Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul

Re:Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul by WJW on Sunday August 15, 2021 @12:16PM (#28189954)

That would not have aided in the policy goal of "leaving Afghanistan". This was already such a well known strategy in the 80s that the (absolutely fantastic) British comedy show Yes Minister explained exactly how to do it:

Bernard Woolley : What if the Prime Minister insists we help them?

Sir Humphrey Appleby : Then we follow the four-stage strategy.

Bernard Woolley : What's that?

Sir Richard Wharton : Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis.

Sir Richard Wharton : In stage one we say nothing is going to happen.

Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.

Sir Richard Wharton : In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.

Sir Humphrey Appleby : Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

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Re:Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul by forgingahead on Monday August 16, 2021 @04:20AM (#28196019)

The back-and-forth sounds similar to the same concerns raised about mail-in voting and security of the vote for last year, or even for strong action to be taken in early days of the pandemic (masks, border closures, etc).

Nothing to see here since nothing has happened yet, after it happens it's too late to do anything about it. Oops!

Sad I guess, but not unexpected any more.

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