RUTHFULLY YOURS

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Nearly twenty years ago, on September 11, 2001 ago radical Islamist terrorists conducted the deadliest terror attacks ever carried out on American soil, in the history of our nation.

The administration of President George W. Bush, in response to the terror attacks, working with America’s allies sent the military to the Middle East to hunt down those responsible for the deadly attacks and to deprive al-Qaeda and other terror organization with sanctuaries from which they could launch terror attacks in the United States and other countries around the world.

Afghanistan was considered a key to our military operations.

President George W. Bush and then President Obama both justified the use of our military forces overseas by declaring that we were fighting the terrorists “over there” so that we would not have to fight them “over here.”

I took issue with that absurd statement in an article I wrote several years ago, Fighting The War On Terror Here, There And Everywhere.

We will delve into the issue of how the war on terror needed to be pursued domestically as well as overseas shortly.  (Think immigration law enforcement.)

But first, the disastrous strategic decisions of President Joe Biden to pull our troops out of Afghanistan have reverberated around the world.

Our allies fear that America can not be trusted and has no resolve to stand up and our nation’s enemies are greatly encouraged by Biden’s lack of resolve.  There is a fundamental principle that states that negotiations should never be conducted from a position of weakness but from a position of strength, however Joe and his policies could not be weaker.

The issue is not that Biden ordered our troops out of Afghanistan, there are many, including former President Trump, who believe that the time has come for American forces to be removed from Afghanistan.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/blinken-confirms-u-s-left-hundreds-of-americans-behind-in-afghanistan/

Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed that the U.S. will continue to help Americans and Afghan allies leave Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, in a speech at the White House on Monday evening.

Blinken said the U.S. has suspended its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and transferred that presence to Doha, Qatar. Diplomats stationed in Doha will “coordinate engagement and messaging to the Taliban” moving forward.

The last U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan flew out of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, ending a two-decade war. U.S. Central Command head, General Frank McKenzie, admitted at a press conference that “we did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” referring to Americans and Afghans stranded in the country.

“We will continue our relentless efforts to help Americans, foreign nationals, and Afghans, leave Afghanistan if they choose,” Blinken said, adding that the U.S. “made extraordinary efforts to give Americans every opportunity to depart the country.”

Around 6,000 “self-identified” Americans have left Afghanistan, Blinken said, with “under 200” Americans “who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave. We’re trying to determine exactly how many.” 

Blinken did not estimate how many U.S. green-card holders or Afghan allies remained in the country. 

“We’ve worked intensely to evacuate and relocate Afghans who worked alongside us and are in particular risk of reprisal,” Blinken said. “We’ve gotten many out, but many are still there. We will keep working to help them.”

Americans and Afghans faced significant hurdles reaching the airport, including Taliban checkpoints and the threat of terror attacks. An attack by ISIS-K, the ISIS affiliate in Central Asia, killed 13 American soldiers and close to 200 Afghans at the airport on Thursday.

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2021/09/13/bidens-blunders/#slide-1

Four. That’s the number of crises Joe Biden said the nation faced when he accepted the 2020 Demo­cratic presidential nomination. His list included the coronavirus pandemic, the precarious economy, ensuring racial equity in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, and climate change. By the time Biden became president, he had added to his index of emergencies the fate of democracy, truth, and America’s role in the world. “Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways,” Biden said during his inaugural address. “But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.”

They are responsibilities that Biden cannot handle. Not only has he failed to solve the problems he identified during the campaign; he’s created a whole new set of challenges that run from America’s southern border to the Hindu Kush. As a result, the public has re-evaluated his conduct and capability. The buzzwords that filled coverage of Biden’s early days — “hypercompetent,” “normalcy,” “unity,” “transformative” — now seem inappropriate and silly. The comparisons that some pundits made last spring between Biden and LBJ, FDR, and Ronald Reagan were premature at the time. Now they just look ridiculous.

Every presidency has bad moments. What makes Biden’s rough patch notable is its suddenness and contingency. Only a few months ago, it might have seemed as if he was making progress on issues such as the pandemic and the economy. Unexpected developments, as well as unforced errors on the border and in Afghanistan, have now undermined confidence in his leadership and eroded his public standing. The Delta variant of the coronavirus, inflation, crime, illegal immigration, and national humiliation at the hands of the Taliban have done more than complicate Biden’s efforts to sign into law the largest expansion of government since the Great Society. They have put Democratic control of Congress at risk — and the country in jeopardy.

Biden is president because his priorities tracked closely with those of the 2020 electorate. Take the coronavirus pandemic. The plurality of voters who rated it the most important issue in a postelection poll by Fox News supported Biden two to one. While the national exit poll conducted by Edison Research had a slightly more complicated and confusing issue breakdown, it also showed that the voters who had rated either the pandemic or health-care policy as the most important issue went for Biden by lopsided margins.

Americans gave Biden’s coronavirus response high marks during the first half of the year. He took the pandemic seriously. His team ramped up production and distribution of the vaccines authorized for emergency use under his predecessor. In a March speech, Biden predicted that the summer of 2021 would “begin to mark our independence from this virus.” In May, the Centers for Disease Control announced that vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear masks indoors. Case numbers and deaths plunged from January through July.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/569973-kamala-harris-the-absentee-vp-by-design

She was supposed to be a major player in the Biden administration after being lauded as an historic, consequential figure in her role as America’s first female vice president. 

“Harris Has the Potential To Change the Face of U.S. Politics,” read a November 2020 Politico headline that echoed many others at the time. And not long after Joe Biden was sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, the administration insisted she should be known as her boss’s equal. 

“Please be sure to reference the current administration as the ‘Biden-Harris Administration’ in official public communications,” a March directive read, emphasizing Biden-Harris in boldface.

Kamala Harris may have crashed and burned as a 2020 presidential candidate, dropping out well before the first votes were cast in Iowa. But Biden chose her as his running mate anyway. It’s not clear exactly what Harris brought to the ticket outside of checking off a few demographic boxes. 

Foreign policy credentials? Nope. Business experience? None. A track record of working with Republicans to pass important legislation? Not even close. In fact, an analysis by the non-partisan GovTrack showed that she was the most liberal member of the Senate, even further to the left than democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

But she had been California’s attorney general, so perhaps Team Biden felt her record on crime could help her lead the way in reducing the violent crime that has engulfed American cities since the summer of 2020, resulting in mass resignations and retirements among the police.

Not at all. In fact, during the presidential primaries, Harris’s Twitter account publicly promoted a bail fund for rioters in Minneapolis, a city that’s seen violent crime spike under the current administration. 

“If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” it tweeted in June 2020 as Minneapolis was under siege to the tune of more than $500 million in damage. 

https://jimtreacher.substack.com/p/whos-telling-biden-not-to-answer

Kanye just dropped an album, war rages in the Middle East, a hurricane is hitting Louisiana, and everybody hates the president.

Welcome to 2005.

Again and again, Joe Biden keeps telling us he’s not supposed to answer questions. “They told me not to answer questions.” “I’m gonna get in trouble if I answer questions.” Over and over, the most powerful man in the free world insists he’s not the one in charge.

He did it again over the weekend:

“I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead… I’m not gonna answer Afghanistan now.”

Why isn’t Joe Biden supposed to take any questions? Who’s telling him not to take questions, and what’s the rationale? (We all know the real reason: He’s an idiot. But his own aides can’t say that.) What happens to him when he disobeys? Is this sort of thing normal for a POTUS to say? Shouldn’t he be the one to decide whether or not he takes questions?

And why don’t any of these reporters want to know? Their whole purpose for being there is to ask the president questions. Shouldn’t they wonder why he’s expressly telling them he’s not “supposed to”?

If my job was to follow the president around and write down what he says, and he told me he’s not supposed to take questions, I would ask why not. Wouldn’t you?

Just kidding. Biden is a Democrat. That sort of self-righteously aggrieved hectoring is reserved for Republicans in power.

In Joe’s defense, he’s a busy guy with a lot going on right now. Just look at how he was able to multitask as he paid his respects to the 13 Marines who died because of his incompetence:

Nicholas Fondacaro @NickFondacaro
It’s true. Joe Biden checked his watch during the dignified transfer of the servicemembers killing in Afghanistan at the airport. You can see him jerk his left hand to pull the watch out from under his sleeve, then look down at it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/last-flight-from-kabul-afghanistan-joe-biden-antony-blinken-11630361902?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The last American troops left Kabul on Monday—before the Aug. 31 deadline as the Taliban and President Biden had insisted—ending a 20-year conflict but also diminishing the hope of escape for tens of thousands of Afghan interpreters and others who helped America. The frantic evacuation flights managed to get many out, but this was a shameful day in American history, no matter how much the White House wants to spin it otherwise.

Aug. 31 was the arbitrary deadline Mr. Biden set when he thought he would be able to boast on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that he had ended a “forever war.” He refused to extend the date despite pleas from NATO allies and knowing the date was too soon to evacuate the deserving. Mr. Biden nonetheless told Americans that he would evacuate all Americans who wanted to leave.

His deadline meant that the evacuation failed as much as his withdrawal strategy did. An unknown number of Americans—perhaps a few hundred—weren’t able to leave on the last flights. Nonprofit groups estimate that as many as 60,000 Afghans who fought or assisted the NATO mission were left behind.

Many are in hiding amid reports that special Taliban squads are searching for the names on lists they may have acquired in the willy-nilly U.S. withdrawal. Many will be tortured and killed, and their families too.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jim-webb-afghanistan-withdrawal-debacle-american-founding-constitution-accountability-11630357157?st=wcdqzs63qmahfv6&reflink=article_email_share

Former Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) writing for the National Interest, Aug. 29:

In a perverse way, perhaps we should look at the calamitous blunderings in Afghanistan as an opportunity to demand a true turning point. Americans know that a great deal of our governmental process is now either institutionally corrupt or calcified. . . .

Even the very best among those who come forward to serve often find that the good they came to do is stultified by distracting debates over the very premise of why the American system of government was created and whether the icons of our past were truly motivated by the words incorporated in our most revered documents. The military itself is increasingly being used by leftist activists as a social laboratory to advance extreme political agendas. Congressional oversight leans heavily toward social issues, with too many members struggling without success to focus on accountability at the very top when, for instance, good people at the bottom have to implement poorly conceived plans that might kill them.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/08/29/did-biden-fall-asleep-during-meeting-with-bennett/

Video posted on social media Saturday, which showed United States President Joe Biden seemingly falls asleep during a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, had users speculate whether that was indeed the case.

Footage was posted on Twitter by Knesset member for Likud Galit Distal Atbaryan. “For some reason, the Israeli media itself fell asleep and did not notice this historical moment,” she wrote. “I thought that you should know about this. The man fell asleep and simply does not care.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/29/after-afghanistan-u-s-still-doesnt-know-shiite-from-shinola/

With the American media as master of ceremonies, our pundits and politicians—all partners in the neocon-neoliberal joint venture in Afghanistan—are barking mad over the images coming out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, and the reality these optics portend.

Naturally, media “reporting” from Afghanistan is nothing but an unremitting sentimental gush, aimed at creating a state of heightened emotions. 

The children, the children! The translators, the translators! Americans held hostage behind enemy lines! exclaimed every “macho” personality at Fox News. The same litany runs on a continuous loop. 

Forbes reporters dissolved into puddles of tears at the sight of U.S. Air Force pilots bringing in planeloads of young, strong, military-aged men, unfreighted by women and children. 

On August 20, about 5,700 people had been flown out of Kabul. Only 169 were American. “Make no mistake,” slobbered Forbes, “lifting six times more people than an aircraft is designed to seat is a heroic achievement of logistics, skill, and sheer grit.” 

I see a medal of commendation in the future of the Empire’s pilot, who commandeered a U.S. Air Force C-17 to airlift 800 Afghan passengers from Kabul to Qatar. 

War: The Health of the State—And the Statists 

So, who exactly are those “trapped” Americans living in Afghanistan? 

What are they doing in such inhospitable climes, in a country most of whose inhabitants hated the American presence? And what is their business in Afghanistan? The incurious moron media have never asked. 

My guess is that U.S. citizens in Afghanistan have hitherto lived within Army-erected green zones, paid for by American taxpayers. 

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/29/our-afghan-nightmare-tanks-for-nothing/

Joe Biden’s scripted or no-questions press conferences, and the clean-up afterward by Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Jen Psaki, have been some of the most misleading episodes in modern presidential history—mostly in what was not said rather than was exaggerated, warped, and misrepresented. 

Biden as Commander-in-Chief

The more Joe Biden mutters “The buck stops here” or “I take full responsibility,” the more we know he will not—and not just because of his now reduced mental state, but because 1) he repeats the same opportunist messaging that he has for the last 50 years of his political career, and 2) the only true thing he could say was “I ordered a withdrawal in the most reckless manner in U.S. military history.”

When Biden then blames Donald Trump, it raises the immediate questions: 

1) If the Afghanistan deal was so flawed, why did Biden stick with it, given his other radical departures from what he inherited on the border, on fossil fuels, on the Middle East—on just about everything before January 20, 2021? 

2) So, was it good or bad to withdraw all U.S. troops? Was Trump wrong to have bequeathed him a policy of graduated withdrawal, but Biden was right to have continued it for a while—only to have accelerated it into surrender and flight?

3) Why did the violence erupt on Biden’s rather than on Trump’s watch? And was his order for a hasty flight in the dead of night from Bagram Air Base also the inherited Trump departure plan?

When Joe Biden now threatens al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, and others with revenge, he sounds, unfortunately, more like the ridiculous Joe of “Corn Pop” braggadocio with his weaponized chain, or Joe taking Trump behind the gym to womp on him, or young Joe Biden slamming the mouthy kid’s head on the lunch counter. Speaking softly with a club is preferable to being loud with a twig.

We have all heard, ad nauseam, too many of Biden’s He-Man stories. The latest rhetoric does not hide the fact that Biden had opposed the Osama bin Laden raid, criticized the termination of Qasem Soleimani, left Afghanistan in the most shameful retreat in U.S. history, and is now begging the Saudis to pump more oil after cutting back on our ample supplies and trashing Riyadh as part of his return to the Obama pivot to Iran. 

Biden loves appeasement lists. He provided the Taliban with a list of whom we wished to evacuate. (When the Taliban soon knock on the door of an American in Kabul who thinks their message will be, “We’re here to escort you to your flight”?) In the same manner, Biden provided Putin with a helpful list of institutions he wanted Putin’s satellite cyber-criminals to exempt from hacking.