Schiff just left a classified intel briefing on Afghanistan and broke a significant amount of news.

[Yorkie Mom]

Link to tweet

NEW: House Intel Chair Adam Schiff just left a classified intel briefing on Afghanistan and broke a significant amount of news. Here are some of the highlights.

First he said getting all Americans and allies out of the country by 8/31 is unlikely..

“Given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders women leaders. It's hard for me to imagine all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month,”

Schiff also said he was concerned about the security of the airport in Kabul:
“I think the threat to the airport is very real and very substantial and this has been a concern of mine for, for some days now that this would make a very attractive target for ISIS."

Finally Schiff said that the intel community was very aware that the Taliban had the ability to take over the country.
"the intelligence agencies assessments of the Afghan government's ability to maintain itself became increasingly pessimistic,” he said. (more)

...“Over the course of the last six months. And there were any number of warnings that the Taliban might take over, and some that included a potential of a very rapid, the Afghan government enforces."

Schiff's take was echoed by Intel Committee Member Jason Crow:
"I do not believe at this point, sitting here today, that I have any evidence of a intelligence failure," Crow- a Democrat- told @jeremyherb

[Hekate]

1. Thank you so much for the post

[Deminpenn]

2. What's the point of Monday morning quarterbacking?

No matter when Americans decided to start leaving, chaos would have ensued as Afghans realized what was happening.

[Yorkie Mom]

3. This is NOT Monday morning quarterbacking!

[Deminpenn]

4. They are undermining what Biden has said about

the spectrum of intelligence advice he got.

[Yorkie Mom]

6. Are you saying Adam Schiff is lying?

What about the other Democratic Intel Committee Member, Jason Crow, who also went on record?

[Deminpenn]

8. Not at all

The implication of what both men said is that Biden hasn't been completely truthful about the intelligence assessments he says he got. That's Monday morning quarterbacking imho.

[madville]

9. It's becoming obvious many want to undermine Biden

This is an opportunity they are capitalizing on.

[Yorkie Mom]

12. Respectfully, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Biden was my candidate in the primary, and I'm still happy to have as president.

He is human and makes mistakes like the rest of us. I won't stick my head in the sand and pretend otherwise.

[wnylib]

32. With all of Biden's experience in the Senate,

his 8 years as VP, and his expertise in foreign policy, I have a hard time believing that he just "slipped up" on the evacuation of Afghanistan.

There has to be more to it than what Schiff is saying. After all, it WAS a security meeting, wasn't it? There must be things he cannot reveal. I wonder that he said as much as he did.

[NJCher]

30. I don't believe that for a minute

I'm not sure what the explanation for this is because I don't know specifically what Biden said about intelligence. I think the party is unified, for the most part, except for two people and you know who they are. At some point the pieces may fall into place but I'm not going to jump to a conclusion that Dems want to undermine Biden.

There have been Dems who have openly criticized the evacuation. That's something Democrats do that a repuke wouldnt even think of. I don't agree with their criticism and I think they should have aired their thoughts directly to Biden/Harris, not via the media.

[wnylib]

34. Well said and I agree.

Keep in mind, too, who is reporting on what Schiff said.

Ryan Nobles is a CNN journalist. CNN is a corporate media outlet, biased in favor of the corporations who were invested in the Afghanistan occupation. He could be quoting Schiff selectively to create a specific impression or to create division among Dems. Corporate politicians are not happy with the plug being pulled in Afghanistan.

In fact, it seems to me that if the intel agencies knew that the Afghan government could collapse quickly and that the Taliban would overtake the country, doesn't that reinforce what Biden has said regarding a choice between sending in more troops or getting out?

So the snag now is the lack of SIVs and insufficient records on Afghanis who need to get out. That situation was created by TFG and Stephen Miller. Biden held our as long as possible, extending the date from May to August. With the situation deteriorating, Biden had to act.

Nobles is muckraking on behalf of the corporatists.

[PortTack]

7. Exactly...when panic ensues in a crowd it's impossible to stop

[Sympthsical]

11. Oversight is literally their job

And now that someone like Schiff is coming out and explaining things, maybe we'll get less, "Best scenario possible!"

It clearly wasn't, and Democrats of unimpeachable integrity are pointing it out.

[Hoyt]

5. Will Schiff be crucified like Moulton, Himes, and others critizing Afghan mess?

[Thrill]

18. He should be. This is why they lose elections.

Republicans would be blaming everybody but Trump

[Hoyt]

20. Kind of like the honesty and criticism when due, myself.

[Volaris]

19. Mho...there was no way to get out of there that wasnt gonna be some kind of sloppy.

[Yorkie Mom]

22. I see you got your answer.

[people]

10. Nothing new here

Biden said that the intelligence that came in about what could happen in Afghanistan when the date for the U.S. to leave was approaching included various scenarios, including the scenario that the Taliban would rapidly take over. But "rapidly take over" could mean in 2 to 4 months or 2 to 4 weeks. 11 days was way quicker than what Biden and the generals expected. Were their expectations unreasonable? I don't know. None of us has the details that Biden has in front of him. It's easy to criticize but I haven't seen any of those criticizing Biden on tv put forth a detailed scenario of leaving Afghanistan that was more likely to work any better. In order to look at an alternative plan you also have to consider the contra indications of that plan and no one has done that. It's easy to criticize from the outside. The problem is that we stayed there for years and years and years and no one had the honest guts to leave. Biden does. I respect him very much for that.

[Lovie777]

13. It pretty much backs up what Biden and his administration were saying . ..

That's what I pick up.

And they know how dangerous the airport would be.

[PortTack]

15. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[rockfordfile]

35. I agree

[Qutzupalotl]

40. Indeed, and I came across a warning from April:

Link to tweet

[Grasswire2]

14. I keep thinking about the Berlin airlift that occurred to stop the blockade of essential goods.

Didn't the planes land and take off just one after another, using the same air strip 24/7 until the job was done?

Can't there be some kind of rapid turnaround? Surely we have the technology and the materiel and the people to make this happen.

We knew, always, that this might be an eventuality.

Is it a matter of managing an air space without the apparatus of a major airport? Or crappy asphalt?

Sorry if I sound dumb here....just wondering.

[vanlassie]

28. That is essentially what has been done. Massive numbers and full planes. Non Stop.

[Grasswire2]

29. I saw some reporting about that this evening....

...hoping that the runway can take the pounding until the job is done.

Kudos to everyone.

[keithbvadu2]

16. MAGA Make Afghanistan Great Again

Link to tweet

[Thrill]

17. The question needs to be answered. Why were so many Americans over there?

I don’t get it? Doing real work, or bullshitin getting big government payouts?

[agingdem]

24. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Shock and Awe Shit Show

morphed into a 20 year occupation...it takes a whole lot of manpower to do that...soldiers, support staff, contractors, engineers, mechanics etc..my grandson was less than year old when the first bomb fell..he's now a university senior...getting out was always going to be a clusterfuck...Joe's decision to leave Afghanistan was the right one...and while I have a deep admiration for Schiff, his Monday morning woulda coulda shoulda quarterbacking and his omg revelations from an armchair 7000 mile away is not helpful.. right now the House needs to pass the infrastructure bill...and how about the voting rights bill, getting on top of covid once and for all, and continue investigating the January 6 attack on our democracy...please allow Biden, the State Department and the military to do their jobs given the ever changing variables and outliers on the ground...

[rockfordfile]

36. true

[Xolodno]

21. What I don't get, is why everyone is focused on the time table.

This was going to happen no matter what, be it less than two weeks, two months, two years, etc. It was going to happen

[NJCher]

31. right

according to a report I heard on television tonight, more like 2 weeks.

[stopdiggin]

23. I think one of the big surprises here

was that the Afghan government didn't even make a pretense of trying to hold on to power.

(and part of that might have been pique that Biden wouldn't give Ghani what he asked for, namely air support and a delayed departure - essentially an extension of the status quo? Biden said, "No .. leaving means leaving ..".) And that, in large part, is what turned a scenario of perhaps months, perhaps a year and a half - that the government would hang on to at least Kabul - to a 10 day rout. And giving it the name 'rout' is a misnomer - because in the majority of places there was no fighting at all. In short, the Afghan army, and the government, just walked away. And I keep wondering if some of that wasn't - one last middle finger to Biden and the Americans?

[Grins]

25. Left "a classified intel briefing on Afghanistan"?

Classified. Hmmmmm

[NoMoreRepugs]

26. The obsessing over how quickly Afghanistan fell is

nonsense, it happened more quickly than the general consensus of the intelligence community it appears, yet it’s Biden’s mistake? Let’s give some kudos to how quickly thousands are being evacuated and no American soldiers have lost their lives - that is the key element to all this isn’t it???

[Bucky]

38. Sure, that's one perspective

I don't know if there is any one "key" element to this.

The people who are gonna be killed cause we left them behind matter. The women whose lives are gonna be a virtual prison because we left them behind matter.

I hate to quote Colin Powell. But when we broke it, we bought it. There was now way we were gonna leave different than the British or the Soviets.

[NoMoreRepugs]

39. Guess I should have worded it ..."one of the keys"... or ..."one of the most important keys"....

Anyways... from today's headlines:

..."Biden national security officials last week set goal of evacuating 5K-9K per day from Afghanistan
this morning, WH says 21,600 were flown out of Kabul in last 24 hours - 12,700 on US military flights, 8,900 on allied coalition flights
total evacuees in last 10 days: 58,700"

Still with NO US troop casualties. In the face of the clusterfuck left him by tRUMP I say job well done so far Mr President.

[monkeyman1]

27. put blame where it need's to be .

TFG & pompous made a deal with the Taliban & did the big draw down of troop's guess what , taliban gained a whole shit load of time to re-group put plan together. basically sold the us out ! why do you think the republican 's are trying to walk back TFG big sweet -heart deal. pompous is a west point grad ! think he should figure this out . ya rite ! all this shit starts & end,s with republican's !

[Mersky]

33. Here's the CSPAN link

https://www.c-span.org/video/?514220-1/representative-schiff-evacuations-unlikely-completed-august-31-deadline

___
Helps me out to hear the whole comments from Schiff. Is better for taking in the complexities of the scale of the mission and the security issues. His is a sobering, but balanced take as he speaks to our moral and ethical obligation to get folks out of there.

[Bucky]

37. I'm gonna really hate it if Biden screwed the pooch by sticking to Trump's timeline agreement

We should've been evacuating thousands of Afghans out of that country from the spring. There was no way to prevent the Taliban takeover. It's clear the Afghan people collectively didn't have a fight in them. But damn, they folded in about a week and thousands are gonna be murdered by those theo-thugs because they tried to help us modernize their country.

What a shit show. We had no choice but to go into Afghanistan. But we should've started leaving the day the Seals killed Osama.

[Irish_Dem]

41. Ending a war is not like a grade school fire drill.

War is brutal, messy, dangerous, horrific. Even the ending part of it.
Biden is doing a fabulous job with the last days, no deaths.
It is a miracle.