Posted on 08/27/2021 5:26:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
Say what you will about President Joe Biden, he has stuck to his guns on ending America's 20-year involvement in Afghanistan's forever war.
His decision not to delay our departure after Aug. 31 was fortified by hard intel that the terrorist ISIS-K was preparing attacks at Kabul airport.
Thursday evening, the two bomb attacks occurred.
It now seems inevitable that the withdrawal will be completed by Aug. 31, with all U.S. military forces following the last civilians out.
Before yesterday's attacks, the airlift had been going far better than in its chaotic first days. Some 100,000 Americans and Afghans had gotten out of the country since Aug. 14.
Biden held his ground, refusing to be stampeded by Democratic critics, NATO allies, Republican hawks or media demanding he extend the deadline for departure until all Americans were out.
His adamancy testifies to the convictions Biden came by during decades at the apex of the U.S. government during our longest war.
Those convictions:
Even if the end result of a withdrawal is that Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, the cause is not worth a continuance of the U.S. commitment or the blood and treasure that four presidents have invested.
Better to accept a U.S. defeat and humiliation than re-commit to a war that is inevitably going to be lost.
Biden's decision and the botched early days of the withdrawal have not been without political cost. Polls show the president's approval rating sliding underwater. A Suffolk poll has him down to 41%.
Yet, on his basic decision to get out now and accept the costs and consequences, his country appears to be with him. After all, former President Donald Trump was prepared to depart earlier than Aug. 31, and a majority of Americans still support the decision to write off Afghanistan and get out.
Still, we need to realize what this means and what is coming.
According to the secretary of state, 6,000 Americans were still in Afghanistan when the Afghan army collapsed and Kabul fell. Some 4,500 of these have now been evacuated.
The State Department is in touch with 500 other U.S. citizens to effect their departure. As for the remaining 1,000, we do not know where they are.
What does this mean?
Hundreds of Americans are going to be left behind, along with scores of thousands of Afghan allies who worked with our military or contributed to the cause of crushing the Taliban. And many of those Afghans are going to pay the price of having cast their lot with the Americans.
After Aug. 31, the fate of those left behind will be determined by the Taliban, and we will be made witness to the fate the Taliban imposes.
This generation is about to learn what it means to lose a war.
When the war for Algerian independence ended in 1962, and the French pulled their troops out, scores of thousands of "Harkis," Arab and Muslim Algerians who fought alongside the French, were left behind.
The atrocities against the Harkis ran into the tens of thousands. Such may be the fate of scores of thousands of Afghans who fought beside us.
Biden's diplomats may be negotiating with the Taliban to prevent the war crime of using U.S. citizens left behind as hostages. But we are not going to be able to save all of our friends and allies who cast their lot with us and fought alongside us.
Yet, while the promises of the Taliban are not credible and ought not to be believed, we are not without leverage.
As The New York Times writes, the Afghan economy is "in free fall."
"Cash is growing scarce, and food prices are rising. Fuel is becoming harder to find. Government services have stalled as civil servants avoid work, fearing retribution."
The Taliban's desperate need is for people to run the economy and for money from the international community to pay for imports of food and vital necessities of life.
What will also be needed from us, soon after the fall of Afghanistan, is a reappraisal of America's commitments across the Middle East.
We have 900 U.S. troops in Syria who control the oil reserves of that country and serve as a shield for the Syrian Kurds.
How long should we keep them there?
We retain several thousand troops in Iraq. Why?
These are questions for which new answers are going to be needed.
Indeed, there will be a temptation to counter our defeat and humiliation with defiant gestures or precipitate action to restore our lost credibility. Henry Kissinger's advice on any such action today seems wise:
"No dramatic strategic move is available in the immediate future to offset this self-inflicted setback, such as by making new formal commitments in other regions. American rashness would compound disappointment among allies, encourage adversaries, and sow confusion among observers."
As for Afghanistan and the Kabul airport, there comes a time when even a great nation needs to accept the reality that Corregidor is lost.
There will be a barrage of words and plumes of hot air rising over the Potomac. Other than that, nada.
This generation will learn what it means to have a traitor as president, supported by a traitorous Demonicrat kakostocracy and gutless coward RINOcrats.
Which generation? Biden was born in 1943. Just near the end of the Silent Generation.
ISIS-K is the bad cop in the Taliban’s good cop bad cop shtick.
George W. Bush. How much blame does he bare for this? He wanted to get Saddam for Daddy Bush because he didn’t get to go after Saddam. Daddy went weak kneed and called off the First Gulf War. But, that war should have been handled differently. You cannot make a democracy out of a bunch of 7th Century minded peoples who do not want to come into the current century. They still live back in Moo-hommid’s time frame. To be like ole Moo. Only the ones with the oil money so they can buy their big boats to go cruising around the Med and hit Paris and London on the weekends. They are the only ones who are close to this century. The rest are still in their tents and fighting among their selves as they have for centuries and centuries. We do not need to spill any more blood to invade Afghanistan. Enough already. What did we accomplish? Kill thousands of our finest young soldiers and now we leave and the bad guys are back in charge after 20 years of waiting. They do that well, wait. They are not like us, needing it right freaking now.
We didn’t lose the war. We did defeat Al Qaeda. That’s when we should have left.
Sadly, when lurking around some of the more radical democrat web sites, their people simply want cut and run, bring our boys home, no matter what the future cost. To hell with Americans still there. They are on their own.
My memories of the past is the future cost is always high!
No, he really wouldn’t. Talk to the kids and you’ll see.
Dennis Prager’s father Max enlisted in the Navy in the spring of 1943 and saw combat in the Pacific as a supply officer aboard the USS Bollinger, a troop transport that brought Marines to many island battlegrounds.
Where do I collect on that bet?
I will have to make a donation to FR in lieu of a wager payment!:)
“I’ll bet neither one of these dopes has had a single family member within 15 branches of their family tree serve in the U.S. military.”
Does that make what he said wrong?
Bret Stephens is a propagandist who is paid to peddle an agenda. Quoting him on any matter of substance is like asking your barber if you need a haircut.
Those responsible for this debacle must be held accountable. Joe Biden must resign and all those military and policy advisers who created this mess must be ousted. President Kamala has neither the intellect nor leadership to run this country and we will be adrift as a nation until the 2022 elections. Praying that the GOP sweeps Congress in 2022 and purges itself of the Rinos the business of rebuilding the nation can commence. Impeaching Kamala while tempting should not be a priority. With a veto proof majority the GOP should take charge and turn the country back from the brink of socialism. New GOP leaders should emerge looking to the 2024 presidential race. Trump is too galvanizing and would be the one thing that could unite the Democrats in 2024. New candidates should emerge…maybe de Santos or Noem
The war crime really belongs to Biden. Unless he’s like the guy caught feeding people to alligators who blames the alligators.
What would you suggest had been the appropriate response to the 911 attacks in regard to Afghanistan?
That is a silly personal attack on a powerful thinker who was one of the pioneers of the populist conservatism that became Trumpism. How about just stating that you disagree with him and explaining why. As for the “Irish whiskey”, those paying attention may recall that Pat’s ancestry is barely Irish if at all. He’s mostly of Scottish and German stock, IIRC.
“Pat Buchanan is out of it, as his screed reveals.”
He’s been right about these foreign adventures for over 40 years.
You just don’t agree with him.
” But why can’t we stay there “forever,” if doing so saves a country and tells the world that America sticks to its commitments and protects its allies?”
Because the American people said no.
I am one of them.
“If Afghanistan comes to resemble Cambodia’s killing fields, will you still think it was the right decision? Or, to put it another way: Is there any level of evil, any emboldening of America-hating Islamists, any effect of an American defeat on the world or on America that would make you regret your decision to withdraw?”
No.
We could have had a successful pullout without the humiliation if it had been planned properly. Defeat, I don't think so, if we withdrew on our terms I'd call the mission a success as we haven't had a domestic terror attack from these terrorists in 2 decades.
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