Wars & Rumours of Wars

nivek

As Above So Below
I believe in our administration holistically.

Ah, well blind belief is a far cry from facts and keeps one out of touch with reality to varying degrees...We have seen this clearly in the woke movement that's currently ravaging the country, blind belief in some thing or someone will always distort the view of reality for the beholder...

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Kchoo

At Peace.
Ah, well blind belief is a far cry from facts and keeps one out of touch with reality to varying degrees...We have seen this clearly in the woke movement that's currently ravaging the country, blind belief in some thing or someone will always distort the view of reality for the beholder...

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There is something we agree on.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Biden refused to listen to top cabinet members including Anthony Blinken when they tried to dissuade him from pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan

Top cabinet members failed to dissuade President Joe Biden from pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan, a new book claims. In the new book Peril, veteran journalist Bob Woodward details how Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to get President Joe Biden to slow down the pullout from the 20-year war.

While Blinken and Austin believed Biden's plan would encourage the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan government to negotiate, the secretary of state's mind was changed after meeting with NATO allies in March.

According to The Telegraph, Woodward alleges Blinken told Biden that their allies said the United States should use the withdrawal to force political progress in the nation.

'Previously, [Blinken] had been foursquare with Biden for a full withdrawal,' Woodward writes. 'His new recommendation was to extend the mission with US troops for a while to see if it could yield a political settlement. Buy time for negotiations.'

Biden, remembering his feelings that former President Barack Obama had been forced to stay in Afghanistan by his generals from when he served as vice president, felt he should not be so swayed.


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nivek

As Above So Below
California GOP Rep. reveals two elderly Californians have ESCAPED Afghanistan after weeks of being 'harassed and intimidated' by Taliban who blocked them from entering Kabul Airport

An elderly couple trapped in Afghanistan is returning to San Diego after weeks of being 'harassed and intimidated' by the Taliban, a congressman from California reported.

'This is a cause for celebration and the result of almost countless hours of work under very difficult conditions,' Rep. Darrell Issa announced in a statement Wednesday.

'Our team simply would not give up, and today it paid off and we got them home.'

The couple, who are in their 80s, are among the 33 members of his district he says he has helped escape the country after the Taliban seized control. Their names were withheld to protect Afghan relatives still living in the country.

Further details on how they escaped have not been shared, in an attempt to keep future evacuees safe. Americans and Afghan refugees have managed to flee on charter flights and overland to neighboring countries.

Issa's office reported that the couple had tried for weeks to get through Taliban checkpoints in Kabul and board a plane home, but were 'harassed and intimidated' by the militant group during their attempts.

Their evacuation came after granddaughter Zahul, whose last name was also withheld for security reasons, reached out to Issa's office to report their plight.


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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Yeah, I read that in a few different articles. Not just on this thread. Not arguing the article.

I do think we will get them out, and the sooner the better.

But let's not point fingers and make it a huge blame game. There is no proof that the Administration is better or worse. It is its own thing. Different world than it was a lready... outside of the oval office...

Nobody knows how this could have been made better...
But it will get better. It must get better.
I believe in our administration holistically. Doesn't Matter who is in the hot seat... its a hot seat.

Not point fingers and play the blame game, really ? That’s all we do anymore and we look like total assholes to the rest of the planet. Pander to the media.

Plain and simple, this administration royally screwed this up. It was on their watch, they are responsible. They don’t seem to have a problem undoing any other remnants of Trump’s administration so to say their hands were tied is disingenuous.

I’ve always said that we come together in times of crisis no matter what our differences. On 9/12 we were a unified nation to a degree I’ve never seen. I really don’t know at this point if we are capable of that anymore.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
General McKenzie admits Biden drone strike in Kabul DID kill seven children, aid worker and two other adults, says there was NO suicide bomber in car and offers 'my sincere apologies'



The Pentagon has admitted the August 29 drone strike on a supposed ISIS-K operative instead killed an aid worker and 9 members of his family, including 7 children. Head of US Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie admitted the strike was a 'terrible mistake' while addressing reporters Friday and said it was 'unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or a direct threat to U.S. forces.' 'It was a mistake and I offer my sincere apology,' McKenzie said. McKenzie said the movements of the aid worker, Zemari Ahmadi tracked with intelligence about ISIS plans for an attack at Kabul airport. A drone had observed men loading what were thought to be explosives into Ahmadi's vehicle, but were actually jugs of water. The deadly drone strike set off a large secondary explosion, which officials originally claimed was evidence the car was indeed carrying explosives, but an investigation determined was likely a propane tank located in the driveway.

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nivek

As Above So Below
Afghan family whose 10 loved ones were killed by drone strike after Pentagon blunder mistook aid worker for ISIS-K terrorist say they want compensation and to live in the US or other safe country



Zemari Ahmadi (left), 43, was an aid worker who was his family's only breadwinner before he was killed in the US drone strike. Ahmadi's step son Samim Ahmadi, 24, said: 'Whether in America or another country, we want peace and comfort for our remaining years.' Emal Ahmadi (inset), 32, was just a few feet from his brother when the strike happened and said he was 'happy' the US acknowledged their miscalculations. The surviving Ahmadi family said the Americans responsible for the tragic mistake need to be taken to court. Ahmadi was killed along with seven children and two adult family members.

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nivek

As Above So Below
Taliban fighters ride PEDALOS on lake in Afghanistan national park as protests take place across country over ban on girls returning to schools with boys refusing to attend classes in solidarity



Images (left) appear to show militants riding swan-themed pedalos on the water at Band-e Amir National Park - once a hotspot for international travellers and domestic tourists - in central Afghanistan yesterday. The park contains a series of six deep blue lakes situated in the Hindu Kush mountains, roughly 45 miles from Bamiyan - formerly the home of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which the Taliban destroyed in 2001.

Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers, who set up a ministry for the 'propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice' in the building that once housed the Women's Affairs Ministry, are now facing protests over the treatment of women and girls, just one month after overtaking the country's capital Kabul.

On Saturday the Taliban excluded girls from returning to secondary school in but ordered boys and male teachers back to the classroom, again breaking their promise to bring about a less severe brand of rule than their 1990s predecessors. During their previous rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban had denied girls and women the right to education and barred them from public life.

A statement from the education ministry last Friday demanded: 'All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions.' It made no mention of female teachers or pupils. Some Afghan women are now protesting the return to repression, with boys also refusing to attend class in solidarity. One boy (bottom right) was pictured in a Twitter post holding a sign that says: 'We don't go to school without our sisters'. Top right: Women march near the former Women's Affairs Ministry building in Kabul.


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nivek

As Above So Below
Bernie Sanders charges U.S. drone strike that killed Afghan children was 'unacceptable'

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling the U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan that mistakenly killed seven children "unacceptable." The comments by Sanders, the progressive champion and runner up to now-President Biden in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination, comes in the wake of an acknowledgment by the Pentagon that the attack was a "tragic mistake."

 

Kchoo

At Peace.
Not point fingers and play the blame game, really ? That’s all we do anymore and we look like total assholes to the rest of the planet. Pander to the media.

Plain and simple, this administration royally screwed this up. It was on their watch, they are responsible. They don’t seem to have a problem undoing any other remnants of Trump’s administration so to say their hands were tied is disingenuous.

I’ve always said that we come together in times of crisis no matter what our differences. On 9/12 we were a unified nation to a degree I’ve never seen. I really don’t know at this point if we are capable of that anymore.
Yeah.
I feel it.
I see it.
Don't know why it is this way now.
Can't see the future...
Can't really understand the present.
How much is real, or just belief ?
Who is right and who is wrong?
Win or lose? Trust the news?
Stay Strong. If in doubt, throw it out on the go...
Fear or logic?
Erase the past? How bout now?
Fight for what?
Where is the goal?
More is better, but do with less...
Bigger is better, so don't think small... meanwhile, Amazon shuts down all the Malls?
Social media Hides the faces... Of people who fight to cover, or uncover faces...
Vacinations we have mandated, WONT CHARGE A FEE! but no more interest in the name of BEING FREE... killing others cuz you can. Spread it around as fast as you can...

Save 100 in Afgahnistan, but kill your neighbor with gun in hand...

Yep. Were Scewed... blame the POTUS. Fix it in elections in dispute...
Recall recount, storm the capital. We gotta alota stuff to prove... that's the way we move... show up with a hangman noose...

Really? Something is wrong with one who thinks any of this is right...

One is no better than another... just an excuse to fight... there is no cause... there is no WRONG Or RIGHT.. When a fight is just a fight.

And that is all it is. I have yet to see a clear goal defined, or a method to achieve it, properly designed... ... ... from any side... ... ...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
So that's what a "whiney talking head spouting off an opinion" looks like lol...In regards to some of the nonsense embedded within, some people want to see the world burn as long as it doesn't shake up their beliefs and/or allegiances...

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nivek

As Above So Below
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PIERS MORGAN: Where is 'righteous' President Biden's empathy towards the innocent Afghan family he slaughtered with a botched drone strike - and why is the tame liberal mainstream media turning such a blind eye to an atrocity that shames America?

Three weeks ago, a US drone strike was ordered on a white Toyota Carolla car in Kabul, Afghanistan, being driven by a suspected terrorist.

The single Hellfire missile was launched from an M-Q Reaper drone which had surveilled its target for eight hours, flying at a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet.

Hellfire missiles travel at speeds of up to Mach 1.3 or 997 miles per hour, so there would have been around half a minute between the missile being launched and detonating.

The drone did its job and killed the suspected terrorist, whom American intelligence had identified as working for ISIS-K – Islamic State Khorasan Province, the most extreme and violent jihadist militant group in Afghanistan.

It also killed nine other people including seven children.

Despite immediate reports of innocent civilian casualties, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Chinese-friendly chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a Pentagon news conference several days later in which he described the attack as a 'righteous strike.'

Righteous, according to the dictionary, means 'morally right or justifiable', 'free from guilt or sin' and 'very good, excellent.'

And General Milley certainly sounded very righteous as he defended the decision to 'neutralize' the suspected ISIS-K bomb maker who was supposedly preparing an imminent attack on Kabul airport.

But there was just one problem. A rather massive problem, in fact. The terror suspect, Zamarai Ahmadi, wasn't a terrorist.

He was an aid worker - a $500-a-month employee of the California-based charity Nutrition and Education International.

None of the other victims were terrorists or connected to any terror group either.

They were though all from Ahmadi's family including his three sons, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 11, three children of one of his brothers, Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6 and Hayat, 2, Malika, the 3-year-old daughter of another brother, his nephew, Nasser, 30, and Somaya, a cousin's infant daughter.

Virtually a whole family was therefore destroyed in a terrifying onslaught of hellfire and shrapnel that devastated their compound and the surrounding area.

There was nothing 'righteous' about this horrifying incident. It was the pre-meditated slaughter of what turned out to be ten completely innocent people.

The Pentagon's now admitted it was all a terrible mistake and apologized.

But that's not good enough
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nivek

As Above So Below
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China 'must be prepared to make the FIRST nuclear strike' in response to growing US presence in the region and AUKUS strategic partnership, senior diplomat declares

China must be ready to use nuclear weapons and should abandon its 'no-first-use' policy to push back against new alliances forming in the Pacific, a senior diplomat has said.

Sha Zukang, the country's former ambassador to the UN, told a summit of Chinese nuclear policy experts that it is time to 're- examine and fine-tune' a long-standing commitment to only use nukes in retaliation as the US 'builds new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighbourhood.'

Beijing's current policy - which has been in place since the 1960s - has given China the 'moral high ground' but 'is not suitable . . . unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first,' he said at a meeting in Beijing last week.

Zukang's comments - which come as China builds hundreds of new nuclear missile silos - are significant because Beijing often floats changes of policy through senior diplomats. The body he was speaking to - the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association - is officially independent, but has strong ties to the Communist party.

He spoke in the same week the US announced a major new alliance with the UK and Australia - dubbed AUKUS - to provide the latter with its first nuclear-powered submarines, a major technological advancement that is clearly designed to counter-balance Chinese power in the Pacific.

Zukang's warning also comes in the wake of another alliance between the US, India, Japan and Australia - dubbed the Quad - with Joe Biden set to host the first in-person summit of leaders today. While the four are cooperating on a range of security issues, the growing threat from China is at the top of the agenda
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nivek

As Above So Below
US lawful permanent resident trapped in Afghanistan with family: 'I don't believe I'm getting out safe'

A former combat interpreter with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, also a permanent resident of the United States, is trapped in the Taliban-controlled country after traveling to Kabul in July to attempt to evacuate his family amid the Biden administration’s withdrawal of military assets from the region.

Zekria, 31, who has lived in Arizona since 2015 and arrived in Kabul on July 17 to help his family to safety, told Fox News the Biden administration did not have a "clear evacuation plan." Fox News is withholding his last name.

"There are a lot of people still left behind. My friends, I know them, they are stuck here. Four of them are American citizens. Two from Arizona and two from California," Zekria said, adding they've been experiencing the same struggle to leave the country.


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nivek

As Above So Below
General Milley and McKenzie BOTH advised Biden to keep 2,500 US troops in Kabul to avoid Taliban takeover but were ignored: Joint Chiefs chair tells Congress botched withdrawal has 'damaged' America's credibility

The nation's top military commander told senators on Thursday that U.S. credibility had been 'damaged by President Biden's hasty exit from Afghanistan. In his first congressional testimony on the withdrawal, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his view had long been that leaving the country, without meeting specific conditions, would likely lead to the collapse of the Afghan armed forces and government. Milley was speaking alongside the secretary of defense and the top U.S. commander in the region at the start of two days of intense questioning about the tumultuous withdrawal. 'I think that our credibility with allies and partners around the world, and with adversaries, is being intensely reviewed by them to see which way this is going to go,' said Milley. 'And I think that damage is one word that could be used, Senators on the Armed Services Committee also heard warnings that the country could still present a terrorist threat to American soil. Officials have said all along that the rapid collapse of Afghanistan in 11 days, as the Taliban advanced rapidly across the country, took them by surprise.


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nivek

As Above So Below
Gen. Milley admits America LOST the Afghanistan war and top Republican calls Biden 'delusional' for the withdrawal fiasco during humiliating House hearing

President Biden's top military adviser offered a devastating verdict on the U.S. war in Afghanistan during congressional testimony on Wednesday, saying for the first time that the 20-year conflict ended in defeat.

Administration officials have repeatedly claimed the conflict achieved its objective of degrading Al Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and ensuring Afghanistan could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

But Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a different view. 'The war was a strategic failure,' he said during his opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

He was later asked whether Biden's decisions were to blame. Milley answered by describing 20 years of missteps and saying for the first time that the war had been lost. 'There's a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years,' he said.

'I don't think that when you ever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost - and it has been, in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted.'

His unvarnished assessment came during a second day of hearings on the administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal and weeks of scrutiny of Biden's decision-making.

The president has been accused of ignoring advice to leave a small contingent behind to support a fragile government.

The end result is that the Taliban control the country just as they did when the U.S. went to war in 2001
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nivek

As Above So Below
Britain shakes hands with the Taliban: Boris Johnson's man in Afghanistan sits down with tyrants including 'Baradar the Butcher' amid fury from backbench Tories



Sir Simon Gass, the Prime Minister's High Representative for Afghan Transition, met with terror chiefs in Kabul - the first summit since British forces evacuated in August (pictured: Sir Simon shakes hands with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, main; chaos at Kabul airport during the evacuation mission, top right; and Taliban fighters patrol the streets today, bottom right). Boris Johnson has faced down fury from Tory backbenchers over the decision to meet with the Taliban, who have executed dissidents, tortures prisoners and forced women into hiding since seizing power from the US-backed government. Sir Simon met with fearsome Islamist tyrants, including the de-facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, known as 'Baradar the Butcher', deputy prime minister Abdul-Salam Hanafi and foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. He was joined in Kabul by the the Charge d'Affaires of the UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha Dr Martin Longden.

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nivek

As Above So Below
US nuclear attack submarine collides with an 'unknown object' in the South China Sea amid rising tensions with Beijing over Taiwan

A U.S. fast-attack, nuclear-powered submarine struck a mystery object while submerged in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on Thursday, injuring as many as 11 sailors. In a brief statement, the Navy said the U.S.S. Connecticut remained in a stable condition and that her nuclear plant was not damaged. It did not offer a specific location but U.S.N.I. News reported that it happened in the South China Sea.

A defense official told the site that 11 people were injured and the boat was now headed to Guam, where it was expected to arrive on Saturday. The region has been the scene of intense naval activity in recent years as China flexes its military muscles and the U.S. conducts 'freedom of navigation' missions to limit Beijing's influence.

The accident comes as Washington expresses concern about China's increasingly belligerent stance towards the self-governing island Taiwan. And on Thursday it emerged that U.S. special forces and Marines have been training troops on the South China Sea island for at least a year.

In a statement, the Pacific Fleet said the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut struck an 'unknown object' on Sunday. 'The safety of the crew remains the Navy’s top priority. There are no life threatening injuries,' it said. 'The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition.

'USS Connecticut’s nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational. 'The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The U.S. Navy has not requested assistance. The incident will be investigated.'


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