Afghanistan

mrussel1

Ledbetterman10 said:

Good ole CNN. It's a friendly "death to America" chant, guys. 

https://twitter.com/nuffsaidny/status/1427285034801713160?s=20

Brings back memories of this...



As for the reporter, Chelsea Ward (who I must say, is pretty brave to be reporting from there), here's a picture of her reporting the day before the Taliban takeover, versus the day of the takeover. Speaks volumes of what's likely ahead for Afghan women. Even though the operation (westernizing Afghanistan) was a failure, at least those women enjoyed a modicum of human rights during the past 20 years. That's going to end. Pretty sad. 

This is an edited clip that has been passed around right wing sites.  Even Hot Air, a right wing website defended her saying this was manipulation.  Please read this. https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/08/16/cnn-reporter-in-kabul-these-taliban-fighters-are-chanting-death-to-america-but-they-seem-friendly-n409181

mrussel1

Watch the full segment below and you’ll see that she’s not whitewashing the Taliban. She makes a point of showing how one group of them forced her to “stand aside” because she’s female. She tells the anchors that fewer women are on the streets of Kabul today and that those who are out and about are wearing burqas, obvious evidence of fear of the new government. She’s unsparing about the chaos unleashed by Biden’s terrible withdrawal plans too, noting that there’s no plan in place to evacuate American allies trapped in the city and that U.S. troops are barely able to keep order at the airport. Even her line about the Taliban seeming “friendly” while they chant “death to America” is qualified by her noting that it’s “bizarre.”

Which it is. She’s not making up the “friendly” bit. You can see for yourself on the footage that they’re tolerating her presence and willing to give interviews. Maybe it’s giddiness at their moment of triumph or maybe they view her and her camera as a useful conduit to address American audiences, but they’re not overtly hostile to her. The fact that she’s able to report from the street — for now — without being threatened is proof enough.

Ledbetterman10

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

mrussel1

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

She said “it’s bizarre”.  So I don’t understand why you’re taking a shot at CNN. No offense, but it looks like you got manipulated by right wing Twitter.

Btw, my understanding is that Death to America isn’t literal in the Middle East.  It would be the equivalent of us chanting Down with the Soviet Union.  That didn’t mean we wanted to murder every Russian.

HughFreakingDillon

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

mrussel1

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

HughFreakingDillon

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

Ledbetterman10

mrussel1 said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

She said “it’s bizarre”.  So I don’t understand why you’re taking a shot at CNN. No offense, but it looks like you got manipulated by right wing Twitter.

Btw, my understanding is that Death to America isn’t literal in the Middle East.  It would be the equivalent of us chanting Down with the Soviet Union.  That didn’t mean we wanted to murder every Russian.

Oh please with the right-wing Twitter manipulation bullshit. On Twitter, I saw “death to America” trending, clicked the trend, and the first thing I saw was the chant and her response. And yes, it reminded me of the “fiery but peaceful protest. But not in a political way, though I think that’s how you’re taking it. I do think that that the “fiery but peaceful” thing is political and has an agenda, like “We’re covering for rioters.” But here, no. I’m not like “See? CNN are praising the terrorists! They’re friendly she said!” No. Just as when I see a guy standing in front of a “fiery but peaceful protest” graphic, when I hear a death chant and someone says “they’re friendly,” I laugh at the absurdity.

mrussel1

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

mrussel1

Ledbetterman10 said:

mrussel1 said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

She said “it’s bizarre”.  So I don’t understand why you’re taking a shot at CNN. No offense, but it looks like you got manipulated by right wing Twitter.

Btw, my understanding is that Death to America isn’t literal in the Middle East.  It would be the equivalent of us chanting Down with the Soviet Union.  That didn’t mean we wanted to murder every Russian.

Oh please with the right-wing Twitter manipulation bullshit. On Twitter, I saw “death to America” trending, clicked the trend, and the first thing I saw was the chant and her response. And yes, it reminded me of the “fiery but peaceful protest. But not in a political way, though I think that’s how you’re taking it. I do think that that the “fiery but peaceful” thing is political and has an agenda, like “We’re covering for rioters.” But here, no. I’m not like “See? CNN are praising the terrorists! They’re friendly she said!” No. Just as when I see a guy standing in front of a “fiery but peaceful protest” graphic, when I hear a death chant and someone says “they’re friendly,” I laugh at the absurdity.

So posting it, posting the riots from the summer ans saying “good ole cnn” was you NOT drawing comparisons?  I must have imagined it.

Bentleyspop

WhatYouTaughtMe said:

lindamarie73 said:

I wonder if the Taliban is addressing people by thier proper pronouns??  Some of y’all amaze me still defending the mush brain in office now…. But ya know…Merica…..

Speaking of pronouns, maybe you could help me out here. You used to post here as muskydan, got banned and now post as Lindamarie73, which pronoun is the proper one? Should I call you sir or ma'am? Did you transition? Or is it the Wifey's account? 

Edit- I don't think sir and ma'am are technically pronouns, but I think you get the point. 

Whoa "she's" muskydan the racist homophobic xenophobic cop from Chicago?

https://twitter.com/parkerbutler10/status/1427295338382118918?s=19

mickeyrat

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

arrogance  on our part.

HughFreakingDillon

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

mrussel1

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

The point I was making is why would the soldier know he was going to die if they had equal or superior numbers to the Taliban? And I don’t think there was a real battle either.  The military and political leaders literally just abdicated without a fight.  The article about the bribes was in the post.  I’ll see if nbc reposted it.

mrussel1

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

No paywall, reprinted from the post. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/aug/16/bribery-detailed-in-afghans-fall/

Ledbetterman10

mrussel1 said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

mrussel1 said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

She said “it’s bizarre”.  So I don’t understand why you’re taking a shot at CNN. No offense, but it looks like you got manipulated by right wing Twitter.

Btw, my understanding is that Death to America isn’t literal in the Middle East.  It would be the equivalent of us chanting Down with the Soviet Union.  That didn’t mean we wanted to murder every Russian.

Oh please with the right-wing Twitter manipulation bullshit. On Twitter, I saw “death to America” trending, clicked the trend, and the first thing I saw was the chant and her response. And yes, it reminded me of the “fiery but peaceful protest. But not in a political way, though I think that’s how you’re taking it. I do think that that the “fiery but peaceful” thing is political and has an agenda, like “We’re covering for rioters.” But here, no. I’m not like “See? CNN are praising the terrorists! They’re friendly she said!” No. Just as when I see a guy standing in front of a “fiery but peaceful protest” graphic, when I hear a death chant and someone says “they’re friendly,” I laugh at the absurdity.

So posting it, posting the riots from the summer ans saying “good ole cnn” was you NOT drawing comparisons?  I must have imagined it.

More like “another dumb quote/headline” from CNN. “Cuomo with the giant cotton swab” for his brother sort of stuff. 

HughFreakingDillon

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

The point I was making is why would the soldier know he was going to die if they had equal or superior numbers to the Taliban? And I don’t think there was a real battle either.  The military and political leaders literally just abdicated without a fight.  The article about the bribes was in the post.  I’ll see if nbc reposted it.

because of sub-par training, not numbers, which I specifically bolded from Ledbetterman's post, and also commented myself, when I responded to him. 

mcgruff10

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

The point I was making is why would the soldier know he was going to die if they had equal or superior numbers to the Taliban? And I don’t think there was a real battle either.  The military and political leaders literally just abdicated without a fight.  The article about the bribes was in the post.  I’ll see if nbc reposted it.

because of sub-par training, not numbers, which I specifically bolded from Ledbetterman's post, and also commented myself, when I responded to him. 

How do you figure it was sub-par training?  From what I've read the downfall seems to be from corruption and a lack of fight from the Afghans as soon as Trump made the deal with the Taliban. 

mrussel1

mcgruff10 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

The point I was making is why would the soldier know he was going to die if they had equal or superior numbers to the Taliban? And I don’t think there was a real battle either.  The military and political leaders literally just abdicated without a fight.  The article about the bribes was in the post.  I’ll see if nbc reposted it.

because of sub-par training, not numbers, which I specifically bolded from Ledbetterman's post, and also commented myself, when I responded to him. 

How do you figure it was sub-par training?  From what I've read the downfall seems to be from corruption and a lack of fight from the Afghans as soon as Trump made the deal with the Taliban. 

Yes,  all the evidence points towards this,  not a training issue. The same people trained these soldiers as our soldiers.  

mcgruff10

mrussel1 said:

mcgruff10 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mrussel1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Yeah I get it. In a place where you can get beheaded, being allowed to do your job without incident is friendly. But it’s still funny rhetoric when there’s a death chant going on. It’s like the “die” chant in Creeping Death and James Hetfield yelling “Come on friends!” during it. 

She’ll be fine (hopefully), but it sucks for the women and girls that actually live there. I wonder who’s really to blame for the Afghan military’s failure. Biden was putting blame on them today, understandably, but I wonder how good of a job our military (military leaders and strategists, not soldiers) did in training them. 

this was something my wife asked me after watching the biden speech. it's a good question. i mean, if they were confident in their training, why turn tail and run?

If they wanted to fight but they were poorly trained they would have fought,  poorly.  They didn't.  As it stands,  you can now get an American rifle cheap. Never shot,  dropped once.  

This is an intelligence failure. 

I don't think it's that simple. if you know you are going to die, you generally don't fight. if you are confident you can win and survive, you do. I don't think it comes down to simple "want" or "don't want". 

There's nothing I saw that said the Taliban greatly outnumbered or out gunned the military.  What I read in the Post is that there were massive bribes from the leaders on down to melt away.  That's an intelligence failure.  Was there even one battle??

your first sentence is confusing, since I never said anything about numbers. 

I hadn't read about the bribes. Interesting. 

Not that I'm aware of.  

The point I was making is why would the soldier know he was going to die if they had equal or superior numbers to the Taliban? And I don’t think there was a real battle either.  The military and political leaders literally just abdicated without a fight.  The article about the bribes was in the post.  I’ll see if nbc reposted it.

because of sub-par training, not numbers, which I specifically bolded from Ledbetterman's post, and also commented myself, when I responded to him. 

How do you figure it was sub-par training?  From what I've read the downfall seems to be from corruption and a lack of fight from the Afghans as soon as Trump made the deal with the Taliban. 

Yes,  all the evidence points towards this,  not a training issue. The same people trained these soldiers as our soldiers.  

It's crazy. I'm also reading that the resupply lines were abysmal once America left, soldiers had no food and barely any ammo.  I mean you had twenty years to figure out logistics.  How the hell you supposed to fight the Taliban on no food or ammo?