I think explosive vests tend to be pretty minor in terms of actual death and destruction.
I agree it must be a terrifying situation, both for our marines and everyone in the country.
Yep, and crashing an airplane into a NYC skyscraper, or two, has a minor impact on the population of a country.
The point of terrorism isnât the immediate body count, itâs creating the uncertainty and fear.
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If you were to tell me âIn this group of 10,000 people, only one of them has an explosive vest on, and only one person is likely to die from itâ⌠you are NOT getting me in that crowd.
Art of the Deal
Is that this one?
13 people including children killed. This is the last thing that either us or the Taliban needs.
I think so - the information coming out of Afghanistan often changes from initial reports as it gets vetted.
It sounds like the first bombing was at a gate to the airport, and the second bombing might be at a airport hotel. At this point it still seems squishy
Depends on the composition of the explosive vest. If itâs just âordinaryâ explosives, yeah - itâll kill people in the area but itâs fairly localized. High explosives? More capacity to kill over a broader area.
Add shrapnel to the mix? Lots more capacity to maim and kill.
Oh damn four US marines were killed
Itâs stuff like THIS that makes me think that drawing the troop count down a day or two ago was a bad idea. Now we have even less resources to deal with this threat; makes me wonder if more troops will come back in, the Taliban will help out in the fight, or both. I was just speculating with someone earlier today about the possibility of the US sharing intelligence with the Taliban at this point; itâs in both groupsâ interests to want ISIL-KP out of the meddling of the evacuation.
Presumably generals are making those kinds of decisions at this point. Frankly I donât know the right course of action, I think our best bet is to set a broad strategy (i.e. imminent withdrawal) and let the generals execute as they see fit.
What do you mean by âimminent withdrawalâ? Right now priority #1, imo, is getting the Americans still in the country out of the country ASAP.
Aw câmon, it removes the whole quote of a previous post automatically if you quote it? Psssh⌠makes it more clear Iâm explicitly responding, and not making a general comment, imo.
Right, we want all Americans out as soon as feasible. Within some pretty wide constraints I think the rest should be deferred to the people trained in making that happen with minimal US and civilian casualties.
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I donât think anythingâs really changed on that front, has it? The terror attacks have now become an annoyance, is the problem.
Iâve been on record on here for several days as saying the Afghans who helped us should be able to come out, as well. I guess if i said the Americans are priority #1, the Afghans are priority #2. The Taliban have flip-flopped so much on whether theyâll allow that or not that itâs made my head spin, and I donât really even know where they stand right now on it.
Dang. 
You were commenting on troop deployments and I responded that I presume those kinds of decisions are being made by generals at this point. I would continue to allow the generals to make those kinds of calls.
IANAMilitary Expert
if what you said is true, I donât understand that decision at all. It seems like it would weaken our chances of completing the mission of getting Americans out of Afghanistan. They HAVE said on the news that at some point the focus will shift from evacuating civilians to then evacuating the US presence from the airport. But doing both at the same time seems like it would create problems. Again⌠none of us is the expert, but Iâm not so sure the experts have done the best of jobs, either.
The problem is generals ARENâT making the decisions. The deadline that Biden has imposed is forcing certain decisions from them. Kind of like telling someone they are going to loose either the left leg, right leg, or both and they get to choose.
Some major US news sources are now reporting 12 US service members have died because of the explosions.
Holy shit
and WSJ saying 60 Afghans. What an awful place.