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All of these commentaries hold opinions and truths, but forget the role our media has played. The blood and torture is on the hands of the US MSM who long ago gave up truth, morality, and any sense of basic human decency. I will not forget and the media is not worthy of forgiveness.

In Cuba protestors are being shot in the streets by the hundreds, potentially thousands. The media turns a blind eye - Cubans don't vote for Democrats as frequently, so despite being genuinely oppressed, they are excluded from the US open borders policy and the leftist media's concern. Having family in Cuba this is an unforgivable sin. I once voted for Democrats - a mistake I don't intend to repeat.

Haiti has been crumbling my entire life, but like their Cuban neighbors, they don't matter to our virtue signaling evil media. They are excluded from the woke's list of oppressed. The woke media cares not for actual oppression, only feigned oppression from whinny entitled babies that haven't a clue what it is fear going hunger, much less death at the hands of monsters.

Women in Afghan face a life literally unimaginable to the authoritarian idiots who speak to the US public via the MSM, but will this open their eyes? No, the fools in the media would rather defend men having unfettered access to private spaces for girls and women than care about the millions of real women who are genuinely oppressed and spend the entirety of their life being beaten, burned, raped, and owned because of their female biology. It seems the true goal of the woke media is to add little girls in the US to the list of women around the globe who must fear for their bodily safety simply by participating in life.

For a group that claims to care about women, the oppressed, and the impoverished, the MSM shows it will do nothing for any of those groups. We see the outcome that has repeated itself today for my entire life. American allies and citizens left in some far away land to be murdered by monsters.

The US media does nothing but knowingly and intentionally lie, lie, lie. They are responsible for all the people who will die in Afghanistan, who will die in Haiti, who will die in Cuba, who will die in Iraq, who will die in Syria, who will die in North Africa - all at the hands of a corrupt US military industrial complex which the media eagerly acts as The Party spokespeople to uphold and defend at all costs, so long as those costs are borne by the worlds' women and poor in some far away land.

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We failed because we attempted to democratize them. We failed because the military continuously lied to the American people about the capability and capacity of Afghan National army. We failed because our elites are incompetent. Bottom line - Afghanistan belongs to the Afghans, not America. We gave them every chance to take responsibility for their nation. They just didn’t. Period. Plain and simple. They have to care more about their own nation then we cared about their nation. But in the end - and this was obvious since the first elections - we cared more about Afghan democracy then they did. What transpired in Afghanistan was mission creep. We went from battling the Taliban, to surrendering the countryside to them, to pretending we were successfully building an army. But in reality it was just a sand box where military leaders played games, grew their professional portfolios, so they could eventually stand before Congress and ponder “white rage” while guaranteeing the Afghan army could withstand the Taliban. That’s what happened.

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From Charlie Cooke:

"Surely, it must be possible to believe that the United States should have got out of Afghanistan — indeed, to believe that the United States should have left the country completely — without believing that it was a good idea to do it in this order? Why on earth did the United States pull its military personnel before its citizens were all out? Before the diplomats were out? Before we had extracted every civilian we wanted to come back to the United States with us? Before we'd removed any military hardware that might fall into the Taliban's hands? Before we had shredded any sensitive documents? Before we let the thousands of the dangerous prisoners we've spent the last twenty years rounding up join right back up with their friends?"

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Biden passed dozens of Executive Orders during his first month in office, negating much of what Trump has done. He could also have negated Trump's Taliban deal but he didn't. This one's on Joe.

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From the perspective of American taxpayers and soldiers or from the perspective of average Afghani people, all the trillions that were spent in Afghanistan seen wasted. However, from the perspective of those who collected almost all of this money - military industry, contractors, NGOs "community groups" that provided "trainings", each penny seems phenomenally well spent. Also, it is important to make a distinction between initially going into Afghanistan to address a real threat, and the last 20 years that saw an implementation of what seems the default American politics these days: using politics to extract money by the way of "addressing issues". This system starts by a group taking over institutions, whether it's a country in the case of Afghanistan, or city, county, state or federal government in the case of the United States. Then this elite designates a problem as being a particular interest. This problem is always a real one: human rights, the Taliban, homelessness, racism, etc. However, while the problem is real, it is seen not through the perspective of the needs of those affected by it, by exclusively through the psychological and emotional needs of the elites. Then a large number of "community groups" or nonprofits are created and contracted to "manage" the problem: not solve it because there is no money to be made in solving problems. Therefore, from the perspective of these elites, the US never needed Afghan troops to become fully operational but forever "working towards it" to justify more spending on equipment, training, "experts", departments, and so forth. This is the same structure that we see in most American cities when it comes to addressing homelessness. When a problem is structured this way it becomes unsolvable not because it is that, but because the solution is never the goal.

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If it wasn't so tragic, I'd fall out of my chair laughing at these idiots! THEY'RE the ones who caused the problem in the first place! Look folks, Afghanistan is completely landlocked and the only land route into the country is through the Khyber Pass, which is shut down in winter. Consequently, it is a logistics nightmare. The British were never able to conquer the Afghans and neither were the Soviets. This was a conflict the United States and UK should NEVER have got involved in. By the way, if you actually go back and look at what the CIA people who actually knew him had to say about Bin Laden, you'll realize he was just a figurehead, a money-man. The 9/11 attacks were conceived at a wedding in Hamburg, Germany and the attackers were mostly Saudis. There wasn't a single Afghan or Pakistani in the bunch. Then there are the Afghans themselves. They're one of the oldest civilizations in the world but their civilization is primitive. They are hard but resilient, uneducated but able to manufacture weapons using primitive machine tools. Vietnam was a winnable war, Afghanistan was not. If it proves anything, it's that our government is "led" by incompetents.

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We should purge the military, top to bottom. They've become more invested in making the military more inclusive, instead of making it exclusive to those people who can win wars: namely, physically strong men. America's downfall will be as quick as Afghanistan's - this country is rotting to it's core, and we lack the ability to even sate what's wrong because basic language has been stolen from us.

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Do you really want to know why this has been an unmitigated disaster? Look up the video of Biden's meeting with Jordan's KIng Abdullah. It is. frankly. chilling. Biden is confused, unfocused and clearly out of it. This is the senile clown who is leading our nation. If he isn't removed soon, we are doomed And Kamala, Nancy and the rest of the gang must also. go. This is not remotely funny.

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Thanks, Bari - lots of great comments and perspectives. Americans would have supported Biden had his team executed an orderly draw-down and ongoing negotiations with the Taliban which included the Afghan government. But you can't negotiate with the artificial deadlines imposed by the last three Presidents. As the Taliban used to say, "you have the watches.... but we have the time." Ouch. How right they were. The incompetence of America's ruling class is breathtaking.

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I have to admit, it's hard to be lectured about the costs of saving untold thousands of Afghan women from sex slavery and keeping the Taliban in check by people who support spending far more on the Green New Deal.

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founding

As usual, the consensus hottake on this is the dumbest available position.

“This would have happened if Trump was President.”

Aside from the fact that this is totally immaterial and nothing more than a Democrat shyster-hack talking point, it’s also almost certainly false.

First, the idea that the things Trump promises he will do are likely to take place is just flat out hilarious.

Secondly, we ran this exact experiment with Syria and Trump was convinced/forced to change course.

Finally, the Taliban was and is fully aware that Trump’s deepest desire is to drone strike people who make him look bad politically, while Biden views them as people of color oppressed by imperialist America.

No. This would not have happened if Trump was President.

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Elections have consequences.

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We have forgotten that the ONLY reason to go to war, ever, is to completely destroy and defeat the enemy. We forgot that lesson we should have learned from WW II.

We had Korea won, we were at the Yalu River. Then came the Chinese hordes. That's where we failed. This was 1952. China had no Nukes until 1964. We could have told them they had 24 hours to reverse course or their cities would begin to disappear. That's where we forgot the object of war is to win. MacArthur knew it, so Truman fired him. The beginning of a cascade of failures (except for the strategy Reagan employed that brought down the Soviet Union---brilliant work).

Then came Vietnam where my brother was killed. Can you imagine not bombing Berlin? Or Tokyo? In WW II? That's what we did in Vietnam. Did not bomb Haiphong or Hanoi. That's not fighting to win.

Next, we got into Afghanistan and didn't get bin Laden for a long time? Why? Because Pakistan was hiding him. I'm sure we knew that far earlier than when Obama approved the mission to kill him. We could have had a 'discussion' with Pakistan. "bin Laden or your country. Which do you choose?"

The second lesson we have forgotten is that it never, ever works to negotiate with dictatorships of any stripe. Never, ever. Who can forget Chamberlain and "peace in our time"? Well, we have definitely forgotten it. Who can forget “This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world,” Bill Clinton assured the nation. Called the Agreed Framework, it was designed to put the brakes on North Korea’s nuclear program, and it promised to put an end to years of increasing nuclear tension, including a near war, to a halt. Yah, that worked so well.

So will ALL negotiations with the Iran mullahs on Nukes, the Taliban, etc., etc., etc. ONLY when facing MAD do dictators have second thoughts. (Mutually Assured Destruction) What we have to promise is utter destruction of anyone attacking the West or the United States. And I mean their whole country. No more sending our military to fight for ANY OTHER REASON.

I'm sure I will be pilloried for this viewpoint, but having lost an Uncle on the Bataan Death March, a brother in Vietnam, with all my Uncles (5) in WW II, including the 7th Mountain Division up the spine of Italy (Said my Uncle to me: "You shoot and move."), I am deeply disdainful of our country's failure to remember the lessons of History. Because Civics and History are no longer taught in our schools. The comments here saying we are led by ignorant fools are all right on.

I would add, "Yes, and elected by ignorant fools who are blind, deaf and dumb because they are caught up in the daily distractions of our society (sports, movies, etc.) and probably haven't read an intelligent book in their lives (if they can read).

Our failed education system is another large problem. A Republic depends on an educated citizenry to function properly. Today, 19% of High School graduates cannot read their diplomas. 70% of all felons in prison cannot read functionally or are totally illiterate. They are there, in part, because they turn to crime to survive in a society that requires more and more reading. And Oregon's governor just announced that there will be no reading, writing or math tests of their students to get their high school degrees. More idiocy. I need to go do the dishes and cool down.

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Informative but I hate the second guessing. Afghan was a shit show from the beginning. A political pinball game from the get go. Will America ever see the objective of foreign conflicts as wars to be won not just fought? Or just prolonged military conquests waged to support the military industrial complex. We continue to sacrifice our best and bravest under the command of incompetent senior officers and cowardly politicians. If America really deserves better them we need to expect better. God bless America.

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You didnt include any Prog voices like Cortez and Omar I guess because they are mainly silent and have a conflict of interest on the subject...being turned on by husky Islamist males in beards and sexy robes carrying big firm rocket launchers.

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Readers may also be interested in this commentary by NS Lyon.....just read it and it is good.

"The cliché is that Afghanistan is a graveyard of empires. But the real empire the U.S. spent over $1 trillion to build in Afghanistan over 20 years was an empire of lies. That empire produced a bureaucratic incentive structure within the military and political establishment that by its nature relentlessly churned out an endless stream of propagandistic falsehoods, delivered not only to the public but to themselves.

This was the context in which such luminaries as then Lt. Gen. Mark Milley could make an entire career as a senior officer out of claiming, as he did in a 2013 press conference, that thanks to his work the Afghan “army and this police force have been very, very effective in combat against the insurgents every single day” – and then continue to insist, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in July 2021, that, “The Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country.”

https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/farce-is-more-fatal-than-tragedy?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo5MjE3NTgsInBvc3RfaWQiOjQwMDkzMzQyLCJfIjoiclBIbngiLCJpYXQiOjE2MjkxNDk0NjgsImV4cCI6MTYyOTE1MzA2OCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTMzMDc5NiIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.xF0V2q99pvdpxtbHEwr80r1-Txb4oUKJv5sH8gozbdY

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