General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSituation at the US Embassy in Kabul is more dire than what the State Department is saying
Link to tweet
If this literally ends the same way that the Fall of Saigon did with the helicopter on the roof, it's going to be an absolute fucking PR disaster.
JoanofArgh
(14,971 posts)They'll get them out.
greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)at140
(6,110 posts)Just get out. Afghanistan is not ready for any type of democracy.
FakeNoose
(32,777 posts)God what a nightmare that was.
I believe our military will get the Americans PLUS our friends out, because the Taliban doesn't really want to kill them. The Taliban just wants us GONE.
Please God, let this happen quickly. Please God, let us learn from this!
Runningdawg
(4,522 posts)SunSeeker
(51,726 posts)tblue37
(65,490 posts)stillcool
(32,626 posts)members of the Taliban have probably lost most of their family members to the U.S. when they were children. Yeah...I'd get the fuck out of there yesterday.
rockfordfile
(8,704 posts)calguy
(5,333 posts)Biden is the fourth president to deal with it. Fortunately, he's the last one to deal with it.
It's a tragedy, but not our tragedy. We've given them everything they need to defend themselves. We can't give them the will to defend themselves. Only they can do that, and they failed, miserably.
We've no business defending a country that refuses to defend themselves.
cilla4progress
(24,776 posts)and former CIA Director John Brennan on Niccolle Wallace just now are critical of the HOW this is going - not that we are going.
cilla4progress
(24,776 posts)...
The evacuation will be seamless, should the Taliban try to interfere, we will have more than enough troops to repel them. But of course, the tragedy of abandoning Afghanistan under these conditions is indisputable.
Bev54
(10,074 posts)We are not only taking in those who helped the troops, we have committed to bring in 20,000 activists and leaders, particularly women who are in danger. Unlike the US we have been bringing many Afghans in for years. Trump did not allow that.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)Which is the last year stats are available. So the U.S. was allowing them to come in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States
Bev54
(10,074 posts)former9thward
(32,082 posts)Summary
On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that banned travel to the United States for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countriesIran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemenand suspended the resettlement of all Syrian refugees. The order sparked protests around the country at airports and immigrant rights, refugee resettlement, and civil liberties organizations undertook several legal challenges to the order on the grounds that it constituted religious discrimination. The suits against the travel bans resulted in court injunctions temporarily blocking the order and groups in opposition to the ban also blocked a second iteration of the executive order. Nevertheless, on June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 opinion, ultimately allowed a third version of the executive order to go into force, which expanded the list of barred travelers to include nationals from Venezuela (limited to government officials) and North Korea. In 2020, the Trump administration expanded visa restrictions on six more countriesEritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzaniaciting screening and national security concerns in those countries. Nationals of thirteen countries are currently subject to various travel restrictions.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/muslim-travel-ban/
dflprincess
(28,082 posts)I hope we (and other countries) are willing to give them all asylum because they will need it.
In the past, long before our involvement there, when the Taliban was in control the U.S. gave very few Afghani women political asylum.
madville
(7,412 posts)And hopefully they either retrieve or destroy as much of the big ticket military gear as they can like aircraft, tanks, munition dumps, etc. Probably going to be quite a fireworks show once everyone is out with airstrikes destroying abandoned military equipment.
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)in Afghanistan and what that could mean to an evacuation. I've already come to terms with how terrible this will be in the end, but I worry about them wanting to make a statement as we head out.
Kingofalldems
(38,487 posts)joetheman
(1,450 posts)We should keep quiet about the details of the ground situation and behave as though a siege is imminent and get our people out as quickly as possible and as many of our allies there as is possible within the next 10 days. The Afghan army this throwing down their weapons and joining the other side. The Taliban are seizing the weapons we gave the Afghan military and using those weapons against us.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)In Kabul, they have to fly out of Bagram on fixed wing transports. Bagram is about 65 km from the Embassy.