I've just read some comments by a US bloger, Don Surber, who laughs at the pigheaded suggestion that the 20-year war in Afghanistan "wasn’t entirely ill-advised".

The Taliban are back, better armed, better equipped, and more feared than they were when they were removed in 2001.

They were out of power for 20 years? Big deal! So was Mao. Mandela was locked up for 20 years. 20 years is nothing. It is "four U.S. presidencies". The Taliban knew that if they waited long enough, Americans would "elect an idiot as president who (would) give the store away."

The withdrawal from Afghanistan was inevitable, and it should have been part of the invasion plan. A careful person figures out how to exit a place before he enters. Instead, America "spent trillions of dollars — an estimated $2.3 trillion or roughly $100 billion a year — on staying there forever".

Trump was for evacuating Americans and Afghans who helped them first. Then equipment. Only then would he withdraw troops, making sure to destroy on the way out all the military bases and equipment.

Biden’s plan was to withdraw our troops and play it by ear from there.

The best way to answer Alon Meirs question about "how could Biden make such a mess of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan", is by answering his question, with the question, "how could almost 50% of US voters be stupid enough to elect a man with advanced Alzheimer's disease into the Presidency of the USA?"

His claim that democracy can not be imposed by force is only partially correct. It worked just fine in Japan, Germany, and Italy. But as a racist I would opine that the populations of those three countries have a much higher collective IQ than those from populations of certain third world populations, who would never have risen above the stone age without the help of an advanced culture, or who have been breeding with their cousins for far too long.

Anyone who says that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires does not know their history. One empire which won in Afghanistan and stayed is the Arab Islamic empire. They did it the Muslim way. Keeeel all the men and old people, give the women and girls to your warriors as the spoils of war, and make the kids Muslims. As an excellent blueprint for imperial expansion, Islam has much to recommend it.

Now if you are wondering why the Taliban is not gleefully taking the 15,000 Americans still in Afghanistan hostage, that is simple. They are sheet scared of what the Americans can and would do to them is they did. If there is one thing the Talibs have learned in twenty years, it is that the yanks make a very bad enemy. Upsetting the yanks is never good for your health.

To summarise, the Talibs are Pashtu and so far as I can see, they now have control of the Pashtu areas of Afghanistan. The Northern alliance of Kazaks, Uzbeks and sundry other tribes is still in place and they are armed to the teeth with US weapons. And they can call on US air support from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where the US now has air bases. So the fun is not over yet.

LEGO wrote :"And they can call on US air support from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where the US now has air bases."

Actually they don't. The US was pushed out in 2014 and don't maintain any presence to speak off in those places. (Who was president in 2014?)

Apparently, in the recent meeting between them, Biden asked Putin for permission to re-establish some US presence in the central Asian nations. Putin said "no".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9909719/Putin-REJECTED-Bidens-request-bases-countries-surrounding-Afghanistan.html

Can you imagine Trump asking for permission?

Whatever the Russians have on Joe/Hunter is a doozy.

Allowing a draft-dodging poser to decide how to conduct a war and to follow that with one showing signs of early dementia to call the shots.

After this what ally is going to trust US assurances again?

WE need to develop complete self-reliance and if the fools on the hill don't realise that has to mean the introduction of home-grown nuclear weapons and nuclear power, powering new industries.

Then forget about freedom forever. It being just a question of time before our erstwhile leaders go cap in hand to China to see what they can sell or give away to enhance their personal wealth and social position in a nation that would fold in minutes! If it were asked to defend itself from the might of China, on its own!

But only after the cream of our nation's young people paid the ultimate price (in vain) for the rank ineptitude of "big talk" warrior pollies who never did a day's military duty nor sacrificed anything for the nation. All they know is the false assurances of appeasement! And we all know how that went last time, hey?
Alan B.

The Taliban practice a most extreme form of Islam not seen anywhere else in the Islamic world! Allies like the Kurd are also Muslim and it was mostly the fierce freedom fighting kurd who fought elchida to a standstill and out of the middle east! At huge human cost!

Had we had the balls to nuke the Taliban's northern stronghold in Pakistan when they wintered there. the situation in Afghanistan would have been very different today! Likewise, the rest of the Muslim world!

To say the various blundering, dithering "commanders in chief" were too timid, too weak, too stupid, or too inept would have to be massively understating what went wrong! The Muslim world respects strength! And what we've shown them almost always, was a clean pair of cowardly heels when it got a little lukewarm, for the big-noting Yanks!
Alan B.

Dear Alan.B,

Trump agreeing last year to the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners as a price of starting negotiations was hardly going to inspire confidence with locals.

If I were and ordinary Afghan soldier who had fought to capture these fighters only to see Trump hand them back I would have had a pretty good sense of where this was going to end up.