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Ron Paul: Kabul has fallen - but don't blame Biden
Mises.org ^ | Aug 16 | Former Rep. Ron Paul

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.


TOPICS: Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: donblack; fossil; goodoldron; paul; paultard; paultardation; paultards; randsconcerntrolls; ronpaul; ronpaulfanboys; rupaul
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To: SaxxonWoods
Every event falls under his umbrella and goes through his prism. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just useless.

Accurate.
61 posted on 08/16/2021 2:50:31 PM PDT by larrytown ( There must be a reckoning - resignations, firings and courts martial, to start with.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The higher ups were told to not put troops in Afganistan or only for a short time...by the special forces that chased Ban Ladin out..

Horse Soilders..the book


62 posted on 08/16/2021 2:55:05 PM PDT by Hojczyk
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To: usafa92

If it had been recognized in the beginning that it was not winnable, there would have been no exit, in triumph or defeat.

That is what Ron Paul is trying to get people to recognize, and he is right.


63 posted on 08/16/2021 2:58:57 PM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: RandFan

With 1-4.

And I do think Biden had a lot to do with it.

He’s the president, officially the Commander-in-Chief.


64 posted on 08/16/2021 2:59:49 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…. )
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To: RandFan

We could have gotten the same results if we had left in 2002 or 2005. Or 2011, after Bin Laden was dead. Most effective if we had left in 2002, after scorching and salting the poppy fields.


65 posted on 08/16/2021 3:06:00 PM PDT by Bernard (The very best scientific articles always contain this phrase: “My personal intuition has been…”)
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To: Arlis

Same here, the one thing from the Bush 1 Presidency to Obama Presidency that was a constant was interventionist and regime change foreign policy. Not 1 iota worth of difference.

Trump will whether his critics will admit it or not was correct that Wars of regime change are not worth it. It is always someone else’s kid who has to go fight these darn wars, never the elites and foreign policy leaders of “BOTH parties who constantly get the USA into these regime change wars.

Where Biden screwed up was not already starting the evacuation of US citizens and Afghan allies who served as scouts and translators, and their families, for the US Milatary


66 posted on 08/16/2021 3:13:19 PM PDT by CTrent1564
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To: RandFan

I blame Biden for how it ended.

67 posted on 08/16/2021 3:15:19 PM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: RandFan

Like Biden, he’s confusing the issue. It’s not a question of whether or not we should leave; it’s a question of HOW it was done. And the blame falls squarely on Joe Biden and those who committed fraud to give him the presidency.


68 posted on 08/16/2021 3:25:07 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: RandFan
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.

He's probably right. The odds of turning Afghanistan into a decent country have always been slim.

69 posted on 08/16/2021 3:27:56 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem by far is that most of the news media is hate & agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: RandFan
It absolutely Biden's fault and the Paultards for pushing to get us out without assurances the Taliban would overrun the country.

Paultards are isolationists that want to bring back Bill Clinton's foreign policy and that was as big as disaster as the neo-con foreign policy.

70 posted on 08/16/2021 3:41:49 PM PDT by Kazan
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To: RandFan

RON PAUL SAID “9/11 BOMBINGS” DURING HIS FAREWELL SPEECH 10 YEARS AGO.


71 posted on 08/16/2021 3:56:12 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Free Republic: The Internet's 1st social media platform. Since 1996.)
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To: RandFan

What a pathetic response.


72 posted on 08/16/2021 3:58:24 PM PDT by mulligan (an En bbnnEeThe to)
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To: Kazan

The Taliban are there. Deal with it.

Taliban would not exist without popular tribal support.

You clearly know as much about Afghanistan as Gen. Milley i.e nothing.


73 posted on 08/16/2021 4:00:49 PM PDT by RandFan
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To: Theoria

Last year of his 1st term is considered incident free by the military. Practically all of 2020.

It is true with respect to the Taliban. The truth is the Taliban feared consequences if they acted against the Afghan government.


74 posted on 08/16/2021 4:02:25 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: Bernard

I would not be opposed to that though I think when they announced OBLwas dead why didn’t Obama bring them all home?

You know the answer: He was in the pockets of the contractors as well.

Took a president like Trump to end this.


75 posted on 08/16/2021 4:05:27 PM PDT by RandFan
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To: RandFan
The reason the US lost is because it allowed/protected the practice of Bacha bazi (Male-to-male pedophilia, yes folks our own government, Bush administration all the way through Trump the Biden).

Even God has vengeance for the poor victims that our government looked away from. Guess what, the Taliban hates that practice too. Once Bush admin captured provinces of Afghan the powers that be reinstituted that "practice" as a means of appeasement. Taliban hated that. Clown World, our US culture is f'up more that certain aspects of the Taliban it seems..
76 posted on 08/16/2021 4:11:59 PM PDT by rollo tomasi
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To: BookmanTheJanitor
Bush brought back man-boy anal sex Thursdays (When Allah was sleeping). Which is worse, hanging flags or actively promoting pedophilia (Which every admin did since the Enduring Freedom).
77 posted on 08/16/2021 4:17:17 PM PDT by rollo tomasi
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To: Hostage

2020 we lost guys to insiders. Just like now, that is the way of the rags. The military recognizes their sacrifices, as do I.


78 posted on 08/16/2021 4:23:51 PM PDT by Theoria
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
There is plenty of blame to go around.

But this ongoing disaster is all on Joe Biden.

79 posted on 08/16/2021 4:23:56 PM PDT by KC_Lion
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To: RandFan

Sould like Ron’s just havin the “soft bigotry of low expectations”.


80 posted on 08/16/2021 5:13:44 PM PDT by Theophilus (Dems fear fear. Christians fear God. )
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