Who's "them"? The contractors or corrupt puppet leaders and generals with their shadow army?
I find it funny to hear that US task was never nation building and then have people here pretend as if actual genuine nation building happened. You kind of got to decide, it's not one day "no" and another day "yes".
You paid off some warlords, propped up 5% of the country, winged it as you went and then you're shocked 95% of the country does not even bother to fire a single shot to cover your retreat.
You put some puppets in the key positions and you're flabbergasted they fall to the ground the moment you cut strings?
So how do you figure concern trolling is a gotcha?
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Can't answer the actual question?
You do know changing a persons post and answering a question they never asked is essentially trolling right? Are you that ready to take another vacation?
MMO-Champ the place where calling out trolls get you into more trouble than trolling.
1. I barely, tangentially paid attention to the news from Afghanistan in the past 10 years and even I, in my near total obliviousness fully expected the Afghan government to roll over and fall apart in weeks. I cannot fathom the level of delusional circle jerk the Pentagon and DC needs to be for them to think otherwise.
2. The Afghan army was a money sink. US defense contractors were making bank off of gear the Afghan army had absolutely no fucking idea how to use. The training was a joke, and their "numbers" were literally made up. Local warlords made up their numbers to pocket funding, and the US government chose to look the other way so they could do press releases claiming how awsomesauce the Afghan army they created is.
The total collapse of the Afghan army/government should have been no surprise to anyone, especially after Iraq. The only reason ISIS didn't just fucking walk into Baghdad was because at the last fucking moment the Iranians sent in their militias and Quds dudes and bailed the Iraqi government out.
We didn't give them 20 years of anything beyond drone strikes, wasted money and former warlords suddenly calling themselves "general" and "minister".
Dude. I know you struggle with this concept, but there are people out there who fucking read/watch the news and have basic google search skills.
Just because Fox News can't be arsed to do any fucking journalism and is incapable of being critical of the military (unless it's attacking the military for not being fascist enough) it doesn't mean this information hasn't been around for years.
Considering how much you like to preserve your echo chamber:
They don't have very many, I don't know the exact amount. But their predatory foreign policy doesn't rely on military strength, yet. They rely on corrupting local officials into signing contracts their countries can't afford with the understanding that they'll acquire strategic resources or infrastructure if the debts can't be re-paid.
Last edited by BronzeCondor; 2021-08-24 at 08:45 PM.
One of the reasons I am very impressed with President Biden is: he stood his ground in removing our troops. I did not expect the fall to be anywhere near this fast, but yet all of the other articles before the fall were talking about 3 months, 6 months, and multiple years so that we could continue to stay permanently. The press, including the "liberal" press, has denounced him harshly and frequently, and he has still stood his ground. The press, including the "liberal" press, was completely wrong before the fall.
/respect
Afghanistan is a Taliban controlled country now. If we pay and arm local groups to rise up against the Taliban, then WE are the terrorists. If we support groups that try to revolt from Afghanistan and try to get various provinces to succeed from the country, and they respond by blowing up some bridges across the Mississippi river, then we are engaging in tit-for-tat terrorism against each other. Oh we can bomb the country continuously for the rest of the year, and all of next year, and the year after that, but basically supporting anti-Taliban groups in Afghanistan is declaring war on the country.
The US message to Afghanistan is: we will do everything we can to oppose you, and are in the process of coming up with economic sanctions to apply against you.
The Chinese message to Afghanistan is: we will do everything we can to work out business deals with you so that we can have a peaceful border between us, to make boatloads of money for ourselves, to buy your natural resources, and to gain influence in the region.
I suspect that Afghanistan will try to make deals with the Chinese, and most likely will just not trade with countries that join the US economic sanctions that the US will be sponsoring. Afghanistan has a lot of neighbors to trade with besides China, and most likely will be doing what they can do to prevent themselves from becoming dependent on China. That is for them to decide.
Last edited by Omega10; 2021-08-24 at 08:48 PM.