This is a question I have been asking myself recently. President Biden has announced that the US will be pulling out of Afghanistan at the end of August. After a 20-year war that has effectively done nothing to stop the influence of the Taliban, the extremist Islamic movement is yet again sweeping through the country. Biden said that “the mission hasn’t failed — yet”, a contradictory statement that seems to be an acknowledgment that the war has indeed failed.
Is Biden right to pull out? What happens when Kabul falls to the Taliban, and is there a better solution? Let us know in the comments section below.
(Image: Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
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It is one thing to live in this social media Panopticon, but it is another to be reminded of it by being forced to look at things like this on your newsfeed.
by Ben Cohen
Most people’s lives these days are controlled by Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple. These big tech companies track our movements, sell us products they think we’ll like, and anticipate behavior using incredibly sophisticated algorithms. In return we can order toilet paper with the click of a button, message friends around the world, search the web for any piece of information we want, and use our phones to buy our groceries.
Is it a fair trade? Almost certainly not, but when you have kids, a high stressed job or live far away from friends the benefits are oftentimes too seductive to pass up.
Of all the tech companies Facebook is by far and away the most evil. This isn’t hyperbole — the company is truly, truly awful on so many levels it almost defies description. From illegally “sharing” (read: selling) user data to other big tech companies to helping right wing/Russian disinformation groups spread fake news during the 2016 election, Facebook has almost singlehandedly brought Western civilization to its knees. The company destroyed thousands of legitimate independent news sites back in 2017/18 (take a look at what they did to The Daily Banter as an example), and is now responsible for ensuring far right websites get significantly more play on the network than liberal ones.
The problem is, Facebook also provides users with an excellent experience when they log on and continues to provide more ways of connecting with people than ever before…
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Leaving Afghanistan is the best bad decision for a situation that only has bad decisions. At this point its a classic example of the sunken cost fallacy. 20 years ago I quoted Kipling and cited Alexander the Great and Russia as examples of Afghanistan is where empires go to die. The Taliban is gong to be horrific for Afghanistan and women in particular. It might once again engage in sponsoring international terrorism and unless we are willing to put the nation to the sword and plow it with salt (not a solution I recommend, favor or believe we have the willingness to do, leaving aside the international repercussion) the best thing for the U.S. is to leave. It's possible and probable that 40 years ago when Russia left we could have created an ally favorable to the U.S. for 40 or 50 million in infrastructure but we myopically chose not to. They are never going to trust us now. Staying and 1/4 assing it will not help either the U.S. or Afghanistan.
What happens when Kabul falls to the Taliban? We go back to where it all started, before we squandered 20 years, tons of lives lost and property destruction, and trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Is there a better solution? No. Let the Moslems battle it out amongst themselves. It's a race to the bottom. Allah will prevail.
Biden is absolutely right to get put of Afghanistan. Listen, unless the US is willing to engage in genocide to eradicate the Taliban and the Warlords there is no path to a free Afghanistan.
It has always been OBL’s plan to bleed the US until we would leave. There was never any other plan and it worked like a charm.
Afghanistan is going to retrograde back into the miserable, woman hating state it has always been. This was the result telegraphed to us twenty years ago.
The only humane thing to do is get as many US connected Afghans out as fast as possible. I would extend this to any and all Afghan women as well. These two groups will pay the maximum price if left to the Taliban.
Finally we need to turn our attention to Bush/ Cheney to hold them and their enablers to account. Twenty years of a lost cause should be deeply examined.
But yes, Biden is absolutely right to finally pull the plug on this debacle. Lets just hope he tries to mitigate the damage to those left at risk.
I have a niece that spent 10 horrible, life-altering months over there so I'll defer to her general observations. In short, The Taliban is just waiting for us to leave so they can do as they will. Our foray into that part of the world has done good for some of the people there but generally speaking has had little impact on preventing the The Taliban's inevitable return to power.
Leaving is the best option though diplomacy can still be pursued maybe...?
I think it would be a good thing for the US to do what they can to help Afghani people to immigrate here if they wanted to. Vetting would be necessary, of course. There's many that have fled the country already for obvious reasons. Give them refugee status and help them build what is hopefully a better life here with education for their kids.
Leaving Afghanistan is the best bad decision for a situation that only has bad decisions. At this point its a classic example of the sunken cost fallacy. 20 years ago I quoted Kipling and cited Alexander the Great and Russia as examples of Afghanistan is where empires go to die. The Taliban is gong to be horrific for Afghanistan and women in particular. It might once again engage in sponsoring international terrorism and unless we are willing to put the nation to the sword and plow it with salt (not a solution I recommend, favor or believe we have the willingness to do, leaving aside the international repercussion) the best thing for the U.S. is to leave. It's possible and probable that 40 years ago when Russia left we could have created an ally favorable to the U.S. for 40 or 50 million in infrastructure but we myopically chose not to. They are never going to trust us now. Staying and 1/4 assing it will not help either the U.S. or Afghanistan.
Is Biden right to pull out? Yes.
What happens when Kabul falls to the Taliban? We go back to where it all started, before we squandered 20 years, tons of lives lost and property destruction, and trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Is there a better solution? No. Let the Moslems battle it out amongst themselves. It's a race to the bottom. Allah will prevail.
Biden is absolutely right to get put of Afghanistan. Listen, unless the US is willing to engage in genocide to eradicate the Taliban and the Warlords there is no path to a free Afghanistan.
It has always been OBL’s plan to bleed the US until we would leave. There was never any other plan and it worked like a charm.
Afghanistan is going to retrograde back into the miserable, woman hating state it has always been. This was the result telegraphed to us twenty years ago.
The only humane thing to do is get as many US connected Afghans out as fast as possible. I would extend this to any and all Afghan women as well. These two groups will pay the maximum price if left to the Taliban.
Finally we need to turn our attention to Bush/ Cheney to hold them and their enablers to account. Twenty years of a lost cause should be deeply examined.
But yes, Biden is absolutely right to finally pull the plug on this debacle. Lets just hope he tries to mitigate the damage to those left at risk.
I have a niece that spent 10 horrible, life-altering months over there so I'll defer to her general observations. In short, The Taliban is just waiting for us to leave so they can do as they will. Our foray into that part of the world has done good for some of the people there but generally speaking has had little impact on preventing the The Taliban's inevitable return to power.
Leaving is the best option though diplomacy can still be pursued maybe...?
I think it would be a good thing for the US to do what they can to help Afghani people to immigrate here if they wanted to. Vetting would be necessary, of course. There's many that have fled the country already for obvious reasons. Give them refugee status and help them build what is hopefully a better life here with education for their kids.