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RhymeBeat Bird mom from Eastern Standard Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Bird mom
#2576: Aug 22nd 2021 at 8:42:39 PM

God the send off for the White Void was hilarious.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2577: Aug 22nd 2021 at 11:21:21 PM

So which part of that will make it to Youtube?

Optimism is a duty.
Kayeka from Amsterdam Since: Dec, 2009
Kakuzan Let memes die. Kill them, if you have to. from Knock knock, open up the door, it's real. Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Let memes die. Kill them, if you have to.
#2579: Aug 23rd 2021 at 5:36:17 AM

I could be wrong, but it feels like bits and pieces were sorta left out or lacking in context with the quotes and videos used.

Don't catch you slippin' now.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2580: Aug 23rd 2021 at 5:48:22 AM

Is it possible the video was edited to fit the Youtube format? Has anyone seen the original episode?

Optimism is a duty.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2581: Aug 23rd 2021 at 12:47:07 PM

We Have One Last Chance to Save Our Allies: If the United States acts now, it can still evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans whose lives are at risk for the aid they gave us.

Watching the address, I sensed that the years of futile war have left Biden with a kind of animus against Afghanistan and Afghans—that he is the same man who, in 1975, said on the Senate floor, “The United States has no obligation to evacuate one, or 100,001, South Vietnamese.” The same man who, according to the late Richard Holbrooke’s diary, in 2010 told Holbrooke that he wanted to withdraw every troop from Afghanistan regardless of the consequences for Afghans. “I am not sending my boy back there to risk his life on behalf of women’s rights, it just won’t work, that’s not what they’re there for,” Biden insisted. When Holbrooke asked what a complete withdrawal would mean for Afghans who trusted us, Biden replied: “Fuck that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.”

... Why am I supposed to like this guy again? Please tell me.

Who is this guy?

Optimism is a duty.
Kayeka from Amsterdam Since: Dec, 2009
#2582: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:33:20 PM

He's not Trump. That's was a lot of it. But now Trump is largely irrelvant, and now Biden has to stand on his own.

I feel he did pretty well so far, but the Afghanistan withdrawal is a disaster.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2583: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:40:46 PM

I think this disaster and Biden's callousness shows just how low a bar "he's not Trump" really is.

Optimism is a duty.
Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#2584: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:43:23 PM

[up]Unfortunately, the two options in our two-party system are the Democrats, the definition of "At least you tried" and unbridled fascism.

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#2585: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:49:35 PM

From an image standpoint, Biden has to stand on his own. From a more practical standpoint, Trump left Biden standing in quicksand. Trump is the one who made peace deals with the Taliban and then made no attempt to hold them to their end (but did force the Afghans to release Taliban prisoners). Trump is the one who made sure everything would expire once he left office so that his successor would have to deal with it. And Trump is the one who locked Biden out during the transition period so that no one knew the extent of the problem.

Could Biden have done better? Maybe. But this is not a case of Biden going "It will look good for me if I get us out of Afghanistan. Obviously our allies don't matter, I just need to get our troops out as soon as possible."

Krory Since: Aug, 2012
#2586: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:49:43 PM

As badly as Biden fucked this, I'm having trouble seeing how he could have done much better. This was always going to be the result no matter who was in charge, because the reality is that the military and the political class have never given a crap about the Afghans. Procedures for this evacuation should have been created 15 years ago, and the blame for that fall on every president after Clinton.

edit:[up] I also can't blame Biden for not knowing that the Afghanistan military would immediately crumple and offer literally zero resistance to the Taliban. Apparently that caught everyone, from the joint chiefs all the way down to the soldiers still stationed in Kabul off guard.

Edited by Krory on Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:51:52 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2587: Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:57:05 PM

I don't see what Trump has to do with how Biden appears on camera. How is Trump causing Biden to make a callous ass of himself?

The situation may partly be Trump's fault, but Biden's media appearance definitely is not. That's all on Joe.

Optimism is a duty.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#2588: Aug 23rd 2021 at 3:14:56 PM

I think Biden did quite well, and your interpretation is not the only possible one.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Windona Guten Morgen from Trying to leave Gotham (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Guten Morgen
#2589: Aug 23rd 2021 at 4:42:45 PM

Biden being apparently callous? Definitely on him. I would have liked for him to at least say 'we should make sure to get people visas to come to the US'

The withdrawal is not something I put squarely on him. I do give him some blame given he was Obama's VP so he should have had *some* idea, and he was a Senator when the war began, but as was pointed out Trump made the peace deal and this problem has been continuing since W Bush.

My AO3
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2590: Aug 23rd 2021 at 4:44:05 PM

Who do you mean, Fighteer?

[up] I do find it rather hard to believe that they so severely misjudged the state of the Afghanistan army, when being in the best position to do so. Perhaps they were blind to their own undermining influence? Believed too much in the numbers on paper rather than the actual facts?

Edited by Redmess on Aug 23rd 2021 at 1:46:06 PM

Optimism is a duty.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#2591: Aug 23rd 2021 at 4:52:05 PM

"Biden is making a callous ass of himself on camera." No, he is not. He's stating truth. People are conditioned not to like that.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#2592: Aug 23rd 2021 at 4:59:59 PM

…”stating truth” is a very weird way to describe “Biden defends not evacuating numerous Afghan allies, a matter that is likely life or death for them, by defending the abandoning of thousands of South Vietnamese allies by some of the most despised American politicians in recent history”.

Per the mods' repellant efforts to avoid all responsibility, I regret to announce this is the end of my time on TVT. I'm going now. Goodbye.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from a handcart heading to Hell Since: Mar, 2011 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#2593: Aug 23rd 2021 at 5:01:54 PM

I think the idea that the US owes nothing to the Afghan people who trusted the US when it said it would protect them (and who had much of their country handed over to US contractors) is much more subjective than you’re giving it credit.

“Fuck the Afghans” isn’t a statment of fact.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Kayeka from Amsterdam Since: Dec, 2009
#2594: Aug 23rd 2021 at 5:17:51 PM

“Biden defends not evacuating numerous Afghan allies, a matter that is likely life or death for them, by defending the abandoning of thousands of South Vietnamese allies by some of the most despised American politicians in recent history”.

Well, he's not really defending them. Just stating that they got away with it, and implying that he should too.

miraculous Goku Black (Apprentice)
Goku Black
#2595: Aug 23rd 2021 at 5:23:00 PM

And he will....

Let's be honest in few months America will just shrug and move on.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Windona Guten Morgen from Trying to leave Gotham (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Guten Morgen
#2596: Aug 23rd 2021 at 6:57:30 PM

@Redmess to be honest, between Trump making the transition as hard as possible and all the domestic issues, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more of a 'Biden has 9000 pressing issues and is trying to get a lot done thus let some things fall through the cracks' more than anything, and didn't do the proper read and review of the Afghanistan situation. But when you're the POTUS, something falling through the cracks can cost thousands of lives.

My AO3
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2597: Aug 23rd 2021 at 11:41:05 PM

That's quite something to let fall through the cracks.

And Trump can't be the excuse for everything. I feel like people are using Trump as a way of absolving Biden of responsibility. At some point you'll just have to expect that Biden is the one in charge and he is the one responsible for dealing with problems and for the solutions he does or does not use.

Man, Trump has become quite the means to get away with murder. Just say "it's ultimately all Trump's fault, really", and people will forgive you...

Optimism is a duty.
windleopard from Nigeria Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
#2598: Aug 24th 2021 at 2:32:49 AM

"Every time we turn a country upside down or make mistakes.."

I do love when Fox News plays themselves.

Windona Guten Morgen from Trying to leave Gotham (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Guten Morgen
#2599: Aug 24th 2021 at 4:44:11 AM

[up][up]Well, as Oliver pointed out, Trump was the one who made the deal with the Taliban without the Afghan government. So yes, Trump does have a huge hand in things he started under his presidency, funny enough. But I did point out that it's an issue that started with W, and that Biden did have a hand in as VP and Senator, not to mention as Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

And 'can't blame everything on Trump' no, but ignoring his impact doesn't help either. The pull he has over the Republican party is still strong which makes things getting past Congress hell, for one.

My AO3
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#2600: Aug 24th 2021 at 4:47:31 AM

Of course, but I'm noticing rather more of "Biden can't help it, it's all because of Trump" than the reverse. People seem to want to deflect direct accountability for Biden by using Trump as a scapegoat (tempting a scapegoat as he may be).

Optimism is a duty.

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