Some Context On The Collapse In Afghanistan

Adam Silverman provides a reality check and some context as to the precipitous collapse of Afghan security forces, reality and context you won't get from the clickbait, Republican- wired media:

...[A] number of the commanders in the ANDSF, both military and police, were either selling everything they could to the Taliban to pay their Soldiers and police officers who were not actually being paid, were embezzling the money, and/or took a payout from the Taliban not to fight.

We have four documentable, verifiable reasons for why the Taliban were able to so quickly and easily retake Afghanistan and not a single one of them was the result of something the Biden administration did.

1. The Trump administration negotiated the US’s abject surrender to the Taliban
2. Ghani issued a stand down order to the ANDSF before fleeing Afghanistan to save his own hide
3. We paid to train, equip, and sustain a significant number of Afghan military and police personnel that didn’t exist anywhere except on the payroll
4. Because Ghani’s government wasn’t paying its soldiers or police, or because its senior military and police leadership were stealing the funding, some Afghan military and police leaders and personnel cut deals with the Taliban not to fight in exchange for money

I think it is important to stipulate that reasons 3 and 4 – the no shows on the payroll and the misappropriation of salaries – began when George W Bush was president and then continued until last week when we began the final withdrawal.

It is also important to recognize that things did not go smoothly last week through this past Monday. It is also important to recognize that things are going smoothly now.

Silverman provides more detail and documentation at the link.

In his interview with ABC News yesterday, President Biden said he didn't know how withdrawal from Afghanistan (negotiated by the Trump Assministration) could have happened without chaos ensuing.  Given the facts Silverman and others present, neither do we.  What matters now is staying put until we get the people out that need to get out, a process that, as Silverman notes, is going more smoothly now but needs the Administration's focus and top priority.

As an aside, the Administration and Democrats shouldn't stop playing the "blame game" (let's call it a "reality check," though) as long as the puerile media and their Republican talking- point- providers continue to do so without any context or memory beyond the past 30 days.  These folks are also happy to use Democrats critiquing the withdrawal chaos as their shield to attack Biden ("see, it's bipartisan!"). Rather than giving them this permission slip, maybe those Dems should just sit down and refrain from piling on until we know more facts and we finish the evacuations.