It's been a while and this one is short and sweet (not many of the otherwise admirable habits of the author of the CC):
"When a man unprincipled in private life[,] desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits -- despotic in his ordinary demeanor -- known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty -- when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity -- to join in the cry of danger to liberty -- to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government and bringing it under suspicion -- to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day -- It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind."
24 comments:
Clearly we should not be fighting a war or occupying Afghanistan. I think we can all agree on that we had to leave. The plan to leave was the obviously the responsibility of Biden’s. I would have said all Americans have to be out by whatever date and after that you are on your own. I would have then opened the boarder to our allies by executive order. The consequences that will follow as a result of the presidents mismanagement are unfolding but clearly it was a political blunder. Biden is not at the mercy of the Taliban.
There is one name that should be on everyone's lips, and yet, I am not hearing enough of: George W. Bush.
To the extent that this mess can be laid at the feet of any American, it can be squarely laid at the feet of one man, and only one man. George W. Bush sent us to war in Afghanistan with no clear objectives, plan for success, or exit strategy. And more, with little actual justification. Yes, 9/11 was very bad. And yes, al qaeda had some bases in Afghanistan, but all signs point to its actual home being Pakistan. The invasion of Afghanistan was little more than a PR stunt with the idea of blowing some shit up, killing some brown people, and showing off our guns.
Next, George W. Bush diluted our resources in Afghanistan by invading Iraq - a war of even more dubious justification. WMD!?! HA!!!!! To the extent that we had any real chance of securing Afghanistan and holding it well and long enough to make real change, that chance went out the door with the unjustified invasion of Iraq and division of our forces and resources.
By the time George W. Bush left office, Afghanistan had already been going on for almost twice as long as World War II. And it had no end in sight and no clear path to leaving.
Obama just kicked the can down the road on the Afghanistan war. I like Obama. I voted for him twice. But he showed no real leadership on this issue.
Trump called for this very pullout. I am no fan of Mr. Trump. But on this I agreed - we could not and should not remain in Afghanistan forever, and the war had gone on long enough. Rest assured, whatever the result of the election last year might have been - this pullout was happening one way or another.
And now Biden inherits the mess created by George W. Bush, swept under the rug by Obama, and which was planned to be resolved by Trump. As absolutely tragic as the situation on the ground might be in Afghanistan, Biden is not to blame.
The Taliban are the ones perpetrating the crimes on the ground - not Biden.
Bush is the one that put us there - not Biden.
Trump hatched the plan to leave - not Biden.
Biden is simply doing the dirty work that was inevitable and necessary. That is leadership.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/endless-wars-neocon-biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-kabul-taliban-terrorist-jihadist-11629209389
Imagine you go to the hospital with acute appendicitis. The doctor walks in and slashes open your belly with a machete.
At the press conference discussing your death the doctor says:
"Look, we ALL agree the appendix had to come out. And frankly that guy made some bad lifestyle choices that contributed to the appendicitis. Oh, and his previous doctors? Not that great."
Then he leaves without taking questions as the reporters cry out, "But Doctor, what about the machete?!"
This, in a nutshell, was President Biden's "press conference" the other day.
There's little or no disagreement with notion that the United States needed to leave Afghanistan. There's no disagreement at all that the ANA and the Afghan regime collapsed (as, frankly, many, including the president's own advisers, expected) with exceeding rapidity. And there's only partisan disagreement about the self-evident fact that no prior administration handled the place very well at all (barring, perhaps, the very earliest part of our efforts focused on the destruction of Al Qaeda).
But to call these last days a horrifying debacle is to give this administration far too much credit, and President Biden's address was a shameful and disingenuous dodge around that real issue. (And a bit surprising from a fellow who ran on, and repeated after inauguration, a promise not to blame others for events on his watch.)
Most dismaying of all, though, may be the broader reaction of many pundits and politicians and regular folk. Some are seemingly so blinded by their entirely justifiable loathing for President Biden's predecessor that they are not only disinclined to hold the current president accountable for anything, but are willing to justify, excuse or, for goodness sake, even praise this week's outrageous events, or downplay the disaster that is already befalling women, girls and anyone in the country who ever served the United States.
Do we have to hold our breaths or can we assume that biug bad Donald is to be harpooned for the incompetence of his successor, who must be right because, after all, he is Pink and a Democrat. And, of course, we will not take these words and apply them to the folks that attacked our last administration because they were bad, nasty Republicans. If nothing else, you are depedable in your biases.
Mr. Kuntz, yours is a reasonable analogy, but incomplete. Instead of acute appendicitis, I suggest a stab wound as the basis for your analogy. Because you see, someone is responsible for the stab wound and that person bears ultimate responsibility for the fate of the guy who got stabbed.
In this case, the person who did the stabbing was George W. Bush. To the extent that any American is responsible for what is happening in Afghanistan, George W. Busg is responsible for the mess. Any other American who came after him who might share some small portion of the blame is just a bit player after the fact.
All of you crying about Biden, or even Trump, are just prisoners of the moment on this issue.
What is so bad with how we got out? How many troops would you accept being killed so that we could make a slow withdrawal? Biden was dead on when he said that if they won’t fight for their country why should we.
We were holding back the entire taliban army with a few thousand troops these last couple years! While the afghani army had several hundred thousand? And when we pull out our few thousand the hundreds of thousands abandon their posts and immediately crumble? That tells me all I need to know.
There was no easy way to get out and Biden did what needed to be done.
637 we have 10,000 American citizens we left behind because the Biden admin is stupid and incompetent and now they are scared and clueless...they are depending upon the goodwill of the Taliban ( imagine that) so that 10,000 Americans...let that sink in..10,000!...are not tortured beheaded raped.
I like eggs.
Amen 6:37 BUT we should have had a better plan in place to safely get out our Afgan collaborators. That is unforgivable.
This is such a shame. There is really no hope for our country, just competing sides who may inch each other out every four years or so. But, the "there is no battle too small" not to concede may really hurt us with Taiwan.
@4:53
I think the initial move into Afghanistan, to root out and destroy Al Qaeda's infrastructure there, and as a punitive raid against the Taliban who supported AQ, was necessary. We should have done maximum, targeted damage, then gotten out -- even knowing we'd likely have to keep coming back in that way.
But W and his crew are certainly to blame for pivoting to a mission of "nation building." Pashtunwali is a culture of some 3000 years' duration. It endured the predations of the Russians, the British, and Alexander the Great -- all "nation builders" with far fewer scruples than the US -- and emerged largely unchanged. This was not a culture that was going to be overcome by the building of some roads and schools.
All that said, this last week has been a shameful disaster and Biden has, sadly, shown himself to be a craven scoundrel in the manner he has addressed -- well, ignored -- his administration's conduct there.
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground?
It's inevitable. Inevitable that the US is getting out of Afghanistan, and that the opposing party will bring negative rhetoric. No doubt about it. Withdrawal is painful, but before long, all of this will be a forgotten footnote. It's already a non-story. Change brings pain, and generally, people want to leave the pain behind. A quick extraction brings faster relief. Biden cuts his losses. Enough said. Covid anyone?
State Attorney arrested for taking bribes up north to close cases and now judges being investigated! Sounds like an excellent post topic
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/451536-tallahassee-corruption-probe-turns-attention-to-judges-sources-say/?fbclid=IwAR1ntialN2hvYJuRUFFsgyNa2jGXMVIvOm1CxSkBJgL8-IebERzq60_R3pQ
your weclome
The UK Parliament just formally censured Joe Biden for his dereliction of duty toward our allies.. unprecedented, almost unthinkably stunning moment. Boris Johnson called Biden Monday am and Biden didn't call him back until late Tuesday nite. He just isn't up to the task of the presidency but neither is Kamala who has disappeared the last week... interesting times ahead for sure.
@813
Sometimes people just have to take responsibility for their own actions. Those 10,000+ Americans in Afghanistan knew this day was coming and coming very soon. In fact, Donald Trump had set a full withdrawal date of May 2021. Joe Biden extended that full withdrawal date by months. If those 10,000+ US citizens didn't get out, what should the US government have done? Should the US government that represents hundreds of millions of Americans be held hostage by 10,000 foot draggers and stayed in Afghanistan until these folks could be politely convinced to leave? No sir.
Also worth asking, who are these 10,000+ Americans? Assuming that some of these 10,000 are some form of security contractors - what did they think they were signing up for? Are they tourists (one would think not)? Perhaps missionaries (tough luck buttercup)? Red Cross types (either get out while the getting is good, or accept your risks)?
To date I have not seen any reporting that thousands of Americans were trying to leave Afghanistan back in April and were somehow denied. If that story does come out, then maybe I can see a bungle. But I haven't seen that story yet.
What is happening sucks. We all agree (for once). But this notion that it could have been a smooth exit and transition if done "better" (which is what many of you appear to be pushing) is the worst kind of armchair quarterbacking fantasy. Republican or Democrat, the president in 2021 was making this happen and this is what it was going to look like. And that is because this is what had to happen.
It is clear that there was no support for the government and forces we propped for 20 years. Geez! Not even the people being propped and equipped supported their own regime. I don’t remember hearing of one shot, much less one battle being fought for control of this country. These are tough people with a centuries old history of hard fighting. The fact that they just melted at the slightest push, tells you everything you need to know about the judgement of 20 years of American political and military leadership.
Intelligence is important. Excuses are for losers. As I said a few days back, Biden at the mercy of savages. It’s not pretty.
I'm no fan of Trump, but on this I agree, we needed to get the hell out of there. A long time ago.
When the Trump admin went behind the back of the Afghan government, negotiated our withdrawal, again to the chagrin of the Afghan government, the Taliban saw their opportunity...
They simply put the word out to those 300K Afghan troops whose salaries we paid, after training and equipping them, that they had a choice to make...
For the time being keep collecting your salary. But in two years time, when the USA leaves, either lay down your arms and or join us when we come calling, or we kill you. The vast majority chose door #1. That is why the Taliban was able to take the country in a week without barely firing a shot.
This was reported by the BBC months ago. They knew. And our State Dept and generals tell us with a straight face " we had no idea they would take the country in one week".
I voted for Joe. But he fucked this up big time. This hurts America. He owns it.
COVID-19 ADVISORY #108
SELF-MONITORING NOTICE
Three individuals who worked at the locations and on the dates listed below have tested positive for COVID-19.
Persons identified as having been in close proximity to the confirmed individuals are being notified and will be asked to take all necessary precautions.
Individual #1
Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center, 175 NW 1st Ave.:
Room 1814 on 8/9-12/2021; 8/16-18/2021 and 8/20/2021
Last date onsite: 8/20/2021
Individual #2
South Dade Justice Center, 10710 SW 211 St.:
Room 1500 – Clerk’s Office Traffic Public Service Counter & back-office areas
Last date onsite: 8/18/2021
Individual #3
Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, 1351 NW 12 St.:
Courtroom 2-5 on 8/9-20/2021
Last date onsite: 8/20/2021
You right wing zealots are clueless. Republicans started this war and have owned it for 20 years. To say this is Biden's fault when you have created this mess is disengenuous at best, pushing another lie at worst. Just like the financial side of things they come in, create havoc defending liberty while allowing big business and the rich to soak the tax system, then turn it over when its screwed up big time. They avoid responsibility, play the blame game at every opportunity and tie up responsible economic and military policy. Oh, and did I say promote lies about our voting democracy at the expense of our democracy itself. Clinton cleaned up Bush 1's mess, Obama Bush 2, and now Biden for Trump. Sound familiar? Is it any wonder the party that hates government doesn't know how to run it? I hope they throw away the filibuster and jam every one of their bills down Republican throats. The more the merrier. Republicans are not responsible stewards of anything in Washington or Tallahassee. They have completely politicized public safety and are endangering Americans every day. You cannot debate someone who is not open to debate. Fuck 'em and fight back.
In other words you are broke…. 😂
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