And so it begins, U.S. troops start to withdraw from Afghanistan

[Swordsmyth]

Opinions like this are like hemorrhoids. They don't prove anything. They don't accomplish anything. They don't mean anything. But every $#@! develops one nonetheless, sooner or later.

If only lying Donald would still be in the White House, maybe he would have kept one of his promises for a change...

and the US troops would already be "home" (or sent to some other Asian country?)...

You two just can't admit you were wrong.

 

[acptulsa]

You two just can't admit you were wrong.

Prove your Trumptarian Church dogma is true and we'll see if we can admit it.

This thread is nine pages of disproven claims, proof we don't have any facts, and what if fantasies. If you want to hear what you cannot say, namely someone admitting they're wrong, then prove something already.

 

[Firestarter]

You two just can't admit you were wrong.

But lying Donald didn't "withdraw" US troops from Afghanistan at all did he? So how you want to spin this into a "you were wrong", "I was right" and "Donald is great" after all argument is beyond my comprehension.


My very simple conclusion is that @Swordsmyth was wrong once again, and US troops didn't start "to withdraw from Afghanistan" in March 2020, and lying Donald didn't get any US troops home...

Let's see, if I understand correctly @Swordsmyth started this thread waay back in March 2020 with the title "it begins, U.S. troops start to withdraw from Afghanistan"...
Maybe I've missed something but now that Sleepy Joe has replaced Donald the great MAGA as US president, he has promised to get them out on 9/11 (of this year). I say there's a 50-50 chance that Joe will keep this promise.


Since January 2019, @Swordsmyth repeatedly started threads on US troops coming home from Afghanistan.

January 2019 "Foreign troops to quit Afghanistan in 18 months ...": http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...uit-Afghanistan-in-18-months-under-draft-deal

September 2019: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...hold-funds-from-Afghanistan-blames-corruption

February 2020 (@Warlord seems to have left the forum): http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...f-Afghanistan-will-Warlord-take-me-off-ignore


I think that the OP of this July 2017 started @Swordsmyth thread isn't bad though: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?512445-Time-to-Say-Goodbye-to-Afghanistan

 

[devil21]

That is the catch. "Removal" of troops will only generally mean they switch from US uniforms to Blackwater uniforms and/or UN uniforms and receive a big pay increase of devaluing dollars. This has already been happening. I'm just waiting for the official announcement that "There are no longer any US Military troops in Afghanistan." The mindscrew will be that it is technically correct, since they wouldn't be US Military troops anymore. They would be private contractors or UN.

This is what has been happening with the Afghan situation. Something like 20,000 contractors/mercs, intel agents, etc while the official troop number slowly drops. They're just swapping the "public" military for the "private military". SecDef is already switching the narrative to promising to remove contractors at some undefined point in the future.

 

[Firestarter]

This is what has been happening with the Afghan situation. Something like 20,000 contractors/mercs, intel agents, etc while the official troop number slowly drops. They're just swapping the "public" military for the "private military". SecDef is already switching the narrative to promising to remove contractors at some undefined point in the future.

You could be right, but today I read a letter in our wonderful Dutch media that not only the US (government) military but also the (private) contractors will be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

I could claim that time will tell, but with our media dumb, deaf and blind, maybe we'll never find out...

 

[TheCount]

If only lying Donald would still be in the White House, maybe he would have kept one of his promises for a change...

and the US troops would already be "home" (or sent to some other Asian country?)...

Do you think Trump staying in office would have made the troops stay there longer or less long?

 

[Firestarter]

Do you think Trump staying in office would have made the troops stay there longer or less long?

As I think that D or R are basically the same party, it wouldn't have mattered either way, so precisely the same.

I'm no good at predicting though, maybe because I'm no good at chess (not even the 2D type).
In 2016 I thought that Hillary would win and in 2020 that Donald was the favourite with a longshot.

 

[Swordsmyth]

But lying Donald didn't "withdraw" US troops from Afghanistan at all did he? So how you want to spin this into a "you were wrong", "I was right" and "Donald is great" after all argument is beyond my comprehension.


My very simple conclusion is that @Swordsmyth was wrong once again, and US troops didn't start "to withdraw from Afghanistan" in March 2020, and lying Donald didn't get any US troops home...

Let's see, if I understand correctly @Swordsmyth started this thread waay back in March 2020 with the title "it begins, U.S. troops start to withdraw from Afghanistan"...
Maybe I've missed something but now that Sleepy Joe has replaced Donald the great MAGA as US president, he has promised to get them out on 9/11 (of this year). I say there's a 50-50 chance that Joe will keep this promise.


Since January 2019, @Swordsmyth repeatedly started threads on US troops coming home from Afghanistan.

January 2019 "Foreign troops to quit Afghanistan in 18 months ...": http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...uit-Afghanistan-in-18-months-under-draft-deal

September 2019: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...hold-funds-from-Afghanistan-blames-corruption

February 2020 (@Warlord seems to have left the forum): http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...f-Afghanistan-will-Warlord-take-me-off-ignore


I think that the OP of this July 2017 started @Swordsmyth thread isn't bad though: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?512445-Time-to-Say-Goodbye-to-Afghanistan

Trump did withdraw most of the troops, so many that Biden had to keep the withdrawal going.
This thread is full of posts about Trump's withdrawal, just quit lying.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Do you think Trump staying in office would have made the troops stay there longer or less long?

They would have all been gone by the deadline Trump set in his deal with the Taliban.

 

[Swordsmyth]

This is what has been happening with the Afghan situation. Something like 20,000 contractors/mercs, intel agents, etc while the official troop number slowly drops. They're just swapping the "public" military for the "private military". SecDef is already switching the narrative to promising to remove contractors at some undefined point in the future.

LOL

Learn to read before posting.

ALL of the contractors are leaving too:

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday the process of removing all contractors from Afghanistan working with the United States was under way as part of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of forces from the country.

The remarks are the clearest indication yet that Biden’s April order to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 extended to U.S.-funded contractors.

Asked whether the Pentagon had issued orders to withdraw not just American troops but also contractors, Austin said: “We’re going to responsibly retrograde all of our capabilities that we are responsible for and the contractors fall in that realm as well.”

Austin said the drawdown was going according to plan so far.

More at: https://news.whatfinger.com/2021/05/06/pentagon-chief-says-removal/

Without Trump this would not have happened.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Prove your Trumptarian Church dogma is true and we'll see if we can admit it.

This thread is nine pages of disproven claims, proof we don't have any facts, and what if fantasies. If you want to hear what you cannot say, namely someone admitting they're wrong, then prove something already.

This thread is nine pages of proven claims that are now culminating in a complete withdrawal arranged by Trump.

The fact that you have the gall to pretend you are right and I am wrong under these circumstances says all that needs to be said about you.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Not clear if media is trying to paint Trump as DGP 2.0 but if confirmed could reflect bad light on his legacy as final decider of the failed 2017 surge.

New report says 40 percent of all air strike causalities from 2016 to 2020 were children.
7 May 2021
“Sadly, these numbers are no surprise,” said Chris Nyamandi, country director for Afghanistan at Save the Children International. “Afghanistan has been the deadliest country for children for years.”




In other news/views:

Lavon Affair again? "Al Qaeda promises war on all fronts" as US prepares to withdraw troops

If ISIS, Alqaeda want US to leave Afghanistan, why are such groups trying to increase carnage and attacks in Afghanistan when US is reportedly about to start troops withdrawal?


The Guardian
Afghanistan: car bomb kills at least 21 as US prepares to withdraw troops
Scores also injured in the blast in southern city of Pul-e-Alam the day before Pentagon begins to pull out its remaining forces. Afghans wait ...
18 hours ago

CNN
Al Qaeda promises 'war on all fronts' against America as Biden pulls out of Afghanistan
America's "war on terror" is about to enter a new phase as President Joe Biden prepares to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by the 20th ...
1 day ago

At least 25 killed, 52 wounded in blast near Kabul girls' school
By Jennifer Hauser, CNN
Sat May 8, 2021
(CNN)At least 25 people have been killed and 52 others wounded in an explosion near a high school for girls in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The Ministry of Interior (MOI) said the blast happened close to the Sayeed-ul-Shuhada School in the Dasht-e-Barchi area on Saturday afternoon.
MOI spokesperson Tariq Arian said the number of casualties could increase.
Officials have not revealed the cause of the explosion, or if there was a target. There has been no claim of responsibility yet.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid denied involvement in the explosion in a message to the media.
According to Afghanistan's Tolo News, the incident happened when students were leaving the school. "A car bomb blast happened first, and then two more explosions occurred near the girls school in Kabul," said Ibrahim, a schoolteacher, according to Tolo. He added that the majority of victims are girls, Tolo reports.


Likely-Unrelated

Flashback: Terrorists who bombed US-UK civilian buildings with aim to create instability and stop Western troops exit from Egypt
The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and British-owned civilian targets, cinemas, libraries and American educational centers. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Communists, "unspecified malcontents" or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone.
After Israel publicly denied any involvement in the incident for 51 years, the surviving agents were official


ISIS Attacks Surge in Iraq Amid Debate on U.S. Troop Levels

The growing pressure on the United States to reduce its military presence in Iraq comes as strikes by the Islamic State are on the rise.
June 10, 2020
As American and Iraqi negotiators begin a new round of strategic talks on Thursday, the question of how to respond to the Islamic State’s quiet resurgence — and how much American help is required to do so — will be at the center of the discussion.
There are currently about 5,200 American troops in Iraq, whose main missions are counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces.
The Trump administration, which sees the American presence as crucial for tamping down the resurgence of ISIS and as a bulwark against Iranian power in Iraq, wants to keep a substantial force there.
“We’re going to continue to maintain forces as long as the Iraqi government is willing to have U.S. and coalition forces present in the country until the enduring defeat of Daesh is accomplished, and it’s not yet accomplished,” James F. Jeffrey, the American special envoy to the region, said in a briefing on Friday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “That’s our policy.”
nytimes.com/2020/06/10/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-strategic-dialogue-troops.htmlly honored in 2005 by being awarded certificates of appreciation by Israeli President Moshe Katzav.




On a side note, lately there may been some glitches in messaging regarding troops withdrawal from foreign lands with active freedom projects though:

June 10, 2020
We’re going to continue to maintain forces as long as the Iraqi government is willing to have U.S. and coalition forces present in the country until the enduring defeat of Daesh is accomplished, and it’s not yet accomplished,” James F. Jeffrey, the American special envoy to the region, said in a briefing on Friday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “That’s our policy.”

January 5, 2020
Iraq's Parliament votes to expel U.S. military

January 6, 2020
Trump threatens Iraq with crippling sanctions if US troops are expelled

Hopefully Afghan withdrawal messaging would be managed in a better way and won't get mired in some political 'credit war' between Biden and Trump (as happened in the case of recent Vax project where Biden was accused of trying to take credit for massive Vax launch success story that was made possible mostly due Trump's non-stop efforts).

 

[Firestarter]

This thread is nine pages of proven claims that are now culminating in a complete withdrawal arranged by Trump.

What happened to [MENTION=65299]Swordsmyth[/MENTION]? In July 2017 it was still posting interesting info, and has now become the most despised Trump-cheerleader on this forum...

I think that the OP of this July 2017 started @Swordsmyth thread isn't bad though: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?512445-Time-to-Say-Goodbye-to-Afghanistan

 

[devil21]

LOL

Learn to read before posting.

ALL of the contractors are leaving too:

Who, then, will protect the huge mineral reserves in Afghanistan that control over was so hard fought for? I won't believe it, especially from a political appointee like SecDef.


On second thought, you may be right and the country just handed over to Chinese control as part of the Belt and Road. Both Trump and Biden have done a lot of China's bidding so it stands to reason that this could be the end game of securing that region for them. Yeah that's probably it....

http://recca.af/?page_id=2077

The MoU (between Af and Cn) states “[t]he two sides shall jointly promote cooperation on the One-Belt-One Road Initiative in a bid to realize the goal of common development, and translate the advantages of solid political ties, economic complementarities, and people-to-people exchanges into pragmatic cooperation in an effort to promote increasing economic growth.” Well-resourced in both financial and human capital, BRI is poised to serve as an integral element of the Afghan Government’s Infrastructure and Connectivity Development and Private Sector Development National Priority Programs.
.......................
Additionally, Afghanistan became a permanent member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in October this year, which will further facilitate cooperation on infrastructure development between the two countries under the BRI and RECCA.

^^^^^
That ended up being a pretty sweet deal. Americans only spent trillions of dollars and countless lives in the process to hand it over to China.

 

[Firestarter]

On second thought, you may be right and the country just handed over to Chinese control as part of the Belt and Road. Both Trump and Biden have done a lot of China's bidding so it stands to reason that this could be the end game of securing that region for them. Yeah that's probably it....

That couldn't be true, I've learned that the Trump-supporting media is always lying, so I wouldn't ever believe that Hunter Biden and daddy Joe are really Chinese agents.

I have argued that Donald is good buddies with the Chinese elite though (Elaine Chao!).

In February 2013, Angela Chen invited China's Ambassador to the US Sun Guoxiang and none other than British Crown agent, Donald’s handler and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to her party.
See Angela and Wilbur pictured together again in January 2019.

Do-the-Russians-have-a-Trump-card#post6990635

 

[devil21]

That couldn't be true, I've learned that the Trump-supporting media is always lying, so I wouldn't ever believe that Hunter Biden and daddy Joe are really Chinese agents.

I have argued that Donald is good buddies with the Chinese elite though (Elaine Chao!).
Do-the-Russians-have-a-Trump-card#post6990635

I always thought it a ridiculous narrative that the Trump administration was constantly meeting with PRC operatives for the better part of 3 years over a "trade deal and some tariffs". As if it takes years of close cooperation in DC and Beijing meetings to agree to sell them soybeans and import their gadgets, which was already happening on a large scale any way. Anyone who believed that story is a moron. Perhaps the "trade" spoken of was finalizing the "trading" of China's financing the government deficit by purchasing bonds, which was then used to finance military conquest of the areas needed for the Belt and Road, in exchange for the insiders getting stupid rich and China not blowing up the dollar by dumping those bonds onto the open market. Now, China is test-running the digital vaporware currency that everyone else will be rolling out soon after. The whole notion that the entire Trump administration wasn't working hand-in-hand with the PRC for that entire 4 years is ludicrous. We are seeing the culmination and conclusion of what Kissinger (who also met with Trump repeatedly) and Nixon promised the Chinese way back in 1971.

(sidenote: Ni hao. Smart people that have come to a similar conclusion should also remember that the entire time, the PBOC was buying every ounce of gold and silver they could get their hands on. Seems the rational conclusion would be that the new vaporware currencies will be declared metals backed, at least in part. Xiexie)

--------


(eta: I just noticed that the definition of "vaporware" has apparently morphed over the years. Vaporware used to mean installed software that disappeared/uninstalled itself after a defined period of time, unless certain terms were met, such as paying for a license to continue using it. I guess I'm out of the software nomenclature loop these days. The current definition is different. When I said vaporware currency I mean currency that has an expiration date, which is exactly what the soon-to-be-unveiled CBDCs reportedly will be.)

 

[enhanced_deficit]

I always thought it a ridiculous narrative that the Trump administration was constantly meeting with PRC operatives for the better part of 3 years over a "trade deal and some tariffs". As if it takes years of close cooperation in DC and Beijing meetings to agree to sell them soybeans and import their gadgets, which was already happening on a large scale any way. Anyone who believed that story is a moron. ...

Trade deficit widens amid Trump tariff war
upi.com/Top_News/US/2018...4601536152355/

Why Trump no longer talks about the trade deficit with China
President has shifted his language after failing to achieve a core 2016 campaign promise
Financial Times 10/2020
ft.com/content/081e6d25-...a-2765a66f0052

Republicans blasting China forget that the GOP enabled Beijing's rise
BY MARIK VON RENNENKAMPFF, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 05/11/20

I dunno, news/views like these can end up reinforcing notions like GOP being "pawty of small minds".

H/T other forum guests.

 

[Firestarter]

Perhaps the "trade" spoken of was finalizing the "trading" of China's financing the government deficit by purchasing bonds, which was then used to finance military conquest of the areas needed for the Belt and Road, in exchange for the insiders getting stupid rich and China not blowing up the dollar by dumping those bonds onto the open market.

Or maybe they plan to flood China with Afghan heroin?

It's not like that hasn't been done before...

 

[devil21]

Or maybe they plan to flood China with Afghan heroin?

It's not like that hasn't been done before...

 

[Swordsmyth]

I love it.
When the trolls can no longer deny that Trump did a good thing they try to spin that thing as bad.

Maybe the President who stood up to China is actually working for them and the good thing was to help China, or maybe it is a sneaky way to attack China.
Either way it MUST be bad. (Since both helping and hurting China are deemed bad it seems it is the existence of America that is being objected to)


Funny, but most real Americans see ending the war as a good thing whether it helps or hurts China because it is good for America.