Pentagon Launches Operation ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ to Protect Red Sea from Houthi Attacks

Can anyone point out what good came out of Afghanistan?

 

Lots of dead Muslim radicals.

 

Bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is gone. The Afghan people were able to enjoy democracy and freedom for a time, though they ultimately failed to stand up to defend it when the time came. This will all pay dividends over time.

 

How can anyone think Biden's chaotic scramble for the door went well. People hanging on aircraft wheel wells to escape. ... abandonment of American citizens and allies... billions of dollars of military equipment abandoned to the Taliban. Biden's cowardly skedaddle will remain of of America's greatest embarrassments for decades, if not centuries.

 

The entire operation in Afghanistan did not go well but the ending was an epic failure on Biden's watch. Since the buck stops with the president Biden should take full responsibility but he never will. Nation building rarely does workout and yet we already have pundits talking about rebuilding Ukraine as bodies pile up on both sides. I am so ashamed of my country. Do our leaders have no shame?

 

Al Qaeda is not dead. Notice the date. And we didn't need to nation build in Afghanistan to take out bin Laden. If a "risk versus gain" had been determined by the pentagon the US and NATO would not have stayed after taking out the Al Qaeda's training camp in Afghanistan. The pentagon did not learn from the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The US pulled out without letting anyone know they were leaving including its NATO allies. The US did the very same thing to the South Vietnamese. And what did we gain there after 15 years of war?

Ken Elliott: Australian hostage, 88, freed by al-Qaeda militants
19th May 2023, 12:17 AST
By Tom HousdenBBC News, Sydney
at the expense of reputation of America and NATO countries. Nation building at its worst.

 

And yet they are flourishing again in Afghanistan.

 

What you say is all true. Afghanistan was a tremendous failure by Biden that will haunt us for years. We have no reason to be in Ukraine. But with all the fantastic things America has done over the centuries, it takes more than the failure of Biden to make me ashamed of my country. This too shall pass.

 

Why is it that when people draft pro Russian spam on this forum they pose as American patriots and then claim they are ashamed of the US? This tactic is done over and over on this and other forums. Trace it back yourself to see who poses as a patriotic American then says they are ashamed of the US and what their scripts say.

They are predictable, transparent and full of crap.

Let's deal with the last two recycled pro Russian scripts that spread to absolute false comments and they are:
1-a false revisionist script that tries to create a failure in Afghanistan on the US and blame it all on Biden;l
2-absolutely and falsely advance a script that the problems off the coast of Yemen only started once there was a conflict in Gaza in October.

Both of the above are absolutely false.

In regards to 1, the decision to enter Afghanistan was made by Bush and the decision to pull the US was made by Trump. To try as the above individual does to blame it on Biden is blatant revisionism.

In fact it was the Trump administration in February 2020 that negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.

Trump then reduced U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.

So why does the above person try deflect that to Biden? Why? Because Russian spam depends on you having a ten second attention span so they can pass on this horse crap.

Biden in fact delayed the May 1 withdrawal date that he inherited then completed withdraw by Aug. 31, 2021, long after Trump implemented most of it.

Next, the problems off the coast of BOTH Yemen and Iran have been going on long before the latest conflict in Gaza. To try suggest they only arose with the Houthis in the last two months ago is further revisionist Russian horse crap script:

Attacks on shipping were going on long before the latest Gaza conflict:

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/422361-it-is-irans-war-in-yemen-and-americas-problem/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/us/politics/us-navy-iran-ship-seizures-strait-of-hormuz.html

https://www.rivieramm.com/news-cont...izes-tanker-vessel-takes-fire-off-yemen-75974

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-harassed-us-flagged-cargo-ship-last-week-pentagon-says/

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/deterring-iranian-provocations-sea

https://jinsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Memo_Iranian-Naval-Provocations-1.pdf

https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/050620231

https://www.cp24.com/world/ship-use...-in-red-sea-off-yemeni-coast-1.5377382?cache=

The harassment of shipping is something Russia, Iran and China all benefit from and are directly related to:

1-the Ukraine war
2-China competing with India's merchant marine for the same natural resources
3-Iran who started a war in Yemen as a proxy war against Saudi Arabia in retaliation for Saudi Arabia and Egypt fighting Hezbollah in Syria.

Enough with this Russian crap.

Enough with the posing of being American and ashamed of "America".

Let me make one last thing crystal clear to the Borises out there. You are now recycling the "ashamed American" pose one too many times. Its stale, its overdone. F off with it and have a nice Russian Christmas said with contempt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196...-operations-are-among-the-biggest-its-taken-d

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...plaguing-social-media-with-kremlin-propaganda

https://www.institute.global/insigh...how-break-through-putins-digital-iron-curtain

 

Because we're not there now.

 

China thinks they are going to get into Afghanistan and get the huge deposits of lithium by bribery. Their version of colonialism is just pay anyone who asks don't use your army. Take a look at Zaire, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Central Asia's former Russian puppet states, Sri Lanka to how they move in and suck out the resources below market prices.

No army. Its all flooding the area with bribery and cheap loans that can never be paid back and paying off proxy armed mercenaries to protect the movement of their goods.

Its already started.

What we see is the show down between the Western economic markets and the Chinese controlled puppet nations empire. Two forms of monopoly one run by a so called Communist party, another a cabal of multi-nationals.

Both systems manipulate currency and stock and cause artificial shortages and disruption to each other's supply chains.

Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan are hot spots that break out in multiple smaller locations to prevent a global war. If too many of them break out they start to connect so the key is to try contain them but most today appear to start then linger. Just as Vietnam sucked in France then the US, Afghanistan sucked in Britain, then Russia, then the US, and now Ukraine with Russia, Taiwan with China, Israel with Gaza, Iran with Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, The Sunni nations with their own citizens and Iran, Pakistan and India, on an don, these hot spots can suck in nations and waste time and energy which could otherwise be used to do build economies and protect environmental issues.

Global military wars are obsolete as international banking and trade surpluses and sabotage are the preferred weapons.

One of the major reasons there is a battle in Gaza is because of the huge oil deposits off its coast and the coast of Israel half way to Cyprus.

The battle to see which economic market will control Gaza oil is tied in no differently to how Russian oil supplies are tied in to the Ukraine war.

Ask yourself, just how is China able to get 95% of the oil out of Angola, Mozambique, Sudan Iraq and Iran under world market prices?

Its time some of you look deeper at the global financial interests inter-twined to these localized conflicts.

As yourself who benefits financially from them.

 

Trump had a PLAN to leave Afghanistan. He had an agreement in place to make it happen. When the Taliban failed to establish a cease fire with the Afghan government, the deal was OFF... OVER... LEFT THE BUILDING.

SEVEN MONTHS AND TWENTY DAYS LATER (less time than it took to plan and execute the huge invasion of Guadalcanal in WWII), Biden simply ran away. Biden's chaotic skedaddle fro Afghanistan abandoned US citizens and allies, left the Afghanis high and dry, and gifted the Taliban billions in military hardware.

NONE OF THAT HAD ANYTHING TYO DO WITH TRUMP. HE HAD BEEN GONE FOR SEVEN MONTHS AND TWENTY DAYS.

I am PROUD of America. I am just ASHAMED of BIDEN.

 

Yes, the profit margins of the military industrial complex were increased.

 

prove it, multiple citations required

 

No doubt.

 

Maybe you can prove the MIC took a loss?

 

I never claimed that. in fact I'm quite sure the companies you call the Miitary Industrial Complex Made a healthy profit.

 

"The data showed that Clinton’s largest batch of defense-related contributors, from the beginning of 2015 through February 2016, were associated with General Electric, which received contracts from the Defense Department totaling $2.2 billion in fiscal 2014 and $2.3 billion in fiscal 2013. G.E., based in Fairfield, Connecticut, manufactures engines for many of the military’s fighter aircraft. Clinton got at least $56,478 from G.E. employees.

Another large group of Clinton contributors was associated with Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing, whose employees collectively gave Clinton’s campaign at least $34,545; Boeing builds fighter jets, helicopters, radar systems and works on the military’s nuclear missiles.

Contributors who work for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s largest contractor, gave her at least $28,623. Lockheed Martin is a contractor for numerous defense programs, including the troubled F-35 fighter jet, the most expensive weapons system ever built."
https://publicintegrity.org/nationa...oyees-give-the-most-money-to-hillary-clinton/

 

We don’t need to be close to attack bud

 

In my defense career of over 50 years I have worked for both Boeing and Lockheed-Martin (LockMart). Both companies are filled with lots of veterans who are not very supportive of the left wing Democrat Party. Your figures prove that beyond doubt.

LockMart has 116,000 employees. If they contributed $28,623 to Clinton's campaign as you say... that's 31 cents per employee... not a big deal.
Boeing has 140,000 employees. That's 25 cents per employee... very impressive, huh? LOLOL
General Electric has 168,000 employees. That's 34 cents per employee. Again... probably less than one cup of java.

Troubled F-35? Recent milestones...
• Norwegian F-35s intercept Russian military aircraft operating near Norway. April 25
• The first F-35 assigned to the 115th Fighter Wing arrives at Truax Field, Wisconsin. April 25
• The 2,000th F-35 pilot graduates from training in the United States. April 17
• The U.S. Marine Corps activates its second F-35C squadron. April 14
• Production formally begins on the first F-35 for the Polish Air Force. April 12

920 F-35's delivered
663,000 flight hours logged

That ain't "troubled"

 

Those contribution numbers are not significant.

 

EXACTLY.

 

So then you and I agree on the profits for the MIC. Thank you!

 

Really?
https://www.military.com/defensetec...veries-over-new-corrosion-issues-general.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/ong...roblems-affect-whole-us-military-fleet-2023-1
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ly-mission-capable-55-percent-time-rcna111308

 

New systems always have "growing pains". The early history of the OSPREY was horrendous. Now its an invaluable mainstay in our defense posture. If you're looking for perfection, you'll have to wait until you're dead. You find it anywhere in this life. Keep whining if you want. Reasons to whine are everywhere.