Who Benefits From the Afghanistan Withdrawal?
Biden's master, for one
Posted on 08/31/2021 3:40:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
How does a leader decide what to do?
The most logical response is: "Cui bono?" -- "Who benefits?" -- from the decision.
If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it.
If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it.
I'd be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan -- conservative or liberal -- would give to the question, "Cui bono?"
I can say that until this moment, I have not read or heard a single cogent argument from proponents of American withdrawal as to how exactly it benefits America.
"Twenty years is too long," or its variant, "we have to end these endless wars," the most commonly offered argument for withdrawal, has nothing to do with benefiting America.
It is an emotional sentiment, not a rational argument.
The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members' lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago.
The number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan per year from 2015 to 2020 is respectively 22, 9, 14, 14, 21 and 11. No one can seriously argue that we are leaving Afghanistan because of high American casualties.
So, while America doesn't benefit at all from leaving Afghanistan, it does get hurt.
The damage to the reputation of America -- as an ally and as a strong country -- is not easily overstated.
The damage done to NATO, whose members President Joe Biden didn't bother to consult, is greater than any damage former President Donald Trump -- whom the left-wing mainstream media constantly attacked for damaging NATO -- was alleged to have done.
On the other hand, "Cui bono?" has some very clear answers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, every Islamic terror group in the world and every other anti-American regime and movement.
In the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro compiled a list of recent Western weakness in the face of tyrants and the commensurate strengthening of those tyrants:
"The West's abandonment of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression last year.
"The West's continuing desire for a rapprochement with the Iranian mullahcracy.
"The West's routine appeasement of Russia.
"All speak to the unwillingness of the West -- and the West's leader, the United States -- to stand up for allies anywhere on earth.
"Afghanistan is simply the latest, and by far the most stunning, example of abandonment of an American ally ...
"China's Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, chortled, 'From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island's defense will collapse in hours and U.S. military won't come to help. As a result (Taiwan) will quickly surrender.'
"Indeed, given the window presented by the Biden administration, it would be somewhat of a surprise if China didn't attempt some sort of action against Taiwan in the next few years ...
"Foreign policy abhors vacuums, and the United States has now created one. That means that erstwhile American allies will begin to play footsie with countries like Russia and China, believing that American commitments mean little. They have reason for such suspicions, obviously."
The effects on Americans' perceptions of the military constitute another terrible price paid by leaving Afghanistan. More and more Americans see the military as more concerned with fighting white supremacy in America and transphobia in the military than with fighting for the supremacy of freedom on earth. This is new. And it will have a devastating effect on both America and the military. One obvious consequence: Who will want to enlist in a woke military? (Perhaps that's the goal.)
It seems that every generation has to relearn the basic laws of life, such as this one: There are many bad people and many bad countries in the world, and only a fear of good countries prevents them from conquering other countries.
There is less fear of good countries in the world today than at any time since World War II. And that is especially so because the good countries are preoccupied with their own alleged evils rather than with the world's real evils.
China, Russia, Iran, Germany.
It is actually quite simple and this article provides all of the salient points in my contention that the #JihadJunta composed of, but not limited to, BHO, ValJar, Susan Ricin, John Brennan, and all of their Musli-Communist Cabal Members are the ones running this nation. Nanzi Pelousy, Chuck U Schumer, and the rest of the Congress are merely pawns at this point. The Junta achieved a major victory in the fall of Afghanistan and the “gifting” to Islamic terrorists of billions of dollars in high tech weaponry AND thousands of hostages. The crowning glory is the importation of Jihad fighters directly into the heart of America. I truly fear for the next few months…
Who will want to enlist in a woke military? (Perhaps that’s the goal.)
When was the last time “ progressives “ lined up to enlist to serve? Conservatives will be hesitant in these conditions.
The Pentagon suddenly has about $6B that WAS targeted for use in the Afghanistan theater. Money is never the object of decisions, right?
For Americans and other Westerners, biden goes down in history as the one who “ended the war in Afghanistan.”
In reality, biden was the tool of the chicoms working with the taliban, and he delivered Afghanistan to bearded savage terrorists, along with 82 billion dollars worth of materiel, and provided then with a few thousand American hostages to use in exchange for money and releasing more “refugees” to live in the USA.
Yup- your post is spot-on.
We should have left when bin Laden got killed.
Yeah. bin laden's dead all right. /sarc
China also benefits from our withdrawal.
It's not rocket science.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.