Democrats face rocky road ahead of midterms.

Agreed.

 

That all depends on what he does and how his criminal cases go (I don't think the civil cases will move the needle). The midterms are a little less than a year away. I'm not that fond of Democrats, but so long as the GOP remains the party of Trump, they are the biggest existential threat to our democracy.

 

I think it's possibly too late for Democrats to salvage the 2022 elections. But I still think we could return the Democratic party back to favor in the 2024 election.

Biden-Harris just need to be more strategic in their actions. Things started out on a sour note, but there's still plenty of time to mend fences with the American people.

And, if Republicans sweep into Congress in 2022 and things turn bad then ...

 

The Biden-Trump stain of Afghanistan dishonor will never go away.

 

That was always going to happen. We bit off more than we could chew with Afghanistan. And, their government was too weak and our presence was the only thing keeping them going.

The Taliban may have been our enemy, but not in the minds of the Afghans. We lost the battle of hearts and minds long ago.

 

We have been in Germany for 76 years, in Korea for 71. The Afghans were doing just fine until we signaled we would abandon them. The first position to collapse was the White House.

 

The people of Afghanistan need to reject the Taliban's rule. We can't help them until they are ready to put strict, religious, Islamic rule and government into the dustbin of history.

Many Afghans were flying Taliban flags (or am I thinking about the ISIS in Syria?). And the Taliban extended their influence for years before we "abandoned" Afghanistan.

Often in the puppet governments we place into power, corruption is high and governing ability is low. (In fact, rumors have it that intelligence services were already working with the Taliban to get things done because they couldn't count on the official government.)

 

I have been to Afghanistan. The government was secure as long as people felt safe, and that depended on the American commitment. We betrayed their trust.

 

You guys need to focus in even harder on defeating Da Trumpstas in 2024. I mean he’s such a bad Orangeman that I think for you on the left you need full concentration on Orangeman bad 24/7/365 ….
Until Nov. 2022. Please !

 

Was there something you were actually trying to communicate here? Can you actually articulate any kind of observation or argument? It's times like this that I wish there was more to Trump politics than just copy/pasting bumper stickers.

 

I have been reading the news for years about Taliban successes and advancements. We lost long before Trump/Biden decided to withdraw from Afghanistan.

 

That is simply false.

 

I looked at the timeline of the Taliban insurgency (Taliban insurgency - Wikipedia)
They took over the countryside. But, nowhere else, until the 2021 Taliban take-over of Afghanistan.

But the Taliban were waiting for us to leave, and then they were going to take over Afghanistan. That was always going to happen.

So, why did we leave Afghanistan? Because it's the graveyard of empires (and if the Taliban aren't careful it will be their graveyard as well). We can't stay there forever, and I don't want us to stay there either. We've already spent too much money staying there and maintaining a stalemate between the factions there. Even as back home America is in decline.

 

We have been in Germany for 76 years, and in Korea for 71. After 9/11 smart guys in the Pentagon began referring to the "Long War," a multi-generational conflict. That is what we should have done, and will be sorry we didn't.

 

Deleted.

 

What makes you think that the "long war" will not take place? The torch has just been passed from the military to the CIA. And whatever happens will take place outside of the limelight.

 

We have abandoned the field and made it much more difficult to carry on the fight. The CIA is a marvelously effective instrument, but it asks too much if we require that they substitute for our bigger tools.
It is true that the most effective Afghan units were those affiliated with the CIA -- they remained disciplined and mission-focused all the way through our evacuation -- but they were never enough to carry the whole war.

 

Especially increased wages caused by government competing with employers over the labor force with fiat money.

 

Will anyone listen:

 

I didn't know anyone had beaten Obama in an election:

 

25 House Democrats choose retirement and will not run in November.

 

While this is true, we had 20 years there to set up and personally train LITERALLY from childhood if we wanted to, an entire generation of Afghan citizens who could've pushed back against the corrupt practices of previous governments and entanglements with terrorist groups. The shame extends farther than just to Biden and Trump, it extends to W and Obama as well.

 

let’s hope another 25 join them

 

They are probably all going to work for Big Tech!

 

Nope. Obama and GWB kept faith. Trump and Biden did not. Shortly after 9/11 the smartest guys in the Pentagon began using the term "Long War." Their vision was a multi-decade multi-generational struggle. We have been in Germany for 77 years. Take that as a starting point.