Finally done in Afghanistan?

[pbar]

I'm sure glad the adults are back in charge.

 

[herkbum]

Per Jennifer Griffin, Fox News:

18 US commercial aircraft will participate: 3 American, 3 Delta, 3 Omni, 3 Atlas, 2 Hawaiian, 4 United - US defense official says use of planes “will have no impact on commercial flights.”


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

[jazzdude]

Allow me to help you translate since you’re struggling a bit here with the mastery of the mobility language…

Refugees ≠ Americans. Reread his original post. HeyEng said “refugees”. You keep saying “Americans”.

At any rate the Moose crews are going full tilt, timing out will be a thing especially if we have to use those jets more than we need to. How many mil resources do you want to tie up when you could activate part of the CRAF and keep the mil mobility machine going and increase capacity?

Activating the CRAF means that TRANSCOM sees this mission as so important that they can use more gray tails to get people out of Afghanistan and keep moving people out of the AOR on civilian aircraft by trans loading at lower threat (intermediary as HeyEng said) airfields.

Reports of 10-15k Americans in Afghanistan, though a few thousand have been evacuated already. It's likely we'll need to put troops back on the ground to secure the airfield, or maybe even go outside the airfield to recover Americans who cannot make it to the airport, which will increase the number of Americans that will need to be pulled out, plus whatever equipment they bring in/out. There's also aiding our NATO allies with pulling out their citizens (unless we just don't care about our NATO allies anymore, who again, are there because we forced them to participate). All of that is on top of any refugees we want to pull out.

Activating the CRAF means CENTCOM and TRANSCOM screwed the pooch planning the withdrawal, since there's no reason contact airlift couldn't have been scheduled as part of the pullout plan. State might share some blame for not having their transportation requirements communicated to CENTCOM. Same goes for not having mass pax staging areas identified and at least in the process of being prepped when we kicked off the evacuation. I'm not surprised though, seeing how transportation requirements were planned, and the friction between military and DoS.

But yeah, we'll likely need to use the CRAF because we're so far behind and are in reactionary mode, and COCOMs don't like to share resources.

Flexibility is the key to airpower, especially when you can't plan worth a crap.

[HeloDude]

53 minutes ago, jazzdude said:

It's likely we'll need to put troops back on the ground to secure the airfield, or maybe even go outside the airfield to recover Americans who cannot make it to the airport, which will increase the number of Americans that will need to be pulled out, plus whatever equipment they bring in/out.

Remember when Obama pulled troops out of Iraq only to put them back in later…

 

[ClearedHot]

Private groups now attempting to do what the U.S. Government cant...or won't.

 

 

[fire4effect]

9 hours ago, DVT said:

Don't post here much but felt the need to now.

Your question is a grim one.  The response to all that has occured will be, in my opinion, major combat operations again in Afghanistan.  The stench of this calamity, is to great for US Citizens, our Allies and even CNN/Reuters.  You can't leave +15K US citizens behind enemy lines.  No amount of State Dept cajoling is going to free them and the Taliban is not going to let them go.  The idea this is a non-combatant situation is about as truthful as the Stephanopoulos interview.  The open source reports just get worse and worse.  Outright evil/insanity is ongoing against who the enemy desires outside the wire.  

We are in a tremendous bind.  +15k US citizens are now held by a terrorist organization.  We can't strong arm our way out.  We can't bluff our way out either, as the threat of harming them isn't going to work.  Diplomacy will not work.  This is going to be an all out street fight by the 82nd Airborne, 10th Mountain and 24th MEU to save US citizens and restore order to the baddest neck of this here globe.

 

 

 

Yep, you went ahead and said what I was thinking the last 4 days or so couldn't bring myself to put it out there. Even if we dropped everything and ran now eventually we would have to go back and this problems not going away. As shitty as it is we are actually in probably the best position militarily (as opposed to when we still had Bagram and earlier etc.) than if we try again from scratch weeks or months from now when the Taliban have had time to dig in. This is going to get WAY uglier.

[DVT]

26 minutes ago, HeloDude said:

Remember when Obama pulled troops out of Iraq only to put them back in later…

 

If we step back, getting 15k of Americans and even more Afghans out of hell will be a Herculean or Mooselean effort.  What about Americans outside of Kabul?  What about Americans elsewhere in the country???  The optic and danger of just waving Bye Bye to the Taliban/ISIS/Al Qaeda/China & Russia on the way out would be catastrophic for the free world and to the political party of the current President of the United States.  

You have to go back in, you have to secure Kabul and you have to maintain some semblance of control.  The situation on the ground is not what it was 2 months ago. You leave now and your political party just turned over Afghanistan to people who when together come up with ideas like flying airliners into civilian buildings and the Pentagon.  Ummmm, that's not an option because it is career suicide for every numbskull in the WH right now and they KNOW IT.

Edited August 22, 2021 by DVT

[Guardian]

Failure in chief.

[Lawman]

What about those Americans that aren't in Kabul? How the hell are we going to get them out?
 

I found a copy of the CONOP for sustained repatriation of US citizens.



+



=




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pbar]

40 minutes ago, DVT said:

Snipped.... "You leave now and your political party just turned over Afghanistan to people who when together come up with ideas like flying airliners into civilian buildings and the Pentagon.  Ummmm, that's not an option because it is career suicide for every numbskull in the WH right now and they KNOW IT."

Never underestimate the ignorance and short attention span of the typical voter. 

[BashiChuni]

1 minute ago, pbar said:

Never underestimate the ignorance and short attention span of the typical voter. 

Sadly this is true. The American voter checked out on Afghanistan over a decade ago. 

[HeloDude]

And when blaming Trump doesn’t work, don’t forget that you can always blame “climate change” for just about anything…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-taliban-strengthen/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=128397717

[Clark Griswold]

46 minutes ago, pbar said:

Never underestimate the ignorance and short attention span of the typical voter. 

This - "they" will come up with something else to distract the public and squelch the conversation using their damn near monopoly on the modern communication platforms.  Shadow bans, stealth edits, blocking, deplatforming, etc...

Biden quits, Harris takes over after the worst parts of Op Cluster Fornication are over and going into the mid-terms she and them run on supporting the first female president.  That's why she's gone radio silent, if you don't really do anything during a shit storm you'll get less on you, let the old man get battered then come in when his usefulness as a pinata is complete.

How many think that in a year this will be an issue?  The neo liberal/conservative globalist movement is not letting something like utter failure after failure deter the project.  

Edited August 22, 2021 by Clark Griswold
forgot to include the other half of the problem

[kaputt]

43 minutes ago, HeloDude said:

And when blaming Trump doesn’t work, don’t forget that you can always blame “climate change” for just about anything…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-taliban-strengthen/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=128397717

Trump, Climate change, Covid, Systemic racism. Surprised we haven’t seen articles on all 4 being the cause of the problems in Afghanistan. 

[SocialD]

1 hour ago, BashiChuni said:

Sadly this is true. The American voter checked out on Afghanistan over a decade ago. 

 

 

I checked out of Afghanistan a long time ago.  Then they sent me back a decade later.  

[VMFA187]

Taliban photo appears to mock Iwo Jima flag raising in latest propaganda push (marinecorpstimes.com)

[DVT]

37 minutes ago, kaputt said:

Trump, Climate change, Covid, Systemic racism. Surprised we haven’t seen articles on all 4 being the cause of the problems in Afghanistan. 

The cluster of what has occurred is real, those issues are debatable at best after a six pack.  Those focused on the false narratives can't recapture the momentum, when real time events occur that are out of their control.

We could discuss the political points or the average attention span for eternity.  Fact of the matter is, people in the media are already discussing going back in to Afghanistan and the massive security issues that are evolving, which is outside of putting butts in seats outbound.  That reality, of solving the problem, is the only thing that begins a slow climb out of the situation we put ourselves in.

[ClearedHot]

11 minutes ago, VMFA187 said:

Taliban photo appears to mock Iwo Jima flag raising in latest propaganda push (marinecorpstimes.com)

Posted multiple times and discussed on last page of this thread.

[DVT]

3 hours ago, fire4effect said:

Yep, you went ahead and said what I was thinking the last 4 days or so couldn't bring myself to put it out there. Even if we dropped everything and ran now eventually we would have to go back and this problems not going away. As shitty as it is we are actually in probably the best position militarily (as opposed to when we still had Bagram and earlier etc.) than if we try again from scratch weeks or months from now when the Taliban have had time to dig in. This is going to get WAY uglier.

The problem has not gone away.  We had a lid on it, we had cruise control on and now well, here we sit after not doing anything as morons with mopeds saw an opportunity.  Trump, Biden, it doesn't matter.

Whether or not +15k Americans are in Afghanistan does not change what the Taliban/ISIS/Al Qaeda want to do.  Leaving and giving them un fettered access to the land, with the support of Iran/China/Russia is a big WAVE OFF.  The Taliban have been back in some form of control, for less than a week and they killed a women via setting her on fire, for not cooking for them. You want to tell me we are going to obliterate them from the Deid going forward?  Um ok, I'll be in the vault waiting for the awesome briefing.

These guys and their friends attack us at home when left to their own devices...

Hamid Karzai International Airport is what we have ground wise.  We have the 82nd, 10th and 24th.  Heck of a lot better than 12 guys and some horses.  We can start now or we can all turn on the T.V. in the near future and gasp again as these morons pull another savage act and figure out how we get back in with nothing.

Edited August 22, 2021 by DVT

[Lockjaw]

All is well!

Details

[gearhog]

Hey guys, not sure what to do with this. Help/Advice/Recommendations welcome.

I just checked into my hotel here in California and struck up a conversation with the bellman. I was struck by what an incredibly genuine human being he was from the moment he started speaking. He asked where I was from, I asked where he was from.

Afghanistan.

Former interpreter for the Marines. Came here under the whatever program it was that got him and his family US citizenship.

Extremely long conversation ensued until the manger hinted that he needs to be working, not talking politics.

Long story short: He has a brother in Herat with a wife and kids. The brother is in hiding because he also worked for Kellog, Brown, and Root on military bases throughout AFG. The Taliban is trying to root them out. Apparently, he needs some sort of a letter saying he worked for KBR to get the documents required to leave the country.

Latif then asked, because I was former military, if I had any ideas or knew of anything he could do. He's worried that his brother and his family will not survive this. I got a lump in my throat as this whole thing I've been following suddenly became personal. I want to help, but I don't know what to do. I have his contact info. Any comments welcome.

Edited August 22, 2021 by torqued

[FLEA]

30 minutes ago, torqued said:

Hey guys, not sure what to do with this. Help/Advice/Recommendations welcome.

I just checked into my hotel here in California and struck up a conversation with the bellman. I was struck by what an incredibly genuine human being he was from the moment he started speaking. He asked where I was from, I asked where he was from.

Afghanistan.

Former interpreter for the Marines. Came here under the whatever program it was that got him and his family US citizenship.

Extremely long conversation ensued until the manger hinted that he needs to be working, not talking politics.

Long story short: He has a brother in Herat with a wife and kids. The brother is in hiding because he also worked for Kellog, Brown, and Root on military bases throughout AFG. The Taliban is trying to root them out. Apparently, he needs some sort of a letter saying he worked for KBR to get the documents required to leave the country.

Latif then asked, because I was former military, if I had any ideas or knew of anything he could do. He's worried that his brother and his family will not survive this. I got a lump in my throat as this whole thing I've been following suddenly became personal. I want to help, but I don't know what to do. I have his contact info. Any comments welcome.

Will send you a PM. 

[tac airlifter]

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-afghanistan-special-operations/?amp
 

It’s an article about an article, but still worth a few minutes of your time.

[DVT]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/anti-taliban-leader-massoud-says-negotiation-only-way-forward-2021-08-22/

The Afghanistan Governmenr has retaken 3 districts from the Taliban.  As others have stated, the, "Forever War" is not over.  The landscape has just changed.

[GrndPndr]

4 hours ago, torqued said:

Hey guys, not sure what to do with this. Help/Advice/Recommendations welcome.

I just checked into my hotel here in California and struck up a conversation with the bellman. I was struck by what an incredibly genuine human being he was from the moment he started speaking. He asked where I was from, I asked where he was from.

Afghanistan.

Former interpreter for the Marines. Came here under the whatever program it was that got him and his family US citizenship.

Extremely long conversation ensued until the manger hinted that he needs to be working, not talking politics.

Long story short: He has a brother in Herat with a wife and kids. The brother is in hiding because he also worked for Kellog, Brown, and Root on military bases throughout AFG. The Taliban is trying to root them out. Apparently, he needs some sort of a letter saying he worked for KBR to get the documents required to leave the country.

Latif then asked, because I was former military, if I had any ideas or knew of anything he could do. He's worried that his brother and his family will not survive this. I got a lump in my throat as this whole thing I've been following suddenly became personal. I want to help, but I don't know what to do. I have his contact info. Any comments welcome.

Not sure if this was posted before, but these are good folks helping the kind of people you're talking about:

https://nooneleft.org/