Biden to speak as chaos erupts at Kabul airport, Afghans cling to outside of US military plane

[enhanced_deficit]

There may not have been any fighting in Kabul so far but at the airport lot of chaos including report of deadly stowaways fall from US military plane:

Video shows Afghans clinging to outside of US military plane as it takes off
Aug 16, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wFzZLQVHo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XoV5gV2gUU


Kabul evacuations stall amid airport chaos, U.S. troops fired in the air to deter people

Reuters

• Chaotic scenes as diplomats, Afghans flee to airport
• U.S., allies scramble to evacuate their citizens
• Islamist group seeks to project more moderate image
• President Ghani says he left to avoid bloodshed

KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the U.S. military to suspend evacuations as the United States came under mounting criticism at home over its pullout.
Crowds converged on the airport seeking to escape, including some clinging to a U.S. military transport plane as it taxied on the runway, according to footage posted by a media company.

U.S. troops fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way on to a military flight evacuating U.S diplomats and embassy staff, a U.S. official said.

Five people were reported killed in chaos at the airport on Monday. A witness said it was unclear if they had been shot or killed in a stampede. A U.S. official told Reuters two gunmen had been killed by U.S. forces there over the past 24 hours.

reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/talibans-rapid-advance-across-afghanistan-2021-08-10/

 

[luctor-et-emergo]

Yeah horrible. How many lives lost ? How many people traumatised for life? How many lives destroyed in one way or another. How much money spent? A few weeks and it's all gone. I feel really sad. For everyone who has suffered in any kind of way for this. It is unfortunate that the futility of the past 20 years is blemishing the efforts and saccrifice of those involved to try and do the most good as they could... Very very unfortunate.

 

[Snowball]

Yeah horrible. How many lives lost ? How many people traumatised for life? How many lives destroyed in one way or another. How much money spent? A few weeks and it's all gone. I feel really sad. For everyone who has suffered in any kind of way for this. It is unfortunate that the futility of the past 20 years is blemishing the efforts and saccrifice of those involved to try and do the most good as they could... Very very unfortunate.

What is the alternative? Honor their sacrifice by sacrificing MORE ?

Sometimes there just isn't a good way to leave. You just leave anyway.

 

[oyarde]

Maybe biden can reassure ED that exit from Kabul airport will be nice.

 

[Sammy]

The only good thing about the Taliban is that they is going to get rid of the Pedos.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

duplicate

 

[enhanced_deficit]

It's never too early to correct a mistake... leaving was the right decision after all other viable options had been exhausted.

But Blinken Biden team will have some explaining to do on key mysteries/questions:

Q. 1 :
How did their intel/estimates got so wrong? Why 300,000 strong Aghan forces trained for 20 years costing taxpayers $$$ Billions vanished instatnty into thin air?

Quote:
Proving the US analysis wrong that Taliban will take at least 90 days to capture Kabul, the group reached the city today itself, after capturing most of the provincial capitals in most bloodless operations. The Afghan forces surrendered to them without fight, and either fled or joined them. After the group surrounded Kabul today, President Ghani, vice President Amrullah Saleh and other senior ministers and officials fled the country this evening. Following their departure, the Taliban ordered its fighters to enter the city to ‘prevent looting’, as the police and security forces in the city also have fled.

Speed of Taliban Advance Surprises Biden Administration, Dismays U.S. Allies
Aug. 11, 2021
U.S. officials said they didn’t expect the takeover of any provincial capital until fall at the earliest.
The latest U.S. intelligence assessment said Kabul could fall to militants in as soon as a month


Q. 2:
Can they confirm that China's revenge "crusade" to punish Ghani gov is behind lightening fast fall of Kabul? Was Biden-Blinken team aware of such a plan and blessed/supported it?

Quote:
Also, if this reporting gets confirmed, Biden team seems to have aligned with China's stance (of punishing Afghan Ghani gov after Belt n Road bus terror attack killed 9 Chinese engineers in July, Chinese gov linked paper had called for 'crusade' to punish those responsible). Very high ranking Aug 2 China-Taliban meeting now appears to be a precursor of what was to come.

"Beyond clear public signals from Beijing that it was cozying up to the Taliban, U.S. News and World Report said on Thursday it had learned that “China is prepared to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan" and that “new Chinese military and intelligence assessments of the realities on the ground in Afghanistan have prompted leaders in the Chinese Communist Party to prepare to formalize their relationship with the insurgent network.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked about the Taliban-China meetings in early August, and he also said the interests of the U.S. and China were aligned and that the U.S. welcomed China’s role. "


Also h/t Pauls Revere.


Even Foxnews, that was part of the original fakenews campaign to cultivate public opinion and was same page as Biden on starting these wars, has turned on Biden.

Foxnews Media
6 hours ago

Mainstream media crushes Biden for ‘flat-footed,’ ‘humiliating’ betrayal of Afghans as Taliban takes control

Even liberal networks CNN and MSNBC are scolding Biden

How Not to Repair a Broken Pot – Foreign Policy

 

[Snowball]

The "government" said what it had to say, to make the U.S. leave. Just last week the U.S. bombed more civilians. Children.
You think the Afghanis want more bombs? They've had ENOUGH BOMBS. The U.S. finally left, they are celebrating, and don't believe
all the statements and crocodile tears of neocons and those who have ulterior political motives.

For the first time in 20 years there won't be ONE MORE AMERICAN SOLDIER who died for naught in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Not ONE more brain-damaged, body burned, legless and eyeless case at Walter Reed. Biden deserves the thanks, nobody else.
We don't even know if Trump would have left. By the comments he's made and those of his circle, PROBABLY NOT!

 

[Anti Federalist]

The only good thing about the Taliban is that they is going to get rid of the Pedos.

Maybe, just maybe, The Great Satan should not have been flying fagg flags all over the US embassy in Kabal.

Think it might have given the locals that extra surge of "fuck no" to the Occupiers that it took for them to take the country in a week.

 

[TheTexan]

Those Afghans have a good grip. They hung on for a lot longer than I would have guessed

 

[ClaytonB]

The clinging Afghans thing has all the markers of fake news. Not saying I couldn't be convinced, but I don't believe it happened based on the available evidence and the strategic convenience of such a story.

 

[TheTexan]

The clinging Afghans thing has all the markers of fake news. Not saying I couldn't be convinced, but I don't believe it happened based on the available evidence and the strategic convenience of such a story.

I think you can hear the splat in the video.

 

[CaptUSA]

Every time I see a big media event that was triggered by a totally avoidable, yet scheduled, government action, I wonder what they wanted to get off the news channels.

I have to suspect the timing of this is covid/infrastructure package/fed action-related.

Maybe I'm jaded.
Maybe too many parents are pushing back against schools.
Maybe this infrastructure/reconciliation package was faltering and some politicians needed a nudge.
Maybe the Fed is poised to run a clearing of some sort.

Nah, I'm probably just jaded.

Glad some of our troops are coming home - hope it's a trend that continues. Doubt that will ever be the case, in reality.

 

[ClaytonB]

I think you can hear the splat in the video.

Welcome to the future... (note: these guys do this out of their basement with common PC equipment)...

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Welcome to the future... (note: these guys do this out of their basement with common PC equipment)...

He does amazing Arnold impression too, one of the best impressionists.