Breaking news, 8k troops deploying to Kabul to secure evacuees
About that Afghanistan withdrawal… Jeff LPH 3 sends in this breaking news from Military Times;
Three infantry battalions are on their way to the Kabul airport, the Defense Department announced Thursday, as the State Department moves to evacuate civilians from its embassy there.
At the same time, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters, another 1,000 troops are headed to Qatar to help process special immigrant visas for Afghan interpreters, while an entire infantry brigade combat team will set up in Kuwait as an on-call reaction force, as the Taliban advances its campaign to take provincial capitals around the country.
“I want to stress that these forces are being deployed to support the orderly and safe reduction of personnel, at the request of the State Department, and to facilitate an accelerated process of working through SIV applicants,” Kirby said. “This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus.”
The battalions, two Marine and one Army, are expected to arrive at the Kabul airport within the next 24 to 48 hours, Kirby said. He would not provide details on which units or where they are based, only that they are already foward-deployed to CENTCOM.
They will report to Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, who heads up U.S. Forces Afghanistan Forward, the follow-on mission after the end of Operation Resolute Support.
Within days, 1,000 soldiers and airmen will arrive in Qatar, one of the proposed third-country partners for processing SIVs, to help with medical screenings and other steps in the process, in an effort to expedite the approval of thousands of applications.
And within the next week, an 82nd Airborne Division brigade will head to Kuwait as a back-up force to protect the airport, Kirby added, though he declined to specific which one.
Forces would join with 650 troops still on the ground in Kabul, as part of a long-term security contingent for the U.S. embassy. Though U.S. Central Command has declined to specify how many troops are still in Afghanistan, the deadline to withdraw the last 2,500 train-advise-assist and counter-terror troops comes at the end of August.
More at the source. If you thought it was like watching the Fall of Saigon before, now it’s turned into watching the Invasion of Afghanistan all over again. Just when you thought we were getting out, war’s back on the menu, boys!
Category: Afghanistan, Army, Marines, Terror War
Déjà vu…
We should never have stayed in A-stan past the “kicking ass” stage. We can all thank “W” and his building democracy around the world tour.
What we should have done 20 years ago was kick the shit out of the Taliban and AQ, then left…
…and as we exited, we would have told these assholes that if we had to come back, we would ANNIHILATE them…and then done that if they fucked up and didn’t believe us.
I know none of us is surprised that the Afghan “army” has evaporated and that the Taliban is standing at the gates of Kabul. Anybody who is surprised is an absolute moron.
Absolutely concur. Nation building will never work in a place where the concept of a nation is either unknown or unwanted. Just fence the whole country in and let them live on their terms.
“Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them.” –T.E. Lawrence
If they don’t want it enough, you can’t want it or make them want it enough for them.
True. So I might as well say it; “I Told You So!”.
And this latest “surge” just adds one more bit of evidence of the incompetence, ignorance, and dishonesty of those running this shitshow for the last two decades.
Ah, if only I were king, what hellfire I would bring.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby was directly asked if the war in Afghanistan could conclude with a Taliban takeover done with US-made weapons:
“What’s it going to say for a 20-year war in Afghanistan if it ends with the Taliban rolling into Kabul in US-made MRAPs and Humvees and carrying weapons that our allies turned over to them?” a reporter asked him during a press briefing on the security situation in Afghanistan.
“I can’t see the future,” Kirby said. “And what I can tell you is our troops who deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11 did what they were sent there to do, which is to prevent Afghanistan from being a safe haven for terrorist attacks upon the homeland and to severely degrade the capabilities of groups like al Qaeda.”
Can’t see in to the future???? What about the present? Figure they are already drinking coffee at Green Beans.
For a map of what failure looks like:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/13/world/afghanistan-taliban
I suspect the liberal media coverage will be as ignorant as in ’75:
Ohhhhhhh…….I’m ‘Enery the Eighth I am, I am…..
Second verse, same as the first!
… a little bit longer and a little bit worse.”
Heard Peter Noon add that to the song on TV waaaaaaay back then.
This is what happens when no one (or too few anyway) has the stomach for Victory.
We fought to lose, folks, because we didn’t fight to-win-.
Vietnam 2: self-defeat Boogaloo. Own it.
We sure showed them!
Next time, when someone says “Let’s go get those sons-o-bitches” ask
What does Victory look like? How do we get there?
Where the enemy cant and won’t fight anymore.
Or -dont go-
Raid? Reprise? That means we don’t stick around.
Want to “nation build” ? Send the fucking Peace Corps. The military doesn’t build. It destroys.
Want Victory? Vow to crush them, utterly, and -do- it. Or -dont go-.
Because if we won’t do whatever it takes to win, -whatever- it takes,
We lose.
Amen!
Preach.
1,2,3 what are we fighting for
Don’t give a dam just off to Afghanistan
5, 6, 7, 8, open up them pearly gates
Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee, we’re gonna die
11B/MC, winning is politically incorrect right now.
Winning is racist colonialism pushed by the toxically masculine patriarchy.
Exactly! (Is okay when commies or commies buddies Taliban do it though, comrade!)
Missed it by that much!
Before anyone else does… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mgapAcVdU
God watch over them
PBS will make documentaries about it too.
P.S. Hey, we were winning when I left. (Said by folk back then, too.)
And due to the imprecision of the English language and lack of context that statement is both true and untrue.
You said it.
Sgt. Me and a whole lot of other people: If you kill all the sunsabitches, they stop fighting.
Another reason to send old men to fight the wars: We WILL kill every SOB.
“If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.” –Curtis LeMay
Damn right.
👍🏼
Live bait?
Will the last Marine out please take the flag.
I just wonder if they’ll play “White Christmas” again… sorta a tradition.
Anonymous,
This is The Trashmen’s sequel song to Surfin’ Bird.
Seems fitting for Vietnamistan.
We have just got to elect a congress full of meat eating blood thirsty conservative patriots that will choose their wars wisely and go for the
jugular if they choose to fight or stay out of it if it doesn’t have any real bearing on us.
Here it is deep into August and we still have an Embassy in operation in a nation we are leaving to their own demise.
And no one, I mean no one saw this coming? They actually thought the Taliban would allow us to leave peacefully with no reprisals.
I pray for those going into this hell hole again. This mess should have been closed up long ago and in a far more well-managed manner.
This just pisses me off to no end, that we are sending troops back to do what could have been done months ago. A well-organized exit, State Dept. first, then the translators, and then our troops would have worked I think. But this is Biden’s cluster f*ck of wanting to keep an embassy open that has had no purpose for some time now.
A further point, Kuwait is a damned far distance to count on for urgent troop support. Even air cover and support.
I hope and pray not, but this could be the worst of the Vietnam withdrawal and Benghazi together.
Godspeed to all those being deployed.
(This makes me sick to my stomach.)
No, I saw it coming, Sparks, because I know what a bunch of morons are running things in WDC now.
We’re in for it, like it or not.
” A well-organized exit, …”
Organized by the same incompetents who have already organized the last twenty years?
From The Military Times on Monday. “The United States. showed no sign Monday of stepping up airstrikes in Afghanistan despite accelerating Taliban gains there. A Pentagon spokesman emphasized that Americans now see the fight as one for Afghan political and military leaders to win or lose. “When we look back, it’s going to come down to leadership and what leadership was demonstrated, or not,” by Afghans, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a Pentagon news conference. “It’s their country to defend now. It’s their struggle.” The comments distancing the U.S. further from the conflict came as Taliban militants captured two more provincial capitals Monday in a push across much of Afghanistan, after taking large swaths of land in the mostly rural countryside. U.S. officials said Monday that military commanders have bluntly laid out their assessments that conditions in Afghanistan are deteriorating. Afghan special operations forces have been able to hold off the Taliban in key centers, including Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, they said. But in locations where the commandos have not been sent in, regular Army forces have been overrun. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his top Middle East commander, Gen. Frank McKenzie, on Monday, officials said. But defense and military leaders have not provided any new recommendations to beef up U.S. operations in defense of the Afghans. The U.S. has been launching up to a handful of airstrikes a day on the Taliban, and officials said there has been no order yet to increase that tempo. Senior officials from the White House National Security Council, State Department and Defense Department were in close contact with U.S. embassy officials in Kabul on Sunday assessing the broader impact of the fall of Kunduz, the largest and most significant Taliban takeover, according to a senior administration official. The administration official, however, indicated that the Biden administration remains determined to stick to its plan to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan by the end of the month despite the Taliban’s rapid strategic gains. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing private deliberations.… Read more »
If I could work over Kirby’s ballbag with a meat mallet without repercussions I wouldn’t ask Santa for anymore gifts for the rest of my life.
The dude is The American version of Baghdad Bob.
This website is a new favorite of mine. please to enjoy
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I enjoy. Thanks.
Does not surprise me one bit. The Taliban took two villages right away, the moment we started pulling out.
I just wondered how long it would take those clowns in WDC to start sending us back over there.
I would like to add that this is going to be a worse fustercluck than the pullout at Saigon.
Will they at least not sink a bunch of expensive and perfectly good helicopters this time around?
Asking as a concerned taxpayer.
In Moscow right now Boris Gromov is nodding his head and smiling a knowing smile. Counting the days until the US collapses under the weight of debt at 120% of GDP.
Too late. Haven’t you seen the pictures of all the “junk” left behind and being salvaged by the locals? The computer equipment alone was worth a fortune.
So the French will be mad at the Taliban and won’t deal with them…..
WWWAAAAAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!
This is hilarious: https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/08/12/european-union-threatens-taliban-with-isolation-if-it-seizes-power-in-afghanistan/
I’m sorry, but what? They aren’t part of the “international community”. They’re a bunch of thuggish warlord terrorists.
I’d ask rhetorically if the White House is going to consider the Bloods and the Crips also to be part of the international community, but they’d probably take that as an honestly good suggestion.
Yes, they are a bunch of religious fanatic thugs with an eighth century mind set with 80+ IQ’s. Most of them are illiterate.
I think that there was MAYBE a 25-30% literacy rate when I was there. Most of them have no work ethic either, that and they’ll change their alliance at the drop of a hat!
They’re bloodthirsty child-raping assholes. Their “role” should be ensuring the buzzards don’t go hungry.
Even after twenty years our “leaders” and “experts” simply refuse to understand what motivates our enemies.
And? That’s like going “Stop! Or we’ll say ‘Stop!’ again!”
Didn’t like this movie that last time I saw it. It just doesn’t get better with age.
The music isn’t as good this time around.
I was too young for the first movie but you’re damn sure right about the music!
Case in point… CCR and the Stones:
Russia couldn’t win.
We don’t have the balls to win.
Now I want to see China go in there and show us how it’s done.
Third time is a charm right?
(Movie villain laugh)
Oh you have no idea how badly it will probably go for the ChiComs if they do anything more than buy/bribe locals, and maybe even then.
Islam, most especially fanatics like Taliban, are a dominance/humiliation culture. Their book commands “humiliate the unbelievers”.
The ChiComs are a “Face” culture, with an -epic- inferiority complex.
If Xi is foolish enough to stick his hand in that intractable mess, he will likely lose his regime over it. If they send in their regular forces, really commit to saving Face, they will likely bring down the CCP, and won’t -that- be an interesting time to live in.
Exactly.
Communism meets Islam. Better them than us.
I torn between which side to root for.
As Xi is enjoying ‘re-training” the Uyghurs, hope the Taliban show the Chinese exactly what Islamic re-education is ALL about. As Xi is such an arrogant and pugnacious little cunt, he and his much vaunted PLA will learn the hard way as to why Afghanistan has traditionally been referred to as ‘The Grave of Empires’. Naturally, Xi and his merry band of morons will sneer and say ‘We’re going to show you how it’s really done’ and a couple/three years later; with their little doo-dads in hand – the PLA will be packing up their bags and hardware and like the Russkies – running like mice for home..*shrug* And a week or two after the ChiCom’s have been sent packing with their tails between their legs, Taliban leaders will do what they’ve traditionally done for the past few hundred years, give a big *spit* and holler NEXT! Yup. Good luck with ALL of that, Xi!
Hope they both jack each other up for years.
I honestly think that they’ll do to the Chinese just what they did to the Russians, A-stan is truly “The Graveyard of Empires.
“Never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up”
Heck’of’a’job, Joe!
So what do we hear from SecDef Austin? How about general Mark “Massachusetts” Milley? Has he read any sensitive books about Taliban or Al Qaida?
On the uptick, protecting and preserving those indigenous people who served the U.S. may expedited.
Josef Stolin is working to re-create the mess of Carter, with more mess.
Stagflation
He is begging OPEC for stuff we could produce.
Next:
“Afghanistan Hostage Crisis”
Yup. Where’s a falling piano, when you really need one?
*shrug* It always seemed to help the Road Runner…
Who the hell with any grey hair didn’t expect this result? Just a repeat of 75.
Which was a repeat of 54.
You don’t even need grey hair, a library card will do. Maybe we could teach all our best and brightest military and civilian leaders about things like that. We could call it a “War College”.
Step 1 Evacuate embassy
Step 2. Watch it fill up with Taliban
Step 3. Bomb the SHIT out of it
Step 4 Repeat
But, but, but Joe said waaaaaay back in July:
“So the question now is, where do they go from here?” Biden said during a July 8 press conference. “The jury is still out. But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.
Maybe if the Afghani’s just stood out on their balconies and fired a shotgun in the air, the Taliban would run like hell. /sarc
Hmmm.
Trump correctly said “time to go”, I believe because folks wouldn’t do what it would take to win.
Do you wonder if he intended, all along, to one-term and make the Donks carry out the logical conclusion of their “no winning of war” attitude, and thus own the wretched mess of the inevitable “ignoble defeat” clusterfuck…
Because, forevermore, the -Donks- own this disastrous end. They can say whatever bullshit they want, but they are holding the shitty end of the stick. And they fought, tooth and claw, to size this opportunity.
(Evil villain laugh)
Let it burn. We should have left YEARS ago. I watch all these politicians trying to find ways to blame what’s happening on the other party, f*$k you too. To the American people who allowed us to stay there for 20 years, F#$k you too. We’ve sacrificed our brothers and sisters in that crap country while you went to Starbucks and watched TV. You had no skin in the game. Now that things are going south, people are wringing their hands and howling at the moon crying “how could this happen?” Ask anyone that has served there and they’ll tell you this was going to happen. The Afghan Army was a joke from he beginning. You didn’t care that troops were doing multiple tours, coming back maimed, coming back mentally jacked up. You said “thank you for your service” and then walked away. As soon as the nightly news stopped announcing the dead from the war, we were screwed. Like Vietnam, people who never served there will spend years telling everyone how we lost, how things should have been done, ectt, etc,ect…. Those that served there know we did everything that could have been done. Either the Afghan people wanted to be a country or just a collection of tribes was up to them. You can see what they re choosing, the same thing they have chosen for thousands of years. Screw that place.