In Afghanistan, President Biden had to play the losing hand his predecessors dealt him

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Since the collapse of the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan, the takeover of the country by the Taliban, and the ISIS-K attack that killed 13 American servicemen and women and 170 Afghans at Kabul airport, critics have blasted President Biden. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tied the "sickening and enraging deaths" to "the predictably chaotic wake of the president's decision to withdraw" troops from the country. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, declared that Biden has "blood on his hands." Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for his resignation or impeachment.

The president's critics have been less forthcoming about the losing hand - and lack of viable options - his three predecessors dealt him.

The United States toppled the Taliban after Sept. 11, 2001, to ensure that Afghanistan no longer harbored Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. In the ensuing two decades, under presidents Bush and Obama, America's attention shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq; the goals in Afghanistan became less clear, and seemed to include "nation-building" (i.e. establishing democratic institutions, protecting and promoting education for girls and opportunities for women). The Afghan governments under Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani became hopelessly corrupt: as much as 40 percent of Department of Defense contracts - billions of dollars - ended up in the hands of criminal syndicates and government officials, and a significant percentage of Afghan military units existed only on paper, with commanders pocketing money allocated to salaries, uniforms, and weapons.

This was hardly a recipe for attracting the loyalty of the people of Afghanistan or building an effective fighting force.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/in-afghanistan-president-biden-had-to-play-the-losing-hand-his-predecessors-dealt-him/ar-AANW9x9

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

https://apnews.com/article/business-afghanistan-race-and-ethnicity-9d4c56e1ee01549423543bbdef21e84e

Afghanistan's arc from 9/11 to today: Once hopeful, now sad
By KATHY GANNON

...

So across Afghanistan, quickly and understandably, it started: The defeated Taliban began to re-emerge. And it kept getting worse.

By 2012, just two years before the U.S. and NATO handed over the operational end of the war to Afghanistan’s government, the Afghan army was barely competent and filled with fighters angry at what they considered poor treatment by their foreign trainers. Soldiers wore boots with holes because a shoddy contractor, paid millions by corrupt officials, had delivered substandard equipment. At an army outpost in the deadly east, helmets were so scarce that five soldiers took turns wearing one.

And U.S. trainers? They were no longer attending training sessions where live ammunition was being used.

They feared the weapons might be turned on them.

...

[onetexan]

2. More reasons why US had to get the heck out of there

Forcing Jeffersonian democracy on a tribal people who have no concept of it is ludicrous.

[lees1975]

3. Specifically, the losing hand Trump dealt him

This situation would never have existed had Trump not completely undermined the democratically elected government in Afghanistan.
Yeah, it was corrupt, fishing in the money stream, which should have been anticipated and expected. But the failure was Trump. We need to keep beating that drum and point out to the media that they ought to be beating it as well.