LB, Vice Admiral Key is Chief of Joint Operations, so I assume is 'running the operation' means oversight from Northwood. IM(H)O, CJO is the obvious choice for a high profile purple operation. Makes me feel less old seeing a serving flag officer who is nearly the same age as me.:)

Is it just me that thinks it is refreshing to see the responsible VSO front and centre, and not someone more junior who is being lined up to carry the can if the operation goes tits up?

ORAC, #299: Biden is probably not in the least worried. Routine domestic politics will quickly drag his own side back into line, and if it doesn't then next year's elections certainly will. And he has plenty enough time before the 2024 election to hold an Afghanistan Inquiry which will expose mendacity, incompetence, or both, in the defence and foreign policy establishments. Most of the evidence has already been published, in SIGAR reports stretching back 13 years and the Inspector's testimony to Congress. It just needs to be given a public airing without being spun and obfuscated. Biden will then have his very own "drain the swamp" narrative with which to appeal to swing voters. And there's already enough evidence of the Taliban having been poised to take over that, if challenged on his decision, Biden will be able to say "it was withdraw, or re-escalate". The facts will be on his side.

I think what we're hearing now is the reaction of the Washington establishment to an elected President *finally* asserting democratic control of defence and foreign policy, after unchallenged technocracy stretching back decades. The "blob" now has a limited window of opportunity to throw mud at Biden in the hope that he changes tack. Once the botched withdrawal drops off the news agenda, its influence will wane rapidly and Army spending (in particular) will come under huge pressure for the next couple of election cycles. Hence the panicked commentary.

Biden's blunt approach, eschewing the usual diplomatic subtleties, speaks directly to US voters. His refusal to take questions and remain aloof at Camp David seems intended to provoke the "blob" into such a frenzy that the voters will be able to work out for themselves what's going on. Meanwhile if (as the commentary goes) allies and partners around the world are genuinely concerned that US security assurances have been undermined by Biden's approach, then we'll see urgent strategic reviews and increases in defence spending all over the West to compensate. Spoiler: ain't gonna happen.

There is a USAF investigation ongoing into the breach of security on the C-17A that clearly either didn't have attached AT Sy or it was inadequate. Not only did 640 people storm aboard but some of them did it while the aircraft was taxying with the rear ramp still partly open. Personally I found that strange when USAF Security Forces is the largest career field with over 55,000 personnel.

Somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 US citizens are stranded in Kabul - most of them not at the airport.

By comparison, here are a couple of videos of the way the UK handled UK citizens and entitled Afghans - AT Sy on each aircraft and orderly loading:

I do not agree with the non-US citizens commenting here on how bad or not this debacle is for Biden.

When you look at the totality of the errors - ignoring military advice, not consulting allies, events which he said only days ago would not happen actually happening, not taking responsibility, blaming everyone else, not taking all the necessary steps to ensure US citizens are evacuated, loss of US prestige, allies wondering whether they can rely on the US umbrella - the list goes on.

The entire debacle would have been avoided if Bagram had been retained for an orderly drawdown with all the required FP in place. Instead, having abandoned Bagram in the middle of the night and abandoned all the FP vehicles, he then had to send 6,000 troops to Kabul Airport (later increased) who still aren't all there yet.

Both impeachment and removal under Article 25 of the Constitution are being talked about now.

As of the State Department presser today, he hadn't even spoken to any world leaders since the debacle started to unfold over the weekend. Minutes ago it was announced he had just spoken to Boris - but I suspect that was initiated by Boris who was taking the initiative on having a G7 teleconference.

US citizens signing up for exit are getting a return e-mail saying they're on their own getting to Kabul Airport.

Here is some straight talking from host Fox News host Dan Bongino (former Secret Service agent) and contributor USMC veteran EOD Tech Joey Jones who lost both legs in Afghanistan:


Prime Time Mon 16 August:

The irony is not lost on me.
Looks like the ripple effects are being felt in Turkey.
Details at this link, if one is interested
For EasyStreet
That's how the smart money will bet.

In 1843 shortly after his return from the battlefields of the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Army chaplain in Jalalabad, Rev. G.H. Gleig, wrote a memoir about the disastrous expedition of which he was one of the few survivors. It was, he wrote, Still seems to have resonance.

His greatest protection against that happening is Kamala would become POTUS. Not even many Democrats like her, or think she would be better than Biden...

Look back at history
 

The reason LBJ et al did not leave Viet Nam was for fear of the political consequences and thousands died because of the delay. Biden took the courageous but unpopular choice of putting an end to the needless and fruitless loss of American and allied lives. How many more years would you wait? And what would the outcome of a future departure be? Not much different. And for what purpose?

Theres no bodies nor blood on this, just simply the ones sitting on the C17 MLG nacelle on take off. They are waving enthusiastically to others,
Oh the ignorance. A few can be seen coming to their senses and hopping off.

There is another video circling with these same guys on the other end of the runway after take off. I will not link it.

From the same source as above - return of the Taliban leaders from Qatar yesterday in a C-17. Presumably under some safe-passage deal with the U.S.?
Hopefully enables this to conclude without further loss of life...

And we are having Qatar operate a training wing with Hawks at Leeming.

It would seem that a deal has been done - Taliban chiefs flown in from the Gulf in USAF C-17 - Taliban say all foreign troops must be out by September 11. As we approach this date things will get more and more frantic. Who will be left behind?

Fixed it for you.

As a previous post makes clear it was a Qatari C-17, not US.

Nothing outrageous about their presence i4 the flight. The Taliban have had an office in Qatar since 2013 where talks between them, the Afghan leadership and all other interested parties including the USA took place on neutral territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliba..._Doha_Dialogue

Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer, has stated in the HoC that an RAF evacuation flight has left Afghanistan mostly empty and asked that this “allegation” be investigated.

Not sure he realised that like, trains, such aircraft can’t just sit waiting in the ground until the ground staff fill it up.

Ignoring the doubtless limited pan space being booked for use by incoming US, German, Spanish etc aircraft, the crew of the aircraft in question will be watching the clock on their own crew duty day time - and the arrival airfield will have a slot time for their arrival with another relief crew waiting, probably to bring it back again for yet another cycle., along wit( whatever supplies those on the ground need to continue operations.

If the hard stretched troops on the ground haven’t either had enough people reach the airport to put in board, or time to clear those who have recently arrived - then it departs with those few who have.

The problem with getting to the airport….

Twitter

My apologies - C-17+deal with Taliban to leave the airport clear until September 10th = the wrong Air Force.
There still appears to have been a deal done if foreign troops can stay until September 10th.
and a strange coincidence that the C-17 seen taxying followed by huge numbers of people had the reg/code 1109 on the nose.

Listening to the debate in Parliament I wondered which planet some folk [May, Starmer et al] were from.

The naked truth is surely that if the US leaves, we must leave. These clever politicians have run down our armed forces to the extent that I doubt we could find enough to do the job without resorting to extremes of violence that our public could not tolerate. If the Russians could not, and the USA could not/ would not, and 300,000 Afghans did not, there is no realistic chance of Team GB hacking it............ two shiny aircraft carriers and a few Lightnings are an irrelevance. I think the British public would oppose any further intervention..

Then there is "why"? I haven't a clue as to why, except to double down on failure, like a desperate gambler.

Where BoJo's critics would do well to concentrate might be the planning and execution of withdrawal, but even there we are very dependent on Uncle Sam, and indeed seem to be making a better fist of it.

Sh1t happens, and this is a big SH1T, but it was an inevitable scenario, the only questions being when and how..

But then I am only a civilian, and a long-retired one: handed in all my stuff at Waddington in 1997..

You cannot be expecting an intelligent comment from Starmer?. Starmer could even make Biden look good. A typical Labour Party waste of space.