Leave Afghanistan and Never Look Back

I woke up this morning to the news that the Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai fled the country after being promised safe passage by the Taliban. What. A. Fucking. Coward. More on that in a bit. The media is out of control today and the partisan hacks are snorting this news in a fevered pitch. “The first thing we can hit Biden on!” Nevermind that Biden’s predecessor negotiated this deal and Biden was merely following through.

Make no mistake about this. This past weeks full and complete withdrawal form Afghanistan is the best American foreign policy move since we decided to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty to kill Bin Laden. Full stop.

Despite such good news, I think people should really pay attention to the news coverage today, which reveals just how much pressure the media and politicians from the other party puts on the President when he tries change for once. No one big was covering Afghanistan for years. Boy are they today though. I find it laughable that people like Jonathan Swan or Mike Allen write from posh offices in New York as if they are on the ground in Afghanistan. Allen wrote this morning, “Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast . . .” and called this “Biden’s stain.” I couldn’t disagree more and neither could Samuel Hammond who in response to Allen said this, “You call it failure, I call it a rare and impressive overcoming of sunk cost fallacy.” Former Tea Party Congressman and political exile Joe Walsh profoundly said this, “We cannot FORCE a country to become a democracy like us. We can encourage. We can incentivize. We can set an example. But in the end, a country, a people, must WANT to become a democracy. It must come from within.”

Walsh is spot on. But when the Taliban take over the entire country after NINE DAYS with almost no fight and total surrender, the only damn conclusion to draw is that most Afghans didn’t want we had to sell. It also tells me that we should have left the moment that Seal Team Six put a bullet in Bin Laden. That was the objective. Kill Bin Laden, destroy al Qaeda, protect against another 9/11. We did that. But we didn’t leave.

For twenty years, we spent billions of dollars on that country. We trained their military. They had 300,000 troops! We gave them our equipment. That’s the Taliban’s equipment now! We gave them democracy. And it was just as corrupt as ours! Hussein Ibish said it best, “Every single thing fell to the Taliban without the least fight. There was nothing there all along, except a huge conveyer-belt for US taxpayer money to enrich corrupt Afghan (and American) grifters. A nullity that collapsed instantaneously isn’t defensible or worth defending.”

Ibish’s take is quite the contrast compared to the lazy legacy media and the Neocons roaches that have something to say today. One argument: “We lost.” So fucking lazy. Really? What was our objective? Because I don’t remember prioritizing Afghanistan democracy while I was sitting in an intel briefing six hours after the two Towers fell in New York City. My Marine unit knew al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks BEFORE the second plane hit the South Tower at 9:03 am on the east coast. I was in Southern California at the time so it was just before 6 am pst when our warrant officer told us that Bin Laden was responsible for the hijackings for the first time.

Maybe Afghanistan doesn’t want McDonalds in their country. It’s trash anyway. Maybe they didn’t ask for Wal Mart or for a Walgreens on every third block because the pay shit wages and kill small businesses. I am sure some Afghans wanted democracy. I am sure some enjoyed the better schools. The slightly more tolerant society, especially for women, was probably cherished by some. But not most apparently. Just like Christianity, there are varying degrees of Islam. The Taliban have extreme views, especially as it pertains to how women are treated. I hate to see those gains lost. I don’t care enough though and using that as an excuse to argue that we should remain there is again, lazy. It’s also incredibly imperialistic to think that we should dictate how a Middle Eastern, Islamic country should govern its citizens. Again, I do wish that every country embraced our system of governing, but it does not work for everyone.

Clarissa Ward, who is the ONLY journalist that I have seen reporting from Afghanistan did a six minute segment on CNN on 8/16. She interviewed several Taliban members outside the Presidential palace. The scene was peaceful. There were no gun shots. Ward was covered, but that was always expected. Otherwise, the scene was again, absent anything resembling the brutality that so many are reporting on from New York. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but as of now, the story on the ground is not one of murder and rape.

I have also read pieces that argue that our brave men and women have now died for nothing as a result of the withdrawal. Wow. What a fucking terrible thing to say you piece of shit. Now I don’t want to offend Gold Star Families and I certainly don’t speak for all veterans. But give me a fucking break. WE KILLED BIN LADEN, ROUTED AL QAEDA AND PREVENTED ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK! HELLOOOOOOO! The objective was not to get Cosco into Kabul you greedy mother fuckers.

David French, who I respect immensely and is also a Veteran, argues that we have a moral obligation to remain in Afghanistan to get its government to the democratic finish line. David though, is still in denial about America’s global decline and still believes in American excellence. I get it, but America lost its ability to claim moral superiority a very long time ago. Our own house isn’t just not in order, it’s a fucking disaster.

We’re in the middle of a once in a lifetime pandemic. We’re a country on the brink of our own Civil War, albeit over the dumbest shit ever. We’re already in a sort of cold Civil War apparently. We don’t have funds to fix the country. A large swath of our population wrongly believes the election was stolen. An even smaller but more violent and insane group tried to actually topple the government. Our law enforcement kills people every day, denying them of due process, while then hiding behind the made up concept of qualified immunity. Our public defender offices are being defunded across the country despite a right to have counsel appointed if a defendant cannot afford one. Colleges cancel people in violation of the First Amendment. At the same time that’s happening, Corporate speech by way of campaign money is stronger and more widely heard than ever before. The Fourth Amendment has been eroded over decades by terrible, pro law enforcement Supreme Court rulings. We murdered American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen.

So forgive me when I say that America is no longer in a place to claim the moral high ground.

Four Presidents have come and gone since 9/11 and before this decision to withdraw, the previous three did nothing to make the situation better. Biden was dealt a shitty hand and he played the best bad hand he had to play. Amazingly, the transfer of power to the Taliban was relatively peaceful. But for some, that’s not enough. But to me, it’s a sign that it was time to leave a long time ago.

Good riddance Afghanistan. Go fuck yourself. They’re all yours China.