The US is moving to reclaim the Bagram airbase from the Taliban after losing it during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Donald Trump announced.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way,” Mr Trump told reporters during a joint press conference with Sir Keir Starmer in Aylesbury on Thursday.
The Bagram base was the largest operated by the US in Afghanistan and is strategically important in countering China’s growing influence in the region.
Mr Trump suggested that he was negotiating with the Taliban to retake ownership, adding: “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back.”
Yes, beautiful deals with the Taliban, Putin… Americans, are you going to do something with your clown-king or what?
There’s always the person pretending other people should do things and that their situation is perfectly fine and they don’t need to change anything. I agree, the situation is fucked. This isn’t just an American issue though. This is happening all over the world right now. The divisiveness between different nations when it’s a global class struggle is really frustrating. You aren’t helping change things by making your comment, and you’re only driving a wedge.
Yes, I’m not helping. I am mocking. I think, at this point the USA is beyond help.
Where are you from?
I asked 6 marines who were walking around in full uniform in my town in Australia what they thought of trump last night. They said he’s their commander and chief and two stayed silent.
I asked them kindly to fuck off put of our country because they’re not welcome
I don’t know how you handled it, but you just asked 6 guys to talk about their boss. Them saying he’s their commander-in-chief is saying “I’m not at liberty to speak freely.” If you were friendly and asked them I’m casual conversation over a beer, you might get actual opinions, but you’re asking for trouble if you just go around asking people to shit-talk their bosses.
I live in an area with a lot of military presence. A large number of people who join are just doing it for the benefits. I’m sure you’re aware, but normal citizens don’t get free college or Healthcare (in fact, it’s incredibly expensive), but if you sign up for the military they pay for college, you get socialized Healthcare, they cover housing, and a lot more. Most aren’t doing it because they love Trump, or even out of patriotic duty. They’re doing it because shit sucks, and it’s an option that gets them out of a hole. I’m generally anti-military (particularly in the US), but I don’t hold it against people. Most of them don’t like Trump, in my experience. He does not have the support of our military personnel, and I’ll welcome them if shit finally breaks down and they abandon the state.
First, they literally are welcome there. Take that issue up with your government. You ask other people to stand up to their government, then you complain about other people’s government for what your government does. Second, they don’t have a choice. You sign up and you don’t really get to choose what you’ll do or where you’ll do it. See above for why they joined.
Change starts with a step,
Me telling them got other people involved. It’s very apparent we don’t want them here.
I have even sent useless letters to my representative and got boilerplate back.
I don’t care why they joined, they’re part of a machine that isn’t wanted in our town
This thread is about someone asking people to take dramatic action to get their government to listen, but I’m certain they aren’t doing anything either.
This is exactly my point. People are saying Americans need to take risks they aren’t willing to take. Congratulations! You sent a letter! Those will never do anything, and yet that’s all you’ve done, and you’re asking Americans to fight back. We’re the ones actually living with this military that has the power to fight most of the rest of the world.
I don’t know if this is true. Honestly, I doubt it. Maybe you don’t want them where you are, but one thing I know about Australia right now is they’re worried about China. Guess why those bases are there. You have American taxpayers paying for your defence. Most people are NIMBYs —they want it, just not in their back yard.
I don’t care if Americans fight back or not. I think they should just dig their holes on their own and leave the rest of us out of it.
The way America is going a growing consensus of people here would rather China as our overlords then American Nazis now too.
What’s your proposal?
A bullet.
I have never been to the USA and know too little about inner naunces to propose anything. But revolution is always a good way to explain to politicians who the people are, who the politicians are, and how it all works.
Here’s the thing: I’m with you. I agree as an American that the only thing that can stop this train is a wholehearted, full-throated rejection of everything this administration represents. That comes with a couple of issues, though, and the first is that the body politic here is intensely complacent; much too comfortable to be driven to action. The fact of the matter is that disapproval of Trump is the majority view, and even at the beginning of his second term that was still about a dead even split, but not even Trump’s atrocious performance in his first term was enough to galvanize a large portion of the US voter base in the 2024 election, despite it clearly being a critical inflection point. Unfortunately, if it doesn’t affect their life immediately and directly, a large portion of America simply doesn’t give a shit. Overcoming that apathy is likely going to require something large, noticeable, bombastic, demonstrably wrong, and personally painful, and by that point there’s a good chance it’ll be too late. Additionally, any revolution or unrest is likely to be heavily suppressed by the second issue: the US police state and its willingness to use deadly force, regardless of the severity of the situation. Between police forces, riot police, swat teams, the national guard, domestic surveillance, and now the might of the US military turned on its own populace, the Trump administration has all the tools to make any true resistance deeply costly and incredibly painful. Talk of resistance, of revolution, of taking up arms against this fascist takeover is easy, but the feasibility of a clean revolution in the face of the US police, military, and intelligence apparatus is doubtful. More likely we would end up with either civil war or insurgency, fighting an asymmetric campaign against an overwhelming force. We know that the US is vulnerable to such tactics (see: US expeditionary wars in Vietnam and the Middle East), but we also know that those tactics are incredibly costly, and require a populace that is highly motivated by what they perceive to be an existential threat.
The key here, in my opinion, is the military. Historically, he who controls the military, controls the state. The victors of coups and revolutions practically always have the military on their side, and for good reason; very few things are as persuasive as the threat of a bullet. Morale in the US military right now seems to be low, and if we can manage to break the trained obedience to hierarchy, we might just have a chance, but without them, I don’t see a way forward. Even every citizen striking and causing a complete shutdown of the US economy would just be likely to lead to threats being made to and examples being made of them, and getting people onboard for that is unlikely to be feasible from a fundamental level, given that the majority of America lives paycheck to paycheck.
I don’t want to be fatalistic or claim that this can’t be done or that we shouldn’t be doing anything about it; we should, and have a moral obligation to act, but the reality of the situation is that the time to act while avoiding discomfort was last November, and the viable options available to us now are going to hurt, and will likely only get more painful as time goes on. That makes people hesitant to act, and until such a time as they have more to lose from inaction than they do from action, I don’t expect that to change.
God, do I hope I’m wrong, though.
Very, very well written and thought out but perhaps not quite as funny as intended.
Shit, I thought that joke would make it seem less dead right but not even a bit.
Why yes, they are. A month from now, they’re going to wave signs at nazis again.