Probably just talking to anyone they can get on the phone out there but I’m guessing he’s hoping we’d take him.
Why are RTE interviewing cousins of Irish citizens? What right have they to come to Ireland? Are RTE pushing for hundreds of family members of Irish citizens to be allowed to come to Ireland? If someone has 20 or 30 cousins do RTE think we need to do take them?
there was a lot of talk of ;not knowing the Taliban would advance so fast/that Afghan defence would collapse so fast' but if 31 August was the deadline , what difference did the advance/collapse matter. (Were the western nations hoping to call their citizens to the airport and the Afghans with papers may not have rushed to the airport too?
Did people think the Afghan admin were going to be able to negotiate a government with the Taliban (as they have now, with a few token ministers from previous admin)
I imagine anyone who is an actual Irish resident would have little difficulty in proving they live in Ireland.....they would have (or have access to) lots of documentation, a PPS number etc etc
A cousin of an ‘Irish citizen’ was on RTE news last night, trying to get out. You can’t take half the country. How do you know they aren’t extremist sympathisers? Just look at the number of terror attacks in mainland Europe.
It probably plays out with alot more coffins, it's been handled terribly but going back in is not a solution, try to get out with minimal loss of life.
It's not about reneging on a deal with Taliban, it's about the practicalities of pressing reset on the entire process and getting Afghanistan to the point where America could withdraw under Biden's preferred conditions within the constraints of a four-year presidential term.
"So when you say military do you mean reinforcing US troops back up to 10,000? To maintain control as you say whilst orderly retreat. How does this play on Congress? To the public ?"
I would say it plays a lot better than dead American soldiers thanks to suicide bombs and Afghan civilians clinging to and falling off planes.
It's fair to say that this withdrawal would have been a clusterf**k no matter what happened. But it's also fair to say that it could absolutely have been handled much much better. Now, which parties share the blame for that is up for debate (how much input did Biden really have in determining the withdrawal process and timeline, for example) but as he said, the buck stops with him, and it looks absolutely terrible for him.
Quite a few of these people are Afghans who actually live in Ireland but who haven't yet acquired Irish citizenship. Simon Coveney was explaining yesterday that such people had returned home to Afghanistan to visit relatives because it's August and then been unable to get back out again when things kicked off.
Because it gives far too much legitimacy to the Taliban to say that Biden's hands were tied by a previous administration's deal. That's putting the Taliban up with the likes of Russia and nuclear pacts in terms of not reneging.
It's a complete mess and Biden deserves a bad rap for it. To argue that this calamity of a withdrawal was written in stone, and Biden had no part to play, is absurd.
What military?
Genuine question.
The Afghan was the military in control. But picture a world where their leadership and command were not invited to negotiation talks in 2018 for their country. Are they still the people in power ? Are they not ?
How does military maintain control with that spectre over their head?
So when you say military do you mean reinforcing US troops back up to 10,000? To maintain control as you say whilst orderly retreat. How does this play on Congress? To the public ?
Over simplification of the issues at hand seems to be common.
Why do you not want to discuss the deals made and with whom they were made?
????
Every US president and indeed British PM has sold arms and equipment to Saudi Arabia.
Oh and they sell the expertise as well.
The Saudis probably couldn't scratch themselves without foreigners.
You seem a bit agitated. I've zero skin in the game here. Could care less what geriatric is in the white House. So calm your knickers.
The article said in November there was 4k troops and that was reduced to 2.5k as Biden took office. So in my admittedly, completely uninformed opinion that doesn't seem like the type of no turning back scenario.
If redeplowing that 1.5k troops meant the difference between an easy taliban march to Kabul or not then yes I think Biden should have tried to do that.
So his portion of blame lies around that side of this $hitshow imo.
It read to me that a smooth withdrawal with everyone being evacuated while the military still had control would have been preferable. But let's argue about Trump instead.
Sorry it seems you want someone to confirm some bias for you ?In 2018 there was 14,000 trump reduced that over those years. Dramatically especially in 2020 down to 2500.
It's your assertion that Biden should have increased the troop count? By how many ? And why ? And how would he have got that by Congress , especially the republicans who had put in gates related to the negotiations trump initiated.
Can you give some detail as to what you think should have been done and how and why, rather than asking to be given information. Then being given it and throwing it away out of hand.
From 4k to 2.5k troops doesn't seem like much. I don't think anyone would have batted an eye lid if he had slowly filtered a 1k or more soldiers back in to secure Kabul at least until they had everyone out.
An omnishambles with a wide scope of blame to dish out but nothing in that small article would make me think Biden can be absolved of his share of that blame.
The problem isn’t leaving the problem is leaving American civilians and allied civilians behind.
Very simply they were far past the point of no return in January under trumps control .
Per the pentagon in January of this year they had a fraction of the fighting force and capabilities. Pure hand over stage.
There are those that call Biden a war hawk and are complaining now about the evacuation. And the very same people would call him a warhawk if he increased the troop count when he took over the end of January.
It's absolutely no win. And anyone saying otherwise is a liar with a clear agenda. The wheels of this entire episode were already set in motion and there was simple no hand brake big enough.
Imagine Biden coming in and saying he's going to increase the troop count to 10,000 . When he came in to maintain security. Absolute laughable. You'd have Eskimo on here screaming from the roof tops and the other who's who.
This entire thing is a sorry sorry episode and it began twenty years ago and keeled over in 2018 when a bunch of amateurs in trump and his crack team of idiots thought they could score home browny points accelerating a pull out.
Who was that?
Previous guy sold arms to Saudi Arabia.
Typical military intelligence and oxymoron.
This is an interesting article from a few years back:
Why was the pervious Afghan government helping ISIS-K? Their have been persistent claims by Pakistan that NDS (former Afghan intelligence) and its Indian ally RAW (Indian intelligence agency) have been supporting ISIS-K. The above would suggest that their is merit to the claim vis a vi the NDS.
Dear Joe,
This is just a quick note of thanks.
We were on the verge of running out of trucks, guns, helicopters, planes and so forth. You kindly gifted us all of your best stuff. My M4 works great! Much better than my trusty AKM.
Now all my family and brothers have one. Still, it would have been nice if you had left some maintenance men behind just to keep it all nice and shiny. Please remember for next time. Sorry about all the US and British dead and with life changing injuries. It is what you call "collateral damage." In any case, I know how well you look after your veterans, so they will be OK Joe.
Oh yes, I must not forget. My brothers also thank you for the $144 billion that you have lavished on our infrastructure. For example, without the generator you generously supplied for the dam we could not charge the peasants for their electricity. As for the schools you built for the girls they also make excellent storage depots for all that ammunition that you kindly donated to Al Qaeda and the cause. They asked me to give you a 'high five' (whatever that is).
The Chinese are tickled pink about this too. The roads you built for us just perfectly match up with the one they want to build to exploit our huge silver iodide resources. Praise be to Allah (oh, and you too Joe): It's now all falling into place. Sorry that your country now looks like the clown of the world, but that was not our fault.
You have gone from Super Power to Super Joke since this January. You just have to look to yourself for that my friend. Also sorry that the English are furious and not speaking to you at the moment. Still, you are Irish, and, as you are always telling me "whatever annoys the English has to be good." Yes, yes, I quite agree. So as I say, you have done us a massive favour, so it is only right that we do right by you in return.
You can use the runway for the rest of the month: No charge.
Yours sincerely, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar,
Chairman of the Taliban-Biden Friendship Society.
Our Motto: "The US Taxpayer: The goof that just keeps on giving."
The problem with Afghanistan under the Taliban is that an awful lot of people in neighbouring countries are just as eager for a similar Govt.
Afghanistan, like Syria, has a population doubling every 20 years or so.
It's farm land is not increasing and no country can provide jobs and services at that rate.
The potential for it to be a tumour in the region is very big.
Other priorities, seriously he should have planned this months ago. There is also the quarantine question when they land. Muslims consider dogs dirty so it’s not good local PR that they are being saved over people.
America has gone home in general, they don't need the world anymore. They have geographic isolation, large population, resources and economic and military might. Has being going on since Obama, then Trump now Biden. Some people may have hated it but America provided stability for the world system to function as it has done for decades. We are never going back to that now, it'll be a much more fragmented world going forward.
Europe at the crossroads of Africa and Middle East is in a precarious position. It will need real leadership to sustain anything close to normal, I won't hold my breath.
Next week will be bad but nothing compared to the coming months and years. The American presence in the region has kept a lid on the place for years now. The pull out is going to be a catastrophe mistake and that will become evident in the coming weeks when ISIS start beheading unable to flee westerners and those that helped the west and post it on the internet. Then the battle will move to Pakistan and other countries and make Syria look like a garden party.
Biden might be old and slow but stupid he ain't and his demeanor last night told the story of what's about to unfold. He knows what's coming.
Next week could be an appalling week. I can't see how it remains anyway stable, hopefully I'm wrong.
I more so mean a breakdown of boots on the ground pre/post etc. Areas that were no longer under US/Afghan control pre/post his presidency. Proper facts, not any personal/political ideologies.
I want to be able to look at and say he had no choice besides another mini invasion or he just allowed this to unfold on his watch and deserves the criticism.
Remarkable.
BTW we have probably seen nothing yet in this very messy withdrawal.
After the British troops withdraw and then the US troops start withdrawing and the perimeter starts folding in on itself you can expect carnage to ensue.
In the end the US troops will probably end up having to fire on the civilians left within the airport perimeter so that they can get out themselves.
And expect the taliban to arrive in trying to grab their targets.
Now there mightn't be many news teams around to film this, but it won't be pretty.
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