1/ A THREAD on why the quickening advance of the Taliban isn't a reason to put U.S. troops back into Afghanistan, but rock solid confirmation President Biden's decision to leave was right.
nytimes.com/2021/08/08/wor…
nytimes.com/2021/08/08/wor…
2/ It's hard to watch Afghan cities fall to the Taliban, after all the American lives lost there. But if the Afghan military is folding this meekly, after 20 years of training and trillions of dollars of investment, another 20 years of U.S. occupation wasn't going to fix that.
3/ And the Taliban has been gaining territory steadily over the last decade, even when we had 10,000+ troops.
It turns out building an American-style military in a country w/o a sense of nationalism is impossible. We had a plan that only worked on paper.
nytimes.com/2019/07/19/mag…
It turns out building an American-style military in a country w/o a sense of nationalism is impossible. We had a plan that only worked on paper.
nytimes.com/2019/07/19/mag…
4/ Our presence was also a deadly feedback loop. Taliban and extremist recruiters fed off our occupation.
For instance, strong evidence suggests our drone strikes created more Taliban fighters than they killed.
theatlantic.com/international/…
For instance, strong evidence suggests our drone strikes created more Taliban fighters than they killed.
theatlantic.com/international/…
5/ And finally, 2,500 troops - the number Trump drew down to in compliance with his agreement w/ the Taliban - was not enough to stop the Taliban advance.
Biden would have had to triple that number if he chose to breach the Trump-Taliban agreement.
apnews.com/article/joe-bi…
Biden would have had to triple that number if he chose to breach the Trump-Taliban agreement.
apnews.com/article/joe-bi…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
