughly corrupt and have earned the right to be disobeyed, they have all but killed the nation and therefore shall be judged. They have completed the turn of the nation from God and now the nation shall be judged. BUT God and He is the only answer to this utter shambles that remains.

Others share responsibility for this overall disaster: Trump, Bush and that crowd. Trump said we would be out in May. He left no plans to accomplish that; he left a very hot potato for Biden to handle. Bush pushed us into that morass with no exit plan after the death of Osama. Obama wasn't much better after the original goal was accomplished.

Our bumblers tried to make a nation out of a series of tribes who live in the 7th century. Afghanistan is not now nor has it ever really been a "nation state". What united it were some lines drawn on a map often without understanding who lived where but understanding that the unifier was, is and will remain Islam.

It was, is and under Islam will likely remain a corrupt place which once had a chance to understand some "western" values which are foreign to the dominant culture it has. The sad part is that only a minority of its inhabitants saw what it could become but they could not effectively change the mindset of the majority. I am sure that you understand these things far better than do most of us.

The real complaint/problem is: how do we disengage. There is no realistic way to have made a clean break. Every possible/realistic choice would be very messy. Unless you had a detailed plan which was factually better and which did not keep us tied to this ball and chain, don't be too quick to complain. Can I see a better approach on some minor points? We all can but that is with the luxury of a lot of hindsight. The mess is mostly attributed to the fact that NO ONE in power at any time saw just how quickly this house of cards government and poorly supported army would just fold its tent and quietly make deals with its cousins to get out while the getting was good. And our military, as great as it is, missed seeing or reporting on a lot of things such as the willingness of the Afghan army to step up to the plate. It is all just Humpty Dumpty with broken pieces from the very beginning. We never had any chance for a different result so don't be too harsh on old Joe getting us out of there. We never belonged there in the first place.

So Biden has got "previous" as we say in the UK (Saigon 1975). Imagine a US President with a great yellow streak up his back. Whoever could have thought this position ever possible?
Contrast Biden's actions with those of Kennedy in 1962 facing down the USSR over Cuba. Suddenly thanks to Biden, the world has become such a dangerous place overnight. There's something rotten in the state of Washington DC.

This is what happens when in a democracy elections are stolen. Does any one believe Biden received 81 million votes legally?

One wonders who is pulling the strings.

Heavy clouds of treason have descended over and now engulf the USA, bastion of freedom that for decades acted to dispel darkness. These clouds could be seen coming yet too many were hypnotised to recognise the sorcerer who was stirring the caldron to generate them. An apology tour, allies treated as enemies and enemies treated as allies, $8bn paid to Morsi and El-Shater to acquire a base for terror to attack Israel, Iran's evil mullahs left to survive their people's wrath in 2009 then resuscitated with palates of cash, Bergdorf's betrayal honoured, UN resolution 2334 stabbing Israel in the back. USA will be no more if it does not now rise to fight for its own life to resist being enslaved.

The most gutless shameful episode for the last half century. The ramifications of this will long outlive President Biden.

I was only nine years of age in 1939. However, to this day, my, Democrat Party only, parents' obvious and loud dismay at the action of this country in refusing shelter to those aboard something called the St Louis still rings in my ears. I had no idea what those loud discussions were really about until years later. Thankfully, they do not have to witness the present abandonment!

Regrettably, the Afghan government folded like a three dollar tent. Some allies to protect.

Not only will history judge Biden's and his cohorts' treachery and betrayal of innocent people, God will too.

Hebrews 10:30-31 assures us that God said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" and "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God."

Great article, so true.

I understand that Biden as a senator obstructed Pres. Ford in his attempts to have an orderly evacuation in Saigon in the mid 70's and also prevented adequate funding to support Vietnam refugees who were friends of America once they arrived in the US.