Elections have consequences, as Barack Obama once said, and boy, are we seeing what that means now.
After taking Afghanistan away from the radical Islamist movement that allowed Al Qaeda to plan and execute the 9/11 attacks in 2001, we have now not only returned that nation to those exact same Islamists, the Taliban, we have also given them billions of dollars in military hardware to strengthen their position and influence.
Some will argue that Trump would have done the same thing, but that’s not true. The plan he and Secretary of State Pompeo came up with did include cooperation with the Taliban, but with strict conditions that if violated, would result in swift US military action.
The Taliban had violated those conditions many times leading up to the new Biden-imposed deadline of August 31. If Trump were still in office, we would not have removed the troops and would still be helping the Afghan government and military subdue the Taliban and limit their control and influence in the country.
But Biden refused to do that and now has returned the country to the Taliban unconditionally and with support from the US and the Biden administration, who has spent more time in the past weeks telling us how wonderful the Taliban were than grappling with the horrible reality they have engendered with their immensely stupid and reckless policies. And he did this primarily for the craven political goal of being able to claim he withdrew the US from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Moreover, Biden has stranded hundreds of Americans, including schoolchildren, in Afghanistan along with the thousands of green card and special visa holders who helped our country over the past 20 years, adding a level of callousness and basic disregard for humanity that we haven’t seen from our government since the times of Jim Crow.
Once again, Biden has shown his willingness to sacrifice the innocent to achieve his own, selfish political ends, all the while claiming to be some kind of humanitarian hero.
For all of Trump’s faults and follies, he never came close to this kind of blatant disregard for the well-being of actual people. Yes, he was strict on illegal immigration, but that policy prevented people from getting abused, raped, and murdered in the insidious and dark world of illegal immigration, as we’re seeing now on the Southern Border.
But the press fawns over Biden’s “empathy,” celebrates his “deeply held religious convictions” and contrasts him to the Orange Man Bad every chance they get. In fact, both Biden and the press continue to blame Trump for this debacle in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the party that wants to spend $4.5 trillion to tighten its grip on our country and make ever more people dependent on a government that can’t even uphold its most solemn responsibility to protect its people.
Check out this message on the State Department’s website regarding what they “can and cannot do” regarding evacuation in general: ““If there are no commercial options available, and if we have consular officers at the embassy or consulate, and if the conditions permit, we may help U.S. citizens identify possible transportation options” [emphasis not added].
The point is that even if we still had our embassy in Kabul, we only “may” be able to “help U.S. citizens identify possible transportation options.” Nothing about green card holders. Nothing about special visa holders. And, crucially, nothing about what happens when you have given up your embassy.
This is your government at work. This is the work of those in government who most want you to relinquish your individual liberty in return for their “care” and “security.”
Do you seriously want to give these people your guns when these same folks actively promote defunding the police? Do you want to entrust them with big economic decisions when their policies have already resulted in sky-high inflation, artificially high unemployment, and job losses in certain sectors of the economy? Do you want to trust Joe Biden when almost everything he said about and promised to do in regards to Afghanistan was a lie?
Yeah, no.
One slight ray of hope is that even the press can’t ignore the disaster that is Biden’s Afghanistan policy. Maybe it will wake them and some of his supporters up to the fact that this emperor truly has no clothes.
Until it does, we have 3 more years of the most inept leadership I have ever seen to cope with, something that might have been somewhat amusing in its absurdity if it didn’t result in the suffering and death of so many, not the least of which are the 13 service members killed recently by an ISIS terrorist whose presence was a direct result of Biden’s unspeakably bad decision-making (his administration volunteered to give the Taliban control of Kabul instead of the US military).
You wanted to impeach Trump for non-existent collusion with the Russians or a single phone call to the Ukraine to find out about the corruption of the Biden family?
How about impeaching a guy who lied repeatedly about Afghanistan, what he would do (“we won’t leave any Americans behind”), and who has, as result, endangered Americans and America by giving back terrorists a safe haven, loaded with weaponry and materiel they can use to attack us and our allies for the next several years?
What have we done by electing this buffoon?
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
Maybe Trey should write an article on deaths in Afghanistan. From the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs of Brown University, “as of April 2021, more than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war.” This happened on the watch of Democratic and Republican presidents. Even if getting out was messy, it was time to go.
I agree with Suz, of course.
But just by way of clarification, the USA never liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, any more than the Soviet Union made it a satellite state of the USSR. Big industrialised nations with big industrialised armies think we can go into Afghanistan, bomb them back to the stone age, set up a new government, and the locals will be grateful. But Afghanistan was already in the Stone Age before we got there, and all did was chase the ones we considered enemies back into their caves for a while. President Biden was correct that the alternatives were to escalate or get out. The way the evacuation went down is a terrible tragedy and a sad stain on President Biden’s record, but to blame him is specious; that war started 20 years ago for no reason except America’s fear and VPCheney & President George W Bush’s determination to hold somebody, anybody, accountable for 9/11 and exert American hegemony in the region.
I’m sorry for the loss of American service people, and the suffering we leave in our wake. America never ought to have tried to be the policeman of the world, and this is what happens when we do.
But if you are asking, what have we done by electing President Biden and VP Harris, the answer is: we have taken a step away from the disastrous march of populism toward white Christian nationalism and authoritarianism, and toward the liberties and freedoms that made America’s promise so great. It’s a small step, but at least it is a step in the right direction.
Step away from authoritarianism? What video are you watching? Trump deferred to the States while the Left screamed with fear that the Feds should take control. Now we are seeing what real Facism looks like with the government partnering with and mandating businesses not to protect individual liberties but rather as the policing arm of the government…”conform or be cast out!” This is just the beginning and I suggest you tamp down your ego and start shedding the scales from your eyes before you too have to submit to a social credit score.
Ptcalf, I have not the pleasure of understanding you.
“Now we are seeing what real Facism looks like with the government partnering with and mandating businesses not to protect individual liberties but rather as the policing arm of the government…”
Are you referring to vaccine mandates? I believe the government has not “mandated” any business to require vaccines, and the feds (very reasonably) are requiring only vaccines or ongoing testing for employees as I understand it; I could be mistaken.
Even if the government were somehow mandating a vaccine for all, it would be protecting something even more precious than individual liberties: individual lives. I think the sacrifice of 670,000 in the USA is enough dead for the sake of individual liberties, and past time for the protection of individual lives? This is not fascism. This is good leadership: ending a pandemic. Something the previous administration seemed to have no interest in.
But perhaps you are not speaking of vaccine mandates? (which would, of course, not be necessary if those folks who are so consumed with their individual liberties could remember their individual responsibility to their fellow humans for as long as it takes to get 2 injections). Please elucidate me in what way Pres. Biden is demanding “conform or be cast out”?
VJax–THANK YOU!
I thought the same thing, as I read the reply from ptcalf to you.
Good luck on requesting some clarification.
His/Her response to me was much
clearer, but patently false (voter fraud).
Either way, a stiff drink is in order!
Mr. H–
What have we done by electing President Biden?
The short answer is, we voted out Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
And I for one, am grateful to every person who made sure their vote counted.
And especially those who made their vote count twice!