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US & West in general preach about democracy and want/encourage countries like Afghanistan to go that path. And yet US: 1. Ran away from AF without taking lot o

US & West in general preach about democracy and want/encourage countries like Afghanistan to go that path. And yet US: 1. Ran away from AF without taking lot of ppl who helped them in last many years. (There are videos on net to see on this) 2. President says AF was never about nation building [1]. Then what was it about? 3. Dragged/nudged allies to pour their soldiers e.g UK. 4. Already knew many years ago that they have lost and yet they lingered on. 5. Installed Hamid Karzai/Ghani govt and then made a deal with Taliban (which were surrender talks) 6. Knew that Pakistan is playing double game and yet did nothing about it. [1] https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Afghanistan-turmoil/Biden-says-Afghanistan-was-never-about-nation-building https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Afg...

randomopining 5y ago
That's the whole point. A president elected 21 years ago decided to make it about nation building. Future presidents had to deal with the reality of the situation. Biden was the only one who pulled the bandaid off and finished this mess.
- devnull3 5y ago
  This is not about what one president did in the past. 20 years mean multiple presidents, multiple terms and multiple opportunities for course correction. This is about what a country as a whole has done. This includes folks from both side of the political divide.
  - randomopining 5y ago
    Yes it's very complicated. But is the US as a whole really in the wrong? Indeed what was their goal? It was to bring al-Qaeda to justice, prevent a future breeding ground for terrorists (people who purposely kill innocents), and then there was mission creep to build a democratic country. Is trying to build a democratic country bad? This means letting their people vote for their future. I don't think any of these are bad. It's just that mistakes were made in the managing of it, and it failed in the end. Everybody is playing monday morning quarterback.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> President says AF was never about nation building. Then what was it about? To “prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by" “those nations, organizations, or persons” who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons”, according to the law adopted authorizing the action.
- JoeyBananas 5y ago
  Such a goal could only be accomplished by removing the Taliban from power. So, it really was about nation building the entire time.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > Such a goal could only be accomplished by removing the Taliban from power. It could be a achieved by creating a sufficient perception of cost to attacking, or supporting attacks on, the US to discourage the Taliban from repeating its past bad acts with regard toward the US (other bad acts are explicitly out of scope of the authorization.) Specific deterrence is a widely recognized mechanism to prevent recurrence of bad acts.

randomopining 5y ago

That's the whole point. A president elected 21 years ago decided to make it about nation building. Future presidents had to deal with the reality of the situation. Biden was the only one who pulled the bandaid off and finished this mess.

devnull3 5y ago
This is not about what one president did in the past. 20 years mean multiple presidents, multiple terms and multiple opportunities for course correction. This is about what a country as a whole has done. This includes folks from both side of the political divide.
- randomopining 5y ago
  Yes it's very complicated. But is the US as a whole really in the wrong? Indeed what was their goal? It was to bring al-Qaeda to justice, prevent a future breeding ground for terrorists (people who purposely kill innocents), and then there was mission creep to build a democratic country. Is trying to build a democratic country bad? This means letting their people vote for their future. I don't think any of these are bad. It's just that mistakes were made in the managing of it, and it failed in the end. Everybody is playing monday morning quarterback.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> President says AF was never about nation building. Then what was it about? To “prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by" “those nations, organizations, or persons” who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons”, according to the law adopted authorizing the action.

JoeyBananas 5y ago
Such a goal could only be accomplished by removing the Taliban from power. So, it really was about nation building the entire time.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Such a goal could only be accomplished by removing the Taliban from power. It could be a achieved by creating a sufficient perception of cost to attacking, or supporting attacks on, the US to discourage the Taliban from repeating its past bad acts with regard toward the US (other bad acts are explicitly out of scope of the authorization.) Specific deterrence is a widely recognized mechanism to prevent recurrence of bad acts.