Trump set up Biden for a rough Afghan withdrawal.

I know of so many people/companies that took PPP money that never got shut down and had only minor business interruption. It was necessary, it was also grossly excessive and widely abused. In reality, the inflationary bump and soft landing is about the best thing that could have happened. Underspend and we fall into a recession. Overstimulate and let the fed moderate. But you can't explain that to the average voter

 

Ultimately nobody predicted the Afghan government would fold so quickly. This was going to happen whenever we left and Trump was dead set on leaving, as was Biden.

I suspect the cost and time to move all of that crap just wasn’t worth it, given the time frame to leave.

What evidence do you have that it would have turned out differently under Trump? He was pressing very hard to have the troops out by the time he left office.

 

what were we supposed to do? ask them to defend themselves from the taliban but don't leave them access to the weapons to do so? sadly, we seriously misjudged the character /willingness to fight for freedom of those we spent so much time trying to train

what would you have done re: the withdrawal?

delayed withdrawal? Taliban attacks undermanned positions and inflicts casualties and we do what? send in a bunch more troops and start the fighting again?

 

Agreed with all that. My wife worked for a small company that probably benefited by hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. The nature of the company was it was not going to shut down or scale back given the nature of the business. I also think a lot of businesses like accounting firms made out like bandits.

As you point out, in a time of crisis there isn’t much time to fine tune and put out perfectly efficient policy. On balance we handled it pretty well, all considering. But inflation freaks people out - as they think they are earning their outsize pay raises but getting hurt by price increases.

I do think some of the Biden stimulus was a little late and excessive.

 

We were there 20 years and the Afghan govt and military fell like a house of cards. The only way none of that happens is we kept a permanent presence there. Should we have done that? Hard to say. Probably would have been better for the Afghans but our troops become targets again once it was obvious we had no intention of leaving.

I think the generals all along advised against a hasty withdrawal but both Presidents were hell bent on getting out.

 

Agree on all counts.

They needed to do something fast and sadly pretty. ich any company could apply, they made it like if you didn’t you may miss out. They you would be out of luck.

I still think the last spending bill was not needed and over done.

 

Wow, you really bought into the entire MAGA narrative on this. The problem is their information and/or take is invariably flawed. That equipment wasn't merely "...in the possession of the Afghan government...," it was OWNED by the Afghan government.

Seriously, who do you believe now owns the military equipment the United States and other NATO countries have provided to Ukraine in their war against Russia?

 

So we should have somehow packed up the airbase and taken it with us? You do realize how stupid that sounds don't you?

We spent 20 years trying to establish a new government there, and it fell apart in mere days, in no small part because Trump agreed to release 5000 war prisoners BEFORE we had a chance to get out in a deal to ensure there were no attacks until after the election.

He literally traded all advances we made in Afghanistan for 6 weeks of peace. That is the art of the deal right there.

Support that if you can.

 

perhaps djt should have negotiated that with the taliban when he committed the USA to the deal

 

So endless occupation was your solution. Make a deal with the Government that folded like a cheap deck of cards. Yeah, that was going to stand up. Ultimately we would have had to put 30k more soldiers back in .... endless war. How much more money and American lives would you have us spend to save that air base?

No comment on Trump trading everything we had invested in Afghanistan for 6 weeks of peace?

 

After reading this thread I’m more convinced than ever that the left is even more cult like than they accuse the right of being. I mean one guy refuted an NBC story as MAGA lol. Priceless.

 

Too many low information voters.

 

Hung the Kurds out to dry as well

 

which facts do you disagree with

let's start with a few simple ones

djt met with taliban and agreed to leave and release thousands of hardened fighters in exchange for a ceasefire. he did so without telling the Afghani gubmnt or inviting them to the talks

djt agreed to vacate and withdrew US troops before he left office down to a point that they couldn't defend themselves from the taliban if they didn't vacate

are we in agreement so far?

 

Your own link undermines your argument.

 

not a bad idea but keeping the air base is something djt should have put in t he deal, being the master of the deal and all..

we are leaving Iraq too. With the exception of one base I think. Another drawdown precipitated by djt that left insufficient troop strength to properly execute the misison.

djt did this on purpose with no regard for military advice or impacts. stupifying how this gets spun to biden

Trump Administration Confirms Withdrawals from Iraq, Afghanistan Days Before Inauguration

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced Friday the U.S. had withdrawn forces in Iraq and Afghanistan down to 2,500 in each conflict zone, following through on an unusual major policy shift announced during a lame duck period and indicating that the circumstances on the ground will likely create problems for the incoming Biden administration.

 

a friend who is federal PD says 60% of her cases are PPP fraud. The gov't is going back through those, slowly but surely.