Share this page!

Maybe Scrolly?
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Twitter logo
16 Aug, 21 tweets, 13 min read
"[T]here are no signs that the #Taliban is planning any major crackdown on #Al_Qaeda, nor on any other group with foreign fighters with whom it has collaborated inside Afghanistan" - @asfandyarmir mwi.usma.edu/untying-the-go…
And with that, the United Nations has done everything it can.
Not a great vote of confidence in what this Biden speech will say.
Here we go: #Biden begins speaking about the "rapidly evolving events" in #Afghanistan, says he wants to begin with how we got here.
Biden says: "our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation-building", the "only vital interest is preventing a terrorist attack" on the US. Since terrorism has spread beyond Afghanistan ... that makes Afghanistan less important, somehow.
Biden claims the US can deal with "direct threats" from #Afghanistan via "over the horizon" capabilities. Goes on to claim he withdrew because of the deal #Trump made, and the only alternative was "sending thousands more" back "into combat".
"I stand squarely behind my decision": there was "never a good time to withdraw", claims "we were clear eyed about the risks" and "planned for every contingency", though concedes this unfolded more quickly than expected, and then he blames the Afghans and says it proves him right
Biden: "We gave them (the Afghans) every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them the will to fight for that future."

Disgusting blame-shifting.
#Biden says the Afghan leaders were "unable to come together" even "when the chips were down" - omits entirely what the US "peace process" did to strengthen the jihadists - and puts all the blame on a failure to come to a "deal" with the Taliban on the Afghan government.
#Biden once again claims that #Russia and #China wanted the #US to stay in #Afghanistan and are in some way perturbed by this catastrophe.
#Biden: "We will continue to support the Afghan people, we will lead with our diplomacy" and "push for regional diplomacy" (giving space to Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and China). US will "speak out" on the abuses, says "rallying the world" is how human rights are protected.
#Biden: says the Embassy has been relocated to the airport in Kabul and will be assisting Americans, allied civilians, and SIV-applicable Afghans. Biden blames the Afghans for the US not starting the evacuations earlier - the population and government.
#Biden promises a "devastating" response if the #Taliban disrupt the #US evacuation operation. Says the collapse is "proof" that he was right.
#Biden uses the phrase "graveyard of Empires", refers to "another country's civil war", "I do not regret my decision", remain "laser focused" on terrorism, and the "buck stops with me", after a speech blaming Trump and the Afghans.
#Biden says staying in #Afghanistan "is not what the American people want", and as their leader he must follow them.
#Biden concludes by saying he bravely bearing all this "criticism" in order to take the right decision for America. And then leaves without taking a question.
In sum: #Biden blamed Trump but more than anything the #Afghans, and adopted the talking point that "they didn't fight for themselves" (after he removed their capacity to do so against #Pakistan's jihadists) and said the disaster he has orchestrated proves he was right.
The #Biden administration has for a while veered between "we're nice" and "fuck the Afghans, America First" in its messaging; the President has at least now taken a firm line. And it might well work: the nationalist tone of this speech probably appeals to a lot of Trump voters.
If the TV networks were still doing the fact-checking thing about Presidential speeches, the core lie in #Biden's speech that would be the centre of attention is the idea it was the #Afghan government that was at fault for there not being a "peace deal" with the #Taliban.
The Taliban refused to recognise the Afghan government and the US went over Kabul's head, "only the first in a disastrous series of steps within the framework of this so-called peace process" that mortally weakened the state. telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/1…
What a horrible, needless situation this all is.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Kyle Orton

Kyle Orton Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @KyleWOrton

Kyle Orton Profile picture
15 Sep
In Sept. 1971, the KGB's Oleg Lyalin defected from the London Embassy and told the British government about the really alarming (and some quite bizarre) "special actions" the Soviets had been planning on the West, precipitating the mass expulsion Soviet spies in Operation FOOT.
The interesting thing is that this meant the West was quite well aware, from near the beginning of Andropov's renewed campaign, that Soviet terrorism was a very real phenomenon, and yet down to the end most in the West considered it a "conspiracy theory"
The KGB recruitment of Wadi Haddad of the PFLP in 1970 was the turning point: his Palestinian group was given weapons that even Eastern Bloc states hadn't received and given tasks as various as kidnapping CIA officers and assassinating Soviet defectors.
Read 7 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
15 Sep
#Pakistan's claim to be a victim of terrorism rests on groups like #TTP ("Pakistani Taliban"), but it was the Army/ISI who created the jihadist emirate in North Waziristan where this group was formed, with the active and ongoing assistance of the ISI's loyal Haqqani Network. ImageImage
#pt: "The Foutainhead of Jihad", pp. 164-5.
The #Haqqani-run enclave in North Waziristan, operating with the full backing of #Pakistan's ISI, not only nurtured the #TTP the Pakistanis would later portray as a mortal foe, it of course supported the "Afghan" #Taliban and was where #Al_Qaeda organised many post-9/11 plots. ImageImage
Read 9 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
14 Sep
#IS established itself in "Af-Pak" by building off the Afghan Salafist community that took root in eastern areas via the Arab presence there beginning many decades ago. The Salafis had some second thoughts, but the #Taliban is now pressuring them, too. trtworld.com/opinion/the-dy…
#pt: The Taliban made an approach to IS-Centre in 2015 to ask that ISKP not be used to open another jihadist front, since this would distract from the war with the West. No dice. IS didn't even bother to reply.
#pt: The original Pakistani, mostly TTP, leadership of #ISKP was killed off quite quickly and replaced with Afghan Salafis. The current leader, though, Dr. Shahab al-Muhajir, seems to be a former Haqqani Network operative, and has peeled away other parts of that network.
Read 4 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
13 Sep
The lengths the #KGB went to in trying to destroy #Solzhenitsyn even after he had been expelled from the Soviet Union are extraordinary, and not entirely irrational: they understood the danger he posed to them.

<Mini thread drawn from "The Sword and the Shield", pp. 312, 317-21>
Andropov first tried to expel Solzhenitsyn in autumn 1971, but Brezhnev listened to interior minister Nikolai Shchelokov, who said the great writer should be co-opted rather than persecuted. Andropov did not forget this, and later witch-hunted Shchelokov until he killed himself.
In late 1973, after Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov wrote an open letter that encouraged Congress to override the Nixon-Kissinger administration by passing Jackson-Vanik that linked Soviet trade privileges to human rights, Brezhnev said the KGB should have cracked down from the start.
Read 9 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
9 Sep
#Pakistan's ruler from 1999 to 2008, General Pervez Musharraf, wrote in his memoir: "It is true that we had assisted in the rise of the #Taliban after the Soviet Union withdrew from #Afghanistan" (p. 202). Image
Even after #Pakistan's General Musharraf disparages the "obscurantist" nature of the #Taliban and the "peace of the graveyard" they brought, he writes: "Nevertheless, we still supported them, for geostrategic reasons", to minimise Indian influence in #Afghanistan (p. 203).
Musharraf tries to create a narrative where #Pakistan was not engaged with the #Taliban at inception, even though the Saudis and UAE were (p. 201-11), which is absurd, and that the ISI had lost its "leverage" over the Taliban after it came to power (pp. 203, 209), equally absurd.
Read 9 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
5 Sep
"Though Mr. Biden reversed other Trump policies, he was inclined to go through with the Afghan [withdrawal] ... The military argued for keeping 2,500 troops ... Bagram air base was central to the military's plans" for drones and special forces. wsj.com/articles/insid…
On 8 May, "The Pentagon wanted a discussion on an emergency evacuation of the embassy and how to plan to remove Afghans at risk, but White House officials asked that those issues be removed from the agenda"

Again, Biden cannot say he didn't know. Biden chose to leave the Afghans
Even Jake Sullivan thought closing Bagram Airbase was a bad idea, and in June there was a pause for four days. But Biden insisted on doing all this with 650 troops in Kabul, so the Pentagon could only protect either Bagram or HKIA, and Biden went with the latter.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @KyleWOrton has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @KyleWOrton!

Read all threads by @KyleWOrton

:(