quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
So basically, they're telling Americans to avoid the airport but if you want to get evacuated from Afghanistan to get to the airport.

Edit: so if they enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, is the State Dept. going send that info to the Taliban?

It would almost make sense to have another airport in the area...
I don't know, maybe a big assed one, suited for the military. Defensive positions already set up, known fields of fire, equipment, fuel....

Hmmm.....

(This administration is a junior varsity shit show)

Take a look at aerial photos of Bagram Air Base. The infrastructure our country built there over the last 20 years is incredible.

quote:

Bagram Air Base

^^^^^. I still fail to see why we agreed to leave that base.

Just scale back the ops and minimize the influence around town but still keep things safe. Can’t trust those fuckers.

Anybody who didn’t see what happened is either stupid or a fool.

Thanks to 46, the world has been set back 20 years….

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
While the target was initially described as a vehicle-born improvised explosive device (IED), an official clarified that the explosives were being worn by multiple bombers, rather than planted on the vehicle itself.

How would one determine this after it blowed up real good?

quote:

Originally posted by ugeesta:
^^^^^. I still fail to see why we agreed to leave that base.

Just scale back the ops and minimize the influence around town but still keep things safe. Can’t trust those fuckers.

Anybody who didn’t see what happened is either stupid or a fool.

Thanks to 46, the world has been set back 20 years….

According to Biden's teleprompter:
“They concluded — the military — that Bagram was not much value added, that it was much wiser to focus on Kabul,” President Biden said. “And so, I followed that recommendation.”

This is a BS. The location of that base, and our investment in it....worth keeping for quite some time. If nothing else, that base was a massive thorn for some neighbors in the region. I can only guess we ran away in the middle of the night to appease some other power or powers in that region. Lord knows what "negotiations" this clown show is in the middle of.

https://www.nationalreview.com...don-bagram-air-base/

According to the National Review. The Pentagon couldn't keep both the base and the airport/embassy with some troop deployment restrictions...smells just as bad as that statement from Biden.

The way I understood it was Joe gave the commanders a number of troops he wanted it drawn down to, the commanders decided that with that number of troops, Kabul would be easier to defend

Yet another consequence resulting from the cockeyed decisions the buffoons in our government have/are making.
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Iran Hits the Jackpot as Taliban Realizes 1 Thing About the Vehicles Biden Left Them

As we watch the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in real time, it’s pretty sickening to know that the new regime will be aided by the veritable war chest left behind by the U.S. military.

The roughly 40 aircraft and 2,000 armored vehicles are a boon for the Taliban’s ragtag forces — and the situation is panning out quite nicely for Afghanistan’s neighbor Iran as well.

The Taliban and Iran, you see, are both stifled by international trade sanctions thanks to their full-throated commitment to terroristic rule.

The Taliban, which now has access to Afghanistan’s lucrative heroin industry, has realized it will need fuel for its shiny new vehicles.

And Iran’s got plenty of that.

A wholly unholy alliance has been born.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Iran has resumed fuel exports to Afghanistan, threatening to undermine the potency of U.S. sanctions against both regimes.

As if the Biden administration had much left to lose — the president has already strongly signaled a desire to return to the one-sided Iran nuclear deal and has virtually handed the Taliban everything it’s demanded on a silver platter.

“The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has cut the country off from the foreign financing that has kept the country afloat,” the Journal explained.

But there’s still $5 million worth of petroleum products crossing the Afghanistan border every day, according to officials and traders.

All those American vehicles need a steady supply of fuel, after all, and Iran is more than happy to oblige.

“It is an important sort of lifeline for Afghanistan and, historically, a supply of dollars to Iran,” Rachel Ziemba, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the outlet of the trade partnership.

Although Afghanistan has been cut off from U.S. dollars, traders expect that this will be offset by the country’s booming heroin sales.

“The U.N. Security Council, which oversees sanctions on the Taliban and the country’s Islamic State affiliate, estimates taxation of drug trafficking could amount to a quarter of the Taliban’s annual combined revenue of as much as $1.6 billion a year,” the Journal noted.

It’s a perfect storm — that is, a perfect opportunity for the Islamist regimes. They’re now even less likely to reform their ways for the sake of trade with the West.

The U.S. may finally be winding down its longest war, but there’s no doubt that the Taliban has emerged from the quagmire as the victor.

And now, the spoils are being shared with an adversarial and dangerous nation.

https://www.westernjournal.com...e1b3f261f7a1bc097e10

My mom said to me the other day:

Yesterday it was Vietnam
Today is Afghanistan
Tomorrow will be Taiwan

Air Force friend of mine wonders why they gave up BAF. Very few reasons to give it up yet many times keep it. Should’ve kept it as a place for US to operate out of. No employing local nationals, no paying any Afghans, don’t mess with BAF and it won’t mess with you. Keep 2 BDE combat teams there as QRF for Special Forces to capture/kill HVTs and HPTs.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Tomorrow will be Taiwan

Meh. We're not going to touch Taiwan/China. If they decide they want it they're just going to take it and the world will do exactly nothing.

quote:

Air Force friend of mine wonders why they gave up BAF. Very few reasons to give it up yet many times keep it. Should’ve kept it as a place for US to operate out of. No employing local nationals, no paying any Afghans, don’t mess with BAF and it won’t mess with you. Keep 2 BDE combat teams there as QRF for Special Forces to capture/kill HVTs and HPTs.

This is what I think should have been done with that area some 15 years ago. I believe that we do need a presence there to kill those that need killing. Beyond that? Nope.

There's not a snowball's chance in hell that we are going to bring those savages into the 21st century no matter how long we occupied that country. No sense in even trying. "You do what you do, and some of us are going to stay here and kill those that need killing in order to keep us safe at home. Deal?"

Wonder if Israel would sell nukes to Taiwan?

"If it ain't [a mess], it'll do 'til a mess gets here."

Multiple Afghan relatives, including children, killed in US strike in Kabul: report
By Kenneth Garger

August 29, 2021 9:00pm Updated

US officials said the drone strike wiped out a vehicle carrying multiple suicide bombers that posed an “imminent ISIS-K threat” to the city’s airport.

The exact amount of casualties was not immediately clear, but a relative of those killed told CNN that nine of his family members died in the drone strike.

Six children, ranging in age from 2 to 10, and three adults were among the dead, the relative told the news outlet.

US officials on Sunday night acknowledged the reports on civilian deaths, but did not confirm any had occurred.

Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement that a secondary explosion from the drone strike could be to blame for additional deaths.

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” Urban said.

Two American military officials told the Associated Press that multiple suicide bombers were inside the vehicle that was targeted.

“We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home — where my brothers lived with their families,” he told the network.

At least three of the children and their father were inside their own vehicle, preparing to leave for a family event, when they were killed, the relative said.

The US airstrike is the second since Friday and comes as officials wind down the historic evacuation of tens of thousands Americans and Afghan allies from Hamid Karzai International Airport ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to withdraw.

On Thursday, a suicide attack left more than 180 people — including 13 US servicemen — dead at the airport on Thursday. And President Biden on Saturday warned that another attack could be imminent.

The US’s military cargo flights continued their runs into the airport Sunday, ahead of President Biden’s Tuesday deadline to withdraw all troops.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/29/...campaign=android_nyp

If anyone thinks Biden is going to do anything if China takes Taiwan, I've gotta bridge to sell you. Although, I could be wrong. He allowed a CC Cutter and Navy warship to take a stroll down or was it up, the Taiwan straight last week. It's only 110 miles wide so that was quite the cruise considering it occurred at all under Bidens' Admirals.

I'd bet North Korea, Iran, China and Russia have pretty much had their internal assessments of Uncle Joe revised by the end of last week. I'm not thinking it went well for Joe. We'll know better in the next couple of months if one of them launches something ..

Lot of the high end chips that use in F35 and other jet fighter were made in Taiwan so if the CCP got Taiwan they got everything, and US has have not business to claim to be the leader of the free world period.

Furious Vet Gets to Work After Seeing USMC Officer Kicked from Corps for Calling out Biden and Woke Brass

As we witness the tragedy of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from a theater where so many Americans have served and sacrificed, we are wondering why none of our military leaders will take responsibility.

One Marine officer, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, has served for 17 years. This puts him just three years away from the 20-year-mark, when a pretty decent pension will kick in.

Following Thursday’s suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport which killed 13 U.S. service members, Scheller put his job on the line to “demand accountability” from his senior leaders.

In the video, which many readers may have already viewed after it went viral on Thursday, Scheller delivers his message to leaders, and specifically calls out Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley.

By Friday, the video had been shared 35,000 times, the New York Post reported.

Predictably, Scheller was fired the next day. In a Friday Facebook post, he wrote, “I have been relieved for cause based on a lack of trust and confidence.”

Scheller’s original video and subsequent announcement was widely circulated on social media and many Americans are now lobbying on his behalf.

Just the News reported that “supporters quickly organized a grass roots campaign to reinstate Scheller.”

This group is led by Anthony Slate who, according to his LinkedIn profile, served in Marine Force Recon, a special operations unit. Slate is asking supporters to contact the Marine Corps directly to demand that Scheller be reinstated.

In a LinkedIn post, Slate wrote: “Here’s the public affairs office for the United States Marine Corps. I suggest we the people contact the Marine Corps and let them know how we feel on the matter!!!!!”

https://www.westernjournal.com...e1b3f261f7a1bc097e10

https://youtu.be/lR7jBsR0D10

Here’s his most recent video. He called one of his bosses out, resigned, and told them to keep the money.

I hate to use a line from a movie, but-
“That’s a bold move, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him”.

IIRC, officers can resign their commission at any time. He might be accountable for article 133 conduct unbecoming for an officer, 88 contempt toward officers, or 134 “other”……and I’m sure he’s gonna get hammered-because they can’t have other officers doing the same.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
IIRC, officers can resign their commission at any time. He might be accountable for article 133 conduct unbecoming for an officer, 88 contempt toward officers, or 134 “other”……and I’m sure he’s gonna get hammered-because they can’t have other officers doing the same.

Wasn’t there some officers that did the same thing to Trump? Did they get “hammered”? I seem to remember the officer corps claiming “free speech” and whatnot?

In the left’s eyes they were FN whistle blowers and heroic or some bullshit like that.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Take a look at aerial photos of Bagram Air Base. The infrastructure our country built there over the last 20 years is incredible.

Remember when the perimeter of the base was ringed with mine fields?
20-years worth of de-mining and landscaping, turned the old US-built, then Soviet base, into a modern complex.
Two months ago, next to the US embassy, it was quite possibly the most secure facility in Afghanistan.