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20 years after our invasion and $1 Trillion later the puppet government collapses in a matter of days. Who woulda thought! Ever hear of Vietnam? Most of the terrorism problems of the US in the past 30 years have been a result of us starting the Taliban to get the Russians out.

Oef... Arrived in Mexico city yesterday and we decided to take a look around at night. Ow boy, there don't seem to be any restrictions and after we had a few drinks, the bars got full and were standing within a sq meter with 18 to 35 year olds. I'm vaccinated with Pfizer, just like my friend, but what were we thinking? Just woke up with the same feeling I used to have after unprotected sex. I'm pretty hungover and regret many of last night steps. For those of you who are looking for a place where you can party like it's 2019...This is it.

Among America's mistake was pursuing the absurd notion that it could bring about a permanent change in Afghan culture, particularly as it pertains to the rule of law and the role of women that has existed for millennia. It was not lack of good intentions, it was lack of having a clearly defined exit policy (in crude terms, a "you come, I go" understanding. Instead it became party a save face, partly a political football in a game that never ends well. If you distill all the above comments, there's one common theme that repeats itself. The biggest error was boots-on-the-ground 20 years ago that emerged after the attacks of 9/11 on American soil. We all have to ask--regardless of where we come from--how we think our government should have responded to such an event? Few countries, I believe, would have allowed it to go unchallenged. Emotions and national pride considerations were just too high. A group of neo-cons had the ear of the president and the rest is history. In retrospect, it proved unfair to the long-suffering women of Afghanistan to lead them to believe that their role in society was to abruptly change forever. Just about everyone knew--but remained reluctant to admit--that the tenure of that change would cease when allied forced withdrew and local customs would be restored. That's how it has always been in recorded history. There was also no good reason to believe that Afghans could govern themselves based on a western system of nation-wide elections. But western leaders found it politically unacceptable to let go of the idea. Warlords had run most of the land and Islam was the method of settling criminal and civil disputes. The official national government existed at the collective will of those warlords. Last night I watched a an interview with the author of a new book, "The American War in Afghanistan," who was for many years in a unique position to observe the situation from the ground. Carter Malkasian earned a doctorate in military history from the University of Oxford. After completing his studies, he became a teacher at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He then worked at the Center for Naval Analyses before spending time in Iraq conducting research in 2004 and 2006. In 2007, he worked with a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kunar Province in Afghanistan. He returned to Afghanistan in 2009 and spent two years in Garmsir District in Helmand Province as a State Department representative to the district. In Garsmir, he was known for his ability to speak Pashto and his rejection of typical personal security precautions. From May 2013 to August 2014, he worked as a political adviser to General Joseph Dunford, the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. What impressed me about the interview was his precise yet dispassionate analysis of those years. It wasn't that the issues that confront us today were unknown, it seems that leaders--military and political (foreign and local) couldn't give up the ideal solutions they cultivated over time. The risk of doing to was too great because it could involve loss of face. They listened carefully to what he said but then defaulted to the original goals in a style so acceptable to diplomats. So here's that interview. Take from it what you will. Hopefully it will help all of us put this in a context that allows us to move beyond blame and instead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the world we all inhabit today. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-did-the-us-lose-in-afghanistan-a-new-book-explores-decades-of-mistakes

Yes, my “plight” is truly awful. Right now I’m trying to decide if I should invite one of the guys I met last night, Tiago, to my hotel this afternoon which will result in amazing sex but probably also result in me doing little else for the rest of the day. Or, if I should put him off, go exercise and see him (and others) at Lagoa later and maybe also go to the bar a friend recommend, Upgrade. It’s going to take some will power but I think I’m going to choose the latter.

Bangkok Hospital Pattaya in association with the Department of Disease Control and the Thai Ministry of Public Health are offering COVID-19 vaccination services (first dose) to foreign residents in Thailand. https://www.thailandintervac.com/ https://www.bangkokpattayahospital.com/en/hospital-news-en/press-release-en/item/3045-covid-vaccine-foreign-residents-en.html ______________________________________________________________________________ Bangkok Hospital Pattaya now offering Covid-19 vaccination services for eligible foreigners By Adam Judd 13 August 2021 The following is a release from Bangkok Hospital Pattaya from their social media channels. Bangkok Hospital Pattaya in association with the Department of Disease Control and the Thai Ministry of Public Health are offering COVID-19 vaccination services (first dose) to foreign residents in Thailand. These services are free of charge, with the following criteria: • Non-Thai national • Foreign residents aged 60 years and above OR • Foreign residents (aged over 18): Pregnant women with gestational age at least 12 weeks or over OR • Foreign residents (aged over 18) who have at least one of the following 7 underlying medical conditions: Severe chronic respiratory diseases (CRDS) Coronary artery diseases (CAD) Chronic kidney disease (CKD, 5th stage) Cerebrovascular diseases Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy Diabetes Obesity (weight > 100 kg. or BMI > 35 kg/m²) • And have not received any COVID-19 vaccine Foreign residents vaccination program is set for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays only as per details below: Program 1 every Tuesday 1st dose: AstraZeneca 2nd dose: AstraZeneca Program 2 every Wednesday 1st dose: SINOVAC 2nd dose: SINOVAC Program 3 every Thursday 1st dose: SINOVAC 2nd dose: AstraZeneca Foreign residents who are interested in the program can Register via https://www.thailandintervac.com/ and choose Bangkok Hospital Pattaya from 16 until 20 August 2021 To specify preferred type of vaccine and select the date [b]The service location is at Central Festival Pattaya Beach, 6th floor[/b] Registration period: 16 – 20 August 2021 Vaccination period: 1 – 9 September 2021 https://thepattayanews.com/2021/08/13/bangkok-hospital-pattaya-now-offering-covid-19-vaccination-services-for-eligible-foreigners/

I just listened to the interview. Carter Malkasian has much of interest and of fact to say. I only wish the interview could have been much longer for I feel he could enlighten us on many, many more issues that will be vital if the world is not to get into such a complicated conflict again. Over the course of today, I have been watching various news programmes, most including the views of politicians, military men and commentators. According to several Ministers and former Ministers, the UK government seemed genuinely taken by surprise by Biden's announcement. It then talked to other NATO members to see if a small military team could remain in the country. Without the USA, there was just insufficient interest. The other point made clearly by several is that effectively there has been no war in Afghanistan for the last 5 or so years. US forces, including those of NATO members, were there primarily to help train up the Afghan military, to provide command and control, some air support and to keep the Taliban as firmly as possibly in their own areas. US troop levels were less than 10% of their peak and deaths of US servicemen totalled less than 100 during this more than 5 year period. Most UK troops had left its main base in Helmand Province in 2014. A smaller number remained with the Americans and will be pulled out soon. Only 2 British troops were killed during this period. The one lesson I wish the US had drawn from the adventure in Vietnam is the manner of its departure. In Vietnam, many US troops had to stay on specifically to train up the army of the corrupt government of South Vietnam. Despite Nixon's PR speeches about how successful this was, the fact is that it was spectacularly unsuccessful. Several major operations involving both US and South Vietnamese forces prior to the US departure had seen commanders disappearing and many troops without the guts to fight. The same seems to be generally true now, with a few notable exceptions, in Afghanistan. The decision to pull out all remaining personnel from Saigon in a fleet of 18 helicopters making round trips from the top of the US Embassy to nearby naval vessels, left behind a heaving crowd of desperate Vietnamese helpers and their families unable to get out. I had the pleasure of knowing Hugh van Es, the Dutch photographer who took one of the most iconic photos of that war - the last helicopter as it was about to leave Saigon. The helicopters were supposed to have a maximum load of 8 people but most were taking off with 12 or 14. Photo: Hugh van Es

After 20 years, it is over. Stop spending lives and gold. Once the Taliban step out of the shadows to attempt to govern what they hold, they get to become targets themselves.

Say what you wish, there is absolutely no denying the fact that the invasion of Afghanistan was entirely at the instigation of the United States, firstly on September 26 2001 through covert infiltration of CIA operatives and thereafter with military force. As a US ally, the UK also infiltrated MI6 operatives only days later. The war was not a NATO instigated war. NATO as an organisation was not involved until later. But UK forces played a major role very quickly and several hundred of its military were killed and many more wounded. The UK and other countries still have forces there which will not be withdrawn until the US withdrawal. Some of the nations you list were part of the original Operation Enduring Freedom campaign. Others joined later as part of the NATO lInternational Security Assistance Force. But let's not forget that many of these nations in your list contributed just a few dozen soldiers and/or support staff up to in some cases a few hundred. Very few had more than 1,000 or more troops in the country at any one time. And let's also not forget that the NATO countries did not resolve to leave Afghanistan. So to put any blame on them is pointless. The fact is they are withdrawing only because the United States announced unilaterally that it planned to leave. According to General McMaster on CNN this morning, the first date of the US departure from Afghanistan was not conveyed to NATO by the Trump administration which regarded NATO as an inconvenient, irrelevant sideshow rather than as allies. McMaster added that Biden also did not inform NATO officially in advance of his announcement in April and further failed to consult neighbouring countries in advance as it had hitherto promised to do! McMaster added his view that the departure from Afghanistan now is a disaster. But the points you raise do not directly reply to the points I made. The fact is that the USA, often through the CIA, has been involved in operations in overseas countries from the time it, along with the British, arranged the ouster of the duly elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1953. In siding with the corrupt, repressive Shah, it thereby cooked its own goose when the Iranian public rebelled, the Shah was booted out and a violently anti-US regime installed in 1979, a regime that remains in power today and that has spread all manner of havoc in that part of the world. The main point of my OP was the lack of consideration given to the extreme urgency of getting those who had helped the USA out of the country before they are murdered by the Taliban. As stated, precisely the same happened after US invasions of Vietnam and Iraq. It is not as though the mandarins in Washington were not aware of the promises they made to those poor people. It is more the incompetence of those in the administration responsible for getting those people to freedom. That is the disgrace.

The US has been helping Afghanistan for 20 years at the cost of billions of dollars and lives lost. In those 20 years, the Afghans have done nothing to get their act together. Why waste more money and lives then? Biden is doing the right thing. The onus is on the Afghans who couldn't come together to save their country.

From Coconuts Bangkok A scene from ‘School Town King.’ The makers of a film about rappers in Bangkok’s sprawling Khlong Toei slum are asking the public to help get their documentary onto streaming platform Netflix. Director Wattanapume Laisuwanchai and the folks behind production studio Eyedropper Fill are asking people to urge Netflix to add School Town King to its roster. The film, which took three years to create, follows young Khlong Toei rappers Thanayuth “Book” Na Ayutthaya, aka Eleven Finger, and Nontawat “Non” Toma, aka Crazy Kids, as they work to break into the music scene and out of poverty. Interspersed with studio shots and rap performances, the film also lays bare the reality of life in Bangkok’s notorious riverside community. School Town King premiered at at last year’s Busan International Film Festival alongside Come and See, a Thai documentary chronicling the controversial Buddhist sect Dhammakaya now available on Netflix. School Town King enjoyed a limited December release in theaters and was briefly available for on-demand viewing on Vimeo, where a portion of the proceeds were donated to the Duang Prateep Foundation. But Wattanapume and company feel it could have more of an impact. The film’s promo page last week called on followers “to help the film’s message reach an audience that may not have had the opportunity to watch it in theaters.” “Through the real-life story of Book and Non, the movie might expand your perspective and lead to social change,” it said. The two rappers share the same hope. Throughout the film, the two talk about the high bar they must clear just to get out of the slums, as well as some of the deeper issues plaguing Thailand, from deepening inequality to widespread injustices. But they add that they want their music to help erase negative perceptions about Klong Toey and someday change society for the better. Sometimes, their lyrics are imbued with anger, which would seem to undermine their message of hope. In a song called Slum Khlong Toei, which has notched over four million views on YouTube, teenager Crazy Kids expresses outrage over the discrimination he and his neighbors experience. Bars like “I’m a kid from the slum / the one you looked down on like scum” leave little room for interpretation. Continues with photos and videos https://coconuts.co/bangkok/lifestyle/filmmakers-recruit-public-to-bring-story-of-bangkoks-young-slum-rappers-to-netflix/

I spent the evening at Lagoa today. The place was filled with boys. Most were not my type (overly muscled doesn’t do anything for me) but I did find two that were lean and toned and fully vers and passionate which made the trip more than worth while. If anybody else happens to be in SP, I’m planning on spending at least a little more time at Lagoa tomorrow too.

So after 20 years the US is almost out of Afghanistan. The peace talks with the Taliban which have been going on for three years next month were clearly a sham. Now the Taliban has speedily controlled far more territory than anyone involved seemed to have anticipated and we can surely expect the entire country to be taken over once again by that ultra Islamic bunch. Women will be forced out of schools, will have to wear strict Islamic dress, music will be banned, adulterers stoned, gays thrown from buildings - and goodness knows what else. That country has been fought over almost more than any other since the British disaster around 1840. In more recent times, the Soviet invasion at the end of 1979 achieved little apart from enabling the CIA to furnish a huge amount of weaponry to the local guerrillas, weapons that would eventually come back to haunt them. The CIA had actually been involved in Afghanistan even before the Russians arrived. As for their the Russian adventure, British journalist Patrick Brogan probably summed it up best when he wrote, "They got sucked into Afghanistan much as the United States got sucked into Vietnam, without clearly thinking through the consequences, and wildly underestimated the hostility they would arouse." The end result was a country all but ruined by war of whose population a third (over 5 million) had became permanent refugees. The guerrillas which saw the back of the Soviet forces in 1989 were led by the Afghan Mujahideen backed by the US, the UK and other powers using it as a proxy in the Cold War. Having thereafter backed the moderate Northern Alliance under Ahmad Shah Massoud, the western powers were left rudderless when two Al Qaeda operatives posing as cameramen filming an interview blew themselves up along with Massoud two days before the 9/11 attacks. Soon thereafter the US troops and their allies attacked with the aim of quickly flushing out Osama bin Laden. As in Vietnam, they found themselves stuck in the Afghan mud! President Biden may well be happy that his troops will all have departed by next month. But as has become a pattern, the USA's departure after invasion leaves a stink in the air. Just as happened at the end of the Vietnam war and just as happened at the end of the Iraq invasion, the US is leaving behind tens of thousands (if not many more) Afghanis and their families without whose help they would have had little chance of any success. And in all three cases it is not as though they did not have time to plan for these intelligent and now desperately afraid people's exit. Trump announced the withdrawal of troops 10 months ago. Biden, having hinted it for months, finally announced it four months ago. Yet the excuse now given for leaving behind so many who aided the US is that there has not been enough time to process the paperwork! I find that not merely utterly disgraceful. In my book it comes close to a war crime! Who in future is going to believe what have become essentially US lies? "Don't worry! We will look after you," surely rings more than hollow when a translator working for the USA for years is looking down the barrel of a Taliban gun seconds before becoming a corpse in the dust.

From Pattaya Mail The Pattaya City Council disbanded after half its members resigned in apparent protest over a 200-million-baht contract for closed-circuit TV cameras. Council Chairman Anan Ankanawisan announced the panel’s dissolution on Aug. 11 following the resignations of Wasan Naowniew, Chakorn Kanjawattana, Saksit Yaemsri and Choluek Chotekamjorn who comprised half of the eight remaining members of the council, which originally had 12 members appointed by the previous junta in 2016. With fewer than the six required members, the council was automatically dissolved. Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome said he will send a letter to Chonburi’s governor asking for either new members to be appointed or a special election called. None of the city council members running Pattaya for the past five years ever stood for a public vote. The four who resigned didn’t give a reason for stepping down, but they quit a day after a furious city council debate over spending another 200 million baht on more CCTV cameras. The city council project was proposed after the Royal Thai Police last year said it would pay for the installation of 9,000 more cameras after Pattaya City Hall spent hundreds of millions of baht over the past decade to buy cameras and practically nothing to maintain them, leaving most CCTV units in Pattaya inoperable. Police officials said last year that the 9,000 cameras would cost 30 million baht. But the contact put before the council was for an undisclosed number of cameras. Half of the council protested, claiming they believed the city was wasting money and that they needed more information before voting. The matter finally was put to a secret ballot, with the vote split 4-4. Anan then tabled the measure and held it over for more discussion at a scheduled Aug. 13 council meeting. That meeting now will not happen. The city council was appointed by an Interior Ministry committee chaired by then-Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai on June 30, 2016, to replace the elected 24-member panel, which was disbanded when their members’ terms expired two weeks before. Under the junta, which seized power in May 2014, no new local or national elections were allowed until 2019, and the National Council for Peace and Order steadily replaced elected governments throughout the country with their own people. Continues at https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-city-council-disbands-after-fight-over-pricey-cctv-cameras-367583

Thank you for clarifying the location. I remember the plan was to have two evacuation locations and just assumed this was the Embassy.

Neither Britain not later USSR and USA achieved their goals in Afghanistan, now it's China's turn to get entangled there ( Taliban supporting Uyghur case? )and meet the same fate. Sadly it should be left to Afghan people to solve their country's ills as they see it.

Sarcasm Duly noted. But I was thinking the same thing. Lol

Did you pick up any hot guys?

From The Nation The plant-based vaccine project is a collaboration between Chulalongkorn University and Baiya Phytopharm Ltd. It uses a subunit protein extracted from tobacco leaves to mimic Covid-19 and trigger an immune response in recipients. The project launched in February 2020 and has since produced successful results in rats and monkeys. “The Public Health Ministry and National Vaccine Institute have handed a budget of 160 million baht to Chula and Baiya to establish a pilot plant to produce plant-based vaccines and biologics by transforming the 11th floor of Chulaphat 14 building [at Chula] into a 1,200 square metre manufacturing facility,” said Anutin. “The Food and Drug Administration also helped in improving the vaccine manufacturing process. We expect phase one of human trials to start next month on 100 volunteers.” Anutin said that if the trial is successful, the plant could start manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine in the third quarter of 2022 at up to 5 million doses per month, or 60 million doses per year. “The advantage of plant-based vaccine is that it can be modified and improved to tackle new variants of the virus,” he added. “Currently we have researched up to 10 variants of Covid-19. In the future we could improve the formula in the same way as influenza vaccine, to protect against various strains with just one dose.” https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40004626

I totally agree with the first part. But not the second. What has the US achieved in Afghanistan? As you rightly point out, the original mission was accomplished many years ago - and in Pakistan at that, not in Afghanistan. But the US stayed partly because it had no real plan for what it was doing and what its exit strategy would be. So the US attempted, as it did in Iraq and as it attempted to do in Vietnam, to convert a society it did not understand (how many Iraqi, Vietnamese and Afghan experts worked in the State department? Almost none). Afghanistan is made up of a very large number of tribes unified for the most part only by common adherence to one religion. The US tried to fashion it into a country-wide democracy. It attempted to break down tribal values regarding education for women and their role in society and there being no need to adopt strict Islamic dress. 100% I agree these are laudable goals. But having gone much of the way, at least in terms of opening up Afghan society and the position of women, it decides to withdraw all its troops leaving the country about to be taken over yet again by strong Taliban Islamic militants who will overturn every gain made in the last two decades. That surely is the real tragedy of the US adventure in Afghanistan.

I am fully vaxed with Pfizer, but I am still too coward to go to Brazil, not to mention to do the things in Lagoa or other bars, clubs.

I'm not as well read on Afghanistan as some of you but the thread omits the CIA went in to lay the groundwork for getting Bin Laden. But the US missed getting him there. What we know for sure is years later the CIA figured out where Bin Laden might be, and President Obama ultimately agreed to attack. Two Black Hawk choppers flew from Afghanistan into Pakistan and got Bin Laden. To me, it seemed the original mission was then achieved. But the mission morphed into other causes, perhaps based on unfounded information. Troops on the ground in Afghanistan originally suggested seeing no clear reason to be there. After 20 years, I expect most of us agree. Man's inhumanity to man will continue around the world. Innocent people will suffer. But our role in Afghanistan is over, or should be soon.

I have ordered multiple items from JIB this week. I like it as they deliver in Bangkok within 3 hours. They also send out a video of the items being package so you can see all things put into packing box. And, they all have on gloves, etc. The fast delivery is a real benefit in Bangkok as my computer broke and I don't want to buy a new IMac until the 27 inch one comes out. So, I have bought other things to make my laptop last until I get the newest M1 or M2 chip for 27 inch IMac. I also order a laptop PC from them for a friend and fast processing and delivery. I have used this company for years but for an emergency and not able to go to stores in BKK to buy, this has been a godsend. https://www.jib.co.th

those 3000 are just to help get US staff out along with the translators and their families. We've been there for 20 years. The last 10 years the situation has been falling apart. Vox had a good round up of the situation the other day with an intelligence expert. https://www.vox.com/22618215/afghanistan-news-taliban-advance

It's shameful...We give our allies and the Afghans a kick in the gut in our the rush to get out. We had no plan when we entered and have no plan as we depart.

If you read my post I was referring specifically to the powers-that-be who have been making regular pronouncements of this opening up date or that opening up date, only for them to eat their words when no dates are met and the situation in cities and the country as a whole just goes from bad to worse. Of course hope is vitally important. But rather than overly optimistic prognostications, a harsh dose of reality is surely far better at this time. That and providing a great deal of much needed assistance to all those who have been so badly affected by incompetent and corrupt government actions.

There's worst things you can lose than face. And none is more important than hope.

Gosh, I am so sorry that you didn't like many of the available guys. Considering that I haven't seen a nude guy in two years, not to mention several nude guys, not to mention several nude muscle guys, I am just full of sympathy for your plight. And you are in Rio too. So sad.

There were some disturbing video clips circulating showing this last police action and the extreme violence they met out to any hapless 'protestor' they encountered. Dark days for Thailand I fear.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse another anti-government protest in Bangkok on Wednesday. Bangkok Post photographers captured the scenes. (Photos by Nutthawat Wicheanbut, Arnun Chonmahatrakool, Wichan Charoenkiatpakul & Pornprom Satrabhaya) Additional photos at https://www.bangkokpost.com/photo/2163835/police-fire-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-at-victory-monument-protest

There's no escaping the fact that the Taliban's rapid advances are a disheartening backdrop to the exit for American military forces. But you've conveniently omitted an important fact: the US isn't the only nation whose forces have been exiting Afghanistan. The US may have had the lion's share of assets, but this was a NATO effort. Other countries that have pulled out include the UK, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Armenia and Mongolia. You can heap as much blame on the US as you wish but at least tell the whole story and not just the side that fits your purpose. The US may indeed be guilty of telling lies, but it certainly isn't alone in the deception. Perhaps you no longer see the necessity for maintaining The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The all-or-one and one-for-all concept of mutual military support may be an outdated concept. But we'll have to wait for the future to find out.

The way we are leaving...like almost sneaking out in the middle of the night. Only horror and tragedy ahead.

From Reuters /. BP PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has administered at least one coronavirus vaccine dose to half of its population, among the highest rates in Asia, official data showed on Wednesday, with vaccine diplomacy playing a key part in its success. Cambodia, an ally of China and one of Asia's poorest countries, started inoculations with Chinese-made vaccines in February, while millions of doses provided by the United States, Japan and Britain have arrived in recent weeks. Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said Cambodia should reach the 10 million people targeted for vaccination about seven or eight months earlier than planned. The rate is similar to Malaysia's 49.4% receiving a first dose, but higher than the 25% of the population in neighbouring Thailand and 12% of people in Vietnam. https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2163827/inoculations-reach-half-of-cambodians-amid-vaccine-diplomacy

I have some friends working there as expats. They told me that the normal shops are always empty. They could get basic food in the US dollar shops, but the queue is always long. The black market exchange rate almost doubles the official one. One of them finally decided to leave, and paid US$10,000 for his one-way ticket. Don’t go there now.

23,418 new cases yesterday and 184 new deaths. Stay safe out there.

My OP was about what the US does when it leaves a country it has earlier invaded. The issue of other NATO and participant countries is a separate matter. You imply the USA has already evacuated "thousands of them." Funny, that's not what is being reported. As of August 7 the US had evacuated less than 1% of the more than 80,000 Afghans who assisted it. That does not even reach one thousand - and still leaves more than 79,000! "The plight of thousands of other Afghans who worked for U.S. troops or diplomats is even more uncertain and it's not clear if the administration will opt to fly them out. At the current tempo of 700 evacuees a week, it would take more than two years to fly out the roughly 20,000 Afghans who are in the SIV pipeline along with their families. "Meanwhile, the Taliban is on the march, advancing on major cities and setting off panic among Afghan civilians." https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-evacuation-afghans-likely-drag-after-american-troops-leave-n1276245