The Afghanistan Debacle: How Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Bamboozled the American Public

[blueseas]

David Corn From the Land
Snip:

The arrogance and ineptitude of Bush, Cheney, and their henchmen have led to the horrible images and tales we have seen reported from Afghanistan in the past few days—which themselves are the continuation of many years of horrible images and tales from the double-debacle of these two wars.


As the Post put it, “senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”

The 20 years of fighting did keep the Taliban at bay, and for many Afghans that was a true benefit. But the lies certainly were an offense against the American public and the Constitution. The war in Afghanistan—prosecuted in ignorance and sold with hubris and falsehoods—has been a scandal of the highest order, a fundamental violation of the national trust.


https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/the-afghanistan-debacle-this-land-sneak-peek/

[Hekate]

1. ? I take exception to lumping Obama and Biden in with Bush and Trump

David Corn’s losing me on that

[JoanofArgh]

2. Yeah, me too.

[zipplewrath]

3. On this issue

On this one issue, it would be a challenge to find any meaningful difference in the handling of the war between any of them, save maybe Biden who advised Obama to get out. Obama increased, nearly tripling, the troop presence in Afghanistan, to little if any success.
From the article:

A senior National Security Council official said there was pressure from the Obama White House and the Pentagon to concoct stats showing the American troop surge was succeeding: “It was impossible to create good metrics. We tried using troop numbers trained, violence levels, control of territory, and none of it painted an accurate picture. The metrics were always manipulated for the duration of the war.”

[rockfordfile]

5. Being in Afghanistan was always bs. Afghanistan is a gop failure. It was always going to be.

[UpInArms]

4. Biden bamboozled no one

What crap

Eta:

If it said:

Bush/Cheney

Obama/Biden

Trump/Pence …

But, no …

attempting to lump Biden into that when no one else is name …

Crap …just crap …

Spewing for whose ever rightwing benefit

I hate these people

[jcmaine72]

6. Interesting article

Not all that surprising it went over like a lead balloon here. The history, however, speaks for itself, and facts are facts.

Time for America to stop being the world's policeman. We suck at it. Always have. (Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan). Since the end of WW2, both parties have had their turn playing G.I. Joe on the world stage and have gotten tens of thousands of young Americans killed overseas ultimately for nothing. It needs to stop, but it won't.

There are too many trillion$ at stake for our defense industry, and there are too many greedy palms in D.C. that have already been greased to ensure the meat grinder never stops.

[leftstreet]

7. +1

I would add to that, hopefully without sounding ageist, too many politicians and appointed military and intel leaders are old enough to nostalgically remember post WWII American growth and wealth, while Europe was broken and shattered.

That's no longer the case. They need to get with the program of global cooperation, or get the fuck out of the way

[arthritisR_US]

8. The defence industry is not the only greedy

sods, the oil industry is also a major culprit in all these wars.