Posted on 08/16/2021 1:39:59 PM PDT by RandFan
This weekend the US experienced another “Saigon moment,” this time in Afghanistan. After a 20 year war that drained trillions from Americans’ pockets, the capital of Afghanistan fell without a fight. The corrupt Potemkin regime that the US had been propping up for two decades and the Afghan military that we had spent billions training just melted away.
The rush is on now to find somebody to blame for the chaos in Afghanistan. Many of the “experts” doing the finger-pointing are the ones most to blame. Politicians and pundits who played cheerleader for this war for two decades are now rushing to blame President Biden for finally getting the US out. Where were they when succeeding presidents continued to add troops and expand the mission in Afghanistan?
The US war on Afghanistan was not lost yesterday in Kabul. It was lost the moment it shifted from a limited mission to apprehend those who planned the attack on 9/11 to an exercise in regime change and nation-building.
Immediately after the 9/11 attacks I proposed that we issue letters of marque and reprisal to bring those responsible to justice. But such a limited and targeted response to the attack was ridiculed at the time. How could the US war machine and all its allied profiteers make their billions if we didn’t put on a massive war?
So who is to blame for the scenes from Afghanistan this weekend? There is plenty to go around.
Congress has kicked the can down the road for 20 years, continuing to fund the Afghan war long after even they understood that there was no point to the US occupation. There were some efforts by some Members to end the war, but most, on a bipartisan basis, just went along to get along.
The generals and other high-ranking military officers lied to their commander-in-chief and to the American people for years about progress in Afghanistan. The same is true for the US intelligence agencies. Unless there is a major purge of those who lied and misled, we can count on these disasters to continue until the last US dollar goes up in smoke.
The military industrial complex spent 20 years on the gravy train with the Afghanistan war. They built missiles, they built tanks, they built aircraft and helicopters. They hired armies of lobbyists and think tank writers to continue the lie that was making them rich. They wrapped their graft up in the American flag, but they are the opposite of patriots.
The mainstream media has uncritically repeated the propaganda of the military and political leaders about Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and all the other pointless US interventions. Many of these outlets are owned by defense industry-connected companies. The corruption is deep.
American citizens must also share some blame. Until more Americans rise up and demand a pro-America, non-interventionist foreign policy they will continue to get fleeced by war profiteers.
Political control in Afghanistan has returned to the people who fought against those they viewed as occupiers and for what they viewed as their homeland. That is the real lesson, but don’t expect it to be understood in Washington. War is too profitable and political leaders are too cowardly to go against the tide. But the lesson is clear for anyone wishing to see it: the US global military empire is a grave threat to the United States and its future.
Just like many, Ron is not talking about the event, he’s rattling about his political philosophy. He’s always done this, using any subject to push his own general thought agenda rather than comment on the current event. Every event falls under his umbrella and goes through his prism. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just useless. I like Rand much more.
As for Biden and his crew of idiots:
When you jerk thousands of troops out of and then ram them back into a country within weeks, you have ****ed up, big time, period. When you have thousands of your own citizens trapped and in danger, you have ****ed up as bad as it gets. What part of being president comes ahead of the safety and security of your citizens??!
Philosophizing about the entire enterprise has been beaten to death 5,000 times.
Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.
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8 years of his prior Admin
8 months now
That’s 10 yrs in DC
.
It really started in 1979, Zbigniew Brzezinski proposed to Jimmy Carter to begin funding “Afghan Rebels” to destabilize the Soviet-sponsored regime. Some proposals were made by the CIA, but the Soviets ultimately did invade in December.
Once the Soviets went in, the US, Saudis and Pakistanis funded and armed pan-Islamic groups to go to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.
Very successful in terms of bleeding the Soviets, but we know what trouble it created for the USA in the future.
Trump did more than any president to end the conflict and deserves credit.
I do believe there would have been an orderly and phased withdrawal if he was still president.
Obama was far more hawkish (remember the “SURGE”?) and Afghanistan “the good war”.
He was a very useful puppet for the military industrial complex as he put anti-war liberals to sleep.
Nobody cares what Ron Paul thinks or ever thought.
Yes he was a Member of Congress but he did try and stop the funding numerous times but his colleagues were not interested.
It’s Congress that controls the purse strings constitutionally and I think this is his point and why he blames that body.
As Tiger points out Biden was a member of that body so he cannot be absolved.
I dont think Ron absolves him. He just views him as a figurehead or puppet.
This is from Ron, the former Congressman, not from Rand Paul, the current Senator.
Immediately [A]fter the 9/11 attacks ... How could the US war machine and all its allied profiteers make their billions if we didn’t put on a massive war?"
Loss is in the eye of the taxpayer, of course, but not so much from the [Congressional] Military Industrial Complex which comes out handsomely, with the extra kick of weapons as gifts to outfit a presumed 300k-strong Afghan Army. Taliban? Oh, well! "All the better to keep the region roiling!, some surely say.
The GWHB 9/11 hoax baked-in the knowledge of how to rake taxpayers over hell's coals, soaking from them blood and treasure to benefit the cabal's bloodline families' troves of wealth.
Surely we can recognize the hoax had a plan from the start--an intentional plan, of course. Xio simply brought it to an incompetent, ignominious end. All hail the Chinese-backed coupsters! --NOT!
Except that isn't true at all. That is a disservice to not remember the fallen. We lost several men in early 2020 to the rags.
Bowling onNewsmax today.
Guest was Gay boy Linseed Graham.
He said we should stay in Crapistan and help the 90 percent of people that want theToli-Bon to leave.
I’ve agreed with the guy on some things. Disagreed on others. And I realize I’m just Joe Schmo.
But one thing I loathe of this man is his ‘holier than thou, I’m smarter than anyone else in the room, see I told ya so, Should have listened to me’ attitude about everything.
4) The MSM parroting the propaganda, many connected to defense companies. He says the corruption runs deep.....If you’re aware of the corruption and have solid proof, expose it. I can assure you, statements like that drive all of us crazy. “Yeah, I know this, that and the other thing, but I’m not at liberty to say. Confidentiality laws and such.” Bullsh*t!!!
Yes, war is profitable, and those who profit will do whatever it takes to keep one going. The American people need to stop believing the lies politicians tell.
The reality is people like Ron Paul( there weren’t many) wanted us out a decade ago or more and tried.
These scenes would have been repeated be it under Bush or Obama.
As for Trump, he did have a credible plan to leave May 1st and it MAY have been more orderly. We don’t know for sure.
I think we ought to celebrate being out!
Best to ignore the hand-wringing from the military industrial complex shills like Graham, Cheney, Kristol, Rogers, Crenshaw and the dozens of others.
Mostly agree.
Peoples are different.
All of nation building is based on the idea that people want the same things we do, which is patently false and dooms us to failure.
I agree and so does Trump but you can’t just leave it in a mess the way Biden did.
Thoughts?
Ron Paul was anti-Trump when he was running. Remember he and his wife developed a friendship with Mitt Romney in 2012 and was anti-Newt?
I agree with some of what he says, but if we are going to throw blame around, we need to assign a good deal to the Afghani people.
Sure, we should have gotten out long ago, once the primary objective was achieved. The nation building should never have been started. All those people seem to know is feudalism, one faction vs another. They don’t share a feeling of overall patriotism like we have in this country for 245 years. Now it seems they will slip back, just like before with the terroristic Taliban ruling over all.
All of the lives lost, ours and the innocent civilians, all of the money spent (ours), all of the military hardware lost (ours again), lost. Sad.
Now I see that the Chinese are cozying up to the Taliban. The Chinese are going to be the new rulers of that country. The Taliban are going to learn that the Chinese are going to do things a LOT differently than we did.
I hope that we, finally, have learned our lesson- a very painful and expensive one.
As for Biden, he has had over SEVEN MONTHS to prepare. Stop blaming everyone else, Joe. The buck stops with YOU.
Oh, and one more thing- our country is slowly but surely being split into groups. We are being divided into groups and being pitted against each other. Looks like we are headed the way of Afghanistan, only on the fast track.
….just my .02
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