According to the full, unedited transcript of the Stephanopoulos/ABC interview yesterday, Joe wants to believe that his son, Beau, the army national guard lawyer who served in Iraq for six or eight months before his father asked for him to be sent home was actually a US Navy captain (O-6) who served in Afghanistan.
Perhaps he was in disguise.
In any event, Joe, and the Ivy League Marxists around him, are “done” with Afghanistan. They want to withdraw from overseas so that they can concentrate on making this country the USSR without the Russia part.
Because of this, one can expect that that none of the policy recommendations that follow here will be implemented (Washington word).
- At Kabul airport:
- As TTG suggests, dig the infantry in on both sides of the runway and around the terminal. As it is, they are just standing around with their thumbs up their butts hoping the Taliban will not turn hostile. “I see no evidence of the infantry at the airport digging in. Is that a lost art in the modern Army? At one time, an infantry unit would dig in overnight, including all crew served weapons. There would be interlocking fields of fire and preplanned fires, including FPFs, for all mortars. Our mortars could cover those hills to the north of the airport. By now there should be overhead cover for those fighting positions. Of course, that was when we were soldiers rather than warriors. Wielding a pick and shovel appears to be beneath a warrior.” TTG
- Dig an infantry battalion in on top of the major terrain feature that flanks the runway. The runway can be shut down with a recoilless rifle or mortar from that and other high ground. Place counter-battery radar up there and be prepared to return fire and to sortie from the airport to destroy the guns.
- Begin sorties into the city to rescue US, SIVs, and NATO allies. Use both ground and air. If it is necessary to kill jihadis, Do so.
2. Bagram – Retake the airfield as a backup. Conduct ground and air team operations to rescue people and fly them out of Bagram.
3. Never trust Pakistan again. The ISI protected bin Laden at Abbottabad and they have financed the jihadis and deceived us for many years.
4. Begin a covert action run from the Stans to support the Tajik rebellion in the Panjshir Valley and throughout the non-Pashtun parts of the country. pl
I’d wager that the reason none of these things are being done is to try and make the things you’re trying to prevent happen. If they were serious about defending the place, there would be a least one publicly visible individual leading it. Not a cockroach in sight. Those poor bastards are bait.
Just read an article that said US military personnel that aren’t vacced have to wear a red wristband now. Something wicked this way comes. I wonder just how much more of this before the our Allende meets his Pinochet?
EEngineer
“is to try and make the things you’re trying to prevent happen.” Yes, Biden is an incompetent demented coward surrounded by Ivy League Marxist pansies.
Colonel,
Is it really possible for the US to run covert action from the Stans into Afghanistan at this point? I had thought that the US had let their influence over the Stans slip and that Russia had reasserted her control – but you know better than I.
james
“Is it really possible for the US to run covert action from the Stans into Afghanistan at this point? ” It is.
Very interesting, Colonel. Very interesting.
If we can establish contact with our friends in Kabul, we might ask them to gather in small groups outside of the city at specific points in the countryside, where choppers can pick them up. The airport perimeter is a mob of thousands of Afghans who’ve believe if they can just get in they have a ticket to the US.
One wonders if the Taliban are running the Mariel Boatlift play to rid themselves of as much possible future opposition as they can while the opportunity exists…
I wonder if taking Kabul without firing a shot prompted this apparent current mood of mercy in them. It may have shocked even them. Nevertheless I imagine the last 15 or so minutes of Lawrence of Arabia could break out at any time.
ML
It is all a lie and propaganda campaign.
Are these the step to mitigate the immediate disaster? In the longer run do we not need to establish a much larger presence and stay until a deal can be negotiated with the other great powers and Afghanistan to allow the moment of our people home, at a great cost of course? Is having an escort from Russia or China the only safe way possible for us to exit in the foreseeable future? I sure would not trust a Taliban only deal not to attack a long retreating column.
I really don’t have any chops in this area, what is the true lay of the land here?
“Never trust Pakistan again.”
Does that include expelling all of their non-embassy nationals, including students, from the US?
Fred
all non-US, citizen or resident.
The fall of Kabul should not be as portentous, but according to some the Great British Empire finally fell when the Japanese quickly overran Singapore. If the Brits could not deliver on their Empire security promises, why continue to be in the Empire. There is reason for those currently under the US defense shield to give pause.
For the British Empire, it was just a matter of unwinding the rest of the far-ranging global holdings after the WWII, upon which the sun finally did set. Unless you call the technicality of Pitcairn, the Falklands and British Isles still make up a 24 hour time zone sweep around the world.
Our school room maps in the 1950’s that covered the globe with commonly-held pink colored Empire countries was finally no more. Small bit of trivia I had not known, but there is a small piece of the UK in the Hawaiian Islands, where Capt Cook was buried – actual dedicated British territory.
Somehow I became utterly captivated with the tales of the Empire as a young child and have spent many of my travel days exploring its reach, and love seeing what legacies still exist in custom, language, infrastructure, and especially in architecture.
Deap
To be precise Capt. Cook memorial is down the
Kona Coast of the Big Island from the Country Club.
A roadside marker tells the tale. As the island is
Tilting his grave stone is below the waterline.
My thought:
We need to make nice with the Taliban so we can have access to:
The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs (namely, rare earths, vital to many high-tech devices)
As to the Afghan women, screw them.
(If that phrasing is unacceptable, how can it be made acceptable?)
I am so tired of hearing about how unhappy some Afghan women are about Taliban rule.
This is NOT an issue the U.S. should prioritize over other issues,
controlling U.S. policy.
KH
What a treacherous fellow you are.
Respectfully, China will not allow any of these proposals to occur.
Everything the Bidenista Regime does is to make China stronger.
This no longer Saigon 2.0 but, Teheran 2.0…
Jose
Biden will not allow them
I hope you are right but, the Bidenistas are living in an alternative reality from the rest of us.
Things just much worse, the Taliban are taking American passports:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/21/kabul-airport-gates-closed-taliban-confiscating-u-s-passports/
Maybe the British, French or Germans can conduct rescue operations for our people.
The Bidenistas will not.
Trump’s last SecDef Chris Miller is claiming that Trump never intended to honor the Doha Agreement with the Taliban. Miller says the pledge to leave Afghanistan was just a ruse, Trump would have reneged if he had won the 2020 election.
I think he’s a bullshitter. Or maybe Pompeo sold him on the idea to get him onboard, and he now is a believer.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/08/trumps-pledge-exit-afghanistan-was-ruse-his-final-secdef-says/184660/
Hi Leith. I at some some smaller scale I thought this is true. When they bailed on Bagram with no notice, I thought to my self that is the only way to do it. If they made an announcement that they were leaving the Bagram, would not that airport be swarmed immediately and make the withdrawal from Bagram very dangerous.
At the highest level of Afghanistan withdrawal, maybe they were not really going to leave. For me I had been wondering how they leave Afghanistan securely because as Col. Lang said in an earlier post weeks/months ago, they are hostages. Some indirection would be needed if we get out right away.
Maybe the plan was to drag it out until we found a diplomatic solution to secure the exit. In the book Shogun, Toranaga pretended to surrender over an extended period to buy some time. Again that’s just my thought as a ordinary, non-military, non-IC person
Also as an ordinary, non-military, non-IC person I find the whole thing baffling.
Managing pacification or “nation building” is one thing. Our host – and others experienced in the field – have been saying that’s impossible for years. The Biden administration was surely correct in writing that off and withdrawing. It’s the manner of that withdrawal that is baffling.
Managing an efficient withdrawal, moving or destroying equipment, getting civilians out in time and then the military is a big and complex operation; but moving masses of materiel and large numbers of people around in a difficult and potentially hostile environment, and correctly sequencing the whole, is something American armed forces are supremely good at. They do it a lot.
They could have done it here. Not as neat and tidy as the usual peacetime operation but structured and purposeful, not the improvised shambles we see.
They could have done it but they didn’t. One can only conclude they weren’t told to do it. Then the question inevitably arises. Why not?
Unlikely though it may be, I would not completely rule out the possibility of a structured and purposeful shambles.
Last night Tucker Carlson pointed to the extremely unusual development of Dem establishment controlled outlets like CNN turning on Biden. He suggested “something else is going on here”. This set off my Spidey sense too. If I were conspiratorially minded I might suggest that the whole FUBAR evacuation crisis is being deliberately hampered/drawn out to invite a Benghazi type event and force Biden’s resignation. American lives mean nothing to the monsters behind the-committee-that-is-Biden.
Well, it’s usually the smaller Western countries that either screw up on logistics and behind the scenes staff work, or simply don’t have the means to do it at scale.
Obviously a “lock, stock and barrel” withdrawal, complete with evacuation of diplomats and civilians of various sorts, wouldn’t be something done from choice. Apart from anything else the sight of such a withdrawal would have completely demoralised the ANA and left an open door for the Taliban.
But a contingency plan of that worst case sort, in the event of an unexpectedly fast ANA collapse, could have been in place. Especially since the IC seems to be saying that it warned of fast ANA collapse.
Such a contingency plan would have needed forward planning – some units or equipment left in place for that worst case. That obviously didn’t happen.
There have been some attempts in other Western countries to characterise this as a failure of the US military. I don’t believe it is such a failure, given that the planning and operation of a contingency plan for just these worst case circumstances is well within the capacity of the US military. They weren’t given the right orders.
As said, that’s baffling.
EO – I don’t know if the IC warned of that ANA collapse. But the BBC implied it last year in a special they did sometime after Pompeo’s Doha Agreement.
IIRC the BBC said that the Taliban were using elders via clan and tribal relationships in the summer and fall of 2020 to parley with the ANA throughout the country. They whispered into many ANA commanders and soldiers ears that when the Americans left and their pay and ammo resupply dried up that they would be welcomed into the arms of the Taliban with no retribution. Else their families would be targeted.
Maybe it was just a question of miscalculation? The Biden administration seems above all to be concerned about optics. Everyone thought that the Afghan government would be able to hold out for at least three months. So they decided to make a withdrawal that would give the best optics. A secure, military style withdrawal could have been done but the optics would not have been as good.
Hi Hill5Air – You have a valid point.
On the other hand maybe it was the Taliban playing a game similar to Toranaga’s. Not pretending to surrender. But I believe they pretended to negotiate with both Pompeo and with Ashraaf Ghani over an extended period of time while they built up support both in-country and out. But I’m no expert.
Leith – Agreed, I assumed that Taliban negotiation would be in bad faith.
The Biden administration liberals are going to react to the Taliban as if they were Trump supporters. So the Taliban will get banned from facebook and western media will be flooded with anti-Taliban propaganda. None of that will have any effect on the Taliban.
Give it a few months.
I Think The New United States Operational Government..Incorporated in 2021…Is The Result of Americas Own Version of a Progressive Idelogical (sic) Takeover..With Extreme Policys..Directives..And Executive Orders That Will and Are Rapidly Changing Americas Society..Culture and Methods.Means..and Social.Activitys..Laws…and Civil Rights…..As Reported and Demonstrated. The Political Structure..as Well…Extreme… and Toxic…….Extreme..At ALL Levels…Like The Talibans Strategic Take Over of Afghanistan ..and Kabul…
Because all of DNC
Like..Policys and Events…i/e The Southern Border Disaster..and Covid Responses and Restrictions…Lockdowns..I/e Kabul…Primarily Benefit the Interests…of Certain Foreign Governments and Thier Strategic Objectives…and Also The Criminal Organizations that are also Globally Involved and Gaining…$$
Why would This Administration Be doing this?? Zealots…??…Dossiers …Family Members..Involved in Criminal acts…?? Blackmail..?? American Politicans…Destroying American Society..!! Crime and Communism/Marxism.. Only Benefit…ONLY..
And…Currently …Right on Cue…The surrender Of Afghanistan.To….the The well Financed…Organized…and Positioned…Taliban in Afghanistan..and all Strategic…and Material Resources.
The Whole…Fortune Cookie…..So..There…As Here…Its All Because..Someone wants it Done…NOW..and It Was Done NOW..A Massive..Hard Noodle…Fubar..with No Joy Sauce…Except..at the Emperors Palace…and in some Delusional Minds..
And what is this about the Brits keeping an eye on the Yanks in case they bug out w/o telling them? Somehow I thinks that the next adventure will be America Alone
You are in Wellington? You seem a spiteful man intent on expressing your hostility to the US. Your surname indicates that you owe your heritage better. Why should I not ban you?
And PAtton’s reaction would have been shall we say interesting.. and unprintable
No helicopter airlift Saigon moment for Biden, instead something far worse. Taliban in American gear mock US marines sacred Mount Suribachi flag raising moment
https://www.foxnews.com/world/taliban-unit-wearing-us-gear-mock-iconic-american-wwii-photo
POTUS Biden – our very own pudding eating surrender monkey.
By the book: Noncombatant Emergency Evacuations
https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Doctrine/pubs/jp3_68.pdf
Or better yet – BUY the book, Team Biden. Then read it.
Pat w/regard to your ideas on Kabul Airport and Baghram Air Base, I question supply. (BTW, re your comments on Pakistan IMHO a recognition by America that we d/n regard Pakistan as a friendly nation is an over due recognition of fact) I don’t know what our relations are with Turkmenistan and Tajikistan but introduction and supply of a division strength (my guess) mechanized/infantry requires their cooperation. Further on Baghram, I simply can’t understand how we would leave it, our gear, and our allies behind w/o a word. Is it possible that we knew very well what we were doing and … no, I cannot conceive why.
10,000-40,000 people to get out, supply lines cut, hostile local population, mercurial national leadership, loss of allies support, and no safe airspace. Who will ride to the rescue?
Pretty grim scenes from Kabul Airport perimeter, for those in high places who still insist on trusting the Taliban safe passage guarantee:
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/08/21/horrific-reason-americans-are-now-being-told-not-to-come-to-the-kabul-airport-n430698
US State Dept travel warnings Afghanistan – Aug 21, 2021 – watch out for COVID – which now gets equal billing with the Four Horses of the Apocalypse!
“Do not travel to Afghanistan due to civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, terrorism, kidnapping, and COVID-19.
Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe. As of August 15, the U.S. Embassy has relocated operations to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Individuals seeking information on evacuation should refer to the alerts on the Embassy website for instructions.”
Anybody know if Ghani actually resigned? IOW is he president in exile?
Good question – what is an official leaderships succession protocol after an insurrection and fleeing President. Might makes right? UN recognition? Local plebiscite? Diplomatic recognition by foreign powers?
Taliban declared the war was over, but no signed treaties and perhaps not even a formal declaration of war in the first place – just the wrong end of too many stolen rifles, and the hasty departure of the officially elected leader with suitcases full of cash.
Perhaps the House Jan 6 Commission will enlighten us when they bring criminal charges against Viking Guy for his attempted lock stock and barrel coup of the entire United States of America – an act of terror that moved brave patriots like Kinzinger and Schiff to tears.
Amrullah Saleh, Ghani’s veep, declared himself Interim President on 17th citing Ghani’s ‘absence’ under the constitution. I think he is in Panjshir with Massoud’s son & the rebels.
WSJ reports today that Hamid Karzai has thrown his hat into the ring (that is unless he loses his head before long).
From what I can tell Karzai had a big role in negotiating the “mostly peaceful” transition of power to the Taliban. Saleh very clearly represents the Ancien Régime. The factional alliances at play are complex, to say the least.
The Taliban hold on Afghanistan isn’t near as tight as all the whiners and naysayers think. Organized resistance is gathering around Ahmad Massoud in the Panjshir Valley. Much of the Afghan SOF is there or going there including the 777th special mission wing with their Mi-17s and competent pilots. Several districts have already been recaptured by the local resistance. Anti-Taliban demonstrations are still taking place elsewhere. That takes real balls. India is 100% behind Massoud. Tajikistan will probably do the same. Massoud wrote a letter in the WaPo today asking for help. We should help them the Green Beret way, not the Pentagon way. I’ll write more tonight.
TTG
DOL
Get the remaining potential hostages out first.
As you observe, a will to resist the Taliban remains on the ground. The committed resistance have at least now identified themselves. It is the total lack of will in the WH that’s the big problem.
Barbara Ann
We are talking abt the contingency in which we have to defend the airport.
TTG is talking about GB help for the Panjshir rebels and wider insurgency, unless I’m mistaken. This would require a complete policy 180. I look forward to TTG’s forthcoming post on the subject anyhow.
Barbara Ann Try to be more precise in your language. There are many readers.
I will try harder, Sir.
The previous incarnation of the Northern Alliance had the support of Russia from the stans, Iran and India, until they threw their weight behind the US invasion in 2001.
Russia had made its peace with the Taliban, they are making it overt as well to enjoy their moment of schadenfraude. But they are also firming up their presence in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in case the Taliban start fomenting unrest and narcotics northwards. Russians are confident of having pacified the Caucasus, but the victory of the Taliban may energize some recalcitrant Jihadis for sure.
Iran too is relieved of the pressure in its eastern flank and enjoying the humiliation of American force projection. The Shia and Hazara of Afghanistan may look towards Iran for protection, but they are ultimately of no consequence to Iran. If the part of Balochistan held by Iran which is largely Sunni gets restive, Iran will change its tune.
India has no de-facto land bridge to Afghanistan. It relies on Iran at Chahbahr. Indian investment worth a few billions in dams, schools and other infrastructure like the Afghan Parliament was a cheap price to pay for 20 years of relative stability. India is unlikely to recognize or welcome a Taliban government. There is painful history with the episode which began with the hijacking of flight IC814 to Kandahar in 1999. The terrorists released in exchange for securing the release of the hostage passengers were(from Wikipedia):
Maulana Masood Azhar – who founded Jaish-e-Muhammed in 2000, which gained notoriety for its alleged role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and 2008 Mumbai attacks, which led to death of hundreds of people, along with the 2019 Pulwama Attack which led to the death of 44 CRPF personnel.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh – who was arrested in 2002 by Pakistani authorities for the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl.[27][28] Sheikh, who had been imprisoned in connection with the 1994 Kidnappings of Western tourists in India, went on to murder Daniel Pearl and also allegedly played a significant role in planning the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar – who has played an active role since release in training Islamic militants in Pakistan administrated Jammu & Kashmir.
As cold and heartless as this may sound to the survivors of flight IC814 and their families, an order of magnitude more Indians, Americans and others were killed in a chain of events triggered by negotiating with the Taliban. This is institutional memory in India which will hold them back from ever trusting or dealing with the Taliban. The Taliban is for all Indian purposes, the ununiformed Jihadi wing of Pakistan’s security state.
The prospects of the holdouts at Panjshir valley are bleak. They have no one they can trust, and anyone they can trust is cut off from being able to help.
I see it as a shortcoming that American power projection plays are strictly limited to coloring between the lines drawn by the British empire in the last century. If Afghanistan is important at all(this must be seriously questioned first), then a different beachhead has to be carved out. I suspect that is beyond the imagination of the powers that be.
Twitter is reporting that an organisation called “ Kabul small animal rescue” is allegedly asking for donations to charter an aircraft to get “ 150 pets” out of Kabul. If this is indeed true, can anyone not see the symbolism in Westerners evacuating their pets ahead of former Afghan employees?
Oliver North is alleging that the Embassy and/or the Afghan Banks have not destroyed their U. S. Embassy payroll records and that these are now in the hands of the Taliban.
The U. S. Embassy is allegedly telling intending evacuees not to come to the airport and instead await instructions.
Furthermore, considering Afghanistan’s history since at least as early as the first anglo afghan war circa 1835, why would any administration except dumbass Biden’s expect the Taliban to keep their part of any bargain for more than a microsecond? In my opinion, the window to recover people conventionally from Afghanistan is rapidly shutting.
Who has clout to broker a US personnel rescue deal with the new Afghan leadership? China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia as the seat of Islam? What would be the price. Land-locked Afghanistan remains an island dependency itself, dependent on supply lines via Pakistan to the sea.
What Underground Railway escape routes exist by land, with hostile nations on most borders or flyover lands. At least in the past the Russians could escape going back north and the British over the Khyber back in to India. (Good luck on that one.)
Who are the natural enemies of the Taliban in this area that could/would allow safe passage? Is Kamala Harris in Singapore, as we speak, meeting with the Chinese to pack them up on their transcontinent Belt and Road over the Karakorums and back home, before the winter snows block off that pass.
View from a MRAP Gunner Turret In Kabul airport:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkNTLncmWI
The footage shows Apaches clearing the runway for C-17s in the middle of vast crowds.
“Army commanders chafed at what they took to be inadequate and incompetent government support of military efforts to end the war. The feeling was widespread that another debacle like that of Indochina in 1954 was in the offing and that the government would order another overly precipitous pullout and sacrifice French honor to political expediency. The result was the return of Charles de Gaulle”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis_in_France
Far from a perfect analogy, but one has to wonder for how much longer the military can be abused and American honor dragged through the mud.
Barbara Ann. “one has to wonder for how much longer the military can be abused and American honor dragged through the mud.”
Institutions have no honor; men, they can have honor. I don’t see anyone protecting theirs by resigning rather than implimenting the leftist agenda or otherwise engaging in self-promotion. I certainly don’t want any of them thinking the correct way of defending the miltary’s, or America’s, honor is to engage in a coup, overt or otherwise. We’ve already seen what has been done to the FBI and DOJ as they are rife with dishonorable men – and women.
fred
Sorry, but I do not agree. If the US military collectively has no honor, then it will become an instrument of domestic oppression.
I have a feeling we will very soon discover the nature of the US military’s collective honor. Yesterday that freedom-loving mensch, Gen. Hayden (sarc.) voiced the opinion that it is a “Good idea” to “send the MAGA wearing unvaxxed to Afghanistan”. A couple of days ago he retweeted an image referring to a convoy of Deplorables in pickups flying Trump 2020 banners & the Stars and Stripes “our Taliban”.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bush-era-nsa-head-says-its-good-idea-send-unvaxxd-trump-supporters-afghanistan
Barbara Ann
The honor of a military force is an abstraction that lives in the collective heart. What we will learn is the extent to which careerism has corrupted the generals. I am reminded of the French general who commanded the Old Guard at Watrloo. At the end of the battle when completely surrounded and with artillery staring at the Grognards with its pitiless unwinking eyes he was summoned to surrender. His reply. “Merde.” That is military honor.
James
I was taught that “Hubris” denotes “spiritual pride that goes before a fall.” Who is it that you think is displaying “hubris?”
Barbara Ann –
Hayden suffered a stroke in 2018. He suffers from aphasia and senility. Ignore him. The press should also.
Fred
I do not advocate for this myself, but merely sought to point out that there is a limit to what honorable (& honest) men will endure. The present situation in both Afghanistan & the US brought to mind the circumstances that led to the end of the French 4th Republic and the founding of the 5th.
Barbara Ann,
The left would be quite happy about that circumstance as they have been trying to get rid of the Constitution for some time.
fred
What constitution is that?
Fred
Under such hypothetical circumstances, I think the constitution of a 2nd Republic would be unappealing to the Left. Who knows, some extremists may even seek to reinstate the original Constitution. Someone else here recently mentioned the Allende/Pinochet transition.
Col.,
The one Biden, and Barack before him, have been ignoring. They have been waging an assault on the constitutional order for some time by exectutive orders such as DACA, utilizing the regulatory apparatus such as the CDC to institute rules they know violate the US Constituion (such as the latest eviction moratorium), using business entities to impose limitations on citizens rights – whether they are speech, assembly, or employment. They ignore laws they find inconvenient, the open Southern border being a prime example.
Fred, a follow up:
As William M Hatch observes below, a large number of Marines & paratroopers currently have a front row seat in the prolonged humiliation of the country they serve, as well as the abject abandonment of civilians who are literally now dying at HKIA. These guys will come home and relate this experience to their comrades and families. Centurion’s Honor is a factor here. Alan Farrell wrote of this in his Schreckfigur essay, which I know you are familiar with. He mentions the 1958 “rage of the legions” in the same context. It is not entirely irrelevant that French paratroopers who had served in Algeria featured prominently in both the 1958 coup and the later 1961 failed insurrection.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/french-fourth-republic-army-coup/
Barbara Ann
Ah! You meant to write Marines and Paratroopers.
Of course, no sleight intended.
Barbara Ann
“marine” is a common noun. “US Marine” is a proper noun as is “Royal Marine.”
TTG: “Organized resistance is gathering around Ahmad Massoud in the Panjshir Valley”
I understand Massoud is taking counsel from Bernard Henri Levy.
What could possibly go wrong?
Artemesia
Is the Taliban planning to subdue the Panjshir rebels with an entartage assault? I can see no value in BHL’s advice otherwise.
I don’t think that they have strayed from the airport perimeter at all. Their high ground is the air control tower. That they haven’t set up a proper perimeter around the airport makes me think that the administration is terrified of antagonizing the Taliban or that they have made some sort of an agreement with them and hope to trust the bastards. It’s probably a combination of the two.
I suspect that we will be very lucky if this doesn’t turn into some sort of Dien Bien Phu.
In 1974 I was a a helicopter pilot in a Marine Composite Squadron that was a part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit(MEU) much like the one now deployed to the Kabul Airport. We were part of a Navy Amphibious Readiness Group working out of Subic Bay PI. Two of our contingency plans were TS plans for the evacuation of Saigon & Phnom Pen Cambodia. We knew the plans & were prepared to execute them. Infantry & aviation personnel had visited & evaluated the landing zones.
Biden apparently wants to avoid “helos on the roof” like the Saigon operation – bad optics. He should wish for such success in Afghanistan. In April 1975 both Saigon & Phnom Pen were both successfully evacuated with minimal casualties. In Saigon 7000
personnel were flown to waiting ships in 20 hours. Across VN 58000 people were evacuated. The key to these successes were viable plans that had been in place & rehearsed for years.
If we had plans for the evacuation of Afghanistan, they are hard to discern. The latest communication for the evacuees to not to come to the airport; but, to shelter in place & await instructions does not bode well for the evacuees. Biden’s language indicates
that while he hopes to get Americans out, he has written off the Afghans who supported us.
I feel sorry for the young, gung ho Marines & paratroopers who have to watch in frustration the tragic events unfolding outside of their perimeter at the airport. These are young warriors who must be chaffing at their leashes.