# US military generosity in Afghanistan has backfired



## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

Apparently the US government spent USD 83 billion in the last 20 years to equip the Afghan army (which gave up without a fight when it was most needed). Here is an article in a Swiss-German newspaper about what was actually left in the hands of the Taliban: quite impressive to say the very least. What were the top US brass thinking, O.M.G.

Just right-click on the article and select "translate into English" if your understanding of Deutsch is sketchy. 









US-Waffen unter Taliban-Kontrolle – 22'174 Humvees, 358'530 Sturmgewehre, 33 Blackhawks


Ein schier unfassbares Waffenarsenal haben die Taliban ergattert. Der Überblick in Zahlen und Typen – infografisch aufbereitet.




www.bazonline.ch





Somewhere one really has to wonder who is in charge in the land of Uncle Sam...it's a bit worrying. Meanwhile, most of you on the other side of the pond are paying for this utter nonsense with your hard earned income.


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## wolfboi823 (May 11, 2021)

It's a slap in the face as a Marine. We've lost good people, my brothers and sisters, just to supply a regime that's objectively bad. Highly annoying and greatly discouraging. Us GWOT service members are getting a taste of what Vietnam era service members went through for the few years after they pulled out of there. It's garbage. 

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## Hoss (Jun 3, 2014)

You said, Somewhere one really has to wonder who is in charge in the land of Uncle Sam...it's a bit worrying. Meanwhile, most of you on the other side of the pond are paying for this utter nonsense with your hard earned income.

I can tell you who is in charge, BozoThe Clown! and the rest of his circus friends are helping him. 

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## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

Chaos and strife is what pays the bills around here. Name one fight where something didn’t get broken. Then you gotta send the fixit crew it to make it pretty again. That contractor always seems to need a few billion dollars to rebuild new roads that were bombed full of holes. As soon as the last broom is put away you gotta do it all over again! #bills2pay


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## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

What I really don't understand is why it was not possible for a gradual and well organized military withdrawal to take place, i.e, start by evacuating whoever needs to be (civilians), remove critical military equipment, and only allow key military personnel to leave once all that had been done successfully. There was no need to hurry.

Those in charge at the Pentagon surely must have known that the Afghan army was basically useless for a number of reasons, and should have advised President Biden to conduct a gradual military withdrawal with a gradual transition of power to the Taliban (which most of the Afghans seems to want anyway), as opposed to the terrible chaos at Kabul airport reminiscent of Saigon 1975: why? The French military apparently left Afghanistan in 2014, probably seeing the writing on the wall at the time.

Verdict: it's essentially a return to square one. A pointless exercise with an astronomic cost for both the US and Europe. China is laughing her head off, no doubt, while rubbing her hands with view to lucrative business with the Taliban.

Oh well...very sad indeed.


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## wolfboi823 (May 11, 2021)

Pebble Shooter said:


> What I really don't understand is why it was not possible for a gradual and well organized military withdrawal to take place, i.e, start by evacuating whoever needs to be (civilians), remove critical military equipment, and only allow key military personnel to leave once all that had been done successfully. There was no need to hurry.
> 
> Those in charge at the Pentagon surely must have known that the Afghan army was basically useless for a number of reasons, and should have advised President Biden to conduct a gradual military withdrawal with a gradual transition of power to the Taliban (which most of the Afghans seems to want anyway), as opposed to the terrible chaos at Kabul airport reminiscent of Saigon 1975: why? The French military apparently left Afghanistan in 2014, probably seeing the writing on the wall at the time.
> 
> ...


That's why a lot of Vets and even active duty are calling for accountability among the brass and government officials that made this go down this way. It's not going to change anything aside from getting certain folk way down on the food chain in trouble for calling for accountability, but it's not going to happen. There could have been a controlled strategic departure. But some geniuses said "NO WE LEAVE NOW" and it caused issue. I agree. It's just awful. 

As for the Afghan Army, it's been clear for a while they weren't up to the task, so I think that situation is more of a cutting off the losses part. But I still think things could have gone better. But that's just me. 

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## cromag (Jan 17, 2021)

Trump had the guts to drop the MOAB on the Taliban and brought them to an agreement for the US to withdraw with order by May 1. Trumps not around and Biden(Soros) will do anything to counter anything Trump has begun and the end result is what we see today. With the first test of Biden the die was cast and the Taliban knew he was a nut less coward.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

cromag said:


> Trump had the guts to drop the MOAB on the Taliban


Never happened.

MOAB was dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile.. pic from today. US Chinooks flying over a Karachi neighborhood, headed out to the ocean after refueling.


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## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

Some of you may find this article quite relevant:









The Wages of Defeat in Afghanistan | by Chris Patten - Project Syndicate


Chris Patten outlines several humbling lessons of the West’s hasty and chaotic retreat from the country.




www.project-syndicate.org


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## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

This sums it up quite nicely: NB, read the subtitles.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

Pebble Shooter said:


> This sums it up quite nicely


This sums it up even better.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

Pebble Shooter said:


> Those in charge at the Pentagon surely must have known that the Afghan army was basically useless


Surely must have, indeed:


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## cromag (Jan 17, 2021)

"Never happened.

MOAB was dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan. "

Simple semantics,,,when dealing with terrorists you kill them all and sort them out later. Why waste your time sorting wasps and hornets? The point is Trump taught the terrorists what it meant to have "resolve". Biden can't remember the alphabet much less how to even spell it and the Taliban moved on him like hungry wolves setting the stage for whomever is next. China is salivating over the rare earth minerals now within their easy reach with a bunch of short sighted environmental zealots clamoring for the batteries they will produce.

Took China joe and the left wing loonies 8 months to set the US back two decades , this will just be the first incident.
Taiwan is next.


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## andypandy1 (Apr 8, 2016)

83 Billion that should have been invested into US public Schools, infrastructure, healthcare and a Us Olympic slingshot team


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

cromag said:


> Why waste your time sorting wasps and hornets? The point is Trump taught the terrorists what it meant to have "resolve".


When the taliban and ISIS hate each other and kill each other, bombing ISIS means Trump helped the taliban.

Why he MOABed ISIS (who are tiny) and not the taliban (who are many and far more dangerous) is beyond me.



cromag said:


> China is salivating over the rare earth minerals now within their easy reach


Yes, they just talked to China.

Will it be easy for China? No. Afghanistan is the only country in the world (maybe there is one other?) that is dumb enough NOT to have a railroad.

For us and China to get something out of that ****hole, we'll have to build them a rail network first. And that's just one of many other things they need. Afghanistan is so far gone, you can't even steal from it.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

I just looked it up...








Rail transport in Afghanistan - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





For strategic reasons, past *Afghan governments preferred to discourage the construction of railways which could aid foreign interference in Afghanistan* by Britain or Russia. Afghanistan is surrounded by three different gauges, yet *is almost completely without railways.*

Until the 21st century, *there were fewer than 25 kilometres of railway inside the country*, all of which is built to 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge. Afghanistan's neighbours to the north, namely the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, use this 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) gauge. Iran to the west uses standard gauge, 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) same as China in the east, while Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan to the east and the south, uses 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Indian gauge.

In September 2010, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) signed an agreement with the Afghan Minister of Mines to investigate construction of a north-south railway across Afghanistan, running from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul and then to the eastern border town of Torkham. 

MCC was recently awarded a copper mining concession at Mes Aynak which would be linked to this railway. *MCC is constructing a 921 km long 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) gauge railway line that will link Kabul with Uzbekistan in the north and Pakistan in the east.*


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

cromag said:


> this will just be the first incident.
> Taiwan is next.


And yes. Very possible.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

Right now, as far as I'm concerned, the taliban can go eat Afghanistan alive and China can go eat Taiwan... I have never believed in Taiwan's right to be separate from China anyway. It belongs to China and what China wants, it eventually gets.... Hong Kong part-2.... 

I got bigger problems.

Monsoon... it ain't over till it's over. See that HUGE system full of rain almost on top of me? I already feel like a fish. _(yes it's raining)_


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## Pebble Shooter (Mar 29, 2014)

Taiwan is a sovereign nation formed by the Kuomintang nationalists, even if China exerts considerable diplomatic pressure on the international community not to recognize this hard fact. If anything, the Chinese people, i.e. not the authoritarian C.C.P, would stand to benefit from the democratic political system in Taiwan. One simply cannot compare Afghanistan and Taiwan in any way - two totally different cultures, where the former is something from the Middle Ages or even before that: the "Flintstones" somehow come to mind,but even they're more advanced than the backward Taliban, hmm. Taiwan needs to be protected as far as possible as an island of freedom.


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

Pebble Shooter said:


> One simply cannot compare Afghanistan and Taiwan in any way


Nobody was comparing Afghanistan with Taiwan. If some people in "the West" are to be believed, what happened in Afghanistan was basically *USA vs Pakistan*. And Pakistan won. We all know Afghans can't fight... whether they be taliban or govt forces.

My point is... whatever Pakistan might or might not have done... China can do a hundred times worse. Taiwan? It won't stand a chance if they really come after it.

They got Hong Kong, they got Macao.. they'll get Taiwan too.



Pebble Shooter said:


> the "Flintstones" somehow come to mind,but even they're more advanced than the backward Taliban


ALL Afghans are less advanced than the Flintstones. It wasn't the taliban who thought they could hitch a ride to America by hanging onto the outside of a plane.

Back in the 80s there was a fashion.... boys with nothing to do, used to sneak into Afghanistan, fire a few shots at the Russians and then come back and get married and work in a cubicle, get fat, lose their hair, etc...

Some people went in there... when they came back from their adventure, we asked them, how many Russians did you ding?

Not a single one. Never even saw one.

But you were in there for weeks....

We all had diarrhea... I don't know what those Afghans eat, but we were done. Couldn't move for weeks. When we could, we ran back. 



Pebble Shooter said:


> Taiwan needs to be protected


Why can't Taiwan protect itself? If you want to remain free, you must have the spine to protect yourself. Consider it a test. To see if you are worthy to be "free".

And why should Americans die for Taiwan??? For "democracy"? Why is the world looking to Americans to die for this or that cause that has actually zero effect on American everyday life?

As an example... your own country... Switzerland... is booby-trapped in such a way to make it invasion proof. Every road, bridge, tunnel, is wired to self-destruct if necessary. Switzerland can make it very painful for the enemy. It can defend itself from far larger enemies. Can Taiwan?

If Taiwan.. or anyone... can't make it painful for the enemy.... they have no right calling on someone else to protect their collective behinds.


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## spewing (Mar 13, 2016)

Sean Khan said:


> Afghanistan is so far gone, you can't even steal from it.


That one line sums up the last 20 years (and probably 1979 to 1989)

Who's going to try next?


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

spewing said:


> Who's going to try next?


Right now Afghans are trying something themselves.... any drama for a ride to Europe or America....









🤣 🤣 🤣


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## Sean Khan (Mar 27, 2020)

Hmmmm.... no peanut butter....


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1433375771414913031
Not complaining? Sure looks like complaining to me....

Here's an idea, dude. Go back to Afghanistan. I am sure the taliban can get you more chicken. 

Just make sure you don't fall off the plane this time. Use duct tape. Duct tape is *awesome*!


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