The man who initiated the disastrous project of attempting to nation build in Afghanistan is heard from:
“The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay,” he said in his statement.
Go here to read the rest. I certainly do not want to see innocent people butchered, but I wonder why the US should take in people, at least the grown men, who obviously had no desire to fight and keep the Taliban from taking power in their country. Any we do take in should be made the personal charges of former President Bush and the other architects of this disaster. Of course that will not happen. As he has done his entire life, Bush will let others pay for his mistakes. A fortunate son indeed. I guess he will have a new topic of conversation when he next meets with his good friends the Obamas and the Clintons. It is a tribute to the deep mendacity of our times that this complete mediocrity who stumbled into the Presidency, has any credibility left. I do not regret my two votes for him, as the alternatives were worse, but that was all that could be said about a man whose tenure in office was so disastrous for the nation.
Afghanistan’s population is largely Pathan (who are found in large numbers in Pakistan’s frontier province), Tajik (who have their own state bordering on Afghanistan), and Hazara (who are lingusitically close kin to the Tajik). There’s a ready refuge for people who need it. The trouble is, the withdrawal has been so mismanaged that they had little time to head over the border.
I’m not inclined to blame Bush for this, inasmuch as there was a stasis we could live with that Trump insisted on altering. The American troop force in Afghanistan has been in number < 10,000 in recent years and we’ve seen very few soldiers killed in that time. The withdrawal Trump wanted has turned into a catastrophe courtesy the faceless cabal running things while our demented President hides out. I might be inclined to blame Bush and his minions for the lack of a public finance system in Afghanistan. If I’ve not been misled, the Afghan Army’s troops haven’t been paid in months.
Our troops were taken out of combat in order to avoid combat deaths. As a result the Afghan military was already losing the war to the Taliban before Biden announced the withdrawal. If we had wanted to hold Afghanistan we would have had to recommit our troops to driving the Taliban back.
I suppose some people are going to disagree with me, perhaps even vigorously, but we should have done to the Taliban now what we should have done to the communist Vietnamese then –> wipe them out to the last man. If you’re going to invade a country, then you better mean business and smash the enemy in utter, total and complete defeat by any and all means possible, even if you’ve got to hunt them down into the caves where they hide. Otherwise, stay the heck out of that country and let its own people work out their fate. What we’ve done in Afghanistan is what we did in Vietnam: neither persevere to defeat the enemy nor stay the hell out.
Now communist China is watching. So are the Mid-East Palestinian terrorists, and the Iranian Shiites. How long before a nuclear powered Nimitz or Ford class aircraft carrier or a Seawolf or Virginia class nuclear submarine is sunk in the South China Sea and we cowardly run back home, leaving the Taiwanese to their fate? By our example in Afghanistan, we’ve already told Taiwan we are not dependable.
What Bush Jr. did was wrong. What Biden is doing is worse.
Ok, you can now tell me how wrong I am. Don’t worry. My wife tells me all the time. 🙂
Is that picture photoshopped? I cannot imagine a near stranger grasping me like that with her husband standing there and my wife standing there. He and Laura do not look like they’re bothered at all.
(Ron Nessen recalled Jimmy Carter popping out of a limousine, grasping Betty Ford, and kissing her. “That struck me as a presumptuous gesture”. Carter later did the same to Queen Mother and to the widow of the Prime Minister of Japan (who was reported in the papers to have flinched). The Chief of Protocol at the State Department never quite got through to him.
Not photoshopped:
https://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-obama-george-w-bush-friendship-history-photos-2019-12#in-2016-obama-and-bush-showed-the-world-their-enduring-friendship-with-a-sweet-embrace-4
Having looked at the photos it is interesting that Laura Bush is always on the outboard. It is beginning to look that G. Bush and M. OBama are too familiar. Wasn’t it at the Mandela memorial service when they giggled during their private conversation? Of the four Laura is not laughing in photos. That is telling.
There’s something hinky about the Bushes. The parents allowed Bill Clinton to insinuate themselves into their social circle to such a degree that when it appeared papa might die in 1988, his children were concerned that Bilge might just take over the funeral proceedings. And here you see, one after another, the younger set yukking it up with the Obamas. Gerald Ford used to say that politics stops at 5:00, but he was referring to his dealings with people like Mike Mansfield that he’d been acquainted with for a dozen years or more and with whom he had to do business. Neither Bush in retirement had any business to transact with the Clintons or the Obamas nor had they ever been office-holders in the same venue at the same time. One pair only intersected during the 1992 campaign and the other pair never intersected at all except for some courtesy visits. Apart from having gone into electoral politics, the elder Bushes had little in common with the Clintons; ditto the younger vis a vis the Obamas.
If I’m not mistaken, Barbara Bush’s memoirs include an account of some incident in re Nancy Reagan ca. 1992 which concluded mama Bush telling Nancy to kiss off forever, sis (to Mrs. Reagan’s chagrin). So, I guess they’re not friends with just anyone.
Kipling, “Epitaphs of the War”
“COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
“A DEAD STATESMAN
I could not dig, I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?”
Warning: Uncharitable Content.
George H. W. Bush has gone to the place [where it’s always double drill and no canteen] John McCain and Teddy Chappaquiddick have gone. Clinton, Dubya, and Osama are on their way when they assume room temperature. They won’t get a swig in ‘ell from Gunga Din, either.
Now, my son knows how it feels to know his friends died for nothing.
“I suppose some people are going to disagree . . . but we should have . . . wipe[d] them out to the last man.”
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Respectfully, you forgot the part about burying them with pig fat/blood.
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Watching Bush yuck it up with the same people who called him a war criminal is nauseating and laughable.
I too voted for W twice. I don’t regret it either because Gore was insane and Mr. Heinz laughable. But George only did two things–manned up very well on September 11, and stood up to the abortion zealots on stem cell research. Other than that, I now believe what the media said about him during his presidency-he’s a dunce.
He’s not a dunce at all among national politicians. Dan Quayle one can discern is intellectually under par in comparison to other national politicians, but he isn’t a dunce either compared to the man in the street.
and stood up to the abortion zealots on stem cell research
I seem to recall he made a split-the-difference decision that could have been cooked up by the likes of David Gergen. That’s not standing up to anyone.
What’s wrong with Bush is that he always had commitments, but did not have convictions. For his father, issues were fungible. The other thing you can see in regard to both of them (the son in particular) is that once their constituency was no longer of practical use to them, they were sold down the river. I can forgive the McCains for being alienated from Trump, but the Bushes, the Cheneys, and Mitt Romney don’t have many excuses.
When the Taliban has re established itself, when China uses it as a cover base to train islamic militants to come bomb the USA again, we will look back to Donald McClary and say “HE is that man, the man who allowed the Taliban to establish terrorist bases to attack Americans. He is that man”
When the Taliban has re established itself, when China uses it as a cover base to train islamic militants to come bomb the USA again, we will look back to Donald McClary and say “HE is that man, the man who allowed the Taliban to establish terrorist bases to attack Americans. He is that man”
Commenting when drunk is a bad idea Boo.
Dang it, Donald, why didn’t you tell me you have mind-control powers over the dementia patient in the white house?!?
I agree with Foxfier. Yes, one of our commenters probably needs to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.