"People can come and go without detection, and he avoids the optics of a beach vacation amid a mass evacuation."
From "Scoop: Biden braces for brutal loss" (Axios).
The major moment to come: Lowering the American flag that flies over what is essentially sovereign U.S. territory. That's typically done by the Marine Security Guard detachment that's always on post. It's a point of honor for the ambassador or chargé d'affaires to take custody of the flag and bring it back to State or a safe haven....
One U.S. official in touch with a former contact in Kabul asked Friday morning how the locally employed staff — the Afghans working for the United States — is faring. "LES are freaking out,” the contact replied. “Everyone wants to get out of this country.” “I’m so worried about my family.”
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I am not sure how "brutal" this loss will be for Biden. His fellow Democrats won't be brutalizing him.
And how can Trump-supporting Republicans brutalize Biden after this April pronouncement from the 45th President of the United States?
Trump statement.
It will all look terrible, certainly. Worse, it will be terrible for the terrorized people of Afghanistan. I think it is a terrible decision by Biden. You know that when Biden and Trump agree on something, it's bad. But who is going to do any brutalizing of Biden?
The flag may come home safe but that's about it. Read the original Flashman novel by George McDonald Fraser released in 1969 about Sir Harry in 1840's Afghanistan adventure. Eye opening. It puts paid to any power flushing themselves away in that shit hole of a political entity. It does remind me, in its own way, of Bernard Fall's "Street Without Joy" about the French Indo-China war in 1950's Vietnam. though deadly serious as opposed to bitter prescient comedy.
Blame Biden for Afghanistan’s Return to the Dark Ages
https://www.thebulwark.com/blame-biden-for-afghanistans-return-to-the-dark-ages/
Biden said the Afghanistan withdrawal wouldn't turn out like Vietnam. I'd like to know who, if anyone, advised him of that.
When I heard that Biden was going to Camp David until Wednesday I started wondering when we would get one of the Hitler in the Bunker parodies from the movie Downfall but then I started thinking about all the Afghans that have helped us over the years that will be left behind and realized this is no joke. I don't blame Bidden for the Taliban taking over, but I do hold him responsible for allowing it to such a rout and not taking steps to assure the safety those that have supported us through the years.
Conveniently, the White House is not releasing visitor logs of people who visit Biden in Delaware, where he's been spending a lot of time...I wonder how many cognitive specialists and physicians would be on that list? Will they release the Camp David visitor logs?
Biden is telling the locally employed staff what Otter told Flounder in Animal House, "...you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up... you trusted us!".
Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be.
Meade said...
" Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be."
The worst is yet to come. He's just getting warmed up, a hold my beer moment.
When will we see video of people standing on roofs trying to get airlifted out of Afghanistan by U.S. helicopters?
In desperation, U.S. scours for countries willing to house Afghan refugees
There seem to be additional concerns not raised at our Southern border:
"There's concerns that you might expect: 'Who are these people? How do you know these people? Can you assure that these people will get visas to the United States? Who's going to care for and feed these people. What happens if these people wander off this facility you've got them in?" a senior State Department official said.
Our borders are overrun and not by people from Mexico. They are coming in from all over the world, some with bad intent. Many with covid. Biden keeps the borders open and has them being shipped all over the country. Nine months ago we had finally slowed the migration.
Our energy sector has been kneecapped and Biden is now begging Russia and OPEC to pump more oil. Nine months ago we were energy independent.
Inflation is growing faster than corn in Indiana. Nine months ago we were fine.
Crime has skyrocketed across the country making it unsafe for everybody. Democrats defunded police, made police the enemy, and now our cities are shitholes. Nine months ago...well...some of them were still shitholes.
Covid is running through the country, and the vaccines seem to not matter a whit. Still, Biden is trying hard to make it mandatory nationally. Nine months ago we were cranking out a new vaccine with hope. Now...the Bidens are just hoping while the rest of us are not sure who to listen to or what is fact and what is fiction.
Afghanistan is now a major Taliban and soon to be Al Quaeda country. Bad things are coming. Nine months ago, the Taliban would not have tested Trump.
How's it going everybody? Happy with your vote? At least there are no mean tweets any longer.
Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be.
Honestly, he's been about the level of disaster that I was expecting.
If only Hunter would create and sell a painting of a US flag flying over the embassy in Afghanistan to an anonymous buyer, the Biden Administration could come full circle.
I'm sure this is a great fucking error on the part of Biden & Co, the arrogant pieces of shit.
However, since the Taliban victory was going to happen eventually anyway, a more staged withdrawal would have no doubt cost more American lives and limbs. I'm curious who here would sacrifice their grand kids lives and limbs in-order to make the surrender optics seem more smooth?
The real crime is letting the weapons fall into the terrorists hands. We will be paying for that for another 20-years and the War Pigs will use it as an excuse for more murderous spending sprees.
This half-assed, irresponsible, apparently un-planned withdrawal is an arguably criminal undertaking. Between the Biden junta and our so-called military leaders, it’s hard to say who takes home the prize for incompetence. The lives put at risk and the murder, mayhem and oppression to follow… people need to be held accountable.
I won’t argue with anyone claiming “America is not trustworthy”.
“ And how can Trump-supporting Republicans brutalize Biden after this April pronouncement from the 45th President of the United States?”
Stop lying. Your link goes to Trump’s brutally honest assessment of Biden’s withdrawal date: September 11.
Trump would never have telegraphed, ‘Hey Taliban, we will be leaving in 5 months unless you can overrun our embassy sooner. Good luck, Taliban.” Idiotic and incompetent of Biden and his loyal supporters like Chuck. Under Trump we would already be out. Biden and his loyal supporters deserve to be brutalized—by truth and reality.
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2573268/biden-announces-full-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-by-sept-11/
Meade shows a lack of imagination.
America is harmless as an enemy, but treacherous as a friend. -Bernard Lewis
Why anyone would trust us is beyond me. We are feckless. We waste our passion on trivialities, but have thrown away an entire region of the world and handed it over to implacable enemies for what? So some of us can say, "I told you so," at a 20 year remove?
If we had any honor, we would be handing out visas and opportunities wholesale to the Afghans. But we won't. We will make them jump through bureaucratic hoops till they wind up piled into a ditch somewhere on the outskirts of Kabul.
Looking back, with 20/20 hindsight, George W. Bush should have carpet bombed every city in Afghanistan until there was nothing but a smoking ruin and then left the survivors to starve. At least it would have been honest.
A mostly valuable report and from the compleat idiot's (i.e. Quaestor's) point of view generally accurate. Nevertheless I am compelled to pick at its imperfections. (It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it!)
He can relax there, but also has full comms. What the devil are Swam and Johnson talking about? Yes, yes, I surmise they mean to imply that the full range of communication channels -- landline, submarine cable, satellite, the old Cold War "hotline" -- all the technology normally available in the White House proper are duplicated at Camp David. So why not say so directly and succinctly? Why the "fully tactical" jargon? When used by journalists such lacedaemonian abbreviations and acronyms sound like poseur speech. Come on, man. Hipsters used to be all about authenticity, at least in their own estimation, but current hipness is apparently the complete opposite -- the more pretentious and soi-disant the better. You guys aren't spooks, or shadow warriors, or Pentagon technocrats; you're half-assed stringers for a half-assed web domain writing for half-wits like me.
People can come and go without detection, and he avoids the optics of a beach vacation amid a mass evacuation. Hold it right there. Amid? The Taliban aren't stalking the Shenandoah foothills, they're half a world away from Joe Biden's sippy cup. Why not during a mass evacuation? Optics? More poseur speech, only this example is more egregious. Optics is the sort of circumlocution used by the despicable poli-sci GS-15 Washington staffer types whose advice to the powerful routinely results in national humiliation. Journalists should seek to peel away such tin-plated argot, not indulge in it themselves. In between j-school classes Swan and Johnson must have immersed themselves in marathon "24" sessions to the point that they talk like Chloe O'Brian in their sleep.
"LES are freaking out,” the contact replied. “Everyone wants to get out of this country.” Come on, man. (Am I far too fond of the Resident of the United State's favorite Clang association? Nah.) That's what editorial brackets are for. If you're anonymous source talks like an idiot you're not obliged to follow suit. Repeat after me: "[The locally employed staff] are freaking out," the contact replied.
Time to read Fernandez:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wretchard%27s+the+three+conjectures&t=chromentp&ia=web
Hard for me to understand how the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan would be any better if Trump was still president. I never understood why it is in our interest to not have a permanent presence in the country with their consent. The last American to die there in combat was in feb 2020. The strategic significance of the area cannot be overstated - borders China, Iran, and Pakistan.
As long as we were there the Taliban had a strong incentive to negotiate in good faith with the Afghan government. No more.
"Stop lying. Your link goes to Trump’s brutally honest assessment of Biden’s withdrawal date: September 11."
Why in the hell would anyone pick a date that glorifies the opposition? To us it is a day of sadness...to the Taliban it is a day or triumph. Isn't there a single egghead in the administration who understands symbolism?
Gen. Jack Keane had a god point about the withdrawal date. He pointed out that fighting in Afghanistan is very seasonal because of the extreme winter weather. If you're going to withdraw, do it during the non-fighting season when the Taliban are either hiding in caves or hiding in Pakistan. I'm no military genius, but this seems like war strategy 101 to me.
This is on the whole Washington Party from GWB forward. That the administration can't bring its equipment or collaborators out is criminally incompetent.
Remember the documentary where 20 Green Berets went into Afghanistan right after 9-11, joined up with the Northern Alliance and ran the Taliban back to Pakistan. They used horses, satellite phones laser targeting and B-52s.
Then, mission accomplished, the Army shows up and says 'We'll take it from here.'
We have the dumbest elites on the planet.
Secretary Gates had it right about Joe Biden: he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.
Also, President Obama: never underestimate Joe's ability to f*ck things up.
Thank you, Meade.
What Meade said. What is happening at the border, more than 2 million people crossing in Biden's first year - who cares if they have Covid or criminal records or how many women and children are raped on the trip. Does the rest of the country really not give a shit, or are they blissfully ignorant? Rants:
It does feel like China is running things - what would they do differently to weaken the U.S. and turn it into a 2nd rate power.
Civil war? Who is going to fight it? I am way too comfortable in my luxurious home with Netflix and HBO, and would rather live in New China than risk the lives of loved ones.
The Taliban have captured some of our SAMs. How do we fly out? At night? Couldn’t they just shoot the planes on the runway?
"Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be."
Maybe we'd all be better off if Biden were held incommunicado. At least we'd be spared his thoughts--however fleeting--and perhaps his team would be spared his profound confusion.
Where is Veep Kamala Harris? Is she in the room? Is she bringing her good judgment and deep knowledge of human nature to the table?
I was old enough to see the fall pf Saigon. And while our defeat in Afghanistan is tragic, on the plus side, if Vietnam is any indication of what's to come we're going to get a bunch of really great Afghani restaurants.
Trump didn't start any wars. He and his supporters are not to blame for this mess.
The Cheney crime family - are.
Ya know, maybe Biden could have handled the withdraw in a way that didn't leave behind a chaotic vacuum. So what. Be it violent or peaceful the only thing that matters is we're getting the F out.
Meade writes, "Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be."
Perhaps the reason is the high-voltage grifter with a penchant for inane plagiarisms was long gone by 2020. Whatever got sworn into office last January is a mere animated husk under remote control. Now, an automaton as President isn't necessarily disastrous and probably better than a self-actualized moralizing scold like the unlamented James Earl Carter -- it all depends on who does the actual string-pulling. After all, the Mechanical Turk had a genuine chess master concealed in its innards. We'd be reasonably safe with an official President-operator smarter than say, me. Unfortunately, all evidence confirms the midget hiding inside Biden is considerably dumber.
"Stop lying . . . Idiotic and incompetent of Biden and his loyal supporters like Chuck. Under Trump we would already be out. Biden and his loyal supporters deserve to be brutalized—by truth and reality."
Thanks, Meade. One of the pleasures of having more or less regular comments is to see you back in action, fighting the good fight.
Unfortunately, America now has too few of you, too many of the he-that-shall-not-be-named. So most likely there won't be much Biden brutalizing. What are truth and reality when lies and stupidity get you more power?
If they can mess up something as predictable as a withdrawal of troops (something they should be good at by now) how much confidence can one have in (something way more complex) their covid19 predictions?
Granted, these two things aren't handled by the same people, but..., and this is a big but, if covid19 has indeed been politicized, and there are signals pointing to that, we're in bigger trouble than we can imagine.
The Fog Machine of War.
Trump had four years and didn't do it because it was always going to be a clusterfuck. No way he's going to spend political capital to be labeled a LOSER. Typical Trump supporter defending a do nothing ass covering blame merchant. How come they admire a cowards impersonation of a brave man?
Biden is safe in his basement as if the Afghanistan situation were not happening.
Meanwhile, a lot of the people criticizing him are equally ignoring and blind to the plight of the humanitarian disaster, suffering, destruction, rape, dismemberment and death that has, is and will happen to the Afghan people, especially girls and women.
Best not to think of them at all. Certainly, few people here are talking about them.
And little by little, we die inside.
Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be.
Many of us saw the election for what it was -- national suicide.
No, that's not hyperbole. This past election was very much a last chance, all-in affair.
@Meade, he’s even worse than you thought? You must be talking to too many liberals. I’m mildly surprised he hasn’t been worse.
And I like your new avatar, though the cardinal was nice.
I saw that column in The Bulwark that is linked above. The Bulwark also has an "open letter" to Biden from Bill Kristol and Paul Miller (Afghanistan veteran in Army intelligence and former NSC director for Afghanistan) in which they argue it's not too late for Biden to reverse course.
And yeah these are the people who have some standing to criticize Biden. The Trump apologists have no basis to criticize the very result that they first proposed.
Well said,Meade.
Also, I think if Trump had remained President and this were happening, he would have reacted with a vengeance. Whether out of concern for American soldiers and personnel, or whether out of pure narcissism and political instinct, he would have stopped the bleeding. Or at least tried to. I doubt the Taliban have anything to fear from Biden reassessing and changing course. Trump would have been a different story.
The only thing Kristol and his other leftwing-funded Bulwark Cabin Boys are fit to say is “AHOY!”…
Gen. Jack Keane had a god point about the withdrawal date. He pointed out that fighting in Afghanistan is very seasonal because of the extreme winter weather. If you're going to withdraw, do it during the non-fighting season when the Taliban are either hiding in caves or hiding in Pakistan. I'm no military genius, but this seems like war strategy 101 to me.
Trump's chosen withdrawal date was May.
One of the major benefits of the comment moderation was the lack of Chuck posts.
Policraticus writes "If we had any honor, we would be handing out visas and opportunities wholesale to the Afghans."
Does the name Ilhan Omar suggest a problem in this moral reasoning? Handing out visas and opportunities to tribal people fundamentally at odds with the American culture is not honor. To whom would this display of honor be addressed? What is the evidence that gifts granted by politicians unable to imagine the consequences of their actions even a few weeks past will work out any better than all the other decisions that led to this unfolding disaster and the myriad previous disasters?
"How come they admire a cowards impersonation of a brave man?"
The projection is strong in this one.
"Biden Admin Instructs Kabul Embassy To Destroy American Flags As It Braces For Global Embarrassment" (Dailywire)
Much like the border crisis, a disaster which was completely foreseeable.
Next up is the multi-trillion dollar debt disaster.
Its completely unsurprising to see the usual Althouse suspects fully supportive of the Biden Earpiece Administration's Global Begging Tour: begging the Taliban not to attack the Embassy right after begging OPEC and the Russians to pump more oil which was right after begging the ChiComs to pretty pretty please let us investigate the origins of the Wuhan Lab flu...(spoiler: the Wuhan Lab Flu started in the....(wait for it)...Wuhan Lab).
Biden: We're leaving, generals, what's our Exit Strategy?
Generals: DROP EVERYTHING AND RUN LIKE HELL!
Biden: Make it so.
A Parable attributed to St. Quaestor the Irritable
There were two guests in the Trump Tower Hotel, Mister Red and Mister Blue. They both both determined their profitable business in New York was finished, though with much less accomplished than had been hoped for, and decided to leave the Big Apple. Mister Red left the hotel via the main 5th Avenue lobby exit where he stepped into a cab hailed for him by the doorman, which shepherded him to JFK with alacrity and whatever quiet dignity there is to be had in that toddling town.
Mister Blue, on the other hand, left the hotel via the roof garden, but not before launching a few dozen fellow guests over the parapet first. The the resultant pulp was scooped up with shovels and dumped into a common grave.
The moral: Not all exit strategies are equivalent, and it takes a special breed of sophistry to support the logical compliment.
Oooh, Bill KRISTOL. When was he ever right about anything?
I'll try my best not to cry when the honor guard folds that last, battle-scarred Rainbow Flag . . . or will they be burned to keep them out of the hands of the enemy?
"Does the rest of the country really not give a shit, or are they blissfully ignorant [of the border crisis]?"
Incomprehensibly, half of the country voted for it. There was no secret about what Biden et al. was going to do.
The Democrat party's main stream media allies will have their hands full trying to censure and hide all of the cell phone videos of collaborator executions and little girl "marriages" that will come as a result of this boondoggle.
For better or worse, Donald Trump was turned out by the 2020 election. He has nothing to do with this. The President of the United States is Joseph R. Biden. In Biden we have what you get when you put a dim, vicious, mendacious, empty vessel in the office of president. He has surrounded himself with time-servers and radicals who don't understand what has made the USA successful in the past and don't believe in the fundamental precepts of our nation. He has a widely recognized record of opportunism, folly, and failure (see the judgments of President Obama and Secretary Gates cited at 1:27 PM above).
I expect much worse in the near future. The West (USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, NZ, Canada, the EU generally) has elected craven officials who make fear their counsellor and who borrow from the future to live in luxury in the present. Does anyone think that the CCP has not noticed? They haven't had to fire a shot.
Against our hard-earned experience in Vietnam and other places where nation-building has failed (including Detroit, Newark, Portland, and Chicago), we chose to save the world in response to the 9/11 attacks instead of punishing the perpetrators. The results were predictable. Now we can't even agree to save ourselves from a virus.
In the future we must do better.
How are we (and the UK and Canada, at last report) going to get our personnel out? Don't they have to fly over Taliban held territory?
I agree with Meade. I thought Obama would want to protect his legacy better than this. I still don't understand why they decided Biden was the guy.
“Trump's chosen withdrawal date was May.”
Exactly. 100 days ago. Like Cuomo, Biden thinks he can just give 2 weeks notice and the Taliban will helpfully and politely see him to the door. You are lying when you say, “ The Trump apologists have no basis to criticize the very result that they first proposed.” Neither Trump nor his supporters ever proposed “the result” that you supporters of Biden have handed all of us. You own this. You and the Biden regime and the entire corrupt Democratic Party along with whatever is left of the chickenhawk chickenshit Never Trump Republicans.
It is now an established fact that Biden's Earpiece Administration has provided more offensive weaponry to the Taliban than they ever provided to any nation standing up to Putin.
Including Ukraine.
Looks like that $3.5M payoff from the Moscow Mayor's wife directly into Hunter's coke/crack encrusted wallet (with 10% reserved for"The Big Guy") has really paid off for Putin and his pals, particularly with the NordSteam II "approval" and cutting US energy production by Putin's little B**** Boy Biden.
Meanwhile Iran is flush with more $billions$ by "The Big Guy", the ChiComs are already back in business across the board and the EU is openly admitting they will never pay their share of their own defense.
Happy Days are here again for all if the enemies of the US.
Heckuva job Corn Pop Dementia Boy!
""LES are freaking out,” the contact replied. “Everyone wants to get out of this country.” Come on, man. (Am I far too fond of the Resident of the United State's favorite Clang association? Nah.) That's what editorial brackets are for. If you're anonymous source talks like an idiot you're not obliged to follow suit. Repeat after me: "[The locally employed staff] are freaking out," the contact replied."
It's Axios, where brevity counts. And the phrase replaced by the letters is in the immediately preceding sentence, where they put it so they wouldn't make a clunky mess of the hot quote.
"...if covid19 has indeed been politicized, and there are signals pointing to that, we're in bigger trouble than we can imagine.
The Fog Machine of War."
Lem, nice link. Thanks.
Thank God this happened under Biden. If Trump was POTUS we'd have 24/7 hysteria from every Media Talking head, George Bush, Mitten, Miss Linsdey, and every Democrat. "Trump has destroyed Afghanistan! He's responsible for death and has betrayed our noble Allies". Take the noise over withdrawing 100 USA troops from Nothern Syria and ramp it up X100 and that's what we would have gotten.
Now, with Biden its much more honest and muted. No one really cares that much and it will all be forgotten in a week. Just like the 1,200 GI's who died in Afghanistan under Bush and Obama .
Interesting Exit Question: with this utter failure by our General-Patton-Of-Woke, General Millie Vanilli, one in a long series of operational failures which were papered over by political suck-uppery, is the typical transition from "active political duty" to defense contractor/deep state "Think"-Tank still in the cards for General Cinnabon?
Or should he take what he's best at and play to his strengths in developing new lines of male cosmetics targeted at "Today's" Armed Forces and gender-transtioning front line soldiers?
For those whose lives have been more usefully employed, wtf is a thermite grenade?
A thermite grenade is a munition which burns a combination of metal powder and a powdered oxidant. It is enormously hot and pyrophoric and one can burn through a steel safe.
If you have to abandon equipment, you put a thermite grenade on the valuable part--traverse mechanism for artillery, engine compartment for vehicles, so forth. Point is the bad guys won't be able to used them except for scrap.
Like to know how many were used. From initial reports, approx zero.
One might ask General Milley if he understands the military phrase “dereliction of duty.”
Althouse writes, It's Axios, where brevity counts. And the phrase replaced by the letters is in the immediately preceding sentence, where they put it so they wouldn't make a clunky mess of the hot quote.
If they had done an intelligent edit of the preceding sentence and used brackets they could have upped the brevity factor ten percent.
Big Mike: "One might ask General Milley if he understands the military phrase “dereliction of duty.”'
Millie Vanilli would immediately accuse the questioner of "white rage" and then he would stomp off in a huff while powdering his nose and perhaps do some twerking outside the Pentagon.
Meade said...
" Biden has been even worse than I ever could have imagined he would be."
The worst is yet to come. He's just getting warmed up, a hold my beer moment.
600,000 deaths? I'll take the under.
"Meanwhile, a lot of the people criticizing him are equally ignoring and blind to the plight of the humanitarian disaster, suffering, destruction, rape, dismemberment and death..."
We're not talking about the Mexican border...try to keep up.
"Trump's chosen withdrawal date was May."
Trump isn't president...or is he?
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