Biden Foreign Policy

[commando]

6 minutes ago, nic said:

troops were not there on 1/6. I think they showed up prior inauguration. The tweet didn't say they were there on 1/6. Did the DC mayor or Pelosi order it? We're there really 25k? Now I am curious. 

as i recall ( i could be wrong) they started showing up the night of jan 6.   don't know how many there were or how long they stayed.   i do recall they were there for the swearing in ceremony for Biden

[nic]

1 hour ago, commando said:

as i recall ( i could be wrong) they started showing up the night of jan 6.   don't know how many there were or how long they stayed.   i do recall they were there for the swearing in ceremony for Biden

You are correct. This is from the WSJ on May 24th, 2021. I had no idea they peaked at 26000. By March it costed 521million. 
 

“The troops began arriving at the Capitol hours after Trump supporters breached the Capitol building while Congress was certifying the election of President Biden. The number of troops at one point peaked at 26,000, representing all 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. Their strength has been gradually reduced, and roughly 1,600 members remain at the complex, where the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives meet and have office space.”

[ZRod]

7 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

 

??? You do realize that Guardsmen spent about as many hours in the Desert as active duty folks, right?

 

 https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/576180/the-national-guards-contribution-300000-plus-iraq-deployments/ 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/after-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-rethinking-how-national-guard-members-are-deployed

https://www.uso.org/stories/2934-10-need-to-know-facts-about-the-national-guard 

and, 

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/01/11/national-guard-inauguration-deployment-twice-as-large-as-troop-levels-in-afghanistan-and-iraq-combined/

 

They also train for months before deployment. The Gaurd is not a rapid combat deployment group, and Archy's post is asinine on many levels

[Archy1221]

10 minutes ago, ZRod said:

They also train for months before deployment. The Gaurd is not a rapid deployment group, and Archy's post is asinine on many levels

I’m sure you will be enlightening us with your many levels here soon.  
 

FYI….kinda seems you missed the point.  

[BigRedBuster]

 

[ZRod]

5 hours ago, Archy1221 said:

I’m sure you will be enlightening us with your many levels here soon.  
 

FYI….kinda seems you missed the point.  

No need. You keep everyone busy enough.

 

I very much understand the tweet, and as I said it's idiotic. It's pretty easy to mobilize The Gaurd for domestic issues, and larger numbers of troops were probably deemed necessary based on the size of the crowds that were seen and the fact that the Gaurdsmen won't be using deadly force . Not to mention the immediate threat to the government.

 

The combat groups that would be deployed to Kabul aren't going to be anywhere near that size because they are highly trained and much more efficient in their rolls. It doesn't take 25k Marines or Rangers to hold an airport from thousands of hostiles if it came down to that. It's also not worth it for them to secure s#!tty Humvees and Blackhawks that are hand-me-downs to the ANA. From a financial standpoint that equipment is a sunk cost and is meaningless. Same thing happened in Iraq, but nobody really cares. It's no longer our job to worry about the Afghan's equipment.

[Archy1221]

9 hours ago, ZRod said:

It doesn't take 25k Marines or Rangers to hold an airport from thousands of hostiles if it came down to that. It's also not worth it for them to secure s#!tty Humvees and Blackhawks that are hand-me-downs to the ANA. From a financial standpoint that equipment is a sunk cost and is meaningless.

Would be nice to have another airfield to fly people out of instead of just one choke point.  Maybe the one we left?  Maybe those troops could have assisted there.  Myabe the Admin is evacuating things backwards and now has to scramble to get civilians out.  And then Maybe 25k troops in DC was overkill as they sat around in parking garages getting Covid.   Maybe that was the point of the tweet that was posted. 
 

BTW..Taliban seems to love every empires sunk costs.   Maybe we should have destroyed those sunk costs first.  

[Redux]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/afghanistan-kabul-airport-military-deadline/index.html

 

Quote

As of Monday, Biden was still deciding whether to extend the deadline for removing all US troops, CNN has learned. Several of the President's advisers have advised against an extension, citing the security situation on the ground. Officials have spent recent days monitoring potential terrorist threats, citing "persistent" and credible information that the chaotic situation outside the airfield has created a target for ISIS-K and other organizations.

 

Get out and stay out, the damage is done.  Or go back in and the entire fall of Kabal was for nothing and we start this over yet again.  And people laughed when I said this situation worried me.  Wonder why I was worried....

[commando]

4 hours ago, Archy1221 said:

 

BTW..Taliban seems to love every empires sunk costs.   Maybe we should have destroyed those sunk costs first.  

i wonder how many tracking chips we have in each of those humvees and trucks?     if we can put microchips  in vaccines (lol)  i am sure we have tracking devices in all that equipment.   if we go back in we will not need to find those targets....we will know where they are    and maybe even know how many taliban troops are in them when we strike them.  we had something similar with some fighter planes we sold someone a decade or 2 ago.       if i recall correctly we remotely shut the planes down and they couldn't use them.

[Scarlet]

 

[ZRod]

10 hours ago, Archy1221 said:

Would be nice to have another airfield to fly people out of instead of just one choke point.  Maybe the one we left?  Maybe those troops could have assisted there.  Myabe the Admin is evacuating things backwards and now has to scramble to get civilians out.  And then Maybe 25k troops in DC was overkill as they sat around in parking garages getting Covid.   Maybe that was the point of the tweet that was posted. 
 

BTW..Taliban seems to love every empires sunk costs.   Maybe we should have destroyed those sunk costs first.  

• Kabul is by far the largest city in Afghanistan and it's where embassy is located, so that's the best place to process people to get them out I would think. I believe since the end of the Obama, and definitely during the Trump administration, we have been shifting to a mostly advisory role; and haven't had a significant presence throughout the country. Logistically it makes little sense to push back into area we have no presence in.
• I've already said they should have done the evac differently for sure.
• 25k troops were in DC before Biden even took office. How is this at all related to Biden and troops in Afghanistan???
• The Taliban aren't stupid they know how to work a photo op. They aren't driving around in Humvees and Flying Hinds. More like Toyota Helix's and animals. They can not maintain our equipment, and aren't being regularly supplied with our ammo.

[Redux]

1 hour ago, Scarlet said:

 

 

[ZRod]

1 hour ago, Scarlet said:

 

Uh no. This was a mess, and the military was actually too conservative in there "doomsday" projections. Afghanistan fell much quicker than they believed it would.

[Scarlet]

10 hours ago, Redux said:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/afghanistan-kabul-airport-military-deadline/index.html

 

 

Get out and stay out, the damage is done.  Or go back in and the entire fall of Kabal was for nothing and we start this over yet again.  And people laughed when I said this situation worried me.  Wonder why I was worried....

Are you still worried about that imminent Syrian invasion too? 

[Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Redux said:

 

Hey bro remember when @RedDenverasked you what you would do instead of just whining as usual?  And you yammered on about that being an elementary school type question? 

 

It was actually a really good question.  You wanted the withdrawal all done in May.  You've been backseat driving this thing for months now   How would you have done that?  You're the expert here.

 

Are you sure your plan wouldn't have run into any problems along the way, say like the Afghan army capitulating or their president running off to save his hide?  Honestly how would you have avoided the chaos that inevitably ensues when a foreign military pulls out of a country that is unable and unwilling to stand in its own?  You didn't want to bring in more troops, right?  I'm all ears.  How would you have improved on one of the largest airlifts in history after all hell broke loose?