08-19-2021, 12:57 PM
(08-19-2021, 11:59 AM)Nately120 Wrote: I think the main issue is how this forces us to look beyond Biden v Trump and get back into the past 40+ years of Afghanistan occupation and recall that we sided with the Taliban against both the Soviets in the 80s and Sadaam Hussein in the early 2000s. It's just such a long-term slog that even assuming Trump winning in 2020 would have led to the most graceful exit ever seems unlikely.
I just don't see where anyone could get a slightly optimistic take out of this.
That's the thing though, nobody really knows what Trump would have done, nor should we care. We should care about what actually happened.
There is an optimistic take on this if you're willing to look at it from the perspective of what we can't control vs what we can control.
There are two outcomes that come from withdrawing from Afghanistan but only one of them we can control. The other we cannot.
Outcome 1: Afghanistan's stability once we leave.
Outcome 2: The US getting its soldiers and allies out in as safe a manner as possible.
Outcome 1 we cannot control, therefore it is difficult to look at it optimistically.
Outcome 2 however IS what we can control, therefore we can have an optimistic outlook on it based on the fact that we have control over how safely we can get our soldiers and allies out of Afghanistan. The problem is we botched outcome 2, something we actually had control over..
Had we developed a plan to get everyone out safely and initiated it, things would have been a lot better.
Is it really too much to ask the Taliban to let us get out safely? If it is too much to ask that, then what kind of precedent are we setting here?
It's like we're literally telling our allies that if they're ever in a situation where an armed force is coming to take over we won't do our best to make sure that everyone who will be targeted for helping us won't get out safely
If I'm an Afghan, no way in hell would I ever help the US after this..
