The Afghanistan Architect

[lyman]

Listen, a Federal government that ran like clockwork was *hardly* a hallmark of the Trump Administration. For one thing, they ran *everything* out of the White House, with very little delegation to folks in the field, in keeping with Trump's highly-centralized management style learned in his days as a Mom & Pop Hotelier. That is a formula for bottlenecked decision-making the moment the SHTF, and we have seen this happen with those guys.

The most likely scenario was that Trump would have failed to pull the trigger on the withdrawal. If they needed to blame the Taliban for this happening, who would have argued the point?

I'm not saying that Biden doesn't have a big mess on his hands, because he does. But I do believe that had Trump actually tried to do this, then it would have been a screw-up of roughly the same magnitude. I believe this for the simple reason that neither Trump or Biden would have any control of those thousands of Afghan Army troops that called it quits and headed for the hills. Their collapse is the proximal cause of all of this. If someone wants to try to argue how they wouldn't quit with a Trump withdrawal, then that is a post I will enjoy reading.

thank you for proving my point

[togor]

thank you for proving my point

"Togor hates Trump" is your counter for just about everything. Let's call that "#1" going forward so you post that with just two characters, requiring even less effort on your part.

I won't ask you how you think Trump would have kept the Afghans in the fight until we completed the evacuation because I know that's not your kind of question.

[lyman]

"Togor hates Trump" is your counter for just about everything. Let's call that "#1" going forward so you post that with just two characters, requiring even less effort on your part.

I won't ask you how you think Trump would have kept the Afghans in the fight until we completed the evacuation because I know that's not your kind of question.

it does not matter what Trump would have, could have , or did not do,


Biden is in charge


read the posts,, then reply,

Trump has absolutely nothing in this at this point

[togor]

it does not matter what Trump would have, could have , or did not do,


Biden is in charge


read the posts,, then reply,

Trump has absolutely nothing in this at this point

Well it's his deal that's being consummated by others, so he's not completely out of it. Before this is over I believe people will probably look at the text of that deal a bit more carefully than what was done at the time.

Anyways, no one is blaming him for wanting us out. That seems to be the right call.

But it's reasonable to ask how he could have avoided the ANA collapse while still getting us out of there. Read that carefully, because that is neither a bash on Trump or absolving of Biden, who gave the marching orders, and who has to find away to win the evacuation now.

[togor]

Meanwhile, John Bolton arguing that a continuing NATO presence in Afghanistan would have been a great way to keep an eye on a nuclear-armed Pakistan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/23/john-bolton-taliban-takeover-pakistan-extremists/

Umm, John, don't we have to cross Pakistan to get there?