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Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence


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2021 Aug 18, 2:48pm   161,890 views  1,308 comments

by RWSGFY   ➕follow (4)   💰tip   ignore  






....
The shambolic unravelling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan comes from a yet to be written textbook of "how to lose at everything". Warnings hadn't been heeded, intelligence was clearly totally inadequate, planning was lamentable, execution woeful.

Let's just focus in on one thing - although there are any number that are worthy of examination.
The withdrawal came during the "fighting season" - a phrase I have to say I have always found rather odd. But in Afghanistan there is a fighting season which starts in spring - and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Did no-one think that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren't there, poised to fill the vacuum?

The end result might have been the same - a Taliban takeover - but it would have almost certainly led to a more orderly drawdown. Yet the Biden administration wanted an eye-catching date. They wanted the withdrawal completed by 11 September. Twenty years on from 9/11 - an artificial, self-imposed deadline.

...

Biden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of "America First", it would be replaced by the mantra "America is back".
But in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.
And after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back?

...

But on the policy itself, Joe Biden is utterly defiant. He summoned up his inner Harry Truman and made clear in his speech that the buck stops with him. He was, however, happy to distribute blame in much the same way that a muck spreader disperses manure in all directions. The Afghan leadership weren't up to it, the Afghan armed forces had no fight in them; Donald Trump had negotiated a bad deal.

...

A fascinating nugget from a briefing that's just been given by Joe Biden's National Security Adviser. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan?

...

When the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.
And who will feel they have gained most from America's departure - apart from the Taliban, of course? Why, three countries near Afghanistan - Russia, Iran and China. I'm not sure that is what Joe Biden had in mind when he said after his inauguration that "America is back".



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58252174?source=patrick.net

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107   Eric Holder   2021 Sep 20, 11:22am  

Patrick says
https://notthebee.com/article/diddid-biden-forget-the-name-of-the-australian-prime-minister-during-a-major-press-conference


"I want to thank ... uh ... that fella Down Under. Thank you very much, pal," Biden said.

This is really not good. At all.


FINALLY THERE IS AN ADULT IN THE ROOM!
108   Patrick   2021 Sep 21, 12:59pm  

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/joe-biden-presidency-afghanistan-free-fall/


Biden’s presidency has a very real chance of completely foundering within its first year. After a promising start where he inherited a vaccination process that was already in progress, albeit briefly, under Trump, his vaccine strategy has stalled to the point of him now demanding mandates on private businesses, a step he assured the electorate he would not take. Last Friday, an FDA panel bucked Biden’s booster rollout program, which was slated to begin this week.

That was one of many self-inflicted wounds that Biden suffered at the end of last week as he took off for the Delaware coast for a long weekend of bike-riding and ignoring reporters. In the span of that single afternoon, the Pentagon also revealed that a retaliatory drone strike for the deaths of 13 US service-members at Kabul airport did not kill any Isis-K terrorists, as Biden and his State Department had claimed, but instead killed an innocent US-linked aid worker, as well as seven children. Neither Biden nor his press secretary Jen Psaki have answered questions on this matter. Their strategic silence is all we need to evaluate how they think this looks – and they are correct.

Along with the self-imposed Afghanistan debacle, which has created an enormous refugee crisis in a foreign region, Biden has caused another one on our southern border. Drone footage and photos splashed all over social media this weekend showed thousands of migrants, some believed to be Haitian, crossing the Rio Grande river into Del Rio, Texas, unabated. They had to be corralled under the Del Rio Bridge, with several even crafting makeshift tents and shelters.

Biden promised that America would be back. Instead we’re getting his back, as he turns his away from the microphone every time one is placed in front of him. His ‘strategy’ has also not helped with allies, as France recalled their ambassador over a secret deal between the US and Australia that saw Washington renege (according to the French) on an agreement to sell nuclear submarine technology to them and not the Aussies (crikey!). I’m not going to pretend I understand all the particulars of why the French are upset with us this time, but recalling an ambassador sure sounds serious for an administration that prided itself on being the adult on the world stage.
110   Patrick   2021 Sep 22, 9:35am  

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-09-21/prediction-deep-state-will-toss-joseph-biden-out-old-casserole-within-year


Prediction: The Deep State Will Toss Joseph Biden Out Like an Old Casserole Within a Year
BY TDB
TUESDAY, SEP 21, 2021 - 14:18
111   Patrick   2021 Sep 22, 9:57am  

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/new-proof-emerges-of-the-biden-family?token=patrick.net

New Proof Emerges of the Biden Family Emails: a Definitive Account of the CIA/Media/BigTech Fraud
An axis of the CIA, Big Tech and the DNC-allied wing of the corporate media spread an absolute lie in the weeks before the 2020 election. We now have definitive proof. ...

A young reporter for Politico, Ben Schreckinger, has published a new book entitled "The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power.” To his great credit, he spent months investigating the key documents published by The New York Post and found definitive proof that these emails and related documents are indisputably authentic. His own outlet, Politico, was the first to publish the CIA lie that this was "Russian disinformation,” but on Tuesday — without acknowledging their role in spreading that lie — they summarized Schreckinger's findings this way: the book “finds evidence that some of the purported Hunter Biden laptop material is genuine, including two emails at the center of last October’s controversy.” In his book, the reporter recounts in these passages just some of the extensive work he did to obtain this proof: ...

Given what I regard as the unparalleled gravity of what was done here — widespread media deceit toward millions of American voters in the weeks before a presidential election based on a CIA lie, along with brute censorship of the story by Big Tech — and given that so much of what was done here took place on television, we produced this morning what I regard as the definitive video report of this scandal. I realize this report is longer than the standard video — it is just over an hour — but I really believe that it is vital, particularly with the emergence of this new indisputable proof, to take a comprehensive look at how the intelligence community, in partnership with Big Tech and the corporate media, disseminated massive lies and disinformation, using censorship and other manipulative techniques, to shape the outcome of what was a close election. (We will very shortly institute our new feature of producing transcripts for all videos above ten minutes in length, but I really hope that as many people as can do so will watch this video report).
112   Patrick   2021 Sep 29, 10:01am  

https://nitter.pussthecat.org/Not_the_Bee/status/1442916247012720643


Top generals told lawmakers under oath that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan — directly contradicting the president’s comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.
113   Eric Holder   2021 Sep 29, 11:36am  

Patrick says
https://nitter.pussthecat.org/Not_the_Bee/status/1442916247012720643


Top generals told lawmakers under oath that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan — directly contradicting the president’s comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.


"Biden lied - people died!"
114   Patrick   2021 Sep 30, 5:32am  

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/congressional-testimony-on-deadly-afghan-drone-strike-contradicts-records_4022899.html?utm_source=patrick.net&utm_medium=patrick.net&utm_campaign=patrick.net


Congressional Testimony on Deadly Afghan Drone Strike Contradicts Records
BY KEN SILVA September 29, 2021

Three of the U.S. military’s top officials have told Congress that they realized within hours that a botched Aug. 29 drone strike had killed innocent civilians—contradicting earlier military statements about what the government knew in the aftermath of the incident.


The Biden administration is murderously incompetent.
115   HeadSet   2021 Sep 30, 9:51am  

There have a new lie to try and defend Biden's botched withdrawal - Trump's Fault:

It came when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained why he and the other chiefs—the top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines—all agreed that we needed to pull out by Aug. 31. The Doha agreement, which President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020 (with no participation by the Afghan government), required a total withdrawal of foreign forces. If U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, Milley said, the Taliban would have resumed the fighting, and, in order to stave off the attacks, “we would have needed 30,000 troops” and would have suffered “many casualties.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/we-now-know-why-biden-was-in-a-hurry-to-exit-afghanistan/ar-AAOXZpB?ocid=msedgntp
119   Patrick   2021 Oct 20, 10:44am  

https://babylonbee.com/news/arms-race-heats-up-just-as-china-reveals-space-nukes-america-responds-with-trans-admiral





WORLD—The arms race is heating up between the U.S. and China. Just last week, China revealed its brand new "space nukes", which are capable of easily nuking any country on the planet. The United States responded swiftly to the provocation by unveiling the world's first trans admiral.

"China, you've been warned," said Biden to a Chinese food delivery person he mistook for President Xi. "Our transgender admiral is fully armed and operational. If you cross us, we will unleash the full fire and fury of this deadly weapon upon you, make no mistake."

Military experts say that while a space nuke is somewhat impressive, it pales in comparison to the awesome power of diversity. "With Rachel Levine serving as admiral, nations around the world will bow before the terrifying might of our transgender empowerment," said General Milley. "We must pursue peace through strength. Strength of inclusivity."

Biden insisted that there is no weapon yet conceived that can top Admiral Levine and that he will gladly accept China's preemptive surrender.

Admiral Levine was not available for comment as she was getting her prostate examined.
122   Patrick   2021 Oct 26, 12:03pm  

https://notthebee.com/article/maskless-biden-coughs-into-hand-shaking-peoples-hands-

Maskless Biden coughed into his hand and immediately started shaking people's hands
123   Blue   2021 Oct 26, 2:42pm  

Patrick says
https://babylonbee.com/news/americans-still-trapped-in-afghanistan-told-by-washington-post-to-lower-their-expectations




Not sure anyone realized when you hear "Americans" that is Afghans who are/will be entering illegally. Corrupt politicians blurred the notion of citizenship vs illegal.
125   Patrick   2021 Nov 30, 11:10pm  

https://notthebee.com/article/covert-taliban-agents-spent-years-infiltrating-afghan-government-universities-businesses-to-eventually-sieze-kabul-other-afghan-cities


WHOA: The Taliban had secretly infiltrated "every organization and department" inside Afghanistan's government and universities YEARS before Kabul
128   richwicks   2021 Dec 3, 5:00am  

Patrick says
WHOA: The Taliban had secretly infiltrated "every organization and department" inside Afghanistan's government and universities YEARS before Kabul


It seems to be largely unknown that the Taliban have always been students. It literally means "student".
130   HeadSet   2021 Dec 5, 6:44am  

Patrick says
Biden claims to have served as a 'liaison' during Six-Day War despite still being in law school at the time

Yes, and even then he was plagiarizing a paper.
137   Patrick   2021 Dec 8, 10:46am  

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/bidens-diplomacy-disaster-iran/?source=patrick.net


In their colossal self-regard, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his chief negotiator Robert Malley promised Iran what it wanted — sanctions relief and an open path to the Bomb — before the negotiations had even begun. Naturally, the Iranians pushed for more, played for time and prepared for the day of victory. And now, to the shock of the State Department, they’ve announced a new set of demands that undo the hypothetical progress achieved in the previous six rounds of talks.

Checkmate. Now, it is possible that the US will surrender and get some kind of deal that John Kerry will call a return to the JCPOA of 2015. But this will be an exercise in face-saving — and it will only happen if the Iranians let it happen. If I were them, I’d keep pushing. Iran is now not just on the threshold of nuclear weapons; it’s on the threshold of finally defeating the Great Satan, expelling the US from the Middle East and Central Asia, establishing an empire over the Arabs and nuclear-tipped intimidation over Turkey and the Europeans.
138   Patrick   2021 Dec 8, 11:07am  

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-warns-russia-that-if-they-invade-ukraine-america-will-evacuate-haphazardly-and-leave-86-billion-of-weapons-behind?source=patrick.net





WASHINGTON, D.C.—As Russia appears poised to invade Ukraine, Biden today issued a forceful statement warning Putin that if he does, America will evacuate haphazardly and leave $86 billion in weapons behind.

"Listen, folks...for real this time...no joke... I ain't kiddin' around here," said Biden to a gelatinous puddle of quivering goo on the ground he mistook for the press. "If Russia invades Ukraine, we will send a bunch of troops. And then we will immediately pull those troops out and leave all our state-of-the-art weapons behind. I'm not even messing around, Jack!"

General Milley confirmed that this tactic was a proven battlefield strategy used in Afghanistan and has promised to use it without remorse should Russia ever cross the United States. "If Russia invades, they will face the consequences," said General Milley, "in the form of billions of dollars worth of rifles, machine guns, night-vision goggles, and Black Hawk helicopters, left just for them."

"I'm warning them. And by that I mean, I will call Russia first and warn them," he said.
139   richwicks   2021 Dec 8, 12:32pm  

Patrick says
WASHINGTON, D.C.—As Russia appears poised to invade Ukraine,


Just so people know, Russia isn't about to invade Ukraine. The United States has been expanding NATO Eastward for the last 30 years. That's PART of the reason the US engineered a coup d'etat in Ukraine.
140   Eric Holder   2021 Dec 8, 12:48pm  

richwicks says
The United States has been expanding NATO Eastward for the last 30 years.


So what? If a country wants to join a defence treaty why the fuck some FSB midged is supposed to have a veto power on it? It's not right neither legally nor morally.

Why the fuck should Poland/Lithuania/Estonia/Latvia/Hungary pass up the opportunity to secure itself from another occupation by the fucks hellbent on restoring Russian Empire?

The bullshit about Russia being afraid of being attacked by the West is just that - bullshit. If the West didn't attack them in the 90s when they were literally in shambles, it's not happening now, period. Who exactly is planning to attack them? Merkel? Makron? Please!

The West has been bending over backwards to disarm Russia's neighbors: took Ukraine's and Kazakhstan's nuclear weapons in exchange of "assurances of territorial integrity", pressed Ukraine into scrapping their missiles and strategic bombers, encouraged selling off tanks and artillery pieces, even took last stockpile of enriched Uranium from them during Obama administration. The whole "orchestrated coup" is a pile of Russian propaganda horseshit. Russia is not a victim here, no matter how loud their whining and crocodile tears.
141   richwicks   2021 Dec 8, 2:11pm  

Eric Holder says
richwicks says
The United States has been expanding NATO Eastward for the last 30 years.


So what? If a country wants to join a defence treaty why the fuck some FSB midged is supposed to have a veto power on it? It's not right neither legally nor morally.


Because part of the agreement with taking down the Berlin Wall so that German reunification could happen, was to stop NATO expansion. East Berlin was existed as an outpost into the the West.

The Warsaw Pact was dissolved when the USSR (thankfully) collapsed on December 26, 1991 - what is the purpose of NATO now? It's to waste money and to threaten Russia and to cause problems. It's part of the military industrial complex.

Eric Holder says
Why the fuck should Poland/Lithuania/Estonia/Latvia/Hungary pass up the opportunity to secure itself from another occupation by the fucks hellbent on restoring Russian Empire?


The only threat of occupation these nations now face, is occupation by the EU. Europe is trying to dump in refugees that the United States is creating into these nations, against the will of the citizens of those nations.

Eric Holder says
The bullshit about Russia being afraid of being attacked by the West is just that - bullshit. If the West didn't attack them in the 90s when they were literally in shambles, it's not happening now, period. Who exactly is planning to attack them? Merkel? Makron? Please!


Large wars are about economics, not actually defense. The West is fucking bankrupt, the assholes that have stolen everything and bankrupted the West need some excuse to explain the poverty they've caused. Any war that the assholes get us into are NOT meant for the US to win. Haven't you realized that by now? The US has bombed 7 nations over the last 20 years - can you even name them? What are these wars for? Out of sight out of mind.

When the USSR collapsed, the US was fine with it, as long as Yeltsin was their fucking traitorous slave, and they controlled the banking system there. Putin wasn't a problem either until he placed state control over the banking system in Russia. Part of the reason Ukraine was overthrown is that Russia gave Ukraine a better deal on loans than the ECB did. Also to stop the Nordstream II. Also to control the Nordstream I. Also to expand NATO.

The fucks controlling the United States right now are TOTAL FUCKING assholes. They don't represent us or you. Why do you defend them? These TOTAL FUCKING ASSHOLES need some excuse to get the sheep to rally around them, so they're always attempting to start wars and make up threats, they pit us continually against one another - do you really think the DNC gives a FUCK about Drag Queen Story Hour or the Republican leadership cares about the legality of abortion or not? It's just to piss people off, that's the ONLY reason they constantly change the rules. Don't you realize this yet?

Eric Holder says
The West has been bending over backwards to disarm Russia's neighbors: took Ukraine's and Kazakhstan's nuclear weapons in exchange of "assurances of territorial integrity",


You mean steal purified uranium?

Who gives a shit? If some small nation launches a nuclear weapon (and that includes Israel), they will be a parking lot the next day.

Eric Holder says
The whole "orchestrated coup" is a pile of Russian propaganda horseshit.


You are on the fucking internet.

You can talk to ANYBODY on this fucking planet now. That includes UKRAINIANS. It's easy to use translation programs as well.

Ви бачите, як легко говорити українською?

I'm so fucking sick and tired of people that, DESPITE knowing they've been lied to into the Iraq War, the Syrian War, the bombing of Libya, this fake BULLSHIT "pandemic" still are talking like anything this FUCKING government says is true. WHEN, WHEN do you lose your fucking faith, your stupid childish trust? WHEN? Is it possible? What the FUCK DOES IT TAKE?

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ON A STICK, what the FUCK does it take? What must be done before you fucking stupid assholes can grasp the simple OBVIOUS fact that there is no goddamned fucking news in the West and there hasn't been for 2 decades? Quit fucking drooling out propaganda to me, and fucking make use to the goddamned fucking machine we made precisely for this reason. PRECISELY.

We know, with CERTAINTY that the US overthrew Ukraine, because Victoria Nuland in her (in)famous "Fuck the EU" recording she was talking about who should be replacing Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's leader - 1 month before he was no longer the president of Ukraine. Almost as if she had foreknowledge, because FUCKING DUH, she did. Much was made of the cunt's "vulgarity" but "Fuck the EU" mean "Fuck the EU's opinion on who should be the next leader of Ukraine. The EU can go fuck themselves if they think they have any say".

You're not stupid, I'm absolutely certain, but I am so fucking tired of the propaganda being repeated to me. So tired of it. OF COURSE the US overthrew Ukraine.
142   Eric Holder   2021 Dec 8, 2:19pm  

richwicks says


Because part of the agreement with taking down the Berlin Wall so that German reunification could happen, was to stop NATO expansion.


Nope. It's yet another BS Russian talking point. Gorbachev himself said (on video) that nobody promised him that NATO would not expand Eastwards when he was agreeing to German re-unification and dissolution of the Warsaw pact.

Here's a transcript:

"RBTH: One of the key issues that has arisen in connection with the events in Ukraine is NATO expansion into the East. Do you get the feeling that your Western partners lied to you when they were developing their future plans in Eastern Europe? Why didn’t you insist that the promises made to you – particularly U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s promise that NATO would not expand into the East – be legally encoded? I will quote Baker: “NATO will not move one inch further east.”

M.G.: The topic of “NATO expansion” was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Not a singe Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991. Western leaders didn’t bring it up, either. Another issue we brought up was discussed: making sure that NATO’s military structures would not advance and that additional armed forces from the alliance would not be deployed on the territory of the then-GDR after German reunification. Baker’s statement, mentioned in your question, was made in that context. Kohl and [German Vice Chancellor Hans-Dietrich] Genscher talked about it.

Everything that could have been and needed to be done to solidify that political obligation was done. And fulfilled. The agreement on a final settlement with Germany said that no new military structures would be created in the eastern part of the country; no additional troops would be deployed; no weapons of mass destruction would be placed there. It has been observed all these years. So don’t portray Gorbachev and the then-Soviet authorities as naïve people who were wrapped around the West’s finger. If there was naïveté, it was later, when the issue arose. Russia at first did not object."


They were promised NO NEW TROOPS IN EASTERN GERMANY and that's all. Fucking Putin shits in your fucking head and you accept it with glee and congratulate yourself on what a fucking contrarian you are.
143   Eric Holder   2021 Dec 8, 2:23pm  

richwicks says
You're not stupid, I'm absolutely certain, but I am so fucking tired of the propaganda being repeated to me.


What "propaganda", you stupid fucking fuck? Wasn't Ukraine disarmed of its nukes by US and Russia? It most certainly was. IT'S A FUCKING FACT AND NO WALL OF TEXT FROM YOU CAN CHANGE THAT. Did fucking Obama press Ukraine to give up their last stockpile of enriched Urainium in 2010? YES, HE DID - IT'S ANOTHER FUCKING FACT.

Step down from the fucking soapbox and learn some facts.
144   Patrick   2021 Dec 8, 2:24pm  

richwicks says
I'm so fucking sick and tired of people that, DESPITE knowing they've been lied to into the Iraq War, the Syrian War, the bombing of Libya, this fake BULLSHIT "pandemic" still are talking like anything this FUCKING government says is true. WHEN, WHEN do you lose your fucking faith, your stupid childish trust? WHEN? Is it possible? What the FUCK DOES IT TAKE?


I think it may take death by vaxx. Once dead from the 17th booster, the people who trusted the Pfizer/mafia/media no longer matter.

But until then, they have a religious faith that NPR must always be right, a faith which prevents them from even hearing "Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation" and "Funded by Pfizer" no matter how many times the corruption is openly announced.

So that generation is lost. They are willing puppets of the corruption because the reality is too unpleasant for them to contemplate.

Our work should be in educating the young that NPR is their enemy.
145   richwicks   2021 Dec 8, 2:28pm  

Patrick says
Our work should be in educating the young that NPR is their enemy.


Not just NPR. EVERYBODY. Anything called a "reliable source" in the United States is merely propaganda. There are maybe, literally, 1/2 dozen real journalists nationally. There might be a lot more at local levels, but I doubt it.

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