George Rebane
Diplomacy unsupported by the threat of force is nothing but duplicitous hot air.
Has Kabul fallen? For all intents and purposes the answer is yes. How else to explain all those towelheads carrying their AKs and RPGs, casually walking the streets of that city of six million, while thousands are desperately trying to get on a flight out from the airport’s military side still under American control? Last we looked, the Afghani ‘security forces’ who had yet to flee were still wearing their uniforms.
Our display of existential historical ignorance is on parade. Even backwoods snuffies like me have known for decades that Afghanistan is not a ‘country’, but a region of ethnically and culturally similar tribes of the mostly fanatically devout and concomitantly ignorant Muslims. As recounted here numberless times and echoed by RR’s commentariat, attempting to deal with that region as a unified sovereign nation-state has been a fool’s errand, as history confirms. The only time Afghanis unite and cooperate is when they fight to expel foreigners from their sandbox. All foreign policies should start recognizing those truths.
Re Afghanistan as the on-again, off-again home of international terrorists. Years ago Rebane Doctrine called for no nation-building, no long-term boots on the ground, but the use of our vaunted over-the-horizon military capability to whomp terrorist hotbeds as they arise in the region. We should deal with the terrorists from the air or at most with expeditionary raids – go in quickly, kill and destroy, and extract quickly. This is a policy that we should already be or become very good at, and apply worldwide against anyone who represents a clear and present danger to our nation. It has worked in the past, and it will work again. And the response of the international community to such a clear and consistent policy would be refreshing – it will not be a beauty contest and we will maintain our usual cadre of enemies, but it would make our diplomacy more meaningful.
The enduring problem with such a policy is that it will still require wise, educated, and experienced leaders to determine who to whomp, when, and with what. Starting with its leader, the present administration does not have a senior level team in place to carry out such a policy – their forte consists of wrongheaded and untimely appeasement.
Afterthoughts: I first learned the gory details about Afghanistan back in 1978 when James Michner’s Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan was published. (All the Rebanes were avid readers of Michner’s and Clavell’s historical novels in those days.) Immediately apparent was that this region was not a country in the ordinary sense of the world, no more than were China (that at least made pretense) and India before the western colonists intervened.
Before the USSR’s recent intervention in the 1980s, the last anyone tried to colonize Afghanistan was Great Britain in its strategic maintenance of the British Empire in the 19th century. Britain’s goal in controlling the region was to deny czarist Russia’s expansionist forays in central Asia that included Afghanistan as a strategically important access to a warm water port unencumbered by climate and foreign controlled narrow straits. In 1878 Britain attempted the tried-and-true approach of imperial colonials – go into a region consisting of warring and distrustful tribes, pick a tribe with a capable and malleable leader, and support him in conquering and annihilating his ethnic brethren. That leader would then be celebrated as the ‘great unifier’ of his heretofore non-existent country that would become a satrap of the western invader. It worked in so many places, it was sure to work in Afghanistan.
Well, it didn’t, and all the west got out of it was a bunch of pretty good literature. But it did give the Russians about a century of pause before they decided in 1980 that they could do it better. But after ten years, the communists in Moscow pulled out of Afghanistan – it turned out that they had bigger problems at home and with their European colonies.
What should be of some amazement to all Americans today is that less than 25 years later, the double dummies on Team Bush2 decided to have another go at nation-building with the idea that a unified Afghanistan under our security umbrella would become a stable and loyal ally. An ally that would serve as a geo-strategic anchor in the mid-east and south Asia from which the US could manage its regional, and even global interests. (Our allies were all for it given their own interest in securing the region’s supply of oil.) Then reality stepped in, and we saw before ten years had passed that we weren’t going to do any better than the Brits or the Russkys. But our hubris and wallet seemed boundless, and the comparatively low rate of casualties was politically acceptable – since we were making the world safe from terrorists – and we stuck it out for another ten years, ignoring a constant stream of evidence that there was no good ending to this growing trail of tears.
So what did we do, we decided to pull a Saigon 2.0 in Kabul, thereby completing a trifecta of a wrongheaded invasion, followed by a frustrating and futile occupation, and concluding now with an ignominious exit. And today half of Americans want to enlarge our government while giving it more money and more control over our lives. How did we become such an ignorant and contentious people?
[16aug21 update] To salvage some remaining honor from the ongoing and ignominious Biden Banzai for the exits, Rebane Doctrine proposes the following. With the 5,000+ combat troops we already have there, the US should declare the Kabul international airport as a temporary sovereign enclave and haven to be retained and defended until the thousands of Afghanis already on the airport, or those who can get there in the interval, are processed for exit visas and transported safely out of the country. First order of business should be to fly in tents, toilets, food distribution facilities, etc (and more gunships and fighting vehicles) to take care of the throngs while they await their exits. Should the Taliban do anything to thwart that process, we will declare publicly that we will whomp them with a new and improved version of ‘shock and awe’ that will give new meaning to the operation, and it will continue for an undetermined time to include Taliban targets all over Afghanistan. In short, we’ll leave when we’re damn good and ready.
[17aug21 update] Biden cannot learn from mistakes. Bumblebrain has a 40+ year sorry record of understanding and making policies – this deficit is especially acute in foreign policy. He was much younger when he started rejecting corrective feedback to his early blunders. Today he has put a ribbon around his demonstrated ability/propensity to make a flustercluck out of all his initiatives and responsibilities. Without the ability to understand and accept feedback from past mistakes, there can be no learning for improved performance. And he’s demonstrated this by blaming Afghanistan on everyone except the guy in the mirror. Today this mental (character?) defect is abetted by his visible mental decline which, I suspect, is making members of his cabinet and inner circle brush up on the particulars of the 25th Amendment. Pelosi must be inwardly overjoyed at the prospect, and Kamala is just too dumb to be worried about her own prospects should the musical chairs start. And the rest of the country will suffer the consequences.
[21aug21 update] Here is an especially interesting, informative, corroborative, and well told piece about the Taliban, how and why they fight, and why losing does not enter their minds as even an idle thought. It's told by a AF gunship combat veteran whose job was to listen in on the Taliban and then kill them by the hundreds. What's astounding is that the ragheads knew the Americans were listening in on their radio transmissions, and they didn't give a crap about being overheard. 'What I learned while eavesdropping on the Taliban' (H/T to reader). Enjoy.
rebanesruminations.com 
413 responses to “Afghanistan Reflections (updated 21aug21)”
Here’s a direct quote from Ron Paul on the current situation in Afganistan that I agre with:
“The US war on Afghanistan was not lost yesterday in Kabul. It was lost the moment it shifted from a limited mission to apprehend those who planned the attack on 9/11 to an exercise in regime change and nation-building.”
https://www.fitsnews.com/2021/08/16/ron-paul-kabul-has-fallen-but-dont-blame-joe-biden/
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re Update:
It was Trumps bombing of the Tailban that got them to the negotiating table. We let them know in no uncertain terms that if they (or members of their group) starting killing Americans, we would unleash fire and fury like they have never seen to date on their heads. And, if one looked over time, the US casualties went from 8 in one year to zero in 18 months, followed by one. Then Biden thought whatever he thought. I agree with both Biden’s and Trump’s goal of getting out of Afghanistan, but the way Biden did it…if it was Trump who owned the clustergluck, everyone including Republicans would be screaming for him to resign. Especially Mitt and Cheney.
Update continue. This is how we glucked up bigly: Link for reference only. Heads should roll over this. Tactics and strategy matters. I like Good Order Direction, be it at the border or the Afghan withdrawal
‘US left Afghan airfield at night, didn’t tell new commander’
https://apnews.com/article/bagram-afghanistan-airfield-us-troops-f3614828364f567593251aaaa167e623
Do you know where the Kabul Airport is. Not on the outskirts on town like a normal airport. No, it is friggin right in the center of the city. Downtown. Just a hop and skip to the Presidential Palace and surrounded by the hostile and motivated Taliban controlling the streets.
Do you know where the s Bagram Airfield is??? Glad you asked. It is outside of town, out in the desert, open area. It is a 20-25 minute Helo ride from Kubal Airport to Bagram airfield. That’s it. Sure, they get an occasional rocket launched at the airfield, but generally it is considered safe and defensivable. And no crowds or streets around it. The polar opposite of the airport and control tower in Kubal.
If the brass did not put politics ahead of planning, we could have spent weeks helicoptering people who needed out on the 20-25 helo ride to Bagram. Could have landed tents and food and housed thousands who wanted out of the country for fear of life keep them outside of the Capital. Surely, we would have not seen the pictures I refuse to look at of Afghanis clinging to that massive plane. C-5? I saw pics of hundreds of civilians on the tarmac as the huge plane (which is bigger than most Lefties can even imagine) going down the runway through people to take off. Bad, disorderly, clustergluck. No good orderly direction (god).
WTF? This whole chaotic and scene of carnage and mayhem could have been so easily avoided. 25 minute helo ride to good orderly direction. We could have told them, like Trump would have done, that we are getting our people and equipment out, will spend some time doing such, and it one hair of our people or Afghanis are harmed, we will Bomb the shit out over every facility you have and we know each and every one of your hiding places. There will no where to hide; you will be eviscerated. Like Trump did. Bombed them to the negotiating table. Biden comes along and gives them the carrot and takes the stick off the table. Like Iran.
So, we abandon Bagram Airfield first, then withdraw from the tribal shithole at an airport in the middle of downtown Kabul!!! Biden or his advisers own this disaster. It did not have to be this way. I can’t watch the clips coming out on-line.
Everything the Lefty Bastards touch turns to shit. Strategy and tactics matter. Planning matters. Lives matter. I am deeply troubled. Who made to call to abandon Bagram???
Piss off, Lefty soy boys. This is not political. This is a gross embarrassment.
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re Paul 3:50 – Gee Paul, did the Taliban start advancing when Trump was POTUS?
The answer is no.
Did Kabul fall when Trump was POTUS?
The answer is no.
Does Paul care to quote his choice as the commander in chief about the future of Afghanistan from the last few months?
The answer is no.
The day the Taliban found out Biden had been chosen by idiots like Paul to slurp ice cream cones and stagger around the Oval Office and put woke affirmative action types in charge of our military, their game was on.
They had only to prepare and wait.
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Hypocrite @350
😉
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Obviously, the Tailban (and her supporters from Terrorist sponsoring states’ had this well planned out in advance. They stuck when the iron was hot. Gotta give them kudos for a well executed plan. It appears true that the Tally Wackers faced a US well armed and trained Afghan army…an army of untrainable men.
Today, there are no rainbow flags flying anywhere in Afghanistan.
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re today’s update: we have the troops and the tech.
But the military is run by people frightened of their own shadow.
And it’s not just the military.
As Steyn (and others) have pointed out, our “intelligence” community is worse than worthless.
We’d be better off without them. The boots on the ground in the last few months could have given you a more accurate description of what was about to happen once Biden and his fruit-loop warrior gang came to power.
Time and time again, the left has proven its complete inability to understand basic human nature.
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BT 4:15 – “Today, there are no rainbow flags flying anywhere in Afghanistan.”
But, but, but… we CARED!!!
And as the left loves to tell us: “we’re on the right side of history!”
Tell that to the young girls of Afghanistan.
They’re on the wrong side of the current ‘activity’ on the mattress.
And the rainbow flag wavers of Afghanistan are now (or soon to be) on the wrong side of the surface of the earth.
For the umteenth time: reality doesn’t give a shit about your ‘feelings’.
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Its true that they keep him like a mushroom but also feed him ice cream –
MSNBC slams photo of Biden alone at Camp David during Afghanistan briefing: ‘Conveys an isolation’
Gen. Barry McCaffrey: ‘The photo of Mr. Biden sitting there alone was really bizarre’
“Underscoring the sense that the U.S. was caught by surprise, the White House then released a photo of Biden on his retreat at Camp David, staring pensively at officials on a monitor, surrounded by empty seats,” Politico reported.
“On Sunday, Mr. Biden was publicly silent,” the New York Times wrote. “The White House released a photograph of him in a video briefing at Camp David. He appeared alone in the photo, his aides beaming in. And it was left to them to explain why he thought, in July, that the Afghan forces would put up a tough fight.”
“It conveys an isolation of this president, going to Camp David this weekend, and not being surrounded by his team and perhaps hearing more interaction and more pushback, as well as their insistence that they needed the element of surprise to get U.S. troops out safely,” Mitchell said to Gen. Barry McCaffrey.
“Yeah, well, the photo of Mr. Biden sitting there alone was really bizarre,” McAffrey said. “He should have gone back to the White House. He should have been engaged with his entire staff. That is very odd, bad political optics. None of that is important. The only thing that’s going on right now of any interest to the American policy apparatus is how do we get the remaining Americans through a Taliban perimeter into Kabul and out, and then withdraw the U.S. forces after them.
“In the short run, we’re in a perilous position militarily, and if the Taliban elect to obstruct the evacuation and claim the airspace, the only option we’ll have is to escalate militarily in a massive way. That’s what we do rather than leave people on the ground in Afghanistan. It’s a tricky situation and we should have seen this coming. This is crazy and the interpreters and the women and children, those decisions are done. They’re not coming out.”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-slams-photo-biden-alone-camp-david-afghanistan-briefing
😉
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And this.
I notice the CCP has been quick to let the Taliban know they will recognise and support them.
I posted this long ago but it bears repeating:
https://www.mining.com/1-trillion-motherlode-of-lithium-and-gold-discovered-in-afghanistan/
“Hey Joe, this is your buddy, Mr Xi”
“There’s some stuff in Afghanistan we’d like to have as soon as possible, so please get out now and don’t mess with the Taliban.”
“Man that shit on your son’s laptop is pretty interesting, but don’t worry – you play ball and we will keep our mouths shut.”
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We knew that was coming –
Chinese Media Threaten Taiwan after Kabul Debacle: ‘The Island’s Defense Will Collapse in Hours’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-media-threaten-taiwan-kabul-222927241.html
😉
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Back in the basement for creepy grampa joe –
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-ignores-questiions-resumes-cam-david-retreat-after-addressing-afghanistan-catastrophe
😉
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No Emery? Has anyone checked to see if he still able to fog a mirror?
Gotta be a tough day not being able to blame Trump for Biden’s doings. Biden is blaming everyone else and taking none.
” I stand by my actions.. It’s not my fault. It’s your job to make my excuses ” Then shuffles off.. Screw the press that’s had his back.
You know full well Emery will not say a word against Biden.
The leader of the Socialist Democrat party of the Nevada City chapter would be there in short order to yank his “good Party Member in good standing” card.
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Look what happens when you put the woksters in charge, they say something this stupid on a day like today with all those people trapped by the taliban, what no call for them to fly the rainbow flad?-
State Department calls for Taliban to include women in its government
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/anthony-blinken-speaks-on-the-fall-of-kabul
;-(
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Here Emery,, I’ll throw you a bone(r)
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/08/16/hollywood-celebrities-blame-trump-for-bidens-disastrous-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
“Hollywood celebrities have sprung into damage control mode following President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, attempting to blame former President Donald Trump for Biden’s mismanaged and chaotic retreat that has left the country in Taliban control, including the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
Stars including Bette Midler, Sophia Bush, George Takei, and Rosanna Arquette have used their social media influencer status to assign blame for the fiasco to Trump, citing the former president’s 2020 agreement with the Taliban.
As Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration agreed to fully withdraw troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, in exchange for the Taliban agreeing not to attack U.S. troops and to cut ties with al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.
But the Biden administration reneged on the Trump deal by extending the Afghan war by four months, before again changing the date for troop withdrawal to August 31. Biden’s prevarications prompted the Taliban to drop its end of the bargain, setting in motion the Islamic extremist group’s takeover of the country.”
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Scott
Your comments at 4:03 are completly irrellevant and I will not comment. All I did was post a direct quote from Ron Paul that I agree with. Do you agree with his statement?
Re-posted for your convenience:
“The US war on Afghanistan was not lost yesterday in Kabul. It was lost the moment it shifted from a limited mission to apprehend those who planned the attack on 9/11 to an exercise in regime change and nation-building.”
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Sure it was Emery, And your brother Biden did the LOSING.
HE broke an established agreement.
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You hero Biden trashed another Trump accomplishemnt.
Now what did you say about that when Biden did it with most of the others? Oh.. Yes. You were more than happy that Biden trashed Trump’s work. So this should be no different.
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Do you agree with Ron Paul Walt as I do?
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You can agree with whoever you want.
Ever think he can be just as wrong?
You boy “O” messed it up a long time ago.
Remember? This was HIS war. He tied the hands of our troops with real stupid rules of engagement.
You LIBS had no plan on winning the war.
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After 9/11, the Iraq war was called the bad war (WMD) and the Afghanistan war was called the “good war” (by the Left) who opposed going into Iraq. No problem with that. Now, 4 Presidents later (2 Republican, 2 Dems) it is over. I agree that is was a “good war” in response to being attacked multiple times on 9/11 with thousands dead, albeit the phrasing “good war” are not my words.
My current beef is the tactical decisions and strategy embarked upon DURING the withdrawal. This man says it better than I tried @ 3:54 pm. This transcends politics. It is all about gross incompetence, IMHO. Too sickened to play the blame game right now. I am an American first.
BIDEN’S DEFLECTION WON’T WORK
“Biden pretended that he is being criticized for withdrawing from Afghanistan. This is a bad joke. I, for one, wrote years ago that we should wind up our involvement in that country. I did not suggest, however, that we should pull out precipitously, without evacuating civilians first, and suddenly deprive Afghan forces of air cover so that it would be difficult or impossible for them to fight effectively. Nor did I write that we should abandon our bases without even bothering to secure or at least destroy materiel that has now fallen into the hands of the Taliban. I did not advocate that we pull out our military personnel first and only worry about civilians later, nor did I suggest that we wait until the Taliban have encircled the Kabul airport before trying to get either Americans or friendly Afghans onto airplanes.“
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/08/bidens-deflection-wont-work.php
———————
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 06:03 PM
Do you agree with Ron Paul Walt as I do?
I agree with the statement. But I know the reason you posted it.
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Ya Fish, Emery can’t form an opinion of his own.
” YA! what he said!”
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Ah, hell. I will post the whole article, then do some deep breathing or go throw the ax at the stump and back off on my point, which merely echos Dr. Rebanes update.
*Dr Rebane, we could have had 10,000 refugees and American civilians with air cover with F-18s (?) doing vertical take offs all over the place and C-17s arriving twice a day along with C-5s and whatever else we have IF we had delayed the abandonment of Bagram airfield. Sorry, readers, I haven’t kept up on my military aviation for quite a spell. I still call them Phantoms. And I still think of them coming in low and slow and then nose up and hit the afterburners. Those afterburners did some mega damage. But I digress in this time of disgust with what our Pentagon did to the greatest fighting force in the world. They neutered our boys, our finest, our bravest, our best.
MERICA’S SUICIDE ATTEMPT—THE SEQUEL
The scale of failure in Afghanistan is hard to overstate. Our “intelligence” services (who deserve to be referred to in scare quotes until they display some actual intelligence some day) were incapable of picking up any signs that the Taliban were arming and organizing on a large scale for their swift takeover of the entire country, or if they did gather any on-the-ground signals, their interpretive process (a polite term for “groupthink”) prevented them from drawing accurate and meaningful conclusions. This is the opposite of intelligence: it is the product of an establishment that simply lacks the capacity to think at all.
Never mind the “finding” that the Taliban would take 90 days to reach Kabul. How about the reassurances that we had trained an Afghan army of 300,000 (and provided them with lots of materiel that is now in the hands of the Taliban)? Doesn’t inspire much confidence that our military knows how to train a foreign army at all. Perhaps our military should be excused to some extent, as the entire “training” program was politically driven by our genius foreign policy establishment, people like the Agency for International Development and similar goo-goo entities. Remember the huge federal budget last year that included $10 million in the State Department budget for “gender programs” in Pakistan? This is the kind of establishment that thinks what we need is a now-abandoned $700 million embassy in Kabul (and an even more expensive embassy in Baghdad), with a staff of 5,000.
Taxpayers should be furious not just about the profligate waste and extravagance of such an establishment, but at the bottomless idiocy of a class of credentialled people who think that the answer to every foreign problem is to spend absurd amounts of money, hire endless case officers and private contractors/consultants, outreach coordinators to tweet out rainbow flag celebrations, issue endless white papers analyzing the situation that bear little or no relation to reality, and an apparatus that has proven unable to process visas for the Afghans who worked for us, let alone have a plan for evacuating Americans. Despite Biden’s pathetic defense of the outcome, he ought to be furious with the whole upper echelon of our military-diplomatic complex. There ought to be mass firings. Of course, we all know that no one will be fired, and no senior person in this apparatus of disaster will have the honor to resign.
Finally there is the incompetence of the withdrawal itself. It is one thing to decide to end our presence in Afghanistan, and take your chances that the Taliban can be deterred or contained some other way (does anyone think our military-diplomatic complex has a serious plan to do this?). It is another thing to make the announcement that set the Taliban’s timeline in motion. So vagueness and misdirection were called for, but no one seemed to have the guile for it.
When the British decided to end the Gallipoli misadventure in early 1916, it made no public announcement that it was planning to end the offensive and withdraw, because they knew doing so would encourage the Turks to attack the retreating British and ANZAC forces and turn the retreat into a slaughter. So the withdrawal was done in a stealthy way that effectively disguised that the Allied forces were leaving the scene. The ingenious British went as far as to improvise rifles that fired from the abandoned trenches automatically, with makeshift firing mechanisms that pulled rifle triggers when water ran out a hole in a bucket, for example. We should have been using that kind of legerdemain in Afghanistan. At the very least, we should be mined and booby-trapped equipment we were abandoning.
The only people more feckless than our military-diplomatic elite are the media, led, naturally, by CNN. One of CNN’s reporters actually said, “They’re chanting ‘Death to America’ but seem friendly at the same time. It’s just bizarre.” I suspect a university education is behind this level of cluelessness.
In his great book Modern Times, the historian Paul Johnson called the period of the late 1960s through to the end of the 1970s as “America’s Suicide Attempt.” We seem to be repeating every folly of that era just now.
To paraphrase slightly something M. Stanton Evans once said, when I think of the calibre of our DC elites, one looks with a certain degree of new respect at the Roman Emperor Caligula: at least he appointed his whole horse to the Roman Senate.
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Paul 5:29 – “Scott
Your comments at 4:03 are completly irrellevant and I will not comment.”
Translation: Biden and company are complete F’ups and I don’t want to admit it.
We understand, Paul. You picked a total loser and you don’t want to talk about the horror and tragedy now visited upon the Afghanis that are now trapped in the chaos of the American govt cowardly bug-out.
I agree with R Paul as far as his concern with our idiot and pathetic try at attempting to drag stone age people into the modern age.
That war was lost before it started.
Biden is totally responsible for the complete and tragic hash of what was once an orderly withdrawal of troops backed up by an administration that the Taliban feared.
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Scott and Fish
Bush started the War in Sept 2001. He had 7 years to finish his mission and bring our troops home and he failed to do so. He was attempting to nation build and failed miserably leaving the exit chore to three other Presidents.
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no wonder Emery got out of the weekend worrier gig.
No clue. Now where were you when all the limp dick peaceniks
where whining terrorist’s were getting killed?
Lawyers had to approve just about every bullet fired?
You LIBS had no balls to fight a real war.
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How come the press didn’t report on Trump’s victories there Emery? No way were they going to give Trump good press on kicking enemy ass. Trump let the war dogs off the leash.
Let them use everything short of nukes to get the job done.
Nope, you didn’t hear that.
Yet now you whine.
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 06:59 PM
This has been another Punchy history minute…..
I know why you posted the quote.
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But, but, but BUSH! @ 659, Zero had 8 years and Trump would not have been fucked with as they knew he had no compunction to drop the hammer if they didnt go with the deal and we would still have an embassy. BUT NOOOOOOO the socialists couldn’t be seen following a Trump plan and all its icky bombing says tizzy lizzy. Better to advocate for women in the taliban cabinet ( how stupid is that to even bring up ). #tonedeaf
😉
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Listen to Paul. Now it’s back to Bush. It’s his fault our military intelligence is a complete failure and our current military leaders can not respond in a timely and decisive way to stave off a chaotic and tragic scene in Afghanistan.
It wasn’t like this when Trump was POTUS.
But Paul claims that’s “irrelevant”.
Not to the people of Afghanistan, Paul.
Sure know how to pick a winner, Paul. He installs a bunch of wokeist boot-lickers as military leaders and now we are the laughing stock of our enemies.
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Seems like 7 years is enough time to finish what you start. Here it is 20 years and 2.5 Trillion dollars later and the war was still going on. My opinion. No need to comment on your end. Just trying to get to the root of the problem.
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Paul.
At the time, it was you who supported “the good war.” We all did. CIA agents riding donkeys in Arab garb and the Taliban marching on Kabul from the south with the overwhelming force of 500 fighters that the Afghans could not possibly assemble to fight back against. 500. Only took some brief carpet bombing to wipe out that threat. ‘Gone In 60 Seconds ‘ to steal from a B car thief movie. Easy peasy, not. As the Russians found out, you can control the Capital of Afghanistan and control only 10% of the country. Turned warfare on its head. Why? Because Afghanistan is not a country. It is an area of various tribes completely unaffected by a federal government. Same with Libya, which has something like 13 different distinct languages and dialects. Maybe it’s 19. Tribal regions. Heck, they marched to within 20 miles of the capital of Pakistan.
The whole purpose was to get Al Quida out of Afghanistan, whom were welcomed, protected, and sheltered by the Taliban. The objective was to make sure Osama bin Lyin’ could not use Afghanistan to train men and launch attacks on the USA or our allies.
We will be back in there to get some reconstituted Terrorist Organization with a new name who has launched a series of attacks on our civilians. Damned if you stay, damned if you go. The only fortunate thing is the tribes are always warring with each other, then switching sides and forming battle alliances and ending up shooting each other. Places like Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq can only be control by someone who rules with an iron fist. Like Saddam, Quaddafi, Taliban.
At least the US Embassy in Kabul ordered all American flags taken down inside and outside to deprive the Tally Wackers a good propaganda photo op when they go inside.
Still, the way the withdrawal was handled is indefensible. Indefensible. How we got there will and has drifted from people’s minds, save the yearly 9/11 day. Did you read about the last year’s Pearl Harbor day events? Read any headlines or below the fold good articles about the Day of Infamy? Neither did I. Some major papers had zero coverage about another passing Pearl Harbor Anniversary.
Historians and scholars will analyzed for many decades to come how we got into Afghanistan and why. How we departed from Afghanistan is seared into minds of Americans. One of those things. Indefensible.
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 07:44 PM
On the leftie side, of course, the court eunuchs have risen as one to protect the Dementia Kid, and are working as hurriedly as the Kabul document-shredders in an effort to figure out a way to blame it all on Trump.
Court eunuch…..?
Yeah…I’d say that covers it nicely.
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Paul wants to blame current reality on the ground in Afghanistan on Bush, but folks that actually know something about what is going on say otherwise.
Namely: the current admin is incompetent.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-officials-livid-over-botched-afghanistan-withdrawal-say-military-was-rebuffed
“Hitting back at criticism, a senior White House official cited laughable comments by national security adviser Jake Sullivan that their team had been “engaged for months of extensive scenario planning and was ready for this challenge.”
Yes, we all see how the Biden admin is ‘ready’ for the challenge.
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As usual, I give Paulet the facts and he promptly ignores them.
So Paul, you forget the fact that Trump STARTED the exodus?
Forget what Trump did when the Taliban broke the deal? Trump gave them a good tune-up. They didn’t try that shit again.
You won’t even give Trump credit for the beginning of the end of hostilities, will you?
Then the one you lick shoes for scraps all Trump brokered.
And that’s what leads to today. Biden owns this, wholesale.
So you keep right on licking Biden’s blond leg hairs, since you don’t have what it takes to publicly admit the ass hole phucked up like no Prez has phucked up before.
Better get your excuse ready for when China gets busy.
I’m sure that will be Trump’s fault too.
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Do you think the war should have lasted 20 years Scott?
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WHAT WAIT WHAT AN OPINION FROM THE PONY TAIL OF IGNORANCE oh never mind, false alarm just another talking points for lefties. That line of bovine scatoligy made the rounds this morning before creepy gampa joe made the 25th more relevant with that train wreck of a news conference with a hasty run to the exit before the press made eye contact so he didnt hear the uncomfortable question his former lap dogs are even asking. At least whats her name managed to avoid the crazed cackling!
Boy what a choice for the socialists, stick with creepy grampa joe and fail or give the keys to the most disliked vp ever amid her lockdown after getting in front of cameras a few times. ROFLOL
Aint no coattails with either of them!
😉
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Also why didn’t Trump end the war instead of just talking about it. Oh yeah-of course, he never finishes anything. You know-the Wall, balanced budget, healthcare, infrastructure and yes the war in Afghanistan.
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 08:04 PM
…….anything…..anything at all so Punchy can talk about his favorite topic.
Sorry Punch, Joey Fingers owns this one completely.
The sad thing….he has no idea what happened ……people were mad today in that house where he and blond lady live and the tapioca pudding was late this afternoon. That’s the extent of his comprehension of recent events.
That’s all Gropey Joe knows about today.
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PaulE 804pm – Just finished viewing a few hours of Afghanistan coverage from the various outlets. Now reading your take on the whole affair confirms that you really are CNN’s gift to RR.
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So Emery, we are still “at war” in Korea.
Can we nuke the fad kid now?
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Paul – “Do you think the war should have lasted 20 years Scott?”
Gee Paul, do you really think people should do bad things?
The reality is that the situation in Afghanistan was in control when Trump was POTUS and as soon as Biden and his girly boys took over it went to hell.
And that is a reality that Paul refuses to acknowledge with his many dodges.
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Walt, Don, Fish, George
Okay so exactly who’s fault was it that this war went on for 20 years and cost 2.5 Trillion in debt. Here are the four Presidents involved and the time they spent in office during the war.
Bush- 7 years 4 months
Obama 8 years
Trump 4 years
Biden 6 months
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Well HELL Emery, the terrorists.. They refused to lay down their RPGs. They hid behind women’s burkas. Thay had a thing for cutting off people’s heads on video. Can you tell the diff between a combatant and a civilian over there Emery??? CAN YOU!!?
Are you that much of a lame idiot?
Biden was there when it started,, he was giving your boy “O” a hand job at the time. How come “O” didn’t finish what he started?
Since when are you a military expert? Are you one of McNamara’s wizz kids who knew how to win a war with a slide rule? How did that work out?
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 08:19 PM
Bush, Obama (and let’s not forget Obama’s Vice President….what his name again?), Trump, and Biden. They’re all culpable. That said, Kid Dementia completely fucked up the last act (“Never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up!”)
I suppose if you’re bound and determined to defend the The Pride of Scranton’s honor you could argue diminished capacity.
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@804 He didn’t get reelected with the relentless kung flu crap where creepy grampa joe poo pooed the vaccines from warp speed as did what’s her name. He got Foucied
Y’all reap what ya sow. Its actually 7 months plus the previously stated policy’s and transition team so its more like 10 months to develop a strategic plan other than its the opposite of Trump. It always looks rosier in the basement with pudding, is it tapioca today, oh i hope so! (drools)
God help us!
😉
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So Emery, when does your book on military strategy
“How to win a war in under 5 years” come out?
Better get that little WOKE problem in the military fix first.
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Interesting polling no matter which side you stand on. Looks like Afghanistan is (was) not a front burner issue for the public for awhile. “Just no that much into her/him.”
DID THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WANT THE U.S. OUT OF AFGHANISTAN?
I would have thought so. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden advocated abandoning the Afghans, so it seems likely that most members of their respective parties were fine this, at least in theory.
However, an analysis of polling on the question suggests that perhaps only the party bases really wanted us out. A great many Americans didn’t seem to care one way or another and those who did care seemed fairly evenly divided.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/08/did-the-american-public-want-the-u-s-out-of-afghanistan.php
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Posted by: Paul Emery | 16 August 2021 at 08:19 PM
……go home Paul. You’re just embarrassing yourself tonight.
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As usual Emery is full of bull, are real short of any answer.
You can bet PLENTY miss Trump today.
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