RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/america-has-been-in-denial-about-the-taliban-from-the-start/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=hero&utm_content=related&utm_term=first

For 20 years, some of us have been countering that you can’t defeat the enemy without understanding that they are the enemy, and what they believe.

U nless your name happens to be Andrew Cuomo, you can’t be happy about the headline-grabbing attention the Taliban have gotten over the last ten days.

Since they emerged a quarter-century ago, the Taliban have commanded the attention of Americans incessantly. They’ve probably never had it quite like they have it now, though. Even after the essential role they played in the 9/11 atrocities, our sights were mainly fixed on al-Qaeda — fixed on the hands-on terrorists, not the knowing and willing terrorist hosts.

And that’s the main problem: Our government and the commentariat, even now, continue to speak as if there were a difference.

No matter how much they’ve told us who they are over the years, we see the Taliban of our hopeful imagination rather than the Taliban who, through remorseless word and deed, have always proved exactly who they are.

Oh, we’ve condemned the Taliban’s “extremism” — though it is verboten to say just what it is they are so extreme about. The cruel hudud penalties that they so enthusiastically execute have been undeniably established in sharia law for a millennium . . . which is why the Taliban are far from alone in enforcing and justifying them.

Still, in our well-meaning way, we’ve been as dogmatic as the Taliban.

President Obama insisted that violent jihadism is not reflective of any authentic construction of Islam. President Bush insisted that freedom is the longing of every human heart. Neither of these things is true in principle, and the Taliban are demonstrative proof of their falsity.

The Taliban are scholars and students of sharia (Islam’s ancient law and societal framework). They know much more about the subject than Obama. And while it is obvious that many people long for things other than freedom, it is even more obvious that the Taliban know what is in what passes for their own hearts, and those of other fundamentalist Muslims, better than Bush ever could. As it happens, the Taliban abominate the Western ideal of freedom. It contradicts their basic conceit that the good life calls for perfect submission to sharia — the opposite of freedom.

Now, being wrong about basic things would not be such a problem if Obama and Bush had been expressing mere opinions. Alas, for them and the governments they superintended, their delusions were articles of faith, on which they were as implacable as the Taliban are about their own articles of faith. The bigger problem is that Obama and Bush — and, indeed, every American administration from Clinton through Biden — based U.S. government policy on their delusions, in essence saying, “Never mind what the Taliban tell us about themselves. We know better.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/08/23/afghan-fallout-biden-has-just-destroyed-his-entire-case-for-being-president/

For most of the past week, in the fires of the worst foreign policy crisis of his young administration, the president who won the White House on a promise of competence and compassion has had trouble demonstrating much of either.”

That’s not us saying that. This is how the New York Times described the Afghanistan debacle, which is as sure a sign as any of how much trouble President Joe Biden is in right now.

But we’d go further than the Times. Biden’s backers – and Biden himself – didn’t just portray Joe as competent and empathetic. They said he was experienced, thoughtful, trustworthy, and had sound judgment. That he’d unite the country, and restore America’s standing in the world. That he was, unlike Donald Trump, presidential. It was the basis of Biden’s entire presidential campaign, in fact.

As a reminder, here’s what 70 so-called Republican national security officials said when endorsing Biden in August 2020: “We believe Joe Biden has the character, experience, and temperament to lead this nation. We believe he will restore the dignity of the presidency, bring Americans together, reassert America’s role as a global leader, and inspire our nation to live up to its ideals.”

Who can say any of that now with a straight face?

Biden’s utterly inept Afghanistan withdrawal, his bumbling lies and obfuscations, his callous disregard of those put in harm’s way, his refusal to take responsibility, and the devastation his stupidity has caused to America’s “role as a global leader” have undercut every premise of his presidency.

Let’s review.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/23/who_wants_biden_to_fail_146287.html

Oh, for the days when trolls were mythological creatures, living in Nordic caves. Today, they live online, poking us with bitter invective instead of intelligent arguments. That’s what some of President Biden’s defenders are doing, now that he is struggling. With only a weak defense to offer, most are in hiding. The few who venture out in public have turned to a last resort: trolling anyone who dares to criticize the president. Their favorite taunt is “Do you want the president to fail?”

The point here, apparently, is to try and inoculate Biden against any criticism by suggesting that to question his actions is tantamount to wanting the new president to fail and the country with him.

It’s an odd attack coming from the same people who began launching a four-year barrage of invective against Biden’s predecessor before he even took office. Odder still to see the patriotism card played by those who applauded athletes kneeling for our national anthem, endorsed a distorted “1619” history that denies our country was founded on aspirations for freedom, who declare America remains thoroughly racist, and who normally argue that our country is a malevolent force in the world.

I will ignore the trolls’ hypocrisy and bad faith, some of it directed at me, and answer the question anyway. I do not want the president to fail, but I do think some of his ill-conceived policies are bound to. A few deserve to. That’s on him, not me.

Like all decent people, I wish Joseph R. Biden Jr. good health. His job is arduous, and he is doing it for all of us, whether we voted for him or not, whether he is competent or not. Wishing him well is a simple act of human kindness.

Second, I do not want failures abroad. I want the U.S. to deter our principal adversaries — China, Russia, and Iran — from their malicious goals. I want policies and intelligence that prevent terrorists from attacking America and its friends. Who doesn’t? In all those areas, I want the Biden administration to succeed.

Do I think Biden is pursuing the best policies to accomplish those goals? No, and the unhappy results of his policies are starting to pile up. In my view, it is a grave error, for instance, to cut real military spending when we face a rising threat from China. Yet that is what Biden proposes. It was an unforced error to let Russia complete its natural gas pipeline to Germany, overturning President Trump’s tougher policy and weakening his sanctions on senior Russian officials. This energy project will make Germany more dependent on Russia and gives the Kremlin more money to pursue policies that harm America. In return, Biden got nothing more than a hearty handshake from departing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cleaning-up-after-biden-on-al-qaeda-11629671400?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Cleaning up President Biden’s many false statements on Afghanistan is a difficult job, but someone in his Administration has to do it. On Sunday that task fell to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the matter of al Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan.

“Look, let’s put this thing in perspective here. What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?” Mr. Biden said on Friday at the White House. “We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as—as well as—getting Osama bin Laden. And we did.”

That wasn’t correct. A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged as much on Friday, and a recent United Nations report said al Qaeda was active in 15 of 34 Afghanistan provinces. On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace put the question to Mr. Blinken: “Is al Qaeda gone from Pakistan—from Afghanistan?”

Mr. Blinken: “Al Qaeda’s capacity to do what it did on 9/11—to attack us, to attack our partners or allies from Afghanistan—is vastly, vastly diminished.”

Mr. Wallace: “Is it gone?”

Mr. Blinken: “Are there al Qaeda members and remnants in Afghanistan? Yes. But what the President was referring to was its capacity to do what it did on 9/11. And that capacity has been very successfully diminished.”

This isn’t a game of gotcha with the President. Al Qaeda has been diminished in Afghanistan thanks to the U.S. presence in the country, CIA listening posts on the ground, and a friendly government. The question is whether, with its allies the Taliban now in control, al Qaeda and other terror groups will again have a sanctuary, be able to attract new recruits, and again plot against Americans.

Mr. Biden’s answers aren’t merely wrong. They misunderstand the continuing threat from Islamic terrorism.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/taliban-withdrawal-biden-blinken-dictate-11629664446?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The ugly, chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan continues despite Biden Administration attempts to spin it as a triumph of logistics and planning. More Americans and Afghans are getting out. But some have been beaten by the Taliban, and the pace is too slow for confidence or safety as President Biden’s Aug. 31 evacuation deadline nears.

The worst humiliation continues to be President Biden’s deference to the Taliban on how and when U.S. citizens and allies can get to the airport. So far he won’t let the Pentagon create corridors into Kabul city where the State Department last week told people to shelter in place, and as far as we know won’t send the military beyond Kabul so Americans around the country can find refuge and escape.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, host Major Garrett asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken : “Someone in our audience might listen to you, Mr. Secretary, and say, ‘Oh, so we have to ask the Taliban for permission for American citizens to leave.’ True or not true?”

Mr. Blinken replied: “They are in control of Kabul. That is the reality. That’s the reality that we have to deal with.”

Yes, but this isn’t the reality the U.S. has to accept. The U.S. military has more than enough force to dictate better terms to the Taliban, but the other reality is that Mr. Biden is too risk-averse to do it. Instead, the U.S. evacuates on the Taliban’s terms. Over the weekend the Taliban put the Haqqani network in charge of security in Kabul. In 2012 the U.S. designated the Haqqani network as a “foreign terrorist organization” because of its attacks on U.S. personnel and close ties to al Qaeda.

https://www.dw.com/en/us-kamala-harris-visits-asia-amid-afghan-crisis/a-58949210

Kamala Harris will become the first US vice president to Vietnam. Her visit, however, comes at a time of a humiliating withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

US Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Singapore on Sunday, kicking off her trip to Southeast Asia where she is expected to offer reassurances of Washington’s commitment to the region.

The vice-president’s visit come just days after the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent takeover of the country by the Taliban.

The return to power of the hardline Islamists in the conflict-ridden country has dented the United States’ credibility and cast a shadow over its resolve to defend its values.

During her visit, which began on Friday and includes stops in Singapore and Vietnam, Harris will likely seek to allay concerns about US dependability.

A foreign policy novice?

The trip will also provide Harris, an Asian-American whose mother was of Indian-origin, a forum to assert herself directly in foreign affairs.

The longtime district attorney and former senator is largely untested in diplomacy and foreign policy.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/22/david_brooks_reproaches_elites_recycles_cliches_about_the_people_146288.html 

“The left still has a long way to go to understand the right and what ails America.”

To grasp the left’s rage and the right’s embitterment, it is useful to keep in mind a major asymmetry that marks the nation’s long-standing culture wars: The right tends to know the left better than the left knows the right.

Notwithstanding the occasional risible protestation, progressives dominate the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, Silicon Valley, the K-12 education establishment, and the universities. This means that progressive ideas, progressive sentiments, and progressive tastes pervade the culture. Denizens of red America need only turn on the TV, watch Hollywood movies, listen to popular music, follow major league sports, or send their kids to public schools and most any college or university in the country to encounter progressives’ flattering self-portraits and their airbrushed depictions of the progressive spirit in action. In contrast, residents of blue America generally only know of red America through the condescending lens of progressive reporting, opining, and imagining.

In the absence of unusual exertions, blue America operates based on a caricature of red America. A dramatic expression of progressives’ unfamiliarity with the interests and outlook of roughly half of their fellow citizens was the failure of the elite news media — whose job, it was long thought, was to inform the nation—to anticipate even the possibility of a Donald Trump victory in the 2016 Republican primaries and his subsequent defeat of Hillary Clinton in the general election. Another prominent example was their inability to explain how, despite a global pandemic and his manifest shortcomings, President Trump was able to increase his total number of votes in 2020, attract more African American and Latino votes than he had four years before, and come within 44,000 votes in three states of winning the Electoral College a second time.

Early in 2016, as Trump emerged as the favorite to win the Republican nomination, New York Times columnist David Brooks honorably recognized the limitations of his understanding of the nation he had covered for more than three decades. In March of that year, in a column headlined “No, Not Trump, Not Ever,” Brooks offered a mea culpa. Along with most of the experts, he had “expected Trump to fizzle because we were not socially intermingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough.” Although Brooks conveyed the obligatory contempt for Trump in that column, he also pledged to listen more carefully and learn more about America: “For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/08/22/taliban-sets-woman-on-fire-for-bad-cooking-n1471797

There’s more at stake in Afghanistan than U.S. prestige or the future of Joe Biden’s presidency. Millions of women in Afghanistan who were just starting to assert their rights as females are now condemned to being sent back to the Middle Ages under the Taliban’s notion of “women’s rights.”

Admittedly, the Afghanistan version of women’s liberation, even with the presence of thousands of American troops, was unrecognizable to most western women. Strictures placed on female behavior as well as opportunities for employment had been dictated by the Islamic religion. And there are other Muslim countries with almost as severe rules and regulations women must abide by as they will be forced to in Taliban Afghanistan.

But freedom of any kind must be nurtured and encouraged. The Taliban would destroy any hope of a future for Afghan women and girls.

As an illustration of what Afghan women are in for, one activist tells what happened to a woman forced to cook for the Taliban.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/08/22/biden-addresses-afghanistan-and-tropical-storm-henri-says-the-august-31-deadline-may-be-extended-n1471872

Joe Biden emerged at the White House Sunday afternoon, about 20 minutes after the 4 PM Eastern time he slated, to address the crisis in Afghanistan and the Tropical Storm Henri as it batters the U.S. east coast.

Biden opened his remarks discussing Henri, and stumbled badly over the name of the current head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and said he has spoken with each of the governors in the storm zone. He read off a list of things the federal government is doing to deal with the storm.

After spending several minutes on the storm and urging Americans to get vaccinated, Biden turned to the situation in Afghanistan. He claimed the U.S. has evacuated 11,000 individuals out of the country he abandoned, and which then fell to the Taliban a week ago, triggering the massive crisis there.

He promised that “Any American who wants to get home will get home.” He also promised to remove Afghans who worked with the U.S. and NATO, and then said a total of over 30,000 have been evacuated since August 14.

He said the evacuation would have been “hard and painful” no matter when it began, “It’s just a fact.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/21/remember-what-they-did-to-daniel-pearl/

On January 28, 2021, the Pakistan Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Omar Sheikh, the man previously convicted of playing a role in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Domestic politics obscured the story for most Americans. But now that thousands of Americans remain in Afghanistan—some on the wrong side of the tiny bubble of protection offered by our retreating troops—it’s worth remembering what happened to this unarmed civilian reporter.

Pearl risked his life to give the Islamists the opportunity to put their best face forward to the world. The radicals used the opportunity to show us who they really  are. 

The description of the video I’m about to provide is from memory as I am unable to locate the original on the internet. Pearl’s captors recorded a video of Daniel Pearl begging for his life. The journalist readily confessed to his Jewish ancestry and offered no resistance nor demonstrated any hostility to his captors. The captors then stabbed Pearl to death. They then used a knife to slowly sever his head from his shoulders with a sawing motion. When they finished they held the head by the hair as a trophy while shouting for joy. A few stills from the video remain available here.

Before disappearing, Pearl was last known to be in Karachi, Pakistan. On January 23, 2002 he let the Wall Street Journal know that he was on his way to interview a prominent figure in the Islamic movement—likely a Taliban leader or a related movement. Four days later, the group sent an email with pictures of Pearl in chains.