Author Topic: Belly up, fired, and retired  (Read 380446 times)

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1170 on: August 16, 2021, 09:37:38 am »
Spoken like a true bassist

Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1171 on: August 16, 2021, 02:48:21 pm »
Afghanistan.

I know we had to just get out, but seems like we could have just negotiated a power transfer with the Taliban instead of this

Do we think it's going to be a blood bath for sympathizers
slack

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1172 on: August 16, 2021, 03:01:21 pm »
Trump did negotiate.


This is it.


I don’t think people quite understand that this is what it looks like when you say you are done somewhere particularly in Afghanistan with these savages when they had already taken over a lot of the country. Nobody in the ex Afghani government was going to stand up and fight the Taliban because they knew there was no way they could stand up to them without the assurance of American support.

This is the natural consequence of decades of failed policy. Unfortunately Biden is left holding the bag and the real responsible parties- the complicit US media, the former generals who insisted on staying, the neocons that came up with these wars, the Republican politicians etc  just sit around pointing angrily at Biden and blaming him for turning out the light.

The naïveté and ignorance of the American people off the charts as usual: “Hey I was happy to ignore this “war” for ten years and now all of a sudden I am tuning in and WTF!!”

And all of a sudden Republicans care about our allies within Afghanistan? Where was this thinking when Trump gave carte Blanche to the Turks to do their worst with the Kurds?

It’s maddening

War is ugly… losing even if it was unwinnable and we weren’t even trying to win is uglier

Think of the money we spent there the past ten years just to prevent these images! Because we were accomplishing nothing!  Someone had to man up. This President did
« Last Edit: August 16, 2021, 03:07:31 pm by Starsky »

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1173 on: August 16, 2021, 03:46:17 pm »

Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1174 on: August 16, 2021, 04:04:22 pm »
The naïveté and ignorance of the American people off the charts as usual: “Hey I was happy to ignore this “war” for ten years and now all of a sudden I am tuning in and WTF!!”
can confirm

although I have been paying attention, just didn't have an inkling of a better way to do it
Kinda wish we could have made a collation of countries in the region interested in helping, but that wasn't going to happen

Quote

 Where was this thinking when Trump gave carte Blanche to the Turks to do their worst with the Kurds?
that was fucked up in Syria and I know Trump didn't give two shits
didn't help him, so why should he care
slack

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1175 on: August 16, 2021, 04:14:06 pm »
Well, I didn’t really mean you….


Situation sucks for sure


But I don’t accept that we owe every Afghani a better life in perpetuity

We pumped in a hell of a lot of $, blood and capital…

It was a mistake but if it hadn’t been for us the taliban would have remained in power the past 20 years (not that the 2002-2021 government was great…)


Anytime any American tells you we owe Afghani translators or the Afghani people tell them to take a walk around West Baltimore… those are the people we owe
« Last Edit: August 16, 2021, 04:22:28 pm by Starsky »

Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1176 on: August 16, 2021, 05:26:42 pm »
Blame for Afghanistan:

GWBush: 80%
Obama: 17%
Trump: 2%
Biden: 1%
LVMH

sweetcell

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1177 on: August 16, 2021, 05:36:31 pm »
Anytime any American tells you we owe Afghani translators or the Afghani people tell them to take a walk around West Baltimore… those are the people we owe

imma fight you on that one.  the afghani people in general - sure, we don't owe them much.  but the translators who put their lives on the line to help the US?  damn straight we owe them.  they put their lives on the line, and their lives are currently on the line.  just because the US didn't "win" (whatever the hell that would have looked like) doesn't mean we get to abandon our direct allies. 
<sig>

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1178 on: August 16, 2021, 05:47:58 pm »
We owe Afghani translators more than Americans in Baltimore?


Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit and go walk around West Baltimore before talking any further






Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1179 on: August 16, 2021, 05:50:18 pm »
We owe Afghani translators more than Americans in Baltimore?


Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit and go walk around West Baltimore before talking any further
Perhaps we can owe more than one group of people something simultaneously. Sweets did not say “we owe afghani translators MORE than we owe our own citizens.” This is idea that there’s some highly finite amount of kindness we have to dole out and anything we give to group A is good off the table of group B is a fallacy.
LVMH

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1180 on: August 16, 2021, 05:56:21 pm »
Obviously we can try to help people out of the kindness of our hearts. I hope we do.


But what we owed them we paid them: a very nice salary for one of the best jobs in Afghanistan. A privileged position.

Let’s not buy into the idea that every Afghani clinging to a plane trying to take off is an Afghani translator that put their life on the line for us!

Weren’t many trying to create a better nation for themselves?

We announced we were leaving last year? None of them made plans? They have no money saved? They thought we would fly them out first class and get them jobs? They didn’t notice the taliban taking over all over? This didn’t all happen yesterday you know?

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1181 on: August 16, 2021, 05:57:48 pm »
We owe Afghani translators more than Americans in Baltimore?


Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit and go walk around West Baltimore before talking any further
Perhaps we can owe more than one group of people something simultaneously. Sweets did not say “we owe afghani translators MORE than we owe our own citizens.” This is idea that there’s some highly finite amount of kindness we have to dole out and anything we give to group A is good off the table of group B is a fallacy.


When we manage to take care of Baltimore let’s talk…cause it’s something we have not been able to do

We do not have infinite resources partly because of all the money we wasted in Afghanistan

Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1182 on: August 16, 2021, 05:58:39 pm »
We announced we were leaving last year? None of them made plans? They have no money saved? They thought we would fly them out first class and get them jobs? They didn’t notice the taliban taking over all over? This didn’t all happen yesterday you know?
OK, fine, you’ve convinced me: your visa application to Julian’s America is approved.
LVMH

Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1183 on: August 16, 2021, 06:05:43 pm »


This reminds me of people on Facebook today trying to raise money for affected pets in Afghanistan… I couldn’t believe it








Starsky

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Re: Belly up, fired, and retired
« Reply #1184 on: August 16, 2021, 06:08:54 pm »
My guess is many translators…the ones we found to do the best job or who established particularly close relationships with American counterparts… have been flown out. They will be useful to our country.