You honestly think we couldn’t have set up our cyber warfare cadre in Kiev if we hadn’t pulled a handful of troops out of Afghanistan? And in a disastrous, disorganized manner, tro boot? Or that Biden couldn’t have ignored the Trumpist capitulation negotiations? Just because I’m ignoring Republican talking points doesn’t mean I have to embrace Democratic ones.
You honestly think we couldn’t have set up our cyber warfare cadre in Kiev if we hadn’t pulled a handful of troops out of Afghanistan? And in a disastrous, disorganized manner, tro boot? Or that Biden couldn’t have ignored the Trumpist capitulation negotiations? Just because I’m ignoring Republican talking points doesn’t mean I have to embrace Democratic ones.
The US is doing more than merely setting up a cyber warfare unit in Kiev, of course. Even though some (many) of the weapons are not the latest generation, one is always going to favor having fewer of one's own killed than protecting others. Ukraine would be getting less.
The US has also become an isolationist country, or at least it has a sizeable plurality leaning that way, a plurality that is mostly rural, meaning it has a strong structural advantage in federal elections that is going to get stronger before it ever weakens, if indeed that even happens. Thus Biden never had a chance to please even half of Americans. F'd by doing what he did, he'd have been just as f'd had he tried to maintain a presence in Afghanistan. The Fox opinion pieces would have written themselves. They'd attack just as ruthlessly, but from another vector.
One *might argue that he could have "reorganized" the pullout ... somehow. But the fact is that the Taliban already smelled victory, and that odor is a huge force multiplier. There wasn't going to be any big grace period.
You honestly think we couldn’t have set up our cyber warfare cadre in Kiev if we hadn’t pulled a handful of troops out of Afghanistan? And in a disastrous, disorganized manner, tro boot? Or that Biden couldn’t have ignored the Trumpist capitulation negotiations? Just because I’m ignoring Republican talking points doesn’t mean I have to embrace Democratic ones.
The US is doing more than merely setting up a cyber warfare unit in Kiev, of course. Even though some (many) of the weapons are not the latest generation, one is always going to favor having fewer of one's own killed than protecting others. Ukraine would be getting less.
The US has also become an isolationist country, or at least it has a sizeable plurality leaning that way, a plurality that is mostly rural, meaning it has a strong structural advantage in federal elections that is going to get stronger before it ever weakens, if indeed that even happens. Thus Biden never had a chance to please even half of Americans. F'd by doing what he did, he'd have been just as f'd had he tried to maintain a presence in Afghanistan. The Fox opinion pieces would have written themselves. They'd attack just as ruthlessly, but from another vector.
One *might argue that he could have "reorganized" the pullout ... somehow. But the fact is that the Taliban already smelled victory, and that odor is a huge force multiplier. There wasn't going to be any big grace period.
It would be harder to give $2 billion in weapons to Ukraine if we still we're burning cash, ammunition and supplies in Afghanistan.
I guess marginally. But $2 billion is chicken feed in today’s Federal budgets.