Kabul Falls to Taliban, Afghan Leader Flees, Army Built by the US Surrenders

Surrender in One Day

The Afghan government that the US expected would hold for a month fell in a day. So much for another misanalysis by the US as the Taliban Take Over Kabul.

Taliban fighters on Sunday took over the Afghan capital as President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad, triggering a massive effort to airlift Western diplomats, civilians and Afghans likely to be targeted by the country’s new rulers.

Demoralized Afghan security forces offered no resistance as the insurgents, who seized most of the country in just over a week, appeared Sunday morning on Kabul’s outskirts. While the Taliban initially said they wouldn’t enter the capital while a transitional government is being formed, they reversed their stance by nightfall, saying that someone needed to maintain public order after Afghan police deserted their posts.

“To prevent chaos and looting, the Islamic Emirate has ordered the mujahedeen to get control of the abandoned areas,” a Taliban statement said. The Taliban fighters, it added, won’t bother any civilian or military officials of the former regime.

On Saturday, Mr. Ghani pledged to defend the city. By the morning of Sunday, a working day in Afghanistan, his administration told all employees to go home. Soon after, sporadic gunfire erupted and some checkpoints were abandoned as panicked residents clogged the streets. By early afternoon, the Taliban took over Kabul’s main Pul-e-Charkhi prison, freeing thousands of inmates.

Just before the Taliban takeover, long lines formed outside banks and at Kabul’s few functioning ATMs as residents rushed to withdraw their cash before it was too late. Few succeeded.

Warmongering Op-Ed Idiocy 

Consider a WSJ op-ed by by H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman: In Afghanistan, the Tragic Toll of Washington Delusion.

Take a gander at the insane subtitle “Pundits repeat the mantra that there was ‘no military solution.’ The Taliban seem to have come up with one.“

How the Taliban Overran the Afghan Army, Built by the U.S. Over 20 Years

The WSJ also comments How the Taliban Overran the Afghan Army, Built by the U.S. Over 20 Years

Got that? We have been training Afghan troops for 20 years. When the attack came, they laid down their weapons. 

What a training job we did. It seems they needed perpetual training and forever money.

How to Stay in Afghanistan Forever

Last evening I wrote Here’s How to Stay in Afghanistan Forever: Listen to the WSJ Editorial Board

Here’s are the most pertinent clips.

• Afghanistan is not of strategic interest to the US. We never had a clear objective nor a plan to leave, Then the mission morphed into national building. 
• Expect Right wing media to blame Biden for this defeat. But this outcome was inevitable all along because as with Vietnam, support for the war in the US vanished.
• The US had no legitimate business in Vietnam and other than the capture of Bin Laden had no legitimate business in Afghanistan either.
• At the peak, the US had 549,000 troops in Vietnam with 2.7 million serving. Yet, the US lost the war. 
• Occupations always fail as the opponent cares more about the outcome, has the luxury of time to wait it out, is willing to pay a greater price and plays on its home court.
• Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. The WSJ seems to wish we were still there. F that. I congratulate Biden on leaving.

Flashback Position and Question

I was in the minority. My vote was yes.

Those Tweets were from my post Biden Has a No-Win Position in Afghanistan No Matter What He does

The tragedy is interventionalists cannot think. They want the US to stay in. 

“Wars don’t end when one side abandons the fight,” said Liz Cheney.

Excuse me for pointing out the War in Vietnam is over. No matter what happens I will not regret leaving just as I did not regret leaving Vietnam. 

If we stay in, the interventionists will seek more troops for as long as it takes, undoubtedly at least another 100 years. 

It remains to be seen if Biden actually succeeds where the others fail. If he does, here is my response:

Hooray!

I am tired of all this war mongering insanity. Get the troops out.

In Support of Perpetual Stupidity

Warmongering Media

The WSJ editorial board warmongers were at it again today with this warmongering editorial: Biden’s Afghanistan Exit Raises Questions About His Foreign-Policy Record

“Americans may have supported a withdrawal from Afghanistan, but views could change if we start to see the Taliban beating women in the streets, preventing girls from going to school, and otherwise dealing brutally with the population as they did in the 1990s, or if we see the re-emergence of a terrorist hotbed, including the arrival of foreign terrorist fighters,” said Lisa Curtis, who served as the top National Security Council official for South and Central Asia during the Trump administration.

Expect Images

Ah yes, by all means expect images.

And who will be right there with all the images from Afghanistan while not posting a thing about what the US did to Yemen, Syria, or Libya, not to mention dozens of nations in Africa and elsewhere where mainly bad things happen?

The WSJ will be right there and so will CNN, Fox News, and the Washington Post.

Left and Right will post images of this tragedy. 

Meanwhile, across the board, we ignore Yemen, Syria, a Libyan catastrophe the US created,  a catastrophe in Iraq of US making, US drone mistakes that have killed thousands of innocent people, etc.. etc., etc.

Such images are not convenient for the war mongers, so we don’t see them. 

And after 20 years, the moron war mongers still believe there was a military solution by the US. There wasn’t because this was not our battle. 

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