U.S. military starts Afghanistan withdrawal | Hacker News Reader

U.S. military starts Afghanistan withdrawal

axios.com

23 pointscwwc41 comments

China is using mainly economic tools (very aggressive ones) instead to take over the world. They want to get to EU through Hungary as the weakest point (estabilishing a university through a $1.5BN loan), and it seems like they are getting what they want.

Just checked the link at least three times, and I don't see how this is related to the article.

Are you reading the same article or did you post this by accident?

While the comment may seem off-topic, geopolitics dont happen in a vacuum. You move chess pieces over to one side and you create spaces for your opponents.

Maybe China will fill the void in Afghanistan?

Perhaps they are constrasting this particular U.S. strategy of pressure through boots on the ground v.s. aggressive Chinese foreign economic policies.

Now that isn't to say I think the U.S. does no economic tweaking and fiddling in foreign nations...

History comes and go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wv4Pe13CK0

Ha! I just spent a few hours going through old Soviet music about the war in Afghanistan. Brutal stuff.

This song is great https://youtu.be/8iAoibAgAvM.

Donald trump is responsible for coming to an agreement with the Taliban. But Biden takes all the credit for it.

Dont say the T-word here, that's not allowed.

Most of the comments are off topic from the point of the article, but this is an interesting question. Trump initiated the process, yet the media presents this as a Biden achievement. I dont care about politics at all, but the bias is hard to miss.

The sitting president tends to get recognition for things happening now, regardless of whether or not they had anything to do with it. Likewise, if the economy crashed tomorrow, Biden would get the blame.

I mean there was a decent market hit the other day on that tax proposal/suggestion/comment.

I feel there was sufficient coverage of it during his presidency. Selective memory I suppose.

> ...but the bias is hard to miss.

I think the major supporters of Trump are the working class white people with "Type B" personalities. The audience of this site is the opposite of that mostly, white or non-white. Hence the bias i guess.

I honestly don't know, but I am wondering how much credit for this (and many other things, like various machinations the Economy) can really be given to any president, or if it isn't the product of long-term, behind-the-curtain developments.

I think the presidents dont matter, the decisions are really being made by bureaucrats in the government agencies and lobbyist who influence them.

The media/intel community also pushed the likely bogus Russian/Taliban US troop bounty story really hard last year. But now all of the sudden they have had a moment of clarity:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-intel-walks-back-claim-russ...

Probably all just a coincidence though....

Sure, and Trump tried to take credit for a bunch of stuff that Obama set into motion (and, uniquely Trumpian, for things that didn't even happen at all). Every president does this, unfortunately. It's dishonest, but is just a lame part of American politics, regardless of party. And it works both ways, too. If a mess that a prior president set into motion blows up during the next president's term, that next president tends to get the blame.

(Just FYI: you're being downvoted because you're bringing partisan political mudslinging into a conversation. Not only is that generally not going to fly on HN, as those sorts of subthreads get flame-y quickly and don't contribute to discussion, but it's just not particularly necessary to do here anyway.)

It is not my impression that Biden has taken credit for _anything_ Trump has done. My recollection is that Biden, outside of news clipped down soundbites, HAS recognized things the former president has done:

* from getting a pandemic vaccine developed (though not properly produced, which Biden does deserve credit for pushing as hard as they have on),

* to the agreement that the prior administration reached, but lacked a clear timetable to implement (hence the end of the year soft deadline for pulling out, rather than an unplanned fulfillment mandate).

* to the deplorable crisis that was happening UNDOCUMENTED by the American media where refugees were shoved into the hands of criminals and thugs and inhumane conditions on the Mexican side of the border. Refugees that are fleeing crisis severely exacerbated by years of relief neglect in impoverished nations that they are fleeing as a result of US nationalism and a withdrawal from the world stage.

The border crisis isn't an issue that can be fixed overnight. It is a serious SYMPTOM that is so difficult even that symptom can't be treated in a short time-frame. Let alone fixing the root cause which is hundreds and even thousands of miles from the border.

Not much to be proud of as the loser. Taliban leaders explicitly said they would win by waiting. Now they did.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/world/asia/taliban-afghan...

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