Leaderboard

Did anybody ever really know what it was about? After several years of flying sorties over that place & seeing very little substantive change I came to the conclusion that the only reason I, or anyone else was there was for another OPR/EPR bullet. The failure of leadership in Afghanistan lays bare what happens when an organization allows itself to fall victim to blatant and unabashed careerism. The only “accomplishments” we can claim are XXX lbs offloaded, XXX TICs supported, XXX Enemy Combatants (we hope) KIA, etc. etc. NOBODY from the four stars down ever REALLY wanted to tackle the questions of what we were doing there or what the end game was. Just do your tour, write your bullets, get your promotions, retire and let somebody else deal with the hard questions. I have no dog in the fight anymore, but as Joe Bagadonuts taxpayer (and as someone with many friends continuing to serve……..Thank You. You have a much higher bullshit threshold than I), I truly hope there is a reckoning in the military over the next decade (a la post-Vietnam) & that our future leaders can internalize our failures and codify solutions that will ensure we think a lot harder about how we expend this nation’s treasure in future endeavors.

Those on the ground on day last did the best they could. Situation totally fucked. Blame lies with every leader who let us keep going without an obtainable objective for years.

Kirby was smart, he put the mandate in place well before anybody had radicalized behind their position one way or the other. That left only 3% by the time the government stepped in and guaranteed compromise was dead. American is in a different boat. Something like 3, 000 are on vaccinated, and they've had months of telling everybody who will listen that they're not getting the vaccine. Pride is not so easily overcome, and 3,000 Pilots have a whole hell of a lot of more leverage than 300. I'm genuinely curious as to what's going to happen, because American Airlines couldn't afford even 500 Pilots quitting, and I've flown with multiple Pilots who claim to have already submitted their retirement paperwork. These guys are in their 50s. But our CEO played the same game last year during the furlough crisis. Hardball with the government up until the last minute, and even past it. Then throw his hands up and say he did everything he could but if the government doesn't change their position, all is lost. There's a 0% chance that this administration is going to tolerate this type of turmoil, especially one that will have an effect on the market, when their approval ratings are dipping below 44%. I'm vaccinated, so I don't really have skin in the game. But this mandate stuff is bullshit. The vaccine is no longer sufficient to stop the spread, and thus any justification for mandates, questionable as they were before, are now completely invalidated. And if you're stupid enough to think that it stops here, and won't involve a whole slew of medical decisions starting with mandating boosters, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Interesting to hear the perspective from Gates. He thinks he has the credibility to throw stones, and doesn’t realize what a loser he is.

My compliments to both of you! It's nice to see some civility on here!

I wasn't trying to mock what your wife has to deal with at work. I apologize if it came off that way. I was mocking the President.

You are arguing with a nihilist…

For the record, @hindsight2020 made a pretty good case back on page 9 about how Afghanistan was never about "regime change," or anything of the sort.

The blame lies with several misunderstandings. You cannot “regime change” for a population unless they already really want to or you plan on never leaving. If they’re dead set against it - or even just indifferent - plan to be there for 50+ years like Germany, Japan, and Korea. And maybe Iraq, who knows. If you don’t want to be somewhere for 50 years, or you don’t think that successive political administrations will have the stomach to stay, either don’t start a war or accomplish your objectives quickly with violence and let the locals decide what to do with their loser leader. “We need to get out because we’ve been there too long” isn’t correct whatsoever. That’s was poor leadership from our politicians, including Trump.

Are you saying the experts were "surprised" when a virus mutated? If so we may need to evaluate their credentialed expertise. But this was totally predictable. Only the US is having these massive communication failures. In Europe they were talking about Delta concerns with the vaccine as far back as February. I remember a TIME article from January that predicted the virus would likely out mutate the vaccine and the likely conclusion to the pandemic would be mutation to a variant that human society can tolerate.

It's almost like a new strain happened right about that time, changing the situation and all of the underlying assumptions. No need for elites.. it's quite obvious what happened. People on the right got it wrong too. Ben Shapiro was harping for weeks about how the pandemic was effectively over.. right before cases went through the stratosphere again.

Is it normal to only see the last 5 assignments in the bio? I feel like they usually list everything. DS to Vice to CC of the same wing in 3 years…also, unusual to me. ~Bendy Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

Ah yes, the only things I find funny are funny argument. A true man of the times.

But did you see his Master's in Pastoral Counseling from Liberty, VA?!...the morality class (catholic centric maybe??) must've been online, and wonder what (and if) he discussed in it...intriguing twist

My apologies for getting my hackles up and I appreciate your response. And this is a bit off this thread's topic anyways 👍

Having a 16 year old call my wife a "MOTHER F$$$ING BITCH" because she told him to pull up his pants or take off his hat is not funny. It is not a subject I lighten up on at all.

I would have thrown grandstanding jackass out in this game of charades, but nihilist is more accurate.

Afghanistan, border disaster, inflation, massive supply chain issues, gas and oil at their highest in many years, IRS planning to spy on every American's bank account, underwhelming job numbers, and a new Presidential tradition of turning your back and walking away in silence every single time you speak.

https://taskandpurpose.com/opinion/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-must-resign/ Well written article.

My spouse is a HS assistant principal with over 3200 students in her school and says the kids this year while they are behaving well in class, they are like feral cats when they are out in groups (lunch, after school sports, etc.) It is the worst she has seen in 26 years working in education. In the first two months of this year, she has been called the C and B words multiple times. And their parents are no better. If I had ever spoken to a teacher/adult the way kids talk to her, my dad would have hit me in the head with a shovel, buried me in the back yard and told everyone I had run away. You could not pay me enough to deal with the things she has to put up with day to day. I'll be glad when she retires.