RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/the-forever-war-isnt-over/

The Afghan debacle just marks a new, more murderous phase.

‘I‘m now the fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans,” President Biden said during his speech on August 16. “I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth president.” He needn’t have corrected himself. He did indeed irresponsibly bequeath to his successor a terrible situation in Central Asia.

The best-case scenario, according to Biden, would look like this: Afghanistan’s reversion to Islamofascism fades from the international headlines. The Taliban understands that its continued rule depends on its ability to prevent terrorists from launching attacks from its territory. America goes back to fighting over masks and vaccinations and “building back better,” or whatever.

But the best-case scenario is an illusion. Why? Because the war isn’t over. Afghanistan is just one front in a global conflict that the United States did not initiate and cannot wish away. The Cold War did not end when the South Vietnamese government collapsed. Nor will the war on terror or the “Long War” or the “Forever War” cease with Taliban control of Afghanistan. When participants in the worldwide Salafist-jihadist movement look at the developments of the last week, they don’t see reasons to quit their mayhem. They see the chaos, panic, violence, disorder, and American retreat as a vindication of their ideology and a spur to further action.

It’s happened before. North Vietnam’s victory over the South did not make communism less expansionist or revolutionary. On the contrary: Laos fell to the Communists, Cambodia was subjected to the barbarism of the Khmer Rouge, Cuba sent advisers to the pro-Communist People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the Sandinistas overthrew the anti-Communist Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and a pro-Communist insurgency took root in El Salvador. The relentless humiliations that followed America’s defeat in Vietnam ended Jimmy Carter’s presidency. They did not stop until Ronald Reagan shifted the nation’s course.

Or try a more recent example. When America removed its troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 and failed to enforce its red line against the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2013, the Middle East did not become less violent or pathological or dangerous. It was only a matter of time before ISIS overran the Iraqi cities of Falluja, Ramadi, and Mosul. On June 29, 2014, the terrorist army’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a caliphate. Then ISIS moved toward Baghdad and enslaved and massacred Iraq’s Yazidi population along the way.

https://amac.us/is-pelosi-losing-her-gucci-gloved-grip-on-the-gavel/

As harrowing images and videos continue to emerge from the United States’ disastrous exit of Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rightly facing major scrutiny and public outcry for what increasingly appears to be a complete lack of preparation or any sort of coordinated plan to leave the country. Following days of chaos and broken promises, President Biden and State Department officials have suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of criticism from both sides of the political aisle. But even as the Biden team attempts to weather the media storm, the domestic political fallout from this tragedy may have only just begun. For one Democrat in particular, her full-throated defense of Biden’s Afghanistan policy and hapless response to the crisis are the latest in a series of blunders that may break her already tenuous grip on power: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

While Biden has received his share of criticism for his response (or lack thereof) to the Afghanistan debacle, arguably no other single individual has displayed a more complete and total lack of political awareness than Pelosi. Even as Afghan government officials fled the country and the Taliban tightened its control, she applauded President Biden for his “clarity of purpose.” Americans were left to wonder what that purpose was. The Speaker did not elaborate.

As accounts of torture, rape, and murder at the hands of Taliban forces surfaced on social media and from reporters inside Afghanistan, Pelosi offered another similarly meaningless platitude, saying that she was “deeply concerned about reports regarding the Taliban’s brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls.” She then said that “the U.S., the international community and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhumane treatment by the Taliban.” A good place to start would have been coordinating an orderly withdrawal so that the Afghan people she claimed to have concern for wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place.

The statement was blasted as tone deaf at best and outright delusional at worst. The Afghan government has all but crumbled and President Biden has made it clear that he will not challenge the Taliban. Though Pelosi has survived other messaging blunders, the Afghanistan debacle for the Democrat Party comes at a time when Pelosi is facing leadership challenges from the left, right, and center. The crisis may prove particularly damaging in light of her other recent failures.

Pelosi’s control over the House was once described as an “iron fist in a Gucci glove,” but questions about her continued capability as a leader first started to seriously arise following the 2020 election cycle. Despite unprecedented campaign spending, promotion, and an all-out effort by the media, Democrats lost 15 seats in the House of Representatives, shocking pundits and progressives across the country.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/21/biden_again_defends_admins_afghan_planning_as_perils_intensify.html

President Biden walked into the East Room of the White House with backup. Four high-ranking administration officials, masked and standing six feet apart, flanked him as he tried to restore calm, assuring the nation that any American still in Afghanistan could eventually get out as that country descends further into chaos.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. They were all there. None said a word, instead staring straight ahead, motionless or swaying slightly from side to side.

“Let me be clear: Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home,” Biden said as he read from a teleprompter. “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without the risk of loss.”

While the president did his best to project calm and control,  the assertions and promises he made were immediately questioned by witnesses on the ground, lawmakers in Congress, and even members of his own administration.

All eyes remain on the airport in Kabul, the last remaining exit since the Afghan government folded and its military evaporated. Sullivan told RealClearPolitics earlier this week that the U.S. government is committed to providing safe passage out of the country for American citizens—so long as they can make it to the airfield: “We have asked them all to come to the airport to get on flights and take them home.”

U.S. personnel who have left or are trying to leave report that the commute to the Karzai airport isn’t easy. Instead, they face a harrowing journey as they navigate a daunting gauntlet of checkpoints set up by the Taliban. Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee told RCP on Wednesday that his office remains in contact with Americans near the airfield “who are trying to figure out when they run for it.”

Biden tried to paint a much calmer picture of that exodus Friday, telling reporters that “we have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport,” citing an agreement with the Taliban. The president insisted that Americans were receiving safe passage through the checkpoints.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/lieutenant-governor-kathy-hochul-calls-on-the-biden-administration-to-resettle-afghans-in-new-york/

New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul is now in the spotlight after Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped down when sexual harassment allegations became too much for him to handle.

Now, Hochul is showing off her neoliberal colors after she called on President Joe Biden to resettle Afghans in New York.

Hochul released a statement in which she pressed the Biden administration to help Afghans after the withdrawal of American military forces in Afghanistan.

Her statement read as follows:

When I served in Congress, I met with many Afghans when I traveled to their country. They were there for us, now it’s time for us to help them. [New York] is committed to doing our part to welcome refugees fleeing Afghanistan. The arms of the Statue of Liberty are open wide to you.

John Binder of Breitbart News noted that “The statement comes as a local report from PIX11 News suggested that thousands of Afghans could be resettled in Queens, New York City.”

In a letter directed to the Biden administration, Hochul was joined by Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, an Independent, and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, a Republican, where they outlined their intentions to work with refugee contractors to bring Afghans to upstate New York:

In the coming months, we will work together with our refugee resettlement partners at Interfaith WorksCNY and Catholic Charities of Onondaga County and the federal government to prepare our community. Central New York stands ready as a partner to bring as many of our Afghan allies out of harm as possible and into a welcoming, nurturing community in America.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2021/08/20/cutting-to-the-chase-why-trump-was-driven-from-office-n1471233

“In plain language, resident complexities and interpretative assessments aside, Trump was a true president: forthright, unbeholden, and effective. From the point of view of America’s “ruling class”—entrenched political parasites, so-called “opinion leaders,” media collaborators, and wealthy oligarchs—such attributes are high crimes and misdemeanors for which the chosen culprit must be made to pay. There can be no absolution. He upset the apple cart. He fractured and exposed the inner circle. He offended the elites. And now he may even be planning his return. As if in a parody of the Book of Amos (2:4), whether for three transgressions or for four, Trump remains anathema for rejecting the law of the lords that be. ”

There has been no end of commentary dealing with Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency and the scandal of his electoral loss. There’s no doubt that from the day of the “grand escalator ride” (and even before) to the day of his departure from the White House, a social, media, and political upheaval was in progress, and would not cease even when he once again became a private citizen. Reasons pro and con for the debacle have proliferated since Hurricane Trump made landfall in America, but the issues are basically very simple and can be stated economically.

There were essentially three called strikes against him, all that was needed to count him out.

He was not “presidential.” He was considered crude in speech, rough-hewn in manner, and given over to bluster and hyperbole unbefitting the highest office in the land. For these transgressions, he could not be forgiven.
He was an outsider, the first president in American history with no military or political experience. He was not a politician, a general, a lawyer, or a holder of public office. He was never a member of the Beltway club, whether Republicrats or Democrats. He was not followed by a train of professional lobbyists, owed no political debts, did not accept a salary, and did not enrich himself when in power. For these transgressions, he could not be forgiven.
He was competent and proudly patriotic. He put America first, cutting taxes, renegotiating bad trade deals to the nation’s advantage, reducing a red-tape regulatory nightmare, making the country energy-independent and a net exporter of energy, rebuilding the military, defending the southern border, re-establishing global prominence, and connecting with the commons. For such transgressions, he could not be forgiven.

https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/2021/08/20/joe-biden-leading-the-world-off-a-cliff-n1471414

President Biden just delivered a speech on Afghanistan so rife with misdirection and mendacity that it’s hard to know where to start. But from the welter of Orwellian Newspeak, let’s pluck a line in which we find Biden praising himself for his handling of Afghanistan. Biden told us : “This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed with that.”

If so, this is about America, under his stewardship, leading the world off a cliff.

Whatever the arguments for leaving Afghanistan or maintaining a minimal force, Biden and his advisors and planners (assuming there were any?) have delivered the worst of all worlds. Whatever the difficulties inherent in any retreat, this is a rout. The great American superpower has been chased out of its embassy, out of Kabul, out of Afghanistan, by the Taliban — who now surround the airport where Americans are fleeing for their lives, and Afghans who worked with them are begging for passage — if they can get to the airport at all.

This is a humiliating defeat, echoing way beyond Afghanistan. It is guaranteed to embolden America’s enemies and signal our allies that it is folly to trust America. China is gloating online, with propaganda organs putting out headlines such as this, from the Global Times: “U.S. will abandon Taiwan in a crisis.” Nor should we write that off as mere propaganda; there is a deeply alarming likelihood that this is exactly what Beijing, with its ringside seat (including an open embassy flying the Chinese flag in Kabul) is now calculating. Russia’s Vladimir Putin must be relishing the moment, fresh from telling Biden at a June summit that neither Russia nor China was interested in a U.S. military presence in Central Asia, once Biden completed his plans to pull out of Afghanistan. These predatory powers want America gone from their neighborhoods, and for their purposes, the more ignominious the departure, the better.

Nor is it going to reassure America’s friends and allies that Biden and his handlers are so busy trying to spin the story that they seem to have fetched up in some alternate universe. Biden began his remarks by stressing that the U.S. evacuation effort in Kabul is “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history.” He underscored that of all the countries in the world, only America is “capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision… .” Yes indeed, America is a mighty nation, and we can be proud of the astounding abilities and courage of our armed forces.

But as Biden, or his speechwriters, formulated this praise of the military, it serves chiefly to deflect attention from the atrocious planning and strategic idiocy emanating from the office of the commander-in-chief (including the decision to pull out weeks ago from Afghanistan’s commodious Bagram military base, near Kabul, leaving the commercial airport as the only escape route). This is not the Berlin airlift — in which America led a defiant support of freedom. In Kabul, the American troops ordered back in by Biden to carry out the evacuation have been handed a mission that boils down to America’s self-demeaning rush for the exit. If Biden is going to tout U.S. military power, he owes us all an honest explanation of why, under his command, this nightmare scene — with its iconic image of Afghans falling to their deaths from an American Air Force jet on takeoff — turned out to be the best America could manage.

There’s plenty more, including Biden’s bizarre claim that al-Qaeda is gone from Afghanistan: “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?” According to a report just this June by a United Nations panel of experts on these matters: “Large numbers of Al-Qaida fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan.” (These are topics on which even the UN tends to produce more reliable information than the Biden White House, which is doubly intriguing because, though we can’t tell for sure, it is quite likely U.S. intelligence has helped inform the UN report.)