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Just Say It, Democrats: Biden Has Been a Great President
(newrepublic.com)
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this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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At best he's been inoffensive. He's a "great" president only in comparison to the last guy.
He's been better than Obama so far. He's got way more worthwhile legislation passed (with fewer Democrats in congress), he pulled out of Afghanistan, which both Obama and Donnie knew we should do, and his economic recovery was faster than Obamas.
no. trump pulled out of Afghanistan, which is why it was a fucking shit show.
Trump had no choice, as the war was won by the Taliban in like a week's offensive.
Why was it a shit show? It was one of the most successful pull-outs of all time.
They just packed up and left instead of trying prolong it with a bloody civil war between the American pedo police and the Taliban
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/politics/state-deparment-afghanistan-withdrawal-report/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/30/us-afghanistan-war-military-pullout-report-biden-trump
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/biden-report-afghanistan-withdrawal-blames-trump-2023-04-06/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf
From the last one:
Seriously... have you all forgotten what went down? Memories like goldfish.
Oh, lets take a look at articles detailing the equipment left behind:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-behind/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-behind/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-behind/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-behind/index.html
Oh... and if that's not enough for you, lets talk about the human cost of ~~packing up~~ just leaving:
https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/us-left-78000-afghan-allies-ngo-report-rcna18119
https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/helping-afghan-allies-america-left-behind-luke-coffey
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/29/1119973093/how-u-s-allies-view-the-country-a-year-after-its-withdraw-from-afghanistan
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/09/how-many-americans-and-allies-are-left-in-afghanistan/
oh, and our reputation on the world stage, because you know, we weren't the only western power in Afghansistan: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/29/1119973093/how-u-s-allies-view-the-country-a-year-after-its-withdraw-from-afghanistan
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-09-02/american-credibility-after-afghanistan
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-09-02/american-credibility-after-afghanistan
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-09-02/american-credibility-after-afghanistan
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-09-02/american-credibility-after-afghanistan
TL/DR: It was a shit show.
Yeah Trump did an amazing job GTFO'ing afghanistan instead of starting another useless proxy war.
As much as I hate Orange man, withdrawing from Afghanistan has to be the best thing he actually did. There are plenty of reasons to hate on him such as ruining abortion and trying to prevent any non-white person from existing in America, but Afghanistan withdrawal is not one of them.
This was fully Biden's fault by the way:
No he didn't and no it wasn't.
you, uh, sure about that?
Trump signed the deal in feb of '20, and started the process rolling. Trump took it from 13k troops to 2.5k by the time Biden took office. Biden continued along the nominal plan largely because you can't just stop massive troop movements like that.
as for it being a shit show; we left behind ~350k rifles, there were helicopters (littlebirds, blackhawks,) drones (boeing scan eagles); over 50 AFVs- mostly M1117's; 60 mortars and artilery pieces;
Over a hundred civilians died during the withdrawal, and thousands of civillians who worked with the US (on the promise of being protected, no less,) were left behind on the tarmac.
You're right. It wasn't a shit show. that's far too generous. It was a giant, shitty clusterfuck.
"Biden continued along the nominal plan largely because you can’t just stop massive troop movements like that."
Yes you can. He had every opportunity to stop and reverse the withdrawal.
And that's your shit show? That's the cleanest withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2000 years. With the Afghan gov. collapsing within days, how clean do you think it possibly could have been?
He'd have to have sent troops back when he got into office. We weren't getting the interpreters out without controlling the ground ourselves.
That was politically and logistically unfeasible.
Look at the time span from Biden entering office and the withdrawal, then look at the time span from September 11, 2001 to the invasion of Afghanistan. Reversing the withdrawal months in advance was logistically well within the capabilities of the US military and would have been politically less risky since withdrawals are extremely hard to execute as well as the US military executed this one.
edit: Massive changes/reversals in military objectives are implausible on the scale of hours or even days, but making sudden changes, moving masses of men and material in a new direction to do a new thing on short notice is one of the abilities of a good military. The notion that the US military, a very good military, couldn't reverse itself when given months to do so isn't well thought out.
And what were we going to tell Pakistan? You realize the bulk of our supplies came by land through there?
What would the Afghan reaction be? Because at that point you lose credibility. They see it as a second invasion.
And yeah, what do you tell the American people who are severely war weary?
It was never about the military's internal ability. It was about the actual logistics chain and appearing to go back on a major deal in a county where that means people definitely start helping the terrorists because they lose faith in you ever leaving voluntarily.
Yeah as far as legislation goes he’s been one of the most effective presidents we’ve had. It’s been overshadowed by the media, constant rhetoric about his age and the small handful of mistakes he made. All in all he’s been good.
It has been overshadowed by funding the genocide of Palestinians
The same would happen under Trump. No escaping that truth. So pick your poison.
Na, Trump would say something stupid like....
....
...
You know what, I've been up for nearly 20 hours and cant get that stupid. Anyone wanna help a brotha out?
Hold on, let me get the puke bag ready.
Sorry that's as far as I could get before I had to fill the bucket.
I saw that full second smile in my head and now I don't like you. You placed it perfectly.
That's the result of way too many hours where I had to look up a speech to see if he actually said something.
Trump would say somehting like....
at least, that's all I really here between the greasy-fart noises whenever he speaks.
Start rioting. If those are your only options.
Or you know, we could all get involved with the primary and off season election process and work to elect people that are inherently better than the options we got. 🤷♂️
Right, business as usual neoliberalism will save the country founded on the back of a genocide and a 300 year slave trade. Good call dude.
Let me know how that rioting goes for you, tough guy.
Not my country lol. Just a neighbors advice. Keep up the moral superiority, I'm sure it won't get any worse than genocide and razor wire at the border.
If anything is been overshadowed by Trumps ego.
Palestine is just on peoples mind now
Ahh yes I too like to refer to my housing and food costs being historically high as a handful of mistakes.
Also, 27,000 Palestinians.
He must have quite big hands.
I have a feeling Biden has less to do with the rising costs of everything than the overt corporate greed displayed by the largest megacorps in the U.S. that own 90% of everything, but what do I know?
The US government absolutely has a hand in food prices. The housing price is something he could do stuff about but just won't.
He's the best president of my lifetime, which isn't saying much.
Are you 8?
Nope, been alive since Reagan. Obama was a milquetoast do-nothing that cared more about what Republicans thought than the people who actually voted for him. We delivered him a supermajority and what did he do with it? He stripped the public option from Obamacare to please Republicans and then left it out despite not getting a single Republican vote.
Biden has been forceful in pushing back against Republican obstructionists and right-wing extremists than Obama ever was and should've been. That's a huge thing for me.