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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Do We The People still exercise any control over our government? Obama couldn't get us out of Afghanistan. Hell, he couldn't even close Gitmo. Trump couldn't get us out of Afghanistan, and the permanent unelected bureaucracy (The Blob) slow-rolled him on every initiative.
Finally, Biden is pulling out of Afghanistan, but in the ugliest, stupidest way possible.
Domestic Spying, Anyone?
Apparently, Heimatland Sicherheit is not good enough at spying on us, so they are looking to outsource: Homeland Security Considers Outside Firms to Analyze Social Media After Jan. 6 Failure.
I bet Stan McChrystal and his K Street security firm is all over that one, but he'll have to fight the Silicon Valley World Controllers for that juicy contract...
Here are some people who say it way better than I can...
Glenn Greenwald: The Media Controls What We See
"Why should American citizens risk their lives to determine how Khanadar is governed when instead, Americans aren't being governed very well at all, in life expectancy and every idea of happiness is declining." -- Glenn GreenwaldMatt Taibbi: We Never Learn
"As the Taliban waltzes into Kabul, the look of surprise on the faces of top officials should frighten us most of all." -- Matt Taibbi
Mark Steyn: The Scale of Humiliation
J.D. Vance: America's Regime is Not Fit to Lead"One of the depressing aspects of the Swamp is that everything becomes a racket - including even your armed forces. Look at that buffoon at top right, the guy who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Thoroughly Modern Milley: that's an awful lot of chest ribbonry for a nation that hasn't won a war in three-quarters of a century.America is not "too big to fail": It's failing by almost every metric right now. The world-record brokey-brokey-brokeness manifested by the current spending bills is only possible because the US dollar is the global currency. When that ends, we're Weimar with smartphones." -- Mark Steyn
My heart breaks that these dead may have died in vain. But they won’t if we learn the long-term lesson of Afghanistan: the people who lead this country aren’t fit for the task.But this is not merely the consequence of seven months of disastrous Biden policy, it is the failure of the entire American regime. Every major institution in our country revealed itself as a farce.What Afghanistan shows, not just over the last two chaotic months but over the last two tragic decades, is that the American regime is not fit to lead this country. That regime, unfortunately, operates independently of political leadership. It is the Pentagon bureaucracy that lies to our president about troop levels, the State Department that thinks the women of Afghanistan need gender studies programs more than security, the “top” universities that teach our elites to be stupid conformists, and the media that cover for these institutions instead of telling the truth about them.
We tried to change the regime in Afghanistan, and we failed. If there is a silver lining in that failure, it reveals that one regime in the world is desperately in need of change: America’s. -- J D. Vance
I agree with every word. What say you?
I too agree....but the selected authors give far too little credit for our Republic's demise to the political class - those we elect to govern in our name, but who spend their weight of effort not for the People....but for their party.
ReplyDeleteWith the duopoly in power, there is literally no incentive to correct the bureaucratic nightmare that we labor under. It's always the "other guy" at fault....
That, and the utter disinterest of our society to educate ourselves on factors behind the actions taken in our name. Part of this can be easily explained away…..our media [both Left and Right oriented] do a consistently abysmal job of educating our society on that which our government undertakes.
But the blame shouldn’t just lie there. It takes a bare modicum of effort to increase one’s knowledge on a given topic these days. It takes much more effort to rise up and demand change. But, you know....we're busy and stuff....
The true fault, lies with us.
Well stated. I agree.
DeleteIn a democracy, the people get the government they deserve
DeleteAbsolutely. The biggest killer of democracy is an uninformed, uninterested electorate. The kind of electorate that reelects the incumbent 92% of the time.
DeleteAs far as I can tell from over here, corruption in the primaries is a big problem too.
DeleteWhat, not a fan of the "Boston Corkass" process?
DeleteIt's where the parliamentarians of the "interested parties" use Robert's Rules of Order to ensure their pre-determined outcome over the possibilities offered by the uninformed/ uninterested parties at the Grand corkass/ election.
DeleteLiz Cheney, darling of the Left.... BWAH!
DeleteMy one consolation to this last disgrace we have suffered is that Biden took on "intelligence'... that will insure his early exit. Other than that.... not much to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteLat's face it, the government's charter has gone from being read as "limited" in 1786 to being read as "unlimited" since 1941. It has no constraints and has gone from Uncle Sam to Momma and poppa Sam since 1941.
ReplyDelete+++
DeleteThe cynical take which I've heared often enough to become bored with is that none of these foreign policy debacles were failures once you realise that their true purpose (as opposed to their stated purposes) was to enrich the powerful interests, military-industrial complex, blah blah blah.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am satisfied that no western government would dream of neglecting those interests, I don't really understand how that perspective explains events any better than the naive nation-building beacon-of-democracy narrative that W Bush fed us (and maybe even believed).
The military leaders I've heard being interviewed (all British if I remember rightly, don't think I've heard any Americans) seem to acknowledge the outcome was inevitable, yet they seem surprised and disappointed that the Afghan government didn't knuckle down to their unwinnable war. Maybe I misunderstood but I don't understand that attitude. If the Afghan government was party to that intelligence, or had acquired it independently, why on earth would anyone have expected them to bother with months of futile struggle before caving in?
Maybe I misunderstood but I don't understand that attitude.
DeleteWe rather pompously presumed that the artificial veneer of westernized 'democracy', and our many gifts....would compel ordinary Afghans [who've been 'enlightened' to our ways], would fear a return to Taliban rule enough to resist.
In fact, outside of the few urban elites, that rule had precious little effect upon them....their tribes having lived under similar rule for centuries.
I am not saying anything new here, just repeating words of wisdom that were ignored: United States government failed to recognize the power of tribal connections. Denying the power of tribal connections is like denying the force of gravity or other laws of physics
DeleteThe only response to your quandary is that which has already been stated. There is no quality leadership in the US. Oh, there are a few that “get it,” but not enough of them to change the erratic course of the ship of state. The only word that describes the executive branch (for the past 150 years) is “incompetent.” Congress has been guilty of nincompoopery for far longer than that. When you analyze the past, easily 95% of all the bad stuff foisted upon the American people has been caused by bad government. Meanwhile, the rest of us are stuck in the land of Nod. So’kay though ... we have our iPhones to entertain us when we’re awake.
DeleteWhy would America "virtue signal" rather than simply admit their self-interest in invading Afghanistan? Why would Afghan leaders cooperate with and support a foreign invasion force for 20 years without that "noble lie".... it was convenient for them "for a time". The "suckers" were those many surprised American government officials who thought they had fooled anyone in Afghanistan's government as to their "true intentions". Military "realists" saw the rapid collapse as inevitable, as the Afghan government would immediately pursue the course of least resistance the moment that the balance of power shifted and sustaining the "noble lie" once again became untenable.
DeleteAs I said not too long ago...
DeleteIt takes a lot of energy to sustain this false hyper-reality (noble lie) we call the "real" world.
"the ultimate question about the conditions of life has been posed here, and we confront the first attempt to answer this question by experiment. To what extent can truth endure incorporation? That is the question; that is the experiment. -Nietzsche, "The Gay Science"
"Military "realists" saw the rapid collapse as inevitable, as the Afghan government would immediately pursue the course of least resistance..."
DeleteWho are those realists? I haven't heard any of them over the radio: they've expressed surprise, not at the outcome, but at its rapidity.
I suppose it must be nonsense, a new noble lie, maybe designed to soften the calculation Biden must have made: that all this is an acceptable cost.
There will be many backwards looking interpretations of "the event". For each interpreter, a different "truth" will emerge.
Delete...some amenable to a new noble lie, some, not so much.
DeleteOur narrative driven Western hyper-reality is, after all, a <a href='http://farmersletters.blogspot.com/2021/08/america-nursery-for-black-swans.html">nursery for Black Swans</a>
DeleteOur narrative driven Western hyper-reality is, after all, a nursery for Black Swans
DeleteJez,
DeleteNO ONE on the inside was surprised. The politicians, bureaucrats and generals have been lying to us for two decades.
The Afghanistan Papers
SF, +1 on the Papers.
DeleteFor anyone who wants to nerd out even more on our AFG folly: https://www.sigar.mil/
The real tragedy here, is that this was a US taxpayer funded fantasy voiced it upon the Afghan people, promising hope that we had no business promising.
DeleteWe got young men to join the Afghan army, knowing full damn well that if Afghanistan was actually to be made into some kind of nation, it would take generations.
I hear people criticizing the Afghan army, but if it's true that we pulled all logistics support, including all of the maintenance for the aircraft, etc, what the hell did we expect? Our own military is totally dependent upon this type of logistics. Armchair generals talk strategy, real generals talk logistics.
This whole damn thing is shot through with lies, hypocrisy, wishful thinking...
......what the hell did we expect?
DeleteBut at the same time, our advisement and assistance over the course of the last decade and a half [counting only those years that the ANA was fully stood up and operational].....has included logistics and maintenance.
That, as well as the rolls of paid fighters, turned out to be a Potemkin force. Just as valid the question of how long must we fight the Kabul regimes civil war.....I would also ask, how long must we fuel their vehicles and repair their equipment?
I’m inclined to agree “the fault lies with us.” But the first problem with that statement is that none of us thinks that “we’re the problem.” It’s those other guys. The second problem is that the argument presumes that “we” have any say at all in who the duopoly chooses to lead their effort in reaching the White House. I had nothing whatever to do with choosing either Biden or Trump as a candidate. No, I think the problem is that we’re stuck with a political system designed to satisfy the narcissistic needs of politicians more than it addresses the needs of the nation or its people. To accomplish this, politicians more or less agree, from their first day in office, the very day they take their oath of office, to ignore the Constitution except or until they need to spout platitudes for a political goal or purpose.
ReplyDeleteWell then, for people who only have twelve or so hours to express their will, every two years, maybe “we” aren’t the problem after all. Sure, we can write letters to members of congress electronically, and we’ll almost always get a friendly response, but no member of congress is obligated to act on our concerns. Once elected, they get to do what they (themselves) decide is a proper course of action — and in the minds of a politician, the appropriate course of action is whatever will benefit them most. It’s only human nature.
So, while I agree that we have “leaders” unfit to follow much less lead, there isn’t much I can do about it. Biden chooses SecDef, and I don’t. Biden is president, I didn’t elect him. Biden does what he wants, and I have no choice in the matter. This sad fact, when combined with the overwhelming lack of confidence most of us have in our “civilized institutions,” what surprises me is that even one of us shows up to vote on Election Day. What's the point? Why bother?
.....politicians more or less agree, from their first day in office, the very day they take their oath of office, to ignore the Constitution except or until they need to spout platitudes for a political goal or purpose.
DeleteAnd...there's the money shot. We are stuck with this system. And we're stuck with it unless we get off of our collective asses and burn it to the ground. We need a do-over [and perhaps we wouldn't be any more successful the next time around] - but we're comfortable and generally sated, so long as we can bitch and gripe about the other guy, and then carry on with our day.
The only message that we could hope to get across, is if indeed, nobody showed up to vote on Election Day. A guy can dream....
That we elected them may not be entirely our fault. But that we keep reelecting them most certainly is. Reelecting them is NO ONE'S fault but ours. We cannot hide from the fact that we know PRECISELY who they are, and we keep reelecting them for as much as sixty years.
DeleteThe problem with that argument is that you and I get to elect ONE representative out of 435. Neither your guy nor mine is running the show. We don’t determine House leadership. We don’t make committee assignments. If we think our guy is doing what we sent him to Congress to do, we’ll vote for him again. Either way, reelect or not, the metrics won’t change. But the system does seem to be fulfilling its purpose in keeping us at one another’s throats.
DeleteOsama bin Laden's main goal in attacking the wtc and pentagon was to draw the "Big Devil" close enough to him to stab him in the heart. GWB fell for the trap, hook, line, & sinker. Islam does NOT fear our military. They fear our culture.
Delete...so perhaps it's time to offer free "Starlink" service to the ME and China and let Mohammed's righteous-ones discover the true costs of "free".
Delete...and before you realize it, Afghanistan will be importing opium.
Delete...and become consumerist lotus-eaters like the rest of us.
DeleteYeah, 12 CA is only one district, and if that district was not typical then I could say I'm not the problem because I didn't keep reelecting Nancy Pelosi. But 53 CA is no different. Susan Davis didn't even bother to campaign and remained in office until she decided to retire. Only 8% of those who run for reelection fail.
DeletePerhaps part of the problem (but not a binary culprit) is that over the years, the Legislative Branch has conceded too much of their power to the Executive Branch.
ReplyDeleteThat...is a true statement.
Delete...which wouldn't have been possible w/o the support of the Judicial Branch.
DeleteRonald... I like your parenthetical statement... (...not a binary culprit).
DeleteSo much political discussion today, and certainly a lot as it relates to Afghanistan seems to have to be in the "either/or" or "if this/then that" realm.
Two things can be true at the same time and I appreciate what you meant...
Uh, no. This doesn't even look like something that would rhyme with correct. If you're mad about the surrender to the Taliban signed by Trump in February 2020, you have to be mad about the thousands of Taliban fighters he let out of prison last year to pull off their blitz through Afghanistan as well. Look at the surrender Trump signed. It as much as concedes that the Taliban is the legitimate government there. Whether Trump managed to be re-electable or not, the result would be the same... The US would still be handing over control of Afghanistan to the Taliban, on terms that Trump signed off on. I think you're asking for a miracle for anyone to turn an idea of Trump's into something that looks better than a bankruptcy, but here we are. Bottom line, the intent of Trump's surrender - putting the Taliban back in charge - is precisely what happened. Go ahead. Name something Trump did in his four years of Making America Irrelevant that would have made a continued US presence in Afghanistan viable. I don't think Biden had much of a choice. Choose to stay and then what?
ReplyDeleteHave you heard anyone here praising Trump on this?
DeleteBiden was right to pull out, he just did it in a tragically stupid way that is getting people killed.
Absolutely nothing could have made our continued presence viable, so your question is dumb.
I was responding to the post that was Ashli Babbitted ;)
DeleteBiden has two decades worth of reports from Afghanistan policy alchemists telling him down is up and broken eggs make omelets. Biden can point at his morbid brain damage as a defense. What's a mouth-breathing Trump supporter's defense? If Trump had won the election, we'd have had this horror show AND the Taliban / ISIS-K schmoozing at Camp David on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11.
So what would your approach have been, Oh Warlord of Blatherstan?
DeletePlease enlighten us.
Also, please don't respond to the cut-and-paste bots. One of the bots actually has an entire potemkin blog with regular posts, and never one comment.
DeleteI couldn't consider voting for Trump, either time, for longer than 0.34 second without running into the reality that I don't have it in me to hate America that much. I did what I could do in the scenario. I didn't vote for Trump, and I'll readily dispute anyone and everyone who tries to cosplay that he did anything but harm to America. I do not call him the worst President that America will ever have lightly.
DeleteGiven a larger role, say put me in the Oval Office on January 20, 2017, I would meet with my military leadership (rather than the Taliban) and order them to bomb Pakistan until the Indian Ocean forms a bay in the crater. Not sure what I'd do with the remaining three years and 10 months of my term. Maybe offer tax rebates for the skulls of meth heads.