anything worth doing is worth doing badly, but done badly enough can not be done at all
a few points on afghanistan
I want to make some brief points on Afghanistan. I wanted our country to pull out more then anything, but I am noticing now that is happening and being botched a confused reaction that is probably worth making post in midst of.
Vietnam was probably more difficult situation to pull Americans out of. With much more limited technology, logistics, and bureaucracy Richard Nixon was able to oversee US Troops withdrawing. I am not so sure of JFK but I think Eisenhower and LBJ would both probably be capable of implementing it as well. I will say something more contentious, if it came down to it, and although he never would, if forced to I think the George Bush admin would probably do a better job pulling out then Joseph Biden. Eisenhower rejected the CIA plans for Cuban counter revolution as not good enough, but JFK was not competent enough to do the same which led to the bay of pigs fiasco.
It is a point many would be uncomfortable contemplating, but it is entirely possible for someone who even if capable of more extreme escalation is more able to shoot down incompetent examples of that more hawkish policy as was the case with Eisenhower and Kennedy. It is entirely possible Trump was attempting to pull out his whole presidency but refused to green light doing so if the quality from generals was what we saw on display over the last few months and even the press has reported anecdotes that he would regularly chew out and castigate the upper brass. I think the competence has deteriorated to the point that even if the military was as enthusiastic about leaving as they were about staying they might just not be able to do so by default left to their own devices. Part of the noise of not wanting to leave might just be raw embarrassment of not even having the chops to do what we did in Vietnam. The performance we have witnessed did not need to be this way, we did not need to leave before 15k Americans were evacuated. We did not need to rely on a foreign army to protect our own people while we were too lazy procrastinating our homework. We could have evacuated this number of people by now if we had more competent leadership.
To those who want so strongly to say too bad so sad to all the criticism , we still live in a democratic country. Within the day Joseph Biden has announced we will not leave the last stronghold till every last American has been evacuated. Every last of fifteen thousand people. With no troops anywhere but the airport and the Taliban totally triumphant how long will that take? The rosy assumptions our elite have had so far have been embarrassingly entirely wrong, what if they continue to be so? You have an army of people high on victory, who essentially fight to keep their country from entering modernity, does anyone remember how pre modern rank and file could act? How many hot headed youths with no discipline must the Taliban leadership keep at bay? How many American deaths will be tolerated by our voters before Biden has to go in the opposite direction to compensate? If six months from now we are still waiting on every last American to be evacuated how many swipes by the Taliban upset we have reneged on our agreement might happen? The Taliban has people it must politically manage too, how long can the members braying for blood be kept at bay while we sit on our hands and wait for people to get to one single airport month after month?
If things go badly enough and Biden changes his mind and re invades, many people will blame the press on both sides for criticizing Biden first and foremost. But I think its worth stating for those who want to pull out most of all it will have been Biden’s fault if this ends up becoming what happens. If all Americans had been evacuated and it was merely all the Afghanistan allies getting boned I think it would be much easier to take a reflexively “so what” attitude. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think very highly about Afghanistan, its part of why I do not want to be there. It does not make sense why we would trust either side so much with so many Americans. I hope things work out and I will not assume anything in any direction. But here marks the point Biden has botched things so bad something unexpected and extreme enough might happen that he will change his mind and not pull out at all. It is now possible. And all the worst people will learn all the wrongest lessons.
The worse this is implemented, the easier time those we hate most will argue against pulling out. IF ONLY it was like Vietnam all over again! I have been rooting for pulling out every step of the way, but this marks the point I am not only yelling angry at the refs, but at the coach leading the team too. I hope Biden and the Taliban do the right thing, and the momentum of wanting to play nice in victory on the world stage appeals enough to the Taliban that we get out without a hitch, but this is not the moment I am resting easy or feeling triumphant. There was a certain amount of mess that cant be avoided, but even in Vietnam we were able to avoid this many Americans still being out there. Hopefully the situation does not deteriorate from here.