Further on Afghanistan

 I haven't written much about the situation in Afghanistan because I have not felt qualified to express an opinion on the subject.  Too much contradictory information is coming in.  Reports from the ground about absolute madness and chaos, versus happy talk from our government about the number of people gotten out about 117,000, at latest count).  I wasn't quite sure how to reconcile these accounts, but I had a suspicion.

My suspicion was this.  The evacuation was an allied attempt.  The reports kept giving raw numbers of people airlifted out of Afghanistan, but never the composition.  So I suspected that many people in the 117,000 were not Afghan allies in danger because of their association with us, but allied nationals.  And nothing wrong with that, exactly.  Other countries quite reasonably want to get their people out.  But if that was the composition, it suggests that a lot of our Afghan allies are being left to their fate.

And this thread appears to confirm my suspicion:

[W]hen they say 100,000 they want you to feel we’ve accomplished a lot. Actually, we’ve only taken out 5,000 US Civs and it’s unclear how many Afghans;The rest of those figures are everyone who’s passed though the airfield no matter which country airlifted them out or what the nationality: Iranian, Pakistani, Indian, etc. WH argues “we provide security so we get the credit.” It’s misleading.

The author goes on to warn that, because of shifts in paperwork requirements, people are being admitted to the airport and then turned away, effectively painting a target on their backs.  "[T]his remains one of the must dysfunctional train wrecks I’ve ever seen or, as a historian, ever studied."

I don't like hearing this, but painful facts have to be faced.  I do not know what planning would have made this work better, but it is clear that the Biden Administration should have been working on this from Day One.  Yes, I realize they had their hands full with getting out COVID vaccines (handled well) and COVID relief (handled well) and dealing with the southern border (handled badly).  An infrastructure bill has always struck me as something nice, but not really essential.  This is essential.  I will let others decide when the execution should have started.  Should we have started earlier, or would that just have precipitated the crisis sooner?  Could we have started in winter and would the Taliban have been unable to launch a military campaign?  Or would winter also have prevented an evacuation?  Should be have kept Bagram airbase, or was it to inaccessible?  I don't know and I don't pretend to.  But the lack of planning and preparation is inexcusable.  

Nor is this an isolated incident.  The Biden Administration has shown itself consistently unable to anticipate and prepare for the unexpected, even if the unexpected was highly foreseeable.

But will this make me vote for a Republican next time?  For the party of Gaetz, Gohmert, Gosar and Greene? For a party that is objectively pro-pandemic at best?   For a party that seems to be nothing but competitive insanity, and that gives all signs of wanting to undo democracy completely?  Until the Republican Party regains its senses, I see not choice but to vote for the Democrats, no matter how badly they do.  But I don't know how many others will agree with me.