President Biden

MAKAVELI

Well-Known Member
Article dated January 15, 2021. Do you feel like the evacuation might have gone differently if it had been conducted while those 2,500 US troops and additional NATO forces were still in Afghanistan?
Drumpf was still president on January 15th. He was getting ready to pull all of them out just as Biden did.
 

MAKAVELI

Well-Known Member
Could you link me to an article that says he was about to do what Biden did? You know I don't have any love for the guy.
The deal was to be out by May 1st. He reduced military by almost half by January 15th I don't know why you think that he wasn't going to remove the other half.
 

baklava

I don’t work at UPS anymore.
Those with human emotions who aren't slaves to their political allegiances. So it's understandable to this lifelong Democratic voter why you don't.
I figured the “slaves to their political allegiances” would be the ones more likely to indulge in media propaganda slop (the same ones that lied us into Iraq). Unlike most here, I don’t criticize “tHe mEdiA” then turn around and give clicks and views to the stuff that appeals to “my side” and tickles me in that special somewhere. I truly DGAF what Maddow, Carlson, whoever has to say about anything, let alone this.

Super duper honesty time; of course if could have been done better. Despite the “open-ended commitment” to bringing Americans home there are still some stuck over there and that is a shame. I figured that the end of our presence in these wars was always going to be a disaster which is why no previous administration did it. Biden did it, and while he :censored2:ed us in some regards, I’m not going to play footsie with the Trumpers on here who are not honest actors in the first place.

I’m glad its done.
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
The deal was to be out by May 1st. He reduced military by almost half by January 15th I don't know why you think that he wasn't going to remove the other half.

The Taliban didn't honor the terms of the conditional Doha agreement.


"The Biden administration has consistently blamed the Trump administration’s 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban for the Afghanistan debacle. The agreement, the Biden team insists, left the president no choice but to remove U.S. forces unconditionally from Afghanistan by Aug. 31. In fact, President Biden’s failure to hold the Taliban to the terms of the Doha agreement contributed to this disaster."

The agreement promised the Taliban an earlier U.S. departure, by May 1, 2021, in return for a pledge that they would prevent the use of Afghanistan soil by any group against the security of the U.S. and its allies. Mr. Biden managed to extend the date by four months but was still bound by the basic terms of the agreement. The Biden administration believed that if the U.S. failed to remove forces by Aug. 31, the Taliban could renege on their commitment and allow attacks on U.S. troops remaining in the country, so the only way for the U.S. to avoid this danger was to withdraw, honoring its end of the Doha deal in the hope that the Taliban would spare American forces.

The Biden administration has made this contrived argument repeatedly, and Mr. Biden reiterated it at a press conference last week, following the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in Kabul. But the administration misrepresents the Doha agreement. The U.S. promised to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, but only if the Taliban met commitments of their own. One of them was a pledge to participate in an “intra-Afghan dialogue,” to achieve a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire” and to agree upon a “political roadmap” for Afghanistan’s future. If the Taliban didn’t honor this commitment, the U.S. had no obligation to withdraw.

Trump administration officials emphasized the conditional nature of the U.S. commitment when the Doha agreement was signed. As Defense Secretary Mark Esper put it in March 2020, Doha “is a conditions-based agreement.” If “we assess that the Taliban is honoring the terms of the deal,” including “progress on the political front between the Taliban and the current Afghan government,” the U.S. will “reduce our presence toward a goal of zero in 2021.” But Mr. Esper made clear that the American withdrawal wouldn’t be automatic. “If progress stalls,” he warned, “then our drawdown likely will be suspended, as well.”

The Taliban didn’t honor its political commitments and ultimately took Afghanistan by force. The Biden administration’s claim that the Doha agreement left no choice but to quit Afghanistan unconditionally is false. Given the Taliban’s behavior, the U.S. wasn’t obligated to withdraw by May 1, by Aug. 31, or any other date. Withdrawal was a choice. And the Biden administration’s announcement of this choice in April triggered the Taliban offensive to retake Afghanistan and set the disastrous U.S. departure in motion."
 

MAKAVELI

Well-Known Member
The Taliban didn't honor the terms of the conditional Doha agreement.


"The Biden administration has consistently blamed the Trump administration’s 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban for the Afghanistan debacle. The agreement, the Biden team insists, left the president no choice but to remove U.S. forces unconditionally from Afghanistan by Aug. 31. In fact, President Biden’s failure to hold the Taliban to the terms of the Doha agreement contributed to this disaster."

The agreement promised the Taliban an earlier U.S. departure, by May 1, 2021, in return for a pledge that they would prevent the use of Afghanistan soil by any group against the security of the U.S. and its allies. Mr. Biden managed to extend the date by four months but was still bound by the basic terms of the agreement. The Biden administration believed that if the U.S. failed to remove forces by Aug. 31, the Taliban could renege on their commitment and allow attacks on U.S. troops remaining in the country, so the only way for the U.S. to avoid this danger was to withdraw, honoring its end of the Doha deal in the hope that the Taliban would spare American forces.

The Biden administration has made this contrived argument repeatedly, and Mr. Biden reiterated it at a press conference last week, following the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in Kabul. But the administration misrepresents the Doha agreement. The U.S. promised to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, but only if the Taliban met commitments of their own. One of them was a pledge to participate in an “intra-Afghan dialogue,” to achieve a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire” and to agree upon a “political roadmap” for Afghanistan’s future. If the Taliban didn’t honor this commitment, the U.S. had no obligation to withdraw.

Trump administration officials emphasized the conditional nature of the U.S. commitment when the Doha agreement was signed. As Defense Secretary Mark Esper put it in March 2020, Doha “is a conditions-based agreement.” If “we assess that the Taliban is honoring the terms of the deal,” including “progress on the political front between the Taliban and the current Afghan government,” the U.S. will “reduce our presence toward a goal of zero in 2021.” But Mr. Esper made clear that the American withdrawal wouldn’t be automatic. “If progress stalls,” he warned, “then our drawdown likely will be suspended, as well.”

The Taliban didn’t honor its political commitments and ultimately took Afghanistan by force. The Biden administration’s claim that the Doha agreement left no choice but to quit Afghanistan unconditionally is false. Given the Taliban’s behavior, the U.S. wasn’t obligated to withdraw by May 1, by Aug. 31, or any other date. Withdrawal was a choice. And the Biden administration’s announcement of this choice in April triggered the Taliban offensive to retake Afghanistan and set the disastrous U.S. departure in motion."
Just like it was a choice to negotiate with the Taliban a surrender deal and reduce the troops in half before he left office. That was his choice.
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
Super duper honesty time; of course if could have been done better. Despite the “open-ended commitment” to bringing Americans home there are still some stuck over there and that is a shame.

It is indeed.

I figured that the end of our presence in these wars was always going to be a disaster which is why no previous administration did it.

Really? Because it's my belief that the US and NATO forces in-country could have maintained relative stability while our evacuees got out via Kabul or Bagram. Hope the administration can unfreeze enough assets or send enough cash to satiate the Taliban.

I’m glad its done.

Unless we start seeing video of Americans being executed in the coming weeks. I believe there's at least 4-5x as many stuck in Afghanistan as were taken hostage by the Iranians back in the 70s?
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
The Taliban already had control before Drumpf left office. Soon as he made the deal with them they had control.

They controlled some areas of Afghanistan. They didn't control the ways out of Afghanistan. And they wouldn't have tried :censored2:ing with the remaining US and NATO forces to do so. Pulling them out before the evacuees were pulled out was a big mistake.
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
He made the deal in November and was already pulling out troops by January with a May 1st deadline to be out. Not that hard to figure out, Private box ox.

Was part of the Doha agreement that all US troops would remain in country if every condition were not met? Or is that just what you'd like to be the case?
 
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