Biden to address nation on Afghanistan 'soon'

[Stevicus]

Biden to address nation on Afghanistan 'soon' (msn.com)

He's been at Camp David since Friday, and wasn't expected to return until Wednesday.

White House aides on Monday said President Biden will address the nation "soon" on the situation unfolding in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has dispatched thousands of troops to ensure the safe evacuation of U.S. personnel and civilian allies from the country.

Biden had no public events on his schedule Monday as Republicans in particular call on him to return from Camp David and address the nation over the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

"The president has been deeply engaged in all of the policy conversations and in the situation as it evolves in real time," deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer told CNN.

"The president has spoken to this extensively and I expect that he will speak to it again soon," Finer added when asked why Biden isn't publicly speaking to the situation in real time.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan told "Good Morning America" Biden would address the situation "soon" but that Biden's "overriding focus" is on ensuring the evacuation mission is completed.

"At the right point, he will absolutely address the American people," Sullivan said.

Biden traveled on Thursday to his home in Wilmington, Del., before departing Friday for Camp David. He is scheduled to stay at the presidential retreat in Maryland through Wednesday, but some lawmakers and former government officials have argued Biden should return to the White House or at minimum address the nation from Camp David given the fall of Afghanistan.

"Imperative for the President to speak to the nation and the world," tweeted Robert Gibbs, a former press secretary for then-President Obama. "He must lay out again the reasoning behind his decisions, how he sees the future of this region & what must be done to prevent another safe haven for al-Qaeda to plan attacks."

Videos and images circulated on Monday morning from Kabul, where the Taliban have overtaken Afghanistan's capital and U.S. forces have struggled to conduct an orderly evacuation of American personnel from the airport there.

The U.S. in response deployed an additional 1,000 troops to help pull Americans and Afghan allies from the region, bringing the total number of authorized military personnel to roughly 6,000.

I know there are quite a few threads on Afghanistan right now, trying to sort all this out and figure out what happened.

So, what did happen? How did the Taliban take power so quickly? Why did the Afghan government and security forces give up so easily? Why didn't our political leadership anticipate this when planning our withdrawal? Why didn't the media predict this or at least inform the public that this was going to happen? Who is to blame?

 

[Aštra’el]

Did anyone who voted for Joe Biden expect a brilliant military strategist?

 

[Quetzal]

It's perfectly on-brand that this discussion is introduced with a poll to point fingers at individuals and polarize the topic.

Does anyone honestly think something this complicated can be simplified to a single individual? Get outta here.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Did anyone who voted for Joe Biden expect a brilliant military strategist?

What military strategy - within the limits of Trump's withdrawal agreement - do you think Biden should have done?

 

[Stevicus]

It's perfectly on-brand that this discussion is introduced with a poll to point fingers at individuals and polarize the topic.

Does anyone honestly think something this complicated can be simplified to a single individual? Get outta here.

But it's process which has already been set in motion, mainly between the Biden and Trump supporters, blaming the other for the failure. I was just interested in seeing how it might play out. The poll has other options besides blaming individuals.

 

[Polymath257]

The initial mistake was going into Iraq, thereby distracting the US from what was going on in Afghanistan. Also, the US policy was to avoid 'nation building', which guaranteed a puppet government without popular support. By about 2005-6, there really was no other possible outcome after a US withdrawal. We stayed in as long as we did because no other president wanted this debacle to happen under their watch.

We should have stayed focused on Afghanistan, which is where the people who lead 9/11 were based. We should have had people who understood the history and attitudes of the people there and did the hard work of building a nation that was functional.

Instead, we continued the mistakes of Vietnam or refusing to learn more than a superficial bit about the lands we were in. We made the same mistake in Iraq with equally poor consequences.

 

[Regiomontanus]

Biden to address nation on Afghanistan 'soon' (msn.com)

He's been at Camp David since Friday, and wasn't expected to return until Wednesday.







I know there are quite a few threads on Afghanistan right now, trying to sort all this out and figure out what happened.

So, what did happen? How did the Taliban take power so quickly? Why did the Afghan government and security forces give up so easily? Why didn't our political leadership anticipate this when planning our withdrawal? Why didn't the media predict this or at least inform the public that this was going to happen? Who is to blame?

Please add the option: All of the above

 

[Twilight Hue]

Biden to address nation on Afghanistan 'soon' (msn.com)

He's been at Camp David since Friday, and wasn't expected to return until Wednesday.







I know there are quite a few threads on Afghanistan right now, trying to sort all this out and figure out what happened.

So, what did happen? How did the Taliban take power so quickly? Why did the Afghan government and security forces give up so easily? Why didn't our political leadership anticipate this when planning our withdrawal? Why didn't the media predict this or at least inform the public that this was going to happen? Who is to blame?

You even have to ask? A monkey could have figured it out.

Unfortunately, the people in charge are even lower primates fueled by emotion and knee jerk stupidity.

 

[Stevicus]

Please add the option: All of the above

I would have, but the software doesn't allow more choices.

 

[PureX]

... "All of the above".

 

[Stevicus]

You even have to ask? A monkey could have figured it out.

Unfortunately, the people in charge are even lower primates fueled by emotion and knee jerk stupidity.

Well, the monkeys running our government clearly didn't figure it out. Neither did all the intellectual giants in our media.

 

[Stevicus]

Please add the option: All of the above

I couldn't add more poll options, but I changed it so you can make unlimited choices in the poll. So, pick 'em all, if you're so inclined.

 

[Polymath257]

Well, the monkeys running our government clearly didn't figure it out. Neither did all the intellectual giants in our media.

Anyone that has studied the history of that area and seen how our policies went over could have told you this. But, as always, we put our military might at the top and forget about winning the hearts and minds. There was virtually no support for the government we put in and a LOT of support for the Taliban.

What did anyone think would happen?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Well, the monkeys running our government clearly didn't figure it out. Neither did all the intellectual giants in our media.

The only one privy to the real situation I think is the Military Brass.

I'm willing to bet each and every recommendation by the joint chiefs of staff went ignored and wilfully disregarded.

 

[Stevicus]

Anyone that has studied the history of that area and seen how our policies went over could have told you this. But, as always, we put our military might at the top and forget about winning the hearts and minds. There was virtually no support for the government we put in and a LOT of support for the Taliban.

What did anyone think would happen?

Of the Afghans I know personally and have since immigrated to the U.S. and gained U.S. citizenship, I can say that they won at least some hearts and minds of the Afghan people. There are many more desperate to get out.

But the US trained, armed, and equipped a 350,000-strong fighting force, apparently without vetting them first or at least ensuring where their hearts and minds were at. If they weren't sure about them, then they shouldn't have armed them in the first place.

 

[Polymath257]

Of the Afghans I know personally and have since immigrated to the U.S. and gained U.S. citizenship, I can say that they won at least some hearts and minds of the Afghan people. There are many more desperate to get out.

Agreed. if we had kept the focus on Afghanistan *and* decided to put the time and energy into nation building, we may well have had a different outcome.

But the US trained, armed, and equipped a 350,000-strong fighting force, apparently without vetting them first or at least ensuring where their hearts and minds were at. If they weren't sure about them, then they shouldn't have armed them in the first place.

We wanted to brag about the size of the force we had trained. The same thing has happened in other places before. In fact, the US was trained the Taliban because they were fighting the Soviets at the time.

NO invader has done well in Afghanistan since Alexander the Great.

 

[Stevicus]

The only one privy to the real situation I think is the Military Brass.

I'm willing to bet each and every recommendation by the joint chiefs of staff went ignored and wilfully disregarded.

Possibly. I saw an article which said the Washington Post has released some documents they're compiling for a forthcoming book, in which analysts knew about this for years.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I know there are quite a few threads on Afghanistan right now, trying to sort all this out and figure out what happened.

I am glad we're leaving. Who can honestly say they thought things would change there because of a rotation of warriors? Warriors don't go and merge into the culture. Our soldiers dreamed of returning home, not staying; or even if they wanted to stay we wouldn't let them. We never conquered the place, so we shouldn't have stayed. There was always going to be a time like this when the forces would have to be recalled and a result similar to this.

 

[Stevicus]

Agreed. if we had kept the focus on Afghanistan *and* decided to put the time and energy into nation building, we may well have had a different outcome.

As I recall, the world largely supported the idea of the U.S. going in to Afghanistan under the pretext of going in and getting Bin Laden. Much of it was probably due to the fact that the world was aware that most of America was literally insane at that point, so they were going to let us have our pound of flesh. But once that mission was done, then it was done. Once Bin Laden was dead, then our reason for being in Afghanistan was over, but someone decided that we had to stay anyway. (Bin Laden wasn't even found inside Afghanistan anyway, but that's another matter.)

We wanted to brag about the size of the force we had trained. The same thing has happened in other places before. In fact, the US was trained the Taliban because they were fighting the Soviets at the time.

That seems to be an ongoing problem with the U.S., when we typically get stuck with strange bedfellows and unreliable "allies." South Vietnam was a bad alliance, along with Somoza in Nicaragua, Batista in Cuba, the Shah in Iran, Marcos in the Philippines, the Contras, the Bay of Pigs. Sure, we've had a few successes along the way, but even our successes become soured and can turn into failures. Iraq was a great victory when Bush stood on the Carrier in 2003 with the banner "Mission Accomplished." But things quickly unraveled and ISIS grew up out of the ashes.

NO invader has done well in Afghanistan since Alexander the Great.

Militarily, they did achieve their objectives and ultimately got Bin Laden. Afghanistan was always intended to remain a sovereign nation, run by Afghani people, not the US military.

Nor was it ever to be considered US territory or a colony. Though if we did wish to conquer it and maintain control indefinitely, the past 20 years would suggest that it could have been a possibility, unlike the Soviets and previous attempts to conquer Afghanistan.

 

[Augustus]

What military strategy - within the limits of Trump's withdrawal agreement - do you think Biden should have done?

Why did he have to act within the limits of Trump's withdrawal agreement?

There was no compulsion or pressure to, it was simply his choice.