Americans were urged to leave Afghanistan...

[babylonsister]

so none of this came as a complete surprise despite what some talking heads might say.


US Embassy in Kabul again urges Americans to leave Afghanistan 'immediately'
By Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Updated 12:46 PM ET, Thu August 12, 2021


(CNN)The US Embassy in Kabul again urged American citizens to leave Afghanistan "immediately" amid rapid Taliban gains in the country.

It is the second such security alert in less than a week urging the immediate departure of US citizens.

"The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options," the embassy said Thursday, noting that Americans who cannot afford to purchase airline tickets should contact the embassy "for information regarding a repatriation loan."

The embassy issued its alert as the Taliban continued its assault, seizing major cities and capitols, dealing blow after blow to the Afghan government, its army and the US and its allies who trained Afghan forces.

more...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/12/politics/us-citizens-afghanistan/index.html

[CentralMass]

1. Trying to sell this pull out from Afghanistan as a "one and done"

situation isn't going to fly. It has just put the wheels in motion for the next crisisies in the region.
I don't know that doing deserves praise or condemnation.
It was clear that after the Orange Anus had already withdrawn our troop levels down to about 2500 that were in a precarious position militarily toprevent the overthrow of the government. The stage was set for this to happen. In retrospect it seems like that this Taliban takeover might have been "secretly" agreed upon between the Afghan government and the Taliban in advance.
It is clear that tRump set all of this in motion but Biden owns it now.
This is just the beginning of the next foreign policy ball of shit.

[PortTack]

2. They have been urging Americans to leave since May!

One has to ask themselves, if in that position would you have left before now? Yes, sometimes the answer is not that simple.. difficult times call for difficult decisions

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, looks like we were going to get an exit mob no matter what.

[Lovie777]

5. Yes, no matter, crowds would show up .. ..

I believe majority of the Afghans and America that were registered and had proper visa have left.

[uponit7771]

6. +1, and according to Der Spiegel it looks like the Taliban "took over" the country in July (link)

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-trillion-dollar-illusion-the-entirely-predictable-failure-of-the-west-s-mission-in-afghanistan-a-0193fa9c-aa6f-4719-84de-01ead3aefcf6

In early July, I met with a leading Taliban military commander. I asked when his fighters would arrive in Kabul. His answer: "They are already there." How the Afghanistan mission failed and what happens next.

[dalton99a]

7. Yep. "It started in April"

The next day, I met one of the Taliban’s leading military commanders for Kabul, who received me in the middle of the city in an unremarkable office building. When asked how far the Taliban had to walk to get to the lakeshore, he responded: "Not far at all." He seemed perfectly calm, a clean-shaven emissary of fear. "They’re already there, after all. They are the security guards at the restaurants, the ride operators, the cleaning staff. When the time is right, the place will be full of Taliban."

Six weeks after our meeting, in the middle of August, the same man drove to the Presidential Palace along with 10 bodyguards and the senior commander responsible for the conquering of Kabul. He hadn’t lied when he said that his men had already infiltrated the park at the reservoir. What he had failed to mention, though, was that the Taliban were also already in the heart of the city.

Numerous witnesses in various neighborhoods of the capital following the fall of Kabul had similar stories to tell. "It started in April," says a longtime acquaintance from the western part of the city. "More and more outsiders were suddenly in the neighborhood. Some had beards, others didn’t. Some were well dressed, others wore rags. Completely different. That made them difficult to notice. But all of the locals realized: They aren’t from here." They had silently infiltrated Kabul. The outsiders also appeared in the northern and eastern parts of the city, telling those who asked that they had come to Kabul for a new job or for business reasons.

Then, last Sunday morning, "they came out of the buildings holding white Taliban flags, some of them armed with pistols," says a resident of an eastern district of the city. It was the ultimate victory over America’s high-tech military, whose air surveillance proved powerless against this army of pedestrians and motorcyclists that would overrun Kabul from within and from outside in the ensuing hours. Later that day, they would drive through the city streets in captured police cars – from the air, an image of perfect confusion.

[dalton99a]

4. They forgot to say "Our Troops Are Leaving. The Taliban Are Bad People. PLEASE Get The Fuck Out"

AND they forgot to send a chauffeur