It took balls to get out of Afghanistan!

[augyboston]

I was taught to walk away if possible and that showed greater maturity and "manhood" than knee jerking into violence.

It takes "balls" to disengage and President Biden showed he has them.

He knew there would be turmoil whenever we pulled out of Afghanistan, but he also knew it was long past time that America ended it's never ending war. He knew the MSM would attack him with images of this turmoil, yet he still did the right thing and got us out - finally!

A true leader doesn't finger test the prevailing wind, he or she will make the hard decisions and take ownership of same. Joe Biden did just that and I admire him for it.

[madaboutharry]

1. President Biden put the interests of the nation and the American people before himself.

What a novel thing to do!

Imo, one of the unspoken reasons for so much criticism, especially from the right, is that a light was shone on the lack of balls in others.

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. Except for

The war hawks and weapon makers who are still howling into the night as they bemoan their loss of one profit point in ten years. The level of greed and bloodlust in our weapons makers is stunning in its depth and breadth. I am just glad Biden did not care one jot for them and did what should have been done a long time ago. Now to make sure these same barely human beings do not try to 'weaponize' this event for themselves. I am not sure they can, but I did not think that orange gibbon would become president either.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. +100

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. Yup, the only winner in Afghanistan (and Iraq for that matter)

was the Military Industrial Complex.

[Haggard Celine]

2. It was the courageous thing to do.

He lost some support and gained some enemies by ending it, but he believed it was wrong to continue it and didn't care whether the profiteers were happy about it or not. I got the impression that in a way, he did it for Beau.

[brewens]

3. My republican BIL remembers us agreeing that Obama should pull the plug and let

the chips fall where they may back in 2008. We also agreed it was not going to happen because of exactly what we are seeing now. He's not as dumb as he looks sometimes.

[gab13by13]

4. President Biden did the right thing

and history will verify it.

[Hortensis]

5. Or resolution? We've chosen a different way to stop terrorism since Americans

are unwilling to rev back up the war in Afghanistan, to a real one, to stop the Afghani Taliban from returning to power.

After all, the Taliban was only "vanquished" briefly after our invasion in 2001. Within 5 years, they were regaining territory in more remote areas until they controlled whole regions. They were able to because, again, we were unwilling to do what it would take to militarily stop this internal movement (temporarily, while we remained). And we had real questions about the right of western invaders of a Muslim nation to do so.

There was never a good time to get out, and never a good time to stay. Back in 2014, the U.S. and U.N. finally declared an end to our combat missions in Afghanistan. In 2020 tRump, with less conscience than a cat bored with a mouse, arranged a form of surrender to the Taliban. All through the rest of tRump's term, the Taliban continually broke even those shockingly giveaway terms as it established itself in more and more of the nation, and assumed control of more and more Afghani army weaponry.

So Biden, who'd advocated ending the "war" for years, finally did just that. But at the point he became president, rolling back the Taliban would have required real military action, no matter what we called it. Just continuing as before, now holding most cities while the Taliban controlled the rest of the nation, was not possible.

Call it balls. Or the buck finally stopping where it did. When diplomacy and bribery fail, we will address terrorism that threatens us from outside, "over the horizon."

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. Thanks, good summary.

Appreciated!

[NurseJackie]

11. ...

[The Jungle 1]

7. This was a very courageous move by Biden's government.

No one, not even Gen. Mark Milley expected the Afghan army to stand down in 11 days. It was completely unforeseen. I doubt this unprecedented stand-down was part of any military planning scenario.
Blaming the Biden administration for this action by the Afghan army is just plain wrong. What becomes clear now is that the entire effort was a waste of American lives and fortune.
I sure hope we have learned how painfully wasteful these campaigns are.

[Diamond_Dog]

9. Hear, hear!

[Jon King]

12. Yup, and 90% of Americans have moved on already.

Of course the administration will keep working on the issue. But once again the right wingnuts think everybody is like them and is laser focused on Afghanistan and it ended the Biden Presidency. Once again they are wrong, the vast majority of Americans have already forgotten about it.

[Wounded Bear]

14. Have we finally learned that there is no military answer to terrorism?

In the end, terrorism requires political and law enforcement actions to counter. Military strikes inevitably lead to collateral damage and basically pissing more people off and creating even more terrorists. Sending squads of soldiers around breaking down doors and holding civilians at gunpoint doesn't make friends. It's using a sledge hammer to swat at fruit flies around your kitchen.

Oh, and sending our corrupt corporate entities in to "rebuild" countries while skimming billions in cash off the top and building sub-standard infrastructure doesn't help our image much either.

Have we learned? Seems doubtful.