blackwater wrote:

This is actual political discussion, not the DRUMPF IZ HITLERRRR!!!1! stuff that #CousinIt (or whatever alt he's going under) constantly spams.

I do think getting out of Afghanistan was an achievement, but I think it was handled poorly. For example, we left behind a huge amount of military equipment in the country, that fell directly into Taliban hands. We also looked like clowns on the world stage (possibly a factor in Russia's recent aggression?)

I do think there's a question about whether Trump would have followed the timetable he set before leaving office. Trump was often an opportunist who wouldn't focus on one thing for very long -- one reason he didn't accomplish as much as he should have.

The big question is whether the withdrawal COULD have been handled better. A lot of people are arguing that it couldn't. One argument I've heard is that only Biden could have stood up to the generals enough to order the withdrawal, but he didn't have quite enough clout to prevent them from sabotaging it with poor execution. I mean, maybe? I can't really disprove that. But I am a bit skeptical.

This is a bit of a tangent, but reading old mainstream media articles from 2020 or earlier, they're ridiculously pro-war. Trump withdrawing troops is a "mistake that he could still correct" and stuff like that. It's hard to remember just how extreme ending the war was (according to the MSM) in that period.

Lately the MSM line has been changing fast. VERY fast. And there is no self-reflection or follow-up. COVID's another example of this.