Did the President lie to us or was he seriously mis-informed by the intelligence and military community? After the collapse and disintegration of the Afghan army last week, he now claims that he received mixed signals from the intelligence community.
However, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff insists that he knew of no intelligence that would foretell the collapse of the Afghan army. On the other hand, a Republican congressman claims that the House committee on which he serves received repeated information from the President’s National Security team warning of imminent danger.
Issue 2: In his brief remarks after the fall of Kabul, President Biden took full responsibility for the debacle and claimed that “the buck stopped here.” However, he then went on to blame the Afghan army that he had praised so highly just a month ago.
Moreover, President Biden did not explain why he refused to provide air support for the Afghan forces. Kabul, the Afghan capital, is about 300 miles from Kandahar but American or NATO airpower was not used to slow the Taliban advance. In addition, the President abandoned the American air base at Bagram without a shot. Why? Did the President have some kind of secret deal with the Taliban?
Issue 3. Immediately after the fall of Kabul, the President and his allies in the media began to float a cover story to divert attention from the embarrassing and politically devastating defeat. More than the failure of the Afghan army, it was the failure of 20 years of mismanagement in Afghanistan by four previous American administrations, including the one in which the President served as Vice-President under President Obama.
This cover story attempts to shift the focus from the bungling of our departure to the failure of the whole mission in Afghanistan. Of course, it raises another question. If President Biden believes the whole Afghan mission was a mistake, why didn’t he and President Obama put an end to it during their eight years in office.
Issue 4. President Biden claimed that the Taliban numbered only 75000 fighters. How could such a large country with almost 40 Million people, that is usually regarded as unconquerable, be taken so easily by a force of less than 75000 Taliban fighters? How could Kabul, a city of 6 Million be taken so easily?
It would appear that the Taliban are largely unemployed young men with no visible means of support, homes or families. Somehow, they have become heavily armed and use these arms to live off the land and its people.
Moreover, pictures of those trying to board planes at Kabul airport show that most are also young men. Young men with no families or jobs are becoming an increasingly dangerous phenomenon not just in the Middle East but all over the world. Just look at Mexico where armed gangs control cities and provinces.
It is also happening in our own country. Last year sections of major cities like Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis were taken over by armed gang members. The looters and burners in these cities were primarily young men with no families or jobs. The shooting and murder rate in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles has grown dramatically in the last year.
In Chicago it is estimated that there are 16000 police officers but over 100000 gang members, who are often armed despite the strictest gun-control laws in the country. So far, the only thing that prevents the gangs from taking over the whole city is their own animosity toward each other.
Incredibly, politicians and activists in these cities are in favor of de-funding or even eliminating the police departments that protect ordinary citizens. Afghanistan is far away, but what happened there is not that far away.
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And then there’s The Zygarnic Effect!
ReplyDeleteWhat is that?
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