Has Biden Made the Right Choice in Afghanistan?

[Zoupa]

Well they could start shooting anyone trying to access the airport without their leave.  Just to take one example. I doubt the US carrier battle groups in the Paciific could do much to deter murder in Kabul.

Har har, you know what I mean. Easy enough to form an armoured column and get the folks you want out. The US embassy for example is 6km away from the airport.

Give me a break now. This isn't Mogadiscio.

[Eddie Teach]

Easier if you don't have to.

[Admiral Yi]

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy

[The Brain]

This isn't Mogadiscio.

It certainly is not. The US is in no mood to fight a major battle in the city of Kabul.

[Josquius]

I increasingly suspect this seems smart politics from Biden.
"Yeah we fucked Afghanistan but American lives are more important" pisses off a lot of people...And of course there's the actual fucking over of Afghanistan to think about....
But are the Republicans really going to be able to take the opposite POV there? He's ate their lunch.

[alfred russel]

If he ate their lunch, their lunch was poisoned.

Look at his approval ratings: here is the realclearpolitics average. On August 1 it was 51.3% approve, 43.5% disapprove. Today it is 46.6% approve, 48.9% disapprove.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html

[Josquius]

If he ate their lunch, their lunch was poisoned.

Look at his approval ratings: here is the realclearpolitics average. On August 1 it was 51.3% approve, 43.5% disapprove. Today it is 46.6% approve, 48.9% disapprove.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html

Come election time in a two party system however the main factor that matters is are you less detestable than the opposition.
I don't think approval rating really tells us much when we're talking about a Democrat going sharply rightwards. Plenty on the left may hate him for this ... but it'll take a massive change in approach from the Republicans to get them to vote for them instead. The only slim possibility is if the Republicans put up someone not as detestable as Trump and they just don't vote in key states.

[Razgovory]

The logistics guys are really the stars of the show in this.  Very impressive.

[DGuller]

This isn't Mogadiscio.

It certainly is not. The US is in no mood to fight a major battle in the city of Kabul.

Agreed.  This seems like an easy opportunity to call Taliban's bluff and put them in their place.  I don't think they want a confrontation any more than the US does, and being wiped out by the US forces in Kabul is not the image they want right now.

[alfred russel]

The logistics guys are really the stars of the show in this.  Very impressive.

I disagree. 70k in 10 or so days is not a great accomplishment, especially when you cram 600 people on a single plane.

For context prepandemic passenger traffic at London Heathrow was over 80 million, or over 200k per day, and it has 2 runways. So that is over 100k passengers per day per runway, and those passengers are not agreeable to being packed liked sardines on a cargo plane. I get the different operating context so you don't have to tell me that Kabul is not London.

[Maladict]

The first (and possibly only ) Afghan refugees to make it over here were met by demonstrators burning tires and hurling racist abuse. Despicable.

[Razgovory]

The logistics guys are really the stars of the show in this.  Very impressive.

I disagree. 70k in 10 or so days is not a great accomplishment, especially when you cram 600 people on a single plane.

For context prepandemic passenger traffic at London Heathrow was over 80 million, or over 200k per day, and it has 2 runways. So that is over 100k passengers per day per runway, and those passengers are not agreeable to being packed liked sardines on a cargo plane. I get the different operating context so you don't have to tell me that Kabul is not London.

Since it is a completely different context, I don't know what your point is.

[alfred russel]

Ah well as much as I love our beloved President he might be presenting facts in an overly rosy way. But here is hoping that is the case. I am certainly fine with helping out the Afghans who bet on the USA.

They weren't supposed to be betting on us; they were supposed to be betting on themselves. We were supposed to be helping them create a sustainable democratic government for themselves, and the Afghan army necessary to defend it.

[alfred russel]

The logistics guys are really the stars of the show in this.  Very impressive.

I disagree. 70k in 10 or so days is not a great accomplishment, especially when you cram 600 people on a single plane.

For context prepandemic passenger traffic at London Heathrow was over 80 million, or over 200k per day, and it has 2 runways. So that is over 100k passengers per day per runway, and those passengers are not agreeable to being packed liked sardines on a cargo plane. I get the different operating context so you don't have to tell me that Kabul is not London.

Since it is a completely different context, I don't know what your point is.

I don't know how much it has changed but the plan was to fly out one plane per hour. The numbers of people evacuated line up with that pace. That shouldn't be a logistical challenge for the US military with a modern runway.

It appears that the situation is extremely chaotic outside of the airport. The US military controls the airport.

[Sheilbh]

Is the 70k in total or just the US?

I saw latest UK figures in the Guardian. So far 10k have been airlifted including about 6.5k Afghans, 2,500 Brits (+dependants). The rest are embassy staff and citizens of another 38 countries.

There's at least 2,000 more Afghans who worked for the British government and an "unidentified number of 'special cases' - human rights activists, judges, LGBTQ+ advocates and others" authorised for airlift by the FCDO. But it's really not clear how long we have and it still feels likely that some people we should be getting out will be trapped.