American procrastinators in Afghanistan

By Curt_Anderson

August 23, 2021 2:47 pm

Category: Opinion


(0.0 from 0 votes)

Peter Doocy, the FOX News White House correspondent asked Jen Psaki about the possibility of Americans being "stranded" in Afghanistan.

In February 2020, President Trump and NATO allies agreed to formulate a deal with the Taliban, allowing for a formal withdrawal of US combat forces from Afghanistan.

The deal, titled the "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan", saw US and NATO forces withdrawing in earnest and set the deadline for a complete withdrawal of US forces by 1 May 2021.

The Biden administration, however, said the US would not begin withdrawing until 1 May and would complete the withdrawal before 11 September. On 8 July, Biden specified a US withdrawal deadline of 31 August.


If I happened to be an American citizen in Afghanistan, as soon as I heard Trump announce his deal with the Taliban to withdraw American troops, I would have been arranging for the next available flight back to the United States. I wouldn't need a special invitation or waited until the last minute.

Any "stranded" Americans who don't make it out of Afghanistan remind me of people who are warned repeatedly that a flood is coming and ignore the pleas to evacuate until they are perched on their roof hoping a helicopter or boat saves their butts.

Cited and related links:

  1. en.wikipedia.org
Comments Start Below

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Comments on "American procrastinators in Afghanistan"

  1. by islander on August 23, 2021 3:01 pm

    Who are those stranded Americans and what were they there for? I wish I knew.

    ~~~


  2. by Donna on August 23, 2021 3:16 pm
    I would never have volunteered to work for the government in Afghanistan, because I always regarded our involvement there as a futile effort that would end up a disaster.

    The people who voluteered to go there had a more optimistic outlook, though, or they wouldn't have gone to begin with. So when the Trump-Taliban deal was signed, they were probably hopeful that the pullout would go smoothly and that the puppet government they were part of would retain power. They had to think they were safe, else they would have, as you, Curt, said, hopped on the first plane out of there.

    ~~~


  3. by Curt_Anderson on August 23, 2021 4:28 pm
    Donna,
    Really? You would have potentially bet your own life and the lives of your family that the Taliban wouldn't take take control of the country? Or in a best case scenario, you would have stuck around and been in the middle of a war between the Taliban the now toppled government's military forces? Optimism isn't what I'd call that. That's foolhardy. I still would have vacated the country perhaps with the intention of returning if things settled down.

    As I said, these people remind me of people who ignore all warnings and procrastinate as a flood is about to submerge their house.

    ~~~


  4. by Donna on August 23, 2021 5:55 pm
    No, I wouldn't have. But those people did in fact stay there. I think they were foolhardy too.

    ~~~


  5. by oldedude on August 23, 2021 11:59 pm
    Actually, some of the people don't work for any government. They are NGOs that provide medical care to women, are on missions, etc. There are also many that are Afghans that are in peril just for driving for the coalition forces. Some of the coalition forces were buddy fucked because all the air support their FOB was "supposed" to have was cancelled three days out and left them stranded. Ergo, the Germans, Japanese, Brits (for the rest of the four of the FVEYs) is being rescued, while the US under dementia joe is left trying to fight their way out.

    ~~~


  6. by HatetheSwamp on August 24, 2021 6:02 am

    Any "stranded" Americans who don't make it out of Afghanistan remind me of people who are warned repeatedly that a flood is coming and ignore the pleas to evacuate until they are perched on their roof hoping a helicopter or boat saves their butts.

    Ah, yes. Swampcult Blue MAGA progressives blaming the victim.

    They just couldn't imagine how ingenious Joe's execution of the withdrawal would be.

    ~~~


  7. by Donna on August 24, 2021 7:50 am
    Would you guys have felt safe remaining in Afghanistan after Trump whittled US armed forced down from 13,000 to 2,500 troops and a complete pullout on the horizon?

    ~~~


  8. by HatetheSwamp on August 24, 2021 7:56 am

    C'mon, Donna, gimme a break. I'm not a military strategist. As far as I know, you ain't either.

    I do know that there have been no US military casualties in Afghanistan for 18 months.

    Would there need to be more troops in Afghanistan long term? Probably. In my opinion it would be worth the investment.

    I have to enjoy the fact that this dialog with po and you agreeing with Trump and me outright disagreeing with him continues.

    ~~~


  9. by Donna on August 24, 2021 8:12 am
    I agree with Trump's decision to pull out, but he did it in a very irresponsible way. Trump carved our military presence there down to practically nothing without evacuating ANYONE from there.

    ~~~


  10. by Donna on August 24, 2021 8:16 am
    And btw, you don't need to be a military expert to know that you'd need a strong military presence from your country in order to be safe working in Afghanistan.

    ~~~


  11. by Curt_Anderson on August 25, 2021 9:52 am
    So far 82,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan including some 4,000 Americans. Did anybody here imagine that there were anywhere near that number of people who we would be obligated to help leave Afghanistan?

    Some of these people I imagine have legitimate reasons for not leaving earlier, some probably are hopping on the plane because the price of the flight is right, others are simply procrastinators or people who just made a bad bet.

    They really remind me of people who ignore all the warnings of impending natural disaster and then put the first responders at risk when they have to retrieve them.

    ~~~


  12. by Donna on August 25, 2021 11:12 am
    That's 82K more than his predecessor got out of there. They're doing an amazing job. I'm sure that this is disappointing for hts.

    ~~~


  13. by Ponderer on August 25, 2021 11:13 am
    What's to appreciate, pb? Donna and I will agree with any correct thing or stance anyone has, if it is correct.

    Are you shocked because Trump actually did something that was correct...?

    ~~~


  14. by Ponderer on August 25, 2021 11:15 am
    What's actually shocking is that you are disagreeing with Trump. You've never shown any real concern for what is actually real and true before. It's kinda shocking that your concern for truth is actually such a hatred that you will go against your Lord and Master just to refute it.

    ~~~


  15. by Ponderer on August 25, 2021 12:24 pm


    You've GOT to stop projecting your own personal psychology onto others, pb.

    ~~~


  16. by islander on August 25, 2021 3:09 pm
    Clicked on the link you supplied (from Wikipedia). Good article. Thanks Curt. Makes for a better understanding of the situation over there.

    ~~~


  17. by Curt_Anderson on August 26, 2021 9:34 pm
    On CNN this afternoon they did a story on Americans who are in Afghanistan and can't get out. There is a large group of students and their families from the San Diego area who are vacationing in Afghanistan where many of them have relatives. Now they're stuck there although some have managed to leave.

    Seriously, what possesses a person to travel to Afghanistan with all that's been in the news? "Honey! I just found a really great price on airline tickets to Kabul!"

    They interviewed another guy who is naturalized American of Afghan descent. He went there for his father's funeral. Now he's stuck there. Given the circumstances, his father might have understood why his son could not make an appearance.

    ~~~


  18. by Donna on August 26, 2021 10:36 pm
    I know that if my Mom died during the pandemic, she wouldn't want me flying across the country to attend her funeral, especially during a spike.

    ~~~


  19. by Curt_Anderson on September 6, 2021 7:06 pm
    The more I read and hear about this, what I said a couple of weeks ago in the opening article seems to be bearing out. Those Americans who didn't leave Afghanistan really didn't want to leave.

    With that in mind, Biden fulfilled his promise to get every American who wanted to leave Afghanistan, out of Afghanistan. The operative word being "wanted". If they didn't take the hint to pack their bags when Trump said he would be withdrawing US troops back in February 2020, or starting in March of this year when the State Department sent out 19 alerts to leave Afghanistan, they really didn't want to go.

    If you really want something, you have to make some effort toward that goal.


    ~~~


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