Posted on 08/21/2021 7:47:03 AM PDT by Starman417
Joe Biden is being roasted for his indefensible handling of the Afghanistan exit. As well he should be. Indeed, his incompetence is so legion that he’s actually getting roasted by a media whose only job appears to be to prop up the Biden regime. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post pilloried him while over at CNN: 'the debacle of defeat and chaotic retreat in Afghanistan' is a 'political disaster' for President Biden. The Wall Street Journal suggested his statement 'washing hands' of Afghanistan 'is one of most shameful in US history'.
They’re of course right. This may be the most incompetent diplomatic/military exercise in American history… and it came straight from the Commander in Chief and his incompetent cabal of woke advisors.
Given the tragedy unfolding today, one wonders if Americans will learn the real lesson of Afghanistan. Sure, while one lesson would be to never put a senile incompetent leftist in the position of Commander in Chief, that’s not the real lesson to be learned…
American direct involvement in Afghanistan started out twenty years ago after the attacks of September 11th. It didn’t take long to discover that the Taliban had been giving Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda training bases and a home from which to attack the US. George W. Bush sent troops in to rout them, which was largely accomplished within months. But of course, the troops didn’t come home. They stayed, with the ostensible mission of helping Afghanistan craft a nation that would no longer be a haven for terrorists, and a government unwilling to protect them. We – Americans, not me personally as I did not serve during that time nor in that theater – built roads, schools, bases, buildings, shepherded the writing of a constitution, facilitated elections, and helped form a government with all the trappings of legitimacy. One of the most laudable efforts was help to give girls and women opportunities that they had not seen in Afghanistan in generations.
Of course, the Taliban, while defeated in terms of running the country, never quite went away. They hid in the hills. They hid in Pakistan and actually took parts of it over. They operated under the cover of night and gave a constant reminder that they were never far away.
All of this “progress” cost a great deal, both in terms of money and the lives of brave servicemen. When all is said and done, the United States will have spent somewhere between $1 and $2 trillion seeking to build Afghanistan into a democracy with a functioning military and government. At the same time, 2,500 American service members lost their lives executing that mission.
All for what? Not much, apparently. In just a number of days, the Taliban took over the entire country. The president fled. Americans were airlifted from the roof of the embassy. Girls are now being stolen from their families to be given as wives to Taliban fighters. Those who assisted the Americans and local police are being rounded up and killed. The Afghan military has essentially evaporated, leaving the Taliban in possession of tens of billions of dollars of American-supplied weapons and equipment. Soon the Taliban will bring Afghanistan back to the 7th century, from whence they came. Sharia law. Women in bondage. No freedom. Economic backwater.
The lesson of Afghanistan is not that the United States couldn’t turn The Graveyard of Empires into a thriving democracy, such as our own. That was never in the cards. The American colonies grew up as part of the British Empire and had been marching slowly towards a representative government with individual freedoms for centuries, culminating in the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution. Of course, neither of those was the final word and the United States has been evolving towards a More Perfect Union ever since.
Afghanistan doesn’t have anything resembling the history we have. Just the opposite. The nation, to the degree that is actually a nation, exists largely on a map. The people are far more tribal than they are Afghani, and most live lives like those their ancestors lived 1,000 years ago. Nation-building in Afghanistan was always likely to be a failure, whether the United States spent $2 trillion or $20.
And therein lays the lesson of Afghanistan, through the words of Ronald Reagan.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
They’ve been doing that for years. Tried to get them to grow actual crops and try to have an agricultural based economy. Didn’t work. Too hard and not enough money in it.
Too much money to be made growing opium and hash.
Afghanistan has an area, population and population density only slightly larger than Texas. But, because of Sharia law, they might make it into the 9th century in terms of social progress in the next century or so.
Afganistan should have been handled in the following manner.
1. Kill the enemy and we did.
2. Install your dictator of choice, we should have done this in Iraq and Afghanistan, we did not.
3. Leave in a safe and orderly fashion, we did not and this is the fault of Bush, Obama and in particular Biden. Nation building does not work in a Muslim society.
4. If things get out of hand that would export terror to The West, call in the bomb truck (BUFF, B52s aka Big Ugly Fat Fu—er) and Specter. Wash and rinse as necessary.
It is really that simple.
Don’t laugh, we’ll probably be back in Afghanistan now that Biden has been set up to create a total disaster and embarrassment to the US. Table-pounding congressional lapdogs of the military-industrial complex will no doubt start urging a return under the guise of “humanitarian relief” which is to say, new contracts for Blackwater, Triple Canopy, Dyncorp (remember that name?), Fluor, L3, KBR and others. Just because the US military withdraws doesn’t mean private contractors will - in fact it creates opportunities, gaps for them to fill. One of which will be to rescue those other contractor personnell who were abandoned by Biden.
Private military contractors operate in the shadows and without any government oversight. And it’s a lot easier to sneak money to them than it is to sneak troops across a border after the President says to withdraw. Someone has to pay and it sure isn’t going to be the taliban.
Of course a renewed war is also good for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, etc.
Best guess is Obama and his commie cohorts in that bunker he lives in in DC.
With financial backing by Soros.
There used to be a nation-building brigade here on FR. Thank God they are repudiated.
from my home page
I have been advocating for several years a policy I call ‘embaseees’. Embassy + AirBase —> EmBASEeees. We go into a terrorist country, clear out their taliban equivalent, then withdraw to very large Embassies, perhaps 3 of them. Have them big enough to encompass a military airbase where we can use it for decades on end to conduct anti-terrorism operations. As long as the ‘host’ country aint killing Americans then we let them have self-sovereignty. Kind of like how we operated in the Phillipines for decades. We could even have an intermediate zone that we patrol but it would be autonomous. Let them have their taste of freedom. A referendum every 10 years to see how large the boundaries of the intermediate autonomous zone should be.
___________________________________________________________________
har
Simple Rules of Engagement with Muslims -
If Infidels are present, Sunni with unite with Shi’a sects to enslave (physical, sex, monetary), convert, and annihilate all Infidels.
If no Infidels present, Sunni will turn against Shi’a until one or the other is enslaved or annihilated.
The rising population of Muslims over 1200 years shows the effectiveness of their tactics.
Not "from whence."
Whence = from where.
Where do you think those poppies to produce heroin came from?
Back in the mid-40s to mid-50s, American engineers and hydrologists came to Afghanistan at the behest of the Afghan president to harness the powerful Helmand River in central Afghanistan.
They built dams and created lakes which they used for hydroelectric power to turn Afghanistan into a modern culture, much like FDR did in the US during his last term.
Once the dams were completed and the water started flowing to generate power, unintended consequences were created. The president started relocating his tribal people, Pashtuns, to the land that now could be farmed and grow crops.
But something unexpected happened. The water tables started to rise and the soil turned salty. One of the crops that grew well in this salty soil were poppies. With little else to grow to sustain their culture, they grew the poppies to make a living.
So it was America who were ultimately responsible for the appearance and growing of poppies, which were used to grow the largest heroin trade in the world.
The lesson from Afghanistan is the same as the one from Vietnam: you cannot force a Western-style republic on a nation that does not want it and it is a waste of blood and treasure to try. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”-Albert Einstein.
The funny thing is, in Vietnam today, the people there are very pro-capitalist, despite the government. Quietly, the government pretty much abandoned Communism in the mid-80s. Outside of the occasional pics of Ho Chi Minh, you’d never know Vietnam is a Communist state. Authoritarian, yes, but that’s a lot of countries on the planet these days.
It’s almost like Communism is a failed ideology that died decades ago or something...
When Walter Cronkite gave up on the Viet Nam war, he also essentially gave up on LBJ too. Thirty-three days later LBJ announced he would not be a candidate for re-election to the Presidency of the United States.
When LBJ lost Cronkite, he knew the end was near.
Joe Stolen has lost the large portion of the lamestream media that has been propping him up in his part in the “Weekend at Bernie’s” script. And things do not look much better for “Que mala” Harris.
American isn’t responsible for a damn.
I guess using your history. A car dealership sells a car. Driver kills someone with car. Dealer is responsible.
Where do you think those poppies to produce heroin came from?
Back in the mid-40s to mid-50s, American engineers and hydrologists came to Afghanistan at the behest of the Afghan president to harness the powerful Helmand River in central Afghanistan.
Let me this as respectfully as I can….
I Do Not Give A F*ck
I was not alive during that time period. I do not care.
I care that in due time, due the now non-existent border, that heroin is going to pour into our country. That is the only thing I care about
You don't need to have a cow over it.
Negative....Ghostrider
Anyone that types this drivel...
So it was America who were ultimately responsible for the appearance and growing of poppies, which were used to grow the largest heroin trade in the world.
America ain’t no angel, but that is a ridiculous statement.
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