John Bingham wrote:

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:35 am We could have the spectacle of a US trained Black Hawk Helicopter pilot flying missions for the Taliban against it's warlord enemies.

I'd be surprised if they even get one off the ground, and there is no way they will be able to maintain them. I'd be more bothered that they'll sell them to China or Russia who can then steal the technology.

Big Daikon wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:53 pm I honestly think we are watching the decline of the US in real-time. Speaking both domestically and globally. From the low-grade civil war we saw last year to the withdrawal from Afghanistan right now, it is hard to take the US seriously.

Granted I am an American who spent his first 30 years living there, so I have mixed feelings.

If you want nightmares, keep this on your nightstand:

xandreu wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 3:09 pm I'm coming to the conclusion that there must be something else going on behind the scenes to account for the way this is all unfolding. Even if Biden is a deranged pensioner, he doesn't run the show alone. He has many top advisors and military top brass who would be hugely influential in the decision making and advising him every step of the way.

Whether you like the USA or not, support their foreign policies or not, I don't think anyone could have ever imagined that they would retreat from Afghanistan in this way. It's just not the way the USA do things. I have no experience in this field whatsoever, but even I could have come up with a better withdrawal plan than that - 1 - Evacuate all those eligible to be evacuated. 2- Remove all armoury and weaponry. 3- Destroy your bases. 4 - Evacuate the military. I know I make it sound easier than it probably is, but as a rough plan, that's how most of us would have imagined it would have gone. The US seems to simply want to withdraw as fast as possible, with little to no regard for the billions of dollars of weaponry left behind, and seemingly no dialogue whatsoever with the allied forces that have been there supporting them for the past 20 years.

I keep up with what's going through UK media and there is a lot of anger in the UK right now against the US, with many saying that this should be the last time we blindly follow the US into military action - none of the supporting allied forces can stay in Afghanistan without the support of the US military. It would be a suicide mission. Boris Johnson has been more openly critical of a US president lately than any prime minister I can remember. The US is not only turning its back on Afghanistan, it's turning its back on some of its closest allies. And it just doesn't seem to care.

Which brings me back to why I think there must be something else going on behind the scenes. Does the Taiban have some kind of hold over the US? Has something happened whereby they now pose such a threat that the only choice is to bow down to the them? Do they have photos of Joe Biden in compromising positions with underage girls? Who knows? But there simply must be more to the story than we're being fed.

It just doesn't make sense otherwise.

I honestly think we are watching the decline of the US in real-time. Speaking both domestically and globally. From the low-grade civil war we saw last year to the withdrawal from Afghanistan right now, it is hard to take the US seriously.