Comments by "Tim Trewyn" (@timtrewyn453) on "Marco Rubio Excoriates Blinken To His Face Over Afghanistan Withdrawal During Tense Senate Hearing" video.

  1. The danger of what Senator Rubio touches upon is that the inertia in American leadership's adjustment to the flow of intelligence could significantly contribute to a Chinese calculation to take Taiwan by force. Russia, likewise, can see that the US may not be agile enough to successfully intervene to rescue a border state. The Russians have already proved this under the watch of earlier administrations. e.g. Ukraine. Missing from the Senator's speech is any mention of human intelligence awareness of the state of Afghan government forces. One remembers quotes of numbers and equipment provided, but no mention of much awareness of specific Afghan military leadership actions or fighting spirit as it was evolving in real time. That we have so many SIV's is an indication that even after 20 years of involvement, foreign language skill within the Departments of State and Defense is wanting. We did not know what was happening because we lacked an ability to listen and understand. A few voices did predict a re-enactment of rapid changes in Afghan soldier perspective that had been seen before, e.g. Carter Malkasian. It seems his input was "averaged" into the analysis, if considered at all. And such round units of time "end of the year." Doesn't sound like much of a forward looking model of the battlespace was being used anymore. Whoever contributed to Taliban strategic planning, seems to have taken the change of administration into account. The GW Bush administration was still getting up to speed when 9/11 happened. We'll see how military leadership gets questioned about all this. I do very much appreciate that there seemed to be little, if any, partisanship in the Senator's remarks. He used his time well to focus the American people on the capability of its leadership to deal with a very difficult situation. Unique situations also lie ahead of us. This is not something a President resigns over, and VP Harris is not ready to assume that office. Changes in the Cabinet could be on the table.
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