about leaving over there....
Oh, look. I have not talked about politics in awhile. But given that the Orange Turd is not in office anymore, that has become less of a pressing issue for me. It's been refreshing. Also, I don't really do political commentary too well. My last Poli-Sci class was years ago and I think that other people (like Infidel and Michael) do a much, much better job.
But I had to comment of the piling up that the media (who have the attention span of a gnat) and the Repuglyclowns (who have nothing better to do) are trying to pin the debacle in Afghanistan on Biden, when Uncle Joe is just continuing the 'job' that Cheeto started. Don't believe me? This is what the page the Repugs have tried to scrub from the internet says:
“Trump has continued to take the lead in peace talks as he signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which would end America’s longest war,” the now-deleted page read. It also noted that while the now ex-president has “championed peace,” Joe Biden had pushed “endless wars.” Elsewhere on the page, the GOP noted that Trump had “taken action to defeat ISIS and eliminate dangerous leaders.”
GIZMODO adds:
It’s worth noting here that Abdul Ghani Baradar, who co-founded the Taliban in Afghanistan and went on to become the organization’s top-ranking political chief, was released from Pakistani jail at the U.S.’s request while Trump was in office.
So not so fast, Repugs. Agolf Twitler started this shitshow. (Actually it was Bush Junior, but hey) Not like the truth would stop them from lying their heads off, it comes with the territory.
I think I can talk more about other topics, politics not being my game. But I had to post something here about it, being the topic of the day. And I think Beau makes some great points here, that kind of helps people like me understand a little bit more what is going on:
- The mission was accomplished in Afghanistan during the first years.
- America stayed there because wars are profitable.
- The intervention was not meant to last twenty years.
- The American military is not meant to create transitions: it's meant to fight.
- The Afghans did receive training. They were trained to fight like the US without the infrastructure that supports the US military.
- The Taliban has much more experience fighting than the national military and they'll probably win.
Is it a shitshow, though? Yes, it is.
Can America help? Yes, it can. It won't be easy, because after the census news that Whyt people are less numerous, all the white nationalists need to be re energized is to know that more foreigners seeking asylum are going to come to the country.
Are the Rethugs and the media going to blame Uncle Joe? Yes, they are, because they are trash.
So I'll leave you with that. I encourage you to find out more about this mess and be ready to talk about it, because it'll probably be a Thanksgiving topic with your unvaccinated twice removed Repug cousin. You see how I'm always thinking about you?
XOXO
Changing a society takes willingness, and decades of education, when those are lacking, failure is assured.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteIt was not just getting there with machine guns and tanks and *poof!* problem solved. It's the pitbull approach and it does not work. America has not learned anything in all these years.
XOXO
This is a very complicated situation and Beau does his usual exemplary job of dissecting it. The military is very good at fighting. That’s their role. He also suggests that the military budget be split to provide for an organization that will go in after the conflict and assist with recovery (defund the military?). Maybe something like the Peace Corps on a grander scale with more funds.
ReplyDeleteThis isn’t the outcome we would have wanted, but it’s the one that we have. We learn and do better.
XOXO 👨🏼❤️💋👨🏽
Beau is very sharp in his observations.
DeleteAnd the military has one role and one role only: to fight. And it cannot be used for other things because it won't be as effective.
Also, the USA needs to stop trying to be the world's watchdog.
XOXO
"Everybody wants to be us." (Miranda Priestly). Bullshit! Let them be who the think they should be.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteTrying to change people's worldview is very, very difficult. Not every country in the world wants to be the United States. American exceptionalism is misguided at best.
XOXO
A colossal fuckup that was fucked up twenty years ago, stayed fucked up for all this time, and is now almost totally fucked.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteIt was done mostly for show, because literally, 'HOW DARED THEY!!?' and it went on for way too long. Twenty years!
XOXO
All flights have resumed today. Yesterday's evacuation shit show almost seems to have been created to make us look bad. Blame Bush, he put us there in the first place. Oh, and prepare yourself, around 22,000 Afghan refugees are going to be relocated in this country and the Conservatives are going to flip their wigs.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I read!
DeleteThose scenes of planes getting literally mobbed by hordes of men (not many women or children, natch) created a narrative of chaos. And the media, always prone to being a circus, ran with it.
Doublya -pushed by Cheney, the real president- did get the US in Afghanistan. And his policies informed Obama. Cheeto validated and encouraged the Taliban.
And white supremacists are gonna lose their shit with this wave of refugees.
XOXO
It certainly IS a shit show. Dubya put us there and kept us there. Obama continued those policies. But Cheeto....Cheeto is the one who negotiated the withdrawal and the timeline of that withdrawal. The Rethugs will do their usual....they're like the proverbial broken record. Ignore them. Biden's mistake? He waited too long to start getting people out. He admits it.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we do now? We let them establish a government and run their country, autonomously, as they have wanted all along. Yes, it will be a theocracy. We don't like that, right? Well, we tried to fix that and fucked it up. We need to learn the lesson of failed nation-building and move on. We have major issues right here at home to worry about and fix. Cuz, if we don't, we won't be living in a democracy. XOXO
Totally!
DeleteI was just saying this to Dave. And Uncle Joe's mistake was to think that the Taliban would not retake the country that fast. They were ready to pounce and they did. And you know that they will run that country. Well or into the ground. It's their prerogative. Will life be hell to some people in that country? Most probably. But like in America, where we have MAGAts, some people there actually agree with the Taliban!
America should fix its problems before it goes out to solve another country's shitshows.
XOXO
The Taliban did exactly what Cheeto and Pompeo agreed they could do. They began going province to province months ago --- as agreed upon. Uncle Joe may not have been privy to the minutia of the agreement; Cheeto's administration withheld a lot of info during the "transition" they did their best to stop. XOXO
DeleteForeign interference in another country's civil war never ends well. Period. That's a historical fact. This is not the first time the United States jumped in with both feet without an exit plan. And, yes... GW - in order to make up for the revenge hit he put out on Saddam Hussein in honor of his father, got us into this mess - It was GW's way of hurting those responsible for 9/11. Except... we never completed the job. You can't give freedom to people who are not willing to fight for it. And, though plenty of Afghanistan soldiers fought and lost their lives trying to defeat the Taliban, there were not enough of them. That is why things Saddam immediately went south once the US withdrew. It's a terror show. Bad policy from day one. We have the most well-financed military in the world and this is what we end up with? Right now? The US has egg on its face. I am ashamed of us. We do nothing well. We always make things worse. As for Cheetoh? Oh, yeah... he was only interested in the positive blowback for withdrawing. He made peace deals with no teeth. His lack of foreign policy experience created this whole mess. That's why they want to blame Biden. This is no different than any other mess the Repulsivecans create and pass on to the next Dem to fix. Destroy the Repulsivecan party... or we are doomed.
ReplyDeleteCorrect.
DeleteAnd America does not learn that lesson and keeps intervening. Over and over. And always leaves a mess behind. Going to Afghanistan was a show Bush put on to show the world you don't hit the bully over the head. And I think that the Afghans did fight and did learn but they need America's war machine to fight the way American taught them to. And they don't have that. The Taliban have twenty years of experience as guerrillas and the hatred that only comes with zealotry behind them. Hard to to top that.
Hahaha Repulsivecans is my word of the day.
XOXO
The blame game is so not helpful but it is what they do and it is just ridiculous. There is so much blame on both sides to go around but it always bothers me the most that a lot of brave young men and women thought their efforts were going to make a difference. Unfortunately, the politicians treat them as disposable heroes because they worship the almighty dollar. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Sixpence. Much appreciated. Take care.
ReplyDeleteOh, you are correct.
DeleteThere's plenty of blame to assign to a lot of people. The problem is that war and the war machine that America has built makes people billions of dollars. So it won't stop any time soon. People who serve are literally pawns in the hands of the people with all the power and all the money.
XOXO