Pentagon spokesman confirms explosion outside Kabul airport, no word on casualties

LOL, yeah. They're our pals now.

Apparently they have Americans they won't let leave the country. No telling what they're going to ask for.

 

Trump has left the White House 8 months ago
Biden botched everything including Afghanistan withdrawal.
Trump is bad.

 

Recognition by the United States, as a minimum.

 

Probably. Keys to the humvees and a few billion dollars to boot, highly likely.

 

At the federal agency where I worked there's a memorial wall with a star engraved for each of us who lost his/her life in the service of our country. Your view is thoughtless and uninformed.

 

IOW, "America Held Hostage Day 1"

 

Has that agency ever done anything that benefited the USA and its people?

 

Unexpected:

 

Every day.

 

Got any examples?

 

Every day around the world US policy makers are supported by intelligence collected to meet their requirements.

 

I assume that the individuals working for our intelligence agencies are working hard to support our policy makers.
Are you aware of any foreign policy decision that resulted in a significant benefit for the USA and the American people?

 

I believe somewhere over the centuries we Americans have assumed the roll as Female Dogs. very generous Female Dogs

 

The results should have been predictable. In fact they were predictable. The CIA should have warned our policy makers, or at least read Friedan before assuming the position.

“On women's silent dissatisfaction:
"It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban housewife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question: 'Is this all?'" Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique.
POP SUGAR, Peek Inside the Book That Sparked a Second Wave of Feminism, by LAURA MARIE MEYERS, February 19, 2013.
https://www.popsugar.com/love/Betty-Friedan-Feminine-Mystique-Quotes-28158627

Good analysis, but I think Peggy Lee said it better.



Clearly a projection of US foreign policy through the decades.

 

Perfect!

 

Yes. Every day.

 

Indeed, our recent success in Afghanistan is a testament to that!

 

Even the best intelligence cannot redeem bad policy.

 

Please share some examples of specific foreign policy decisions based on intelligence agency assessments that resulted in a significant benefit for the USA and the American people.

 

In the 1980's the CIA ran a Soviet source who saved the US tens of billions of dollars in military R&D.

The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War - Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com › Billion-Dollar-Spy-Espiona...

Drawing on previously classified CIA documents and on interviews with firsthand participants, The Billion Dollar Spy is a brilliant feat of reporting and a ...

 

Some crystal ball projections from our Aussie friends… not that we need any. Hello President Harris, soon

 

Tyvm for sharing that source. The book sounds very interesting.
Tolkachev was clearly an incredibly productive CIA agent. A great CIA win, but it also reveals why our presidents and other intelligence consumers should never have full confidence in intelligence assessments. Tolkachev was betrayed by CIA officer working for the KGB.

“Tolkachev provided information any time information became available to him. He handed over to CIA details about air-to-air missiles, surface-to-air missiles such as S-300 and information about fighter aircraft such as Mig-31 and Su-27.

Despite being very careful, he was captured by KGB in 1985. KGB learned about him from CIA officer Edward Lee Howard who defected from the US to the Soviet Union. Howard died in 2002 in his Russian dacha, reportedly because he fell and broke his neck.”
HISTORY OF YESTERDAY, The CIA’s Billion-dollar Spy, Adolf Tolkachev destroyed Soviet aircraft program, By Peter Preskar, 8/9/20.
https://historyofyesterday.com/adolf-tolkachev-spy-5f85e000a063

The billions saved by all of Tolkachev's good intelligence has to be weighed against the cost of all the bad intelligence he generated for CIA after he was betrayed.

 

I think Biden is the best the DP has to offer now.
Pelosi would be terrible, but better than Harris.

 

The damage after his arrest was negligible.

 

Does not sound very negligible.

“Arrest and execution
After being captured in 1985, Tolkachev collaborated with KGB in hopes of reduced punishment. Over the next ten months, he fed the CIA with falsified information which the CIA gladly took since they had the utmost trust in Tolkachev.

Data, which was “cooked” at KGB Lubyanka headquarters slowed down the development of US stealth bomber. Once Americans developed stealth bomber, codenamed B-2 Spirit, generals in Pentagon were shocked — their 30 billion dollars worth bomber was invisible only to US anti-aircraft systems.

In 1986 Tolkachev was sentenced to death and executed. His wife Natasha was sentenced to three years in prison.”
HISTORY OF YESTERDAY, The CIA’s Billion-dollar Spy, Adolf Tolkachev destroyed Soviet aircraft program, By Peter Preskar, 8/9/20.
https://historyofyesterday.com/adolf-tolkachev-spy-5f85e000a063