RUTHFULLY YOURS

Imagine after Pearl Harbor, FDR announcing, “We’re getting into this to bring human rights to Japanese women” or “Our goal in this war is give Germany a democracy.” He would have been laughed out of office.

There was only one legitimate reason to go into Afghanistan after 9/11 and it’s the same reason that should have impelled us to stay – not human rights, democracy or nation-building – but saving our nation.

We went to Afghanistan to root out terrorism, to destroy Al Qaeda’s infrastructure, to disrupt its network – and, quite frankly, to kill as many terrorists as possible.

The goal was to kill them there so they wouldn’t kill us here, as they did on 9/11. Everything else was extraneous. That the mission failed may be seen in just how quickly the Taliban made a comeback, except now, with the most modern weapons in the region – thanks to Quartermaster Joe.

The cut-and-run crowd called it “the forever war.” Rubbish.

You want to hear about a forever war? Afghanistan was the latest chapter in a conflict that’s been going on since the 7^th century.

At one time, Islam engulfed much of the known world – from the Arabian Peninsula west to the Pyrenees and east to the Indian subcontinent and beyond.

In his book “The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order” (1996), Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington spoke of “Islam’s bloody borders,” alluding to the fact that almost all of the religion-based conflicts in the world involve Islam versus someone else.

America’s longest war, they call it. Really? Through April, 2,448 Americans died in the 20 years we’ve been in Afghanistan – fewer than the number of Americans who died in one day in the attack on the World Trade Center (2,996).

The Vietnam War, which started under the French, went on for 21 years (1954-1975). Over 58,000 Americans died when we fought there. Was it worth it? I believe it was. South Vietnam fell. But due to our involvement (and the price we paid in blood), communism is no longer a potent force in Southeast Asia.

During the Korean War (1950-53), close to 40,000 Americans died in combat. Almost 70 years after the end of active fighting (there’s never been a peace treaty), we still have 28,000 troops stationed south of the 38^th parallel. Without their presence, Little Rocket Man would resume a war his grandfather started. Doesn’t that make North Korea our longest war?

Our ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan marks end of one stage of Islamic extremism’s war on the West. Thanks to the blundering of the empty suit in the Oval Office, the Taliban is not only resurgent, but in possession of tons of sophisticated hardware, including Black Hawk helicopters.

Once again, ISIS has a home address. All of the other terrorist groups will flock there. They can celebrate the 20^th anniversary of 9/11 in what used to be the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, with American weapons.

China, Russia and Iran are also beneficiaries of the Geezer’s abject surrender. They’ve spent decades telling the world that America is a paper tiger and an unreliable ally. Biden just proved them right.

Besides providing a command post for international terrorism, Biden’s open-borders policy will allow more terrorists to come here. The refugee flood which will come out of Afghanistan will be seeded with Islamist operatives. How can they pass up an opportunity like this?

Our return to Afghanistan is inevitable. We will have no choice. When bombs start exploding and bullets start flying from New York to LA – perhaps after the next 9/11  — we’ll have to go back in.

Except this stage of the conflict reinforced the lesson learned by our enemies in Vietnam – Americans don’t have staying power. All they have to do is wait us out. Given enough time, the domestic surrender lobby will carry the day. As a young Senator in 1973, Biden was part of that lobby. Now, he’s its doddering leader.

When we’re forced back in, all of our Afghan allies will be dead (a process we will have facilitated by providing the Taliban with kill lists) and the jihadists will be waiting for us with 75,000 military vehicles we bequeathed them.

On August 15, the day Kabul fell, Taliban commander Muhammed Arif Mustafa told a journalist: “One day mujahedeen will have victory and Islamic law will come not just to Afghanistan, but all over the world. We are not in a hurry. We believe it will come one day. Jihad will not end until the last day.”

Unless you want your children or grandchildren to live under Sharia, you’d better take this seriously and think about how Biden’s Afghan debacle brings that day much closer.

The next time, and there will be a next time, we should take as our motto a line from “The Untouchables,” where Eliot Ness tells Al Capone in the climatic courtroom scene: “Never stop fighting till the fight is done.”

Here endeth the lesson.