I am going to indulge myself in a brief comment: I have no doubt that the take-over of the country by the Taliban was inevitable once we stopped actively supporting the Afghan military, particularly with air power. No doubt.
BUT what was NOT inevitable was that we would relinquish our primary airport prior to securing the safety of large numbers of Americans–and other foreign nationals–that WE KNEW WERE THERE. That had NOTHING to do with Trump. It was pure mistake, and I think any sane person looking at this has to reach that same conclusion.
The intelligent–which is to say the OBVIOUS–approach would have been to warn all Americans six months ago that we were pulling out, and that they needed to finish whatever they were doing, get themselves to Bagram, and get the hell out. Anybody left six months after a warning like that is on their own, and rightly so.
But this war has been under control for a long time, so much so that a group of HIGH SCHOOL students from California went there on summer vacation. Presumably there is a lot to see, including both Greek and Buddhist archeological sites. These people would not reasonably have foreseen a collapse this fast. Joe Biden HIMSELF said it was unlikely less than 60 days ago.
Yet here we are.
And as Lara Logan, in an instant classic, pointed out THIS IS THE OUTCOME WE WANT. The Taliban comes from Pakistan. Pakistan is nominally our ally. We know the valleys they are taking, and they are very vulnerable to bombing. We could have stopped this at any point.
Joe Biden, and important elements of our military WANT THIS. Why, I can’t say. To point out that we are being sold out by traitors is to repeat myself I don’t know how many times. To say that people loyal to this country do not run this country is obvious. I can say I have no idea what their real, long term agenda is, or if they even have one. Greed is obviously one important goal. Is handing global power to the Chinese another? I don’t know. All I know is that Joe and Hunter Biden seemingly took a BILLION dollars from the Chinese, who invested in a company that seemingly doesn’t do anything, but which Hunter controls.
Everywhere I look I see the actions of lunatics. I see no signs of honest Americans in leadership positions doing honest things of the sort I would consider “American”. Maybe we were never “America”. Maybe it has ALWAYS been asshats and liars. But I don’t think that is true. Patriotism used to be common in our leaders, even if none of them were fully honest.
But right now I scan the horizon daily in vain for honest, competent, relevant people.