Afghan president flees the country as
Taliban move on Kabul
Posted By: PageTurner, 8/15/2021 10:35:42 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, which for hours had been in the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule CORRECTION*
*Rahim Faiez, Tameem Akhgar, Jon Gambrell
*Byline corrected to site style for more than two authors.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "PageTurner"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
PageTurner"
Videos: Yes, Joe, it's like Saigon
5 replies
Joe Biden made a big deal about his rigid, hasty, ill-planned, badly executed Afghan pullout not being another Saigon, a reference to the disgraceful final pullout of the U.S. presence in Vietnam in 1975. (Snip for tweet, quote) The more he says it, the less true it gets. His dishonesty is palpable. He seems to think that by making this claim, the press will repeat it ad nauseum and it will become standard wisdom.
But images don't lie, and here are the pictures and videos of horror rolling out this morning:
Afghanistan Veteran Pens Heartbreaking
Letter Describing What It's Like
Coming Home From Combat 5 replies
Letter Describing What It's Like
Coming Home From Combat 5 replies
As of this writing, Taliban forces have just entered Kabul, Afghanistan, the terrorist group’s leaders say that no force will be used to take the city, and both Taliban and Afghanistan government leaders say they’re working to negotiate a peaceful transfer of power to a “transitional government.” US Embassy staffers are being ferried from the Embassy to safety via Chinook helicopter after destroying records so that when the Embassy itself soon falls/is abandoned the Taliban won’t obtain information that could be used to hurt Americans or American interests. Instead of a troop withdrawal, 5,000 members of the United States Military are now headed to Afghanistan to oversee our retreat.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, which for hours had been in the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule CORRECTION*
Taliban executions, beheadings in Afghanistan strike fear among those stuck inside country
11 replies
Afghan citizens face executions, forced marriages and other possible war crimes as the Taliban sweeps across the country, wrestling control from ineffective government forces as the U.S. troop withdrawal nears, according to U.S. officials and watchdog groups.
The militants have seized territory at an alarming rate while Afghan government troops and their allied militias fail to put up an effective resistance – surrendering at times without even putting up a fight.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul said Wednesday that it was receiving reports that Taliban members were executing surrendering Afghan troops and unlawfully detaining some members of the government, including military leaders, provincial officials and police officers.
Based on the news photos seen on Twitter, the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, and the Saigon-style U.S. evacuations have begun. (Snip for tweet) AP, Bloomberg and Al-Arabiya are reporting that the Taliban is streaming into Kabul from all sides, and control every provincial capital. The terrorists are flying abandoned U.S. helicopters, posing with our abandoned guns, and parading in abandoned U.S. vehicles, with its "commanders" dancing with glee. In Kabul, the airport is jammed, the bank runs are starting,
The Biden Doctrine: Beg
16 replies
Joe Biden is begging the Taliban to spare the U.S. embassy when they knock down the Afghan capital of Kabul and completely overrun the country, And with the fall of Kandahar, Herat, and all the other big Afghan cities, that could be any day now.
Here's the lovely story from the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — American negotiators are trying to extract assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul if the extremist group takes over the country’s government and ever wants to receive foreign aid, three American officials said.
The effort, led by Zalmay Khalilzad,
Joe Biden, who plays Mr. Everyman on T.V., in real life has an amazing history of stiffing the little guy.
He touts a federal $15 an hour minimum wage and raves about wage gains during his administration:
“When it comes to the economy we’re building, rising wages aren’t a bug, they’re a feature,” he said.
His éminence grise advisor, Susan Rice, says the same: (Snip for tweet.) Turns out all those wage gains are gone. According to Politico:
Rising prices on everything from groceries to gasoline have eaten away the wage gains workers have seen since the start of the year, leaving most Americans earning less than they were before the pandemic began
Disaster mounts in Afghanistan and
Joe Biden takes his foreign policy
cues from Rodney King 10 replies
Joe Biden takes his foreign policy
cues from Rodney King 10 replies
Nobody likes the war in Afghanistan, but Joe Biden's solution -- a sudden U.S. pullout, complete with a 9/11-anniversary courtesy schedule for the Taliban's convenience, is shaping up to be a U.S. disaster.
According to the Washington Post:
The Biden administration is preparing for Afghanistan’s capital to fall far sooner than feared only weeks ago, as a rapid disintegration of security has prompted the revision of an already stark intelligence assessment predicting Kabul could be overrun
Remember Pajama Boy, the onesie-clad man with hot chocolate who was hired by Obama White House allies to get young people to buy the Obamacare and its 'narrative'?
Well, now it's Benny Drama.
He's the new pop face of the Biden administration's bid to persuade the public to get vaccines. [Snip for tweet] According to the Daily Mail:
In a bid to promote Covid-19 vaccines among young people, the White House has recruited Gen Z TikTok influencers, one who dropped another spoof video on Monday.
Benito Skinner, a comedian whose TikTok handle is @bennydrama7 and boasts over 845,000 followers, posted a video
President Obama planned a 60th birthday party at his Martha's Vineyard mansion for 500 of his closest friends. So much for COVID. So much for global warming.
And after the ridicule and word of hypocrisy got out, Obama scaled it down, claiming it was just close friends and family now. But it didn't quite look that way once photos got out showing Obama dancing the night away — with the celebrity cavalcade of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Steven Spielberg, Bradley Cooper, Don Cheadle, Erykah Badu, Steven Colbert, all his "closest" friends. Oh, and "close friend" John Kerry, too, who happens to be from Massachusetts. Imagine Kerry discoing
In one of the most outrageous instances of internet censorship, YouTube has suppressed Australian news giant SkyNews for a week, based on its reports about hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
The London Telegraph has the first report here:
Sky News Australia has been banned for a week from uploading videos to Youtube after it was accused of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sky News Australia channel on YouTube received a "strike" over "numerous" video clips, including "content that denies the existence of Covid-19," the video platform said.
TOKYO — Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, was knocked out of the women’s 87+ kilogram competition early after failing on all three of her attempts.
Hubbard failed on her first attempt to get 120kg above her head, bailing out early. On her second attempt at 125kg, she was able to get the weight up and pumped her fist after in satisfaction, however judges ruled it a “no lift.”
She returned quickly for another attempt at 125kg only to fail to stand up with the weight above her head. Hubbard was the only one of the 13 finalists to not complete at least one lift.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
President Joe Biden will remain hidden at his presidential retreat at Camp David through Monday, according to the White House, as the Taliban swiftly seized control of Afghanistan.
The president’s daily guidance for Monday indicated Biden would remain at Camp David for at least one more day, with no public events scheduled.
But a senior administration official indicated to reporters Sunday evening that Biden might address the country “in the next few days,” according to reports.
It remains unclear whether Biden will speak from Camp David or return to the White House to deliver his speech, the reports noted. He was previously scheduled to remain at Camp David until Wednesday.
John R. Bolton says the calamitous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will go down in history as “the Trump-Biden policy.” Mr. Bolton, who served as former President Trump’s national security adviser, said in a Daily Telegraph op-ed that Mr. Biden’s approach to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan was “virtually indistinguishable from Donald Trump’s.” The former adviser, though, said Mr. Biden’s insistence that Mr. Trump left him with only two bad options—“follow Trump’s blueprint or else considerably increase US combat forces in Afghanistan”—is a “strawman argument” and “palpably false.” Mr. Bolton, who has been an outspoken Trump critic since he was pushed out of the White House
Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the vaccine-hesitant should “put aside” their concerns about personal liberty and recognize the “common enemy” is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci said, “What’s coming next is that we are going to have to continue to get people vaccinated so that right now, even in states in which you have a good relative proportion of people vaccinated, you have to get the overwhelming proportion of people vaccinated. But you also have to do mitigation. And that gets to the controversial issue of mask-wearing and the mandating of things mandating of vaccines,
Actor and activist George Takei on Sunday said that the “willfully unvaccinated” who refuse to be inoculated against coronavirus should be last in line for priority care. “The willfully unvaccinated who wind up in hospitals from Covid should not receive priority medical care over other very sick or injured people who are as much in urgent need of medical care,” the actor known as Lieutenant Sulu for his years on “Star Trek” said on Twitter. He followed that with, “Anti-vaxxers think they are owning us liberals by refusing to get vaccinated. But as the kids say, this is an epic self-own.”
What will it take for Joe Biden to admit he is disastrously wrong about Afghanistan? The US leader struck a defiant pose last week. Sounding like a slightly desperate Olympics coach, he told Afghans it was their country. If they want it, they have to fight for it. In American politics-speak, this is called tough love. Without the love.
Biden has more hands-on foreign policy experience than any president since George HW Bush. That doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing. Opinion polls suggest his abrupt Afghan withdrawal has majority public support. That doesn’t mean Americans will remain indifferent as the carnage and misery mount.
Thousands of people were seen running for planes in countless videos posted to social media at the airport in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, as the Taliban takes control of the country.Some of the videos were posted late on Sunday night and during the early morning hours on Monday local Afghanistan time.“Witnesses at the civilian domestic terminal said they had heard occasional gunshots and said thousands of people had crammed into the terminal and filled the parking lots, desperately seeking flights out,” The New York Times reported. “Late Sunday, the State and Defense Departments issued a statement saying the U.S. was working to secure control of the airport
Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday President Bidens and Trump shoulder the blame for the unfolding “catastrophe” in Afghanistan. The Wyoming Republican and member of the House Armed Services Committee said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” the situation in Afghanistan was avoidable, and the fallout will tarnish the nation’s image on the world stage for years to come. “I think that, absolutely, President Biden bears responsibility for making this decision, but there is no question that President Trump, his administration, [former Secretary Mike] Pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this,” Ms. Cheney said. “They walked down this path of legitimizing the Taliban, of perpetuating this fantasy,
Obama’s Former Ambassador to Afghanistan:
I Question Biden’s ‘Ability
to Lead Our Nation’ 36 replies
I Question Biden’s ‘Ability
to Lead Our Nation’ 36 replies
The fall of Afghanistan has shocked Obama’s former ambassador to such a degree that he is now questioning President Joe Biden’s ability to lead the nation.
Speaking with The Spokesman-Review, Ryan Crocker, who served as Obama’s ambassador from 2011 to 2012, lamented that the Biden administration failed to see the Taliban’s swift takeover when preparing for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.“I think the direction was predictable; the trajectory was not,” he said. “What President Biden has done is to embrace the Afghan policy of President Trump, and this is the outcome.”Just a little over a month ago, Joe Biden rejected assertions that U.S. withdrawal would lead to
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly said he was 'beyond disappointed' with the Afghan army's capitulation to the Taliban and added: 'You can't buy willpower, and you can't buy leadership.' The Pentagon chief is said to have made remarks during a call with other US government members Sunday, as the Afghan capital began to fall to the Taliban, its US embassy closed, and the number of American troops deployed there rose by 1,000 to 6,000. Austin and fellow intelligence officials blame the Afghan army for not opposing the Taliban in a more prominent way, FOX News reported.
President Joe Biden is quickly proving that he is not only a threat to the safety of Americans, but he is also a threat to people throughout the world.According to a bombshell report, Biden refused to listen to the advice of his top military officials and decided to move ahead with the disastrous US pullout in Afghanistan.Biden allegedly overruled his generals who advised that he should keep 2,500 servicemen on the ground in Afghanistan to help with negotiations between Afghanistan and the Taliban. Instead, Biden decided to conduct a complete withdraw which led to a quick Taliban takeover who now control many US assets
Joe Biden on Monday delivered a short speech on his Afghanistan disaster.After mumbling through prepared remarks, blaming Trump and the Afghan security forces on his botched withdrawal, Biden fled the lectern without taking any questions from reporters.Biden delivered the worst speech ever, said he stands by his decision to hastily withdraw from Afghanistan and admitted it ‘unfolded more quickly that he anticipated.’After blaming everyone under the sun, Biden quickly took off as reporters shouted questions.
As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack looms, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is crying poverty for the second year in a row. This time, it says it can’t afford to mount special exhibitions planned to mark the two-decade milestone.
In 2020, the twin-beam “Tribute in Light” was canceled only to win a last-minute reprieve after soon-to-be-ex Gov. Cuomo pitched in state resources. But no such bailout appears in the offing this time.
In fact, this year, the museum is shamefully restricting the reading-of-the-names ceremony exclusively to the families of 9/11 victims. No hero firefighters, cops, first responders or emergency workers,
Comments:
Terrible.