Military Veterans and Patriots

Tag: Afghanistan

  • It Didn’t Have To Be This Way

    It Didn’t Have To Be This Way

    I’m going to say this up front. The US and NATO did not need to be in Afghanistan after mid 2003. I have said that repeatedly over the intervening years. I feel that I needed to start with that disclaimer before I get into why It Didn’t Have To Be This Way.

    With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s start with the obvious. The US backed Afghan government never stood a chance. Why? you might ask, and rightly so. After all, the US has dumped billions into that money pit with little to show for it.

    Nation building requires a sense of purpose that frankly the US hasn’t had since WWII. The last truly successful effort at nation building the US undertook was in South Korea after the partition of the peninsula at the end of WWII. Why was that successful? Easy, the US installed a strongman in Syngman Rhee who did what was required of him to rule that country effectively.

    Let’s be clear, that type of thing was never going to happen in Afghanistan, which is less of a country and more of a collection of tribes that share a language. Any US backed government was going to be looked at with suspicion and hostility by a large portion of the population. Don’t believe that? Just look at what the Soviets, who were far, far less concerned with public perception and human rights than we are, accopmplished in the 9 years they were in Afghanistan. Absolutely nothing.

    Now, how did the US get the timeline so wrong? There are reports circulating that they didn’t in fact get it wrong. Any intel that ran contrary to what the Hologram and his handlers wanted to believe was simply ignored. Just last week a State Department cable warning of the imminent collapse of the ANSDF and the government came to light. The cable was sent in June and file-drawered. Mark Milley, a man I used to have a fair amount of respect for, said there was a range of estimates of the fall of the Afghan government, ranging from a year or more on the long side to a rapid collapse like we witnessed. You will note that there was no estimate that showed anything but collapse.

    Tom Jocelyn and Bill Roggio run a website called the Long War Journal. They’ve been predicting the rapid collapse of the Afghan government for months. I recommend you check out the site, they do great work with open source intelligence on both Afghanistan and Iraq. If two reporters could accurately predict what happened, why couldn’t the US intelligence services do it?

    There are a couple of truly disturbing stories kicking around regarding the tally ban. First up is the fact that during negotiations in Doha Qatar, the fall of afghanistan was brought up. The taliban offered to let the US secure Kabul until the evac was completed. Of course the hologram declined the offer. He probably didn’t want the optics of sending in a divisions worth of troops to secure the city. Imagine how different things would be if he had taken that offer.

    Second is the list thing. Seems the taliban was given a list of names of people that were to be allowed through to the airport. I don’t know what idiot approved that idea, but whoever it was needs to be prosecuted. Nothing like providing a list of potential hostages/enemies/targets to the taliban.


    Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
    Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming
    Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah
    Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
    Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California
    Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
    Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
    Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
    Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri
    Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
    Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio
    Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee

    Remember those names. Their deaths are a direct result of the incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan. And It Didn’t Have To Be This Way. . .

  • Kash’s Corner: We Knew This Would Happen in Afghanistan,…

    Kash’s Corner: We Knew This Would Happen in Afghanistan,…

    Kash’s Corner: We Knew This Would Happen in Afghanistan, and We Had a Strategy to Prevent It

    “It’s not like we deleted all that intelligence when we transitioned,” says Kash Patel, who previously served as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

    “Our assessment was that if we surrendered in Afghanistan—that is, if we just up and left—the Taliban would take over almost immediately,” Patel says.

    In the premiere of Season 2 of Kash’s Corner, Patel unveils, in detail, the original conditions-based withdrawal strategy that he was tasked with implementing.

    “The fact that we have [10,000] to 15,000 American citizens still scattered throughout the country, leaves open the fact that Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS are going to kidnap American citizens and hold them hostage,” Patel says. Direct Link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/kashs-corner-we-knew-this-would-happen-in-afghanistan-and-we-had-a-strategy-to-prevent-it_3968920.html?utm_source=pushengage

    ***************************************************************************************************************************

    Excerpts: Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR) established in October 2020 – (The National Pulse & RedState News)

    Specifically, I am referring to the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR) established in October 2020 under the Trump Administration which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas. Reports from The National Pulse indicate that the State Department under your watch terminated this critically important bureau just months before the Afghanistan withdrawal and the need to evacuate thousands of Americans.

    Gosar added:

    Cancelling the CCR  as the Biden Administration was preparing for the Afghanistan withdrawal is baffling and raises serious questions about how prepared the Administration was to complete this final step in Afghanistan. Reports also indicate that the decision to pause the program go back as far as February, which means this decision would have also jeopardized the withdrawal plan committed to under the Trump Administration. Source: August 28, 2021 https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/rep-gosar-demands-answers-from-state-dept-following-national-pulse-afghan-exfiltration-expose/

    Now, a bombshell revelation has come forth showing that Biden canceled the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau prior to the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. This was a Trump-era program that existed specifically to handle what we are seeing on the ground right now.

    The Biden State Department moved in June to cancel a program overseeing the protection and evacuation of American citizens stationed overseas in the case of an emergency, just as the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    The Biden State Department moved to dissolve the Trump-era crisis response program, according to an internal State Department memo and sources familiar with the matter. That memo, which was marked sensitive but unclassified and was signed by Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon, approved the “discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR),” a new State Department entity created during the Trump administration to coordinate emergency response services overseas. Source: August 18, 2021 https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/08/18/bombshell-joe-biden-disbanded-state-department-crisis-response-bureau-prior-to-taliban-takeover-n429147

    ****************************************************************************************************************************

    Report: All-volunteer team of US veterans launch daring mission in Kabul, rescue hundreds — even as American military is hamstrung

    “Our own government didn’t do this. We did what we should do, as Americans.”

    As the Biden administration has faltered in its withdrawal efforts amid the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, an all-volunteer group of former U.S. military veterans has been working tirelessly to secretly bring hundreds of Afghan elite forces and their families to safety.Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

    What are the details?

    In a featured write-up published Friday, ABC News detailed the daring mission, put on by “Task Force Pineapple,” which over the past 10 days saved the lives of roughly 630 Afghan nationals who — should they have remained trapped inside Afghanistan — would have been targeted by Taliban fighters.

    The mission reached its climax on Wednesday night when the group of volunteer veterans commenced operation “Pineapple Express” — modeled after Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad — to slowly maneuver Afghan individuals and families through Taliban checkpoints and into U.S. military command.

    The mission was underway Thursday when terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS fighters at the Kabul airport left at least 13 U.S. service members and 60 Afghans dead, with hundreds more injured. Some of the task force’s members were among the wounded. Yet in spite of the deadly assault, the group pressed on:

    Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

    The effort … reached a crescendo this week with dozens of covert movements coordinated virtually on Wednesday by more than 50 people in an encrypted chat room, which [Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann] described as a night full of dramatic scenes rivaling a “Jason Bourne” thriller unfolding every 10 minutes.

    The small groups of Afghans repeatedly encountered Taliban foot soldiers who they said beat them but never checked identity papers that might have revealed them as operators who spent two decades killing Taliban leadership.

    “Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom,” Mann, a retired Green Beret commander who led the operation, recounted.

    “This Herculean effort couldn’t have been done without the unofficial heroes inside the airfield who defied their orders to not help beyond the airport perimeter, by wading into sewage canals and pulling in these targeted people who were flashing pineapples on their phones,” he added.

    What else?

    In a move criticized by many, the Pentagon has not permitted uniformed U.S. service members to venture outside of the airport’s perimeter to rescue Americans and Afghans seeking U.S. protection. But non-uniformed individuals, including former Navy SEAL Jason Redman, have not faced those same restrictions.

    Redman, one of Task Force Pineapple’s members, spent Wednesday night shepherding Afghans he knew to safety.

    “The whole night was a roller-coaster ride,” he recalled. “People were so terrified in that chaotic environment. These people were so exhausted, I kept trying to put myself in their shoes.”

    Looking back at the effort, however, Redman’s sense of pride and accomplishment was tainted by disappointment, especially with the political leaders who allowed the situation to unravel to the point that it did only to, in his opinion, not do enough to resolve it.

    According to ABC, he expressed deep frustration “that our own government didn’t do this. We did what we should do, as Americans.” Source: Agusut 27, 2021 https://www.theblaze.com/news/volunteer-us-veterans-afghanistan-rescue-mission

  • What Is Going On?

    What Is Going On?

    *President Xiden was supposed to address the nation on the crisis in Afghanistan two hours ago. The current information is he will read the teleprompter at 4:30 PM—a full four-and-a-half hours later than originally scheduled.

    Is it because our troops have begun to leave?

    https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1430247974060367879?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1430247974060367879%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Fmattvespa%2F2021%2F08%2F24%2Fbiden-is-late-addressing-afghanistan-chaos-but-we-have-reports-that-us-troops-ar-n2594665

    I can answer his question. For the first several days all anyone talked about was saving our Afgan partners. No mention was made of US citizens.

  • It’s Worse Than We Thought: Complete List of Armaments US Is Leaving

    It’s Worse Than We Thought: Complete List of Armaments US Is Leaving

    It’s Worse Than We Thought: Complete List of Armaments US Is Leaving to Taliban and Islamist Groups — Enough to Fortify Them for Years – Secret Warehouse of US Equipment Captured?

    It’s worse than we thought.Joe Biden has supplied the Taliban terrorist organization and their Islamist accomplices with several years worth of US armaments.

    Rather than destroying the equipment before leaving the country Joe Biden decided to leave the nearly $85 billion worth of US military equipment to the Taliban.

    As The Gateway Pundit reported on Sunday — Joe Biden left 300 times more guns than those passed to the Mexican cartels in Obama’s Fast and Furious program.

    This more complete list was created with public information and help from other intelligence sources.The list does not include all the extra kinds of nonlethal equipment, everything from MRE’s, Medical Equipment, and even energy drinks.

    The big story might be the pallets of cash the Taliban have been posting videos of pallets of weapons and stacks of $100 bills they have seized.

    -2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAP’s
    -75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc
    -45 UH-60 Blachhawk Helicopters
    -50 MD530G Scout Attack Choppers
    -ScanEagle Military Drones
    -30 Military Version Cessnas
    -4 C-130’s
    -29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tocano Ground Attack Aircraft 
    208+ Aircraft Total
    -At least 600,000+ Small arms M16, M249 SAWs, M24 Sniper Systems, 50 Calibers, 1,394 M203 Grenade Launchers, M134 Mini Gun, 20mm Gatling Guns and Ammunition
    -61,000 M203 Rounds
    -20,040 Grenades
    -Howitzers
    -Mortars +1,000’s of Rounds
    -162,000 pieces of Encrypted Military Comunications Gear
    -16,000+ Night Vision Goggles
    -Newest Technology Night Vision Scopes
    -Thermal Scopes and Thermal Mono Googles
    -10,000 2.75 inch Air to Ground Rockets
    -Recconaissance Equipment (ISR)
    -Laser Aiming Units
    -Explosives Ordnance C-4, Semtex, Detonators, Shaped Charges, Thermite, Incendiaries, AP/API/APIT
    -2,520 Bombs
    -Administration Encrypted Cell Phones and Laptops all operational
    -Pallets with Millions of Dollars in US Currency
    -Millions of Rounds of Ammunition including but not limited to 20,150,600 rounds of 7.62mm, 9,000,000 rounds of 50.caliber
    -Large Stockpile of Plate Carriers and Body Armor
    -US Military HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment Biometrics
    -Lots of Heavy Equipment Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators

    Much of the information included in the above list is public record.

    One example is below:

    There are also rumblings of a warehouse of high-level US equipment left behind for the Taliban.
    From our source:

    Some of my sources are from my previous work background as private agency contractor etc. so can’t direct quote. But I can assure you those numbers are correct and if anything are low.

    I have one friend on the ground in Kabul right now.  He is with UK SRR they are trying to track and account for quantities of US Military and Russian Military Equipment now in the hands of Taliban. I spoke with him last night and tonight.

    What’s really disturbing is a rumor circulating about some secured warehouses that only highest levels of security clearance US military staff had access to.  No one seems to know what was in them. Taliban is in full control of those warehouses now. And those warehouses were full of equipment whatever it was.

    He’s trying to confirm but believes that the Taliban also secured US military drone jamming equipment which is disastrous if true.

    CCP has people on the ground right now negotiating on any US technology they see of value. Dealing directly with Taliban based on what he told me tonight.
    Not sure if that is any help. I’ll keep you posted if anything else pops up of value.

    Hat Tip Lance at @LanceMigliaccio on Gab and GETTR
    August 23, 2021 https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/worse-thought-complete-list-armaments-us-leaving-taliban-islamist-groups-enough-fortify-years-secret-warehouse-us-equipment-captured/

    Comment: Finally to see a full listing of the armaments & cash which is being left for the Taliban/ISIS fighters by Clinton & Obama. Obama & Holder’s Fast & Furious on a Grand scale

  • $1 Trillion Of Lithium & Other Minerals In Afghanistan: …

    $1 Trillion Of Lithium & Other Minerals In Afghanistan: …

    $1 Trillion Of Lithium & Other Minerals In Afghanistan: Will A New Great Game Begin Under Taliban?

    In 2010, US military officials and geologists revealed that Afghanistan has huge reserves of minerals. These $1 trillion worth of mineral deposits have now slipped into the Taliban’s hands. Afghanistan is estimated to have the world’s biggest deposits of lithium that could rival those in Bolivia. Taliban may decide to tap these natural resources to boost its wealth and control on the nation. Watch the video to know more.

  • Afghanistan Update…

    Afghanistan Update…

    This is a cut and paste from an article I saw.

    UPDATE: This Wall Street Journal story, posted two hours ago, gives the most coherent picture I have seen of what is going on:

    By evening, the main road to the Kabul airport—packed with Afghans desperately trying to escape and with thousands of American troops protecting the evacuation effort—presented a bizarre scene of Taliban fighters mingling with uniformed Afghan troops.
    ***
    At the U.S. Embassy compound on Sunday helicopters ferried American and Western diplomats and civilians to the military side of Kabul airport. One after another, Chinooks and Black Hawks took off from the landing zone, spraying dust.

    Below them was a city of traffic jams and roundabouts choked by cars—many of them filled with Afghans trying to reach the airport’s relative safety. Dark smoke, presumably from burning documents, rose from the presidential palace.
    ***
    President Biden has rushed 5,000 troops to Kabul to secure the airport and help evacuate American diplomatic personnel. By the end of the day, the Green Zone that contained much of the foreign presence in Kabul emptied out as embassies closed or relocated to the military base in the airport.

    In the airport, large crowds gathered at the military gate, trying to get through the checkpoint. There was an exchange of gunfire, with a warning of a ground attack sounding in the terminal.

    On the tarmac, dozens of gray U.S. Air Force and British transport planes awaited their passengers. Civilian flights were suspended.

    The U.S. Embassy released one more statement:

    “The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly and the situation in the airport is deteriorating rapidly,” the U.S. Embassy said in a notice sent after nightfall. Consular operations, it added, were suspended indefinitely. “Do not come to the Embassy or airport at this time.”

    This may seem like a disaster to you, but be of good cheer. Indeed, it is time for a victory dance, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken:

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected parallels being made with the rushed U.S. exit from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam in 1975, when staff was evacuated by helicopter from the building’s roof. He said the aim in Afghanistan was to target al Qaeda, which had been achieved.

    “This is not Saigon,” said Mr. Blinken, speaking to CNN on Sunday. “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission, and that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we succeeded in that mission.”

    Secretary Blinken’s new name/initials should be Blathering Buffoon Blinken/BBB!

  • Saigon II-Open Discussion

    Saigon II-Open Discussion

    There is no way to completely cover the disaster Afghanistan, and our withdrawal, has become.

    The President of Afghanistan has fled and, supposedly, the Taliban has taken over the palace.

    The US Ambassador was evacuated by helicopter. I have no information relative to embassy personnel. If anyone does, please post it.

    If the numbers are accurate, there are more US Troops present than we have had there in years.

    The State <s>Department</s>Dipfeces waited until Friday, yep the 13th, to instruct staff to destroy documents, computers etc. Add to that, they instructed them to burn US Flags. The reasoning; “to prevent them being used for propaganda. Did it cross their pea brains to send them out with personnel?

    The exciting news for progressives is the poor, misunderstood Al Quada prisoners, at our air base, were released. The Taliban o retook the base and set them free.

    It is very likely I have neglected something important. Feel free to add information you may have.

    Last off. Our fearless leader is at Camp David. Obviously, nothing of any import is occurring to interfere with his vacation.