@nooneinparticular Said 
I find myself thinking back to the Benghazi attack under Obama and thinking the exact same things as back then. That arguing about what 'could have been done' conveniently ignores all the possible realities on the ground at the time and just assumes a 'best case' entry point from which to base things off of. Though it's even more unclear then that time because rather than an incident that lasts for hours, we are instead talking about a situation with myriad complications over the course of days if not weeks or months.
History can give us a sense of what happens on the large scale, but not so much on the immediate.
That is, in regards Benghazi "we" should have known the general possibilities of what might have happened at the time... but without very good intelligence, "we" could not have known the specifics... what was going to happen and exactly when it was going to happen.
On the other hand, in regards to Afghanistan "we" should have known that Afghanistan was a lost cause for the beginning... 'graveyard of empires". So, the Afghanistan debacle was highly predictable... quite nearly an obviously 'done deal'... something very easily avoided...additionally the exit from Afghanistan was highly predictable.
>> Yes, Afghanistan "fell" to the Taliban quicker than most would have expected, none the less it wasn't like it was unpredictable/unprecedented.
Benghazi... even the murdered Ambassador, who know the country, political "climate", people, etc.. didn't think he was going to be attacked. No solid intelligence pointed to the day and time, only general threat... i.e. no "actionable intelligence".
Thus, essentially repeating myself....
Benghazi was beyond or nearly beyond the "what should we have done".
Afghanistan was a exercise in complete stupidity...from the beginning to the withdrawal.
Feb 18, 2022 @ 02:53:33
