In July, Biden said Kabul would never fall. Four days ago Biden said it would take more than 90 days for Taliban to reach Kabul, if at all. Today, Biden sends 1,000 more additional troops to Kabul as it is expected to fall within 72 hrs. That is correct. By Monday the Taliban could control all of Afghanistan.
The AP is reporting that emergency evacuations have sped up the timeline to avoid the most embarrassing optics for the Biden administration. An additional 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne are en-route to support the previously announced 3,000 U.S. troops handling the evacuation. That is a total of 4,000 new military troops sent to Kabul to support the previous 1,000. Keep in mind the original Afghan withdrawal was 2,500 troops in total.
(VIA AP) – The Latest developments on Afghanistan, where a weeklong Taliban offensive is now approaching the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, after the insurgents captured most of the north, west and south of the country, just weeks ahead of the final pullout of all U.S. and NATO troops: “WASHINGTON — A defense official says President Joe Biden has authorized an additional 1,000 U.S. troops for deployment to Afghanistan.
That raises to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden calls an “orderly and safe drawdown” of American and allied personnel. U.S. troops will also help evacuate Afghans who worked with the military during the nearly two-decade war.
The Pentagon said earlier that 3,000 troops are being sent to Kabul to join the nearly 1,000 already there. Biden’s statement on Saturday didn’t explain the breakdown of the 5,000 troops he said had been deployed.
But a defense official tells The Associated Press that the president has approved Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation that the lead battalion of the 82nd Airborne Brigade Combat Team assist in the State Department’s drawdown.
The situation in Afghanistan has worsened in recent days with the Afghan government losing control of many parts of the country. (read more)
From CNN the following wagon-circling:
(VIA CNN) The US Embassy in Kabul is instructing personnel to destroy sensitive materials as well as items “which could be misused in propaganda efforts,” according to a management notice sent Friday to embassy staff, seen by CNN and described by another source familiar. […] A diplomatic source told CNN that one intelligence assessment indicated that Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban within the week, possibly within the next 72 hours. (read more)
Perhaps U.S. military leadership emphasis has been on the wrong syllable….
.
Listen up, our CTH community has family there and en-route; we do not think this is funny. But the sheer scale of military ineptitude is laughable in the extreme. The Pentagon has known for two years that we were withdrawing from Afghanistan. President Trump instructed them to plan and execute the withdrawal. They did nothing…
Instead of doing what the Commander-In-Chief instructed, the Pentagon supported Lt. Col Alexander Vindman (Trump impeachment), Navy Secretary Richard Spencer (Trump extortion) and Joint Chief’s woke Chairman Mark Milley (Trump attacker). So, at the same time we pray for the safety of our family to execute the mission at hand, we spit toward those flag officers who are insufferably political.
Biden will attempt to blame Trump, that won’t work. Eventually the White House will blame the military – that’s partially deserved. But ultimately the White House should have reviewed the plans -to verify they were actually in place- before doing the currently big stupid.
We all want to see our troops out of Afghanistan, but it doesn’t take a military strategist to see that we are going to have to deal with the multi-billions of heavy weapons we have just handed a bunch of terrorists. Good grief, we even left drones there. Everything about this is FUBAR.
The Pentagon has been rogue, because the same political attitude that exists within the Intelligence Branch writ large exists in the political military. The political Pentagon thinks they are above and beyond civilian oversight… and the political Senate has allowed this to happen.
Why the Senate?
Because the Senate appropriated hundreds of billions to federal defense contractors; private companies. Those private corporations then turn around and (1) hire the family members of the Senators in office; and (2) give money to the campaign coffers of the Senators who funded them.
In the big picture, Afghanistan was nothing more than another big circle-jerk of taxpayer money laundered to corporations and themselves.
Our entire system of government is one long collapsing mess.
The U.S. government gives billions of taxpayer dollars and weapons to terrorists, then the same federal government turns around and labels Americans as terrorists because we don’t like the U.S. government response.
They suck.