President Biden said Thursday that he’s ordered operational plans for strikes on ISIS-K “assets, leadership, and facilities” in Afghanistan in response to the suicide bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 13 US troops and 60 Afghans.
ISIS took responsibility for the airport attack, and ISIS-K is the group’s Afghanistan affiliate. Leading up to the blasts, US officials were warning of potential ISIS-K attacks on the vulnerable crowds outside of the airport walls.
“We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said of those responsible for the attack. “We will respond with force and precision at our time and the place we choose and a moment of our choosing.”
ISIS-K is known to be based out of the northeast provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar. Estimates from three years ago said the group had between 1,500 and 2,200 fighters, but current numbers are unclear. Over the past few years, the Taliban has fought against ISIS-K and diminished their numbers. In some cases, the Taliban had the help of US air support.
The US still has plenty of airpower at the Kabul airport, so airstrikes are an option for Biden. But with the nature of a group like ISIS-K, there are probably no “facilities” to bomb, and airstrikes would likely result in civilian casualties.
Biden also vowed to complete the evacuation from the Kabul airport and said the attack would not deter the mission. Since the airlift began on August 14th, over 95,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul. Between early Wednesday and Thursday, about 13,400 people were airlifted out.
The US is done with further bombing raids into Afghanistan. With some reliable assurances, the guilty perpetrators will “see” Tomahawk cruise missiles in 24-36 hours.
I prefer swift justice.
Given the nature of ISIS-K, ther is nothing to bomb except men on the run who can’t be found long enough to bomb. We can kill civilians who have been near them, and we’ve done that sort of killing in the past. However, it is criminal and ineffective.
The only way to get them is to dig them out on the ground, but we won’t do that. Therefore, we are likely to fall back on the hostility to them of the Taliban, and give air support to the Taliban the same way we give it to al Qaeda in Syria.
However, I doubt Biden wants to admit that, so the reality will only leak out later.
They will bomb a couple of wedding parties as usual and that is all.
or funeral processions
From the deaths of the wedding party.
ISIS-K just like the Covid19 Delta variant another scam in the NWO power-grab playbook to keep the people in fear.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Creepy Joe Xiden is the worst POTUS in American history. Also, there are consequences when you STEAL an election.
God Bless America
Hard to judge him so harshly since he’s only been in office for 8 months. But the JCPOA is still dead. Israel continues to be gifted. The killer sanctions on Syria, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea continue. No change in Cuba. No change in Yemen. The belligerence towards China and Russia hasn’t subsided. We still have a bloated “defense” budget. The Space Force is still intact. I suppose Biden will have to do some missile strikes on Syria and maybe drop some experimental megabomb on someone while keeping the rules of engagement lessened in all of our ongoing conflicts to keep up with King Donald. But all said, I can’t understand why you would be disappointed in Biden since he’s just like Trump.
Obama (who I voted for twice) was GOP-lite.
The election of 2000 did not involve a “steal”? By none other than the Supreme Court? Trampling over state’s rights (the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a recount), which is funny because I always thought conservatives were big on state’s rights. After that debacle Gore graciously demurred from creating a mess, choosing to bow out, unlike Trump.
The election of Biden is on record as being one of the most secure ever.
The madness of today is the result of electing Donald Trump in 2016 )I voted for neither Trump or Clinton).
Looks like the pressure on Biden to stay in Afghanistan un whatever capacity is paying off. Some paid operatives, airport and easy target, Where on earth are those thousands of troops if they were unable to set barricades to insure not anyone could come close to detonate anything.
Anyway, stage is set for a mess. Just the way our zealots love it. Asking for trouble.
“Where on earth are those thousands of troops if they were unable to set barricades to insure not anyone could come close to detonate anything.”
They WERE able to set barricades to “insure not anyone could come close to detonate anything.” That’s why the detonations occurred outside the airport rather than inside it. And some of those troops were patrolling outside the perimeter, which is why 13 of them were killed.
I admit to being frustrated, and looking at the operation as a whole, one cannot help but wonder about the command at the airport.
The explosion aimed at a crowd, considering how many Afghans died. Some Taliban soldiers died as well.
I am sorry for the people trying desperately to leave. But keeping a good separation between secured and unsecured areas — was a task day one.
And patrolling the periphery amidst
the uncontrollable mass of humanity? This means there was no periphery.
We cannot pretend everything was perfect.
And no — it is not Biden’s fault. He made a good decision, both strategically and tactically. There are people and teams responsible for such contingencies.
“But keeping a good separation between secured and unsecured areas — was a task day one.”
And it seems to have been accomplished, since the attack took place outside the secured area.
“And patrolling the periphery amidst the uncontrollable mass of humanity? This means there was no periphery.”
The only way for there to be no periphery would be for there to be no Afghanistan outside the airport.
I’m just going to guess here, but that guess is that you’ve never run security patrols outside military-secured facilities during a war. I have. Including airports.
Command and control on the ground. Threat recognition.
Thank you. I question the command on the ground.
One must remember something about ISIS.
ISIS was formed as a US/Israel proxy terrorist army to conduct horrendous attacks even the notoriously evil countries of America and Israel consider to unseemly to openly commit.
Russia and Iran killed most of ISIS in Syria but some survived.
Since ISIS works for the US and Israel , those thousands of US troops could never have prevented an attack COMING FROM THE US!
Notice the most violent and chaotic area in all of Afghanistan is the only place still openly housing the CIA and US troops? That is no accident.
No, it is no accident. We are wanted as much as a hemorrhoid.
I agree that this was a deliberate act of creating reasons why we should stay involved. Everyone is angry, and revenge is called for, Job well done,
Maybe Joe just nailed the problem, remember what the lord said when he was dying on the cross, “forgive them father for they know not what they do”. How about the Lords Prayer we recite at every mass, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us”. Maybe that’s what’s going on, we pray one thing and do another, maybe there really is a God and he’s keeping score, and maybe in his eye we have turned our back on everything he taught us beginning with, “Thou shalt not kill”. What we sow is what we reap, could it be that simple?
This act was professional, aiming at airport crowd and hotel full of departing foreigners. This act screams of “Please Biden, continue attacks on Afghanistan, so that peace and development cannot return.”. There are plenty in our own establishment that want to keep “over the horizon bombing”. It works in Syria, just copy the model.
This peculiar “ISIS” always seemed to commit atrocities suggesting that Taliban was bad — and US installed government will protect you.
Now, a good professional hit, and suddenly Biden is back on war path, and patriotic fervor demands revenge, Same old, same old.
With all respect to those servicemen and their families, as long as troops are there we are at war and people get killed during those things. Hopefully this is the tail end of it.
No! No! Just NO! Not one drone, bomb, rocket. Disengage…………
Who is keeping the count on the number of evacuees?
Could be similar to the bloated “body counts” from Westmoreland in Vietnam.
US will bomb some random group of Muslims and call it justice.
The US population and the msm will concur.
Good call.
After getting out of Afghanistan, let’s not get sucked into another mess in that part of the world.
“We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay”
Wow, strong words… like when he threatened the Afghans and just ended up getting screwed. He’s not even really out yet and he’s asking to get beaten up again.
He was a subject to aggressive Mind Çontrol and he has no memory of the event.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-taliban-afghanistan-bombing-11630014684?st=iitv8in9rrs9d7u&reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter
The Taliban executed the ISIS-K leader and 8 followers after a prisoner release.
So the Americans aren`t leaveing then ?.
This is a Taliban problem not Amerikas
The amount of nonsense spouted about Afghanistan is getting almost limitless.
The fundamental issue which every President beginning with Eisenhower following the cease-fire in Korea had to resolve was the following. Is the maintenance of stability and non-aggression among Asian countries outside the then Soviet Union, now Russia, and China to be perpetually guaranteed and maintained by the Western World only or should that be done jointly by the major powers US, Russia, and China?
When Eisenhower was President China was still in the grips of Mao’s revolution and Stalin was quickly transforming from an ally to an enemy. And with regards to Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Saudi Arabia there was the oil. Well, the response of Eisenhower, JFK, and Nixon was “the West only with the US in the lead”. In other words, Asia outside the Soviet Union and Russia was our “Sphere of Influence”. With the exception of N. Korea and N. Vietnam.
Implicit in that plan was that regime change everywhere on Earth and certainly in Iran was to be our principal tool to control Asia outside the USSR and China. War only when regime change failed.
That resulted in the disaster of the Vietnam war from which absolutely nothing was learned.
Then under Carter it resulted in the Shah-disaster.
Anything learned? No.
When Reagan became president the Soviet Union was exploding into the Russian Federation and lots of new countries. And China was about to become a major economic hence political power.
Any change? Not really. Still the West with us in the lead continued to be the Asian gatekeeper.
Did Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, Trump change anything? Not
really even though the problem area had meanwhile shifted from the
former Indo-China and Malaysia to Central Asia, primarily to Afghanistan
and Iran. With Pakistan a worry too.
Then came 9/11. The administration of Bush II decided to go it alone with our Western allies in Afghanistan and then lied us into Iraq. China and Russia’s proposals to mediate were peremptorily brushed aside.
It resulted in the disaster of our never-ending wars in which we became antagonists of Putin-Russia in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.
If nothing is changed now that idiocy will continue in new clothes but it is meanwhile cheap to blame Biden for sh+t which began almost immediately after the end of WW2.
Stability in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan is a joint task for us, Russia, China and….yes, of Iran.
I believe that Biden wants to end some 75 years of idiocy but it appears that he still wants to do it the old way: us and our allies. Bad. The first absolutely needed step is to get Iran on board as an equal. Then China. Then Russia.
The overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican politicians for different reasons seem to be super-glued in the past.
Ending the war in Afghanistan is only the “beginning of the end”.