Posted at The Spectator:
Tom Tugendhat has just delivered what should be the defining speech of this recall of parliament. The Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee spoke in pin-drop silence about his own emotional response to the events in Afghanistan, about what he saw as the failure of world leaders, particularly President Biden, and about what must be done to help those desperate people who are trying to leave the country.
He spoke from his own experience as someone who served both as a soldier and a civilian in Afghanistan. He said the events of the past week had ‘torn open some of those wounds, left them raw and left us all hurting’. He recalled colleagues who had died, saying: ‘I’ve watched good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me and a part of us all.’ He followed this by telling the House that he had spoken to the Health Secretary, who has pledged to do more to help veterans with their mental health.
Most powerfully, he launched an attack on President Biden for his statement on Monday night in which he blamed the Afghan forces for not fighting back against the Taliban. He said: ‘To see their Commander in Chief call into question the courage of the men I fought with, to claim that they ran. Shameful. Those who have never fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.’
Loading ...
Very powerful speech. Once that everyone should see, but I doubt most Americans care to see. The part that was most poignant for me, as a retired USAF officer, was the statement ‘To see their Commander in Chief call into question the courage of the men I fought with, to claim that they ran. Shameful. Those who have never fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.’
Amen.
There are but a handful of veterans in Congress presently. Our President has not served, and knows only the sacrifice his late son made, but has not himself ever fought, much less served, our country.
Our military leadership, now indoctrinates with CRT, white shame, LGBTQRST ideology, drag queens as “morale” boosters, and climate change being the prime mission, has failed to provide leadership where so many of my fellow brothers and sisters in arms gave the last full measure for the country, which has led to this new version of the fall of Saigon.
The outrage I have felt over the past few days at the loss of American talent and treasure in Afghanistan was ever so eloquently stated by this British patriot.
Well done to Tom Tugendhat.
Two observations.
1. The savagery of the Taliban regime in the 1990s; alQaeda in Afghanistan; the Declaration of War by UBL in 1996 against the U.S.; the Khobar Towers and East African embassy bombings, and the attack on the USS Cole prior to 9/11. The Taliban and alQaeda were not going to stop.
2. June 17, 2021: “At least 23 members of an Afghan Army’s special forces unit were killed while fighting the Taliban in the northern province of Faryab on Wednesday, a security official who wished not to be named said on Thursday.”
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-172900
June 29, 2021: “Afghan security forces retook the control of Pashtun Kot and Khan Chaharbagh districts in the northern province of Faryab on Monday, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“The clearance operation was launched by the security forces on Monday and later in the day they retook the control of the two district from the Taliban.”
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-173166
Well said InFormationDiakonia. I have often thought that our commander in chief should be required to have served our country as part of our (once) amazing military.
As for the video, there is nothing more to add other than to say it was one of the most powerful speeches I have heard.
“Most powerfully, he launched an attack on President Biden for his statement on Monday night in which he blamed the Afghan forces for not fighting back against the Taliban. He said: ‘To see their Commander in Chief call into question the courage of the men I fought with, to claim that they ran.””
The Afghan Forces’ Commander-in-Chief is (should I say was?) not Joseph Biden.
3. Biden in 2016 to U.S. troops in the U.A.E.: “Clap you stupid bastards.”
4. Jack Posobiec et al: Pres. Bush did not “go around the world starting wars.” See 1 above.
5. Sohrab Ahmari: “Who could seriously deny that America’s regime-change wars were pointless and excessive, bankrupt in conception and not just in execution?” Easily answered: Anyone who is not a self-absorbed ignoramus such as Keyboard Warrior and Strawman-Addict Ahmari, and has given these matters a reasonable amount of thought.
6. Those who whine-without-ceasing about “forever war”: Most of you whiners are Christian. Open your Bible, it has something to say on more than one occasion about “forever war.” Welcome to the Real World, and as the military saying goes, “you might not like it but learn to love it.”
I am disturbed by the images of the chaos in Kabul, and it seems clear that those who were responsible for planning the exit from Afghanistan did not take the responsibility seriously. One family member of mine served multiple tours there, and I’ve heard the discouragement from many who served there, to see it collapse so quickly.
All that said – how long were we supposed to stay there? To what end, and at what cost? Should we just stay there running patrols and driving guerillas back into the mountains forever?
Lest this descend into partisan dynamics, one Cardinal Sarah has been very vocal about western and American foreign policy where it has been destabilizing: “The countries of the Middle East, Libya, Syria, and farther away, Afghanistan, are broken, dismantled by the domineering spirit of the Westerners’ economic interests. . . . It is necessary to denounce these Machiavellian schemes in which the decadent West tries to impose its anthropological and moral vision on the whole world.” (The Day is Now Far Spent, pg. 269). Even if we went there with good will and for just reasons, the situation has been manipulated by powerful forces for their own gain. People like Cardinal Sarah have looked at the impacts to the Afghan people of our involvement there and don’t see much impact of all the freedom that we touted when we went.
7. A 2011 quote from Julian Assange is making the rounds again: “The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.”
Sure, that kind of simplicity pleases the tinfoil-hat crowd. It’s also racist, as if the brown people of Afghanistan do not desire peace after decades of fighting Islamism. It’s also insulting to the men and women of dozens of countries who shed blood and sweat for many years to provide an opportunity for the Afghan people.
Sure, there are always plots of some sort or another afoot. And there is plain old incompetence can be found in both government and military. But those who agree with Assange should get a grip on their emotions and realize there is far more going on than “money” and “elites.”
PostCatholic, that was my first reaction as well.
After a few re-reads, however, I think it was just some awkwardness in phrasing- that the “their” was meant as a pronoun for Americans’, as in
To see the Americans’ Commander in Chief call into question the courage of the men I fought with…
Dustin F, OCDS: Cardinal Sarah is a good man, but his “dismantled by the domineering spirit of the Westerners’ economic interests” is an indicator of his flawed education and his cramped worldview. There is a lack of research and a Marxist worldview at play here. But, it’s not as simple as the money-and-economics crowd makes it out to be.
Today a Taliban convoy from Kandahar to Kabul was greeted in several locations by Afghans waving their national flag. Today in Khost there was a firefight between Taliban and Afghanis. There are other incidents today.
Marx was a means-of-production obsessed moron. Do not forget about Freedom and the Eternal Struggle against Evil. Many pundits should have made the effort to meet and talk to actual Afghanis. Cheers.
A great speech. I’ve not heard one as good as that in the House of Commons for many years. I’d heard of Mr Tugendhat, but I didn’t know he was an ex-military officer and I didn’t know he could makes speeches like that. I’m afraid Mr Biden – I’m hesitant to give him any longer the honour of the title “President Biden” – has let down his own country, the people of Afghanistan, America’s NATO allies and the whole free world. I fear there will be terrorist outrages all around the world, financed by the profits of the illegal opium trade that now fall under the control of the Taliban.
Semper, Cardinal Sarah was the bishop of Conakry in Guinea while it was a Marxist dictatorship. He was placed on a murder list by the government. The idea that +Sarah has a Marxist worldview seems unlikely to me.
haydn seeker: Kindly read “The Day is Now Far Spent”- you’ll see what I’m referring to in regards to his perspective on the West, economics and foreign policy. Again, Cardinal Sarah is a good man and there are inspiring passages in his book. Cheers.
Post Catholic,
The Commander of all the forces in Afghanistan was an American. Wouldn’t that put the Afghan army under POTUS? .
Dustin F, OCDS: “Lest this descend into partisan dynamics, one Cardinal Sarah has been very vocal about western and American foreign policy where it has been destabilizing.”
Life is destabilizing: people change, technology changes etc. Let’s not forget when discussing “destabilizing” about the barbaric Middle Eastern regimes of the 20th century and their close ties to the Soviet Union. Let’s not forget about the 18th century Barbary Pirates enslaving American sailors or Islam’s 7th century rampage. So, Cardinal Sarah could be “very vocal” also about tribalism and Islamism being “destabilizing.”
I remember reading that Cdl. Sarah was not for western capitalism. Everybody is for bringing in immigrants, oh yes, until there are tent cities in every neighborhood, but they fail to appreciate that without that evil capitalism, the West, America, would be the same hellholes these people come out of. But let’s not let rationality impede us.
Mr. Tugendhat is a great speaker, and millions of Americans would cheer his words as well, if we were ever to hear them, but most won’t because our media will block it. For what it’s worth, millions of Americans are horrified at what the man that sits in the Oval Office said, as well as what he said a month ago, last week, yesterday, and surely next week. It is shocking, to see America leave behind people to fend for themselves in this situation, as well as to insult our troops and allies who fought so bravely, and to leave behind billions in military equipment, and then, bring Afghans here, but leave Americans?
America, dead freaking last now.
Is this evidence of some general repentence or conversion on the part of Mr. Tugenthat?
E.g., in April 2019, without the slightest interest in discovering the facts or giving him the benefit of a doubt much less a fair hearing, Mr. Tugenthat immediately joined the attack on the late Sir Roger Scruton – then chairman of the government’s Building Better Building Beautiful Commission – in what have aptly been called especially glib and dishonest terms, being quoted as saying, “Anti-Semitism sits alongside racism, anti-Islam, homophobia, and sexism as a cretinous and divisive belief that has no place in our public life and particularly not in government.” That ‘anti-Semitism’ refers to Sir Roger being quoted as saying, “Anybody who doesn’t think that there’s a Soros empire in Hungary has not observed the facts.” The ‘racism’ refers to Sir Roger’s criticism of the Chinese Communists for the way they treat the oppressed people in their power. [And what does that have to do with Afghanistan?]
For another example, Mr. Tugenthat, in November 2020, as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons, said in a Huffington Post ‘Commons People’ podcast: “if vaccination works and if we’re confident it’s safe, and all indications so far are good, then I can certainly see the day when businesses say: ‘Look, you’ve got to return to the office and if you’re not vaccinated you’re not coming in’ […] And I can certainly see social venues asking for vaccination certificates. [Does that have anything to do with Afghanistan?]
“I remember when I used to travel rather more than I do now – when you go into certain countries you had to show a yellow fever certificate and if you did not have a yellow fever certificate you weren’t allowed in the country and that was that.
“There was no debates, no appeals and no further requests.
“And I can see a situation where yes, of course you’re free not to have the vaccine, but there are consequences.”
To paraphase St. Cyril of Alexandria, not everything a heretic says is heretical. But (to play with his surname) I would like to see virtuous deeds – and more consistently virtuous words as well – before I would put any reliance on Mr. Tugnenthat.
[You might rethink some of this, including how you spell his name.]
All that said – how long were we supposed to stay there? To what end, and at what cost? Should we just stay there running patrols and driving guerillas back into the mountains forever?
Joe Biden’s Fall of Kabul will remain a day of infamy for him regardless of whether we should have stayed or should have gotten out of Afghanistan. It’s not only whether we should have gotten out (a complex political question, to be sure), but HOW we got out, that was infamous. We didn’t just pull out our own troops, we also forced the Afghan military to do without the civilian contractors as well – including for repairs and intelligence. We didn’t just stop working with the Afghans, we first trained them how to make war primarily with US air support filling in many tactical and strategic niches, then made such air support impossible, making their ENTIRE WAR MODEL inoperative. We didn’t make anything remotely like adequate provisions for Afghan civilians who supported Americans and who are now at mortal risk for having stupidly trusted American promises. And so on. The planning failures here were catastrophically bad: if they were due to a general, we would have his (professional) head on a platter immediately. But since they are due to Biden (who seemingly rejected the advice of his advisors), he has to take the blame.
And while I agree that there are a lot of reasons to wonder whether the (ongoing) effort was “worth it” in Afghanistan, it is easy to imagine arguments that would say: probably, yes. We lost 2,448 troops in Afghanistan, and have spent $400 billion on the war. From a single day’s attack on the World Trade Center, we lost 3,000 Americans, and the cost tally has been over $200 billion figuring the just physical damage and some aspects of the economic losses from business. One more large-scale successful terrorist attack on us prepared in a Taliban-led Afghanistan could WELL make us look back and say “we should have kept on with the war.” Mind you, THOSE costs are not the only important factors to weigh, and there are many other factors to just war than its cost in men and money, but my point is that it is not absolutely impossible that a semi-permanent war – in some cases – might be “worth it” if no other solution can be found.
I would be happier about the prospects of Smokin’ Joe figuring out how to craft “some other solution” if he had not just cratered on the Fall of Kabul. He clearly has no clue what will work. His State Dept. statement was so inept and maliciously grotesque that it nearly constitutes an impeachable offense all by itself:
Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so; roads, airports and border crossing must remain open, and calm must be maintained.
The Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.
https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-afghanistan/
“calm must be maintained“? Maintained? What fantasy-land idiot could say such drivel?
“stand ready to assist them”? What the h*ll? We just ran off leaving them behind!!!!! What has Joe been smoking, anyhow?
The only thing that makes me want to keep Joe in the White House right now is the sure knowledge that Kamala Harris would have done even worse, which makes me shudder to even imagine it.
While the consequences of the takeover of Afghan by the Talibs are going to be horrific, we have to be clear about a couple of things.
Firstly, the ANA clearly, for the most part threw down their weapons & ran. There were honorably exceptions, the ANA SFs, but they could not turn the tide by themselves, the Taliban will doubtlessly murder them.
So if the ANA wouldn’t fight for Afghanistan why should we?
Secondly, the only thing that kept the ANA fighting at all was USAF & to a lesser extent ANAF CAS, Pres Biden removed the USAF with one fell swoop, & at the same time removed the technical support the ANAF needed to keep flying.
I believe that the good elements of the ANA could have fought on with ANAF CAS, but Pres Biden made that impossible.
Thirdly this is owned by Pres Biden, to quote an old saw, “the buck stops with him.” In the unlikely event that he knows anything about what he’s doing, it is all down to him.
robtbrown, it would indeed make the President of the United States the Commander in Chief of the Afghan forces, were it true.
“The Afghan Armed Forces (Pashto: ??????? ???? ??????????) were the military forces of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. They consisted of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan Air Force. Being a landlocked country, Afghanistan did not have a navy. The President of Afghanistan was the Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Armed Forces, who were administratively controlled through the Ministry of Defense. The National Military Command Center in Kabul served as the headquarters.” Wikipedia
Mr. Tugendhat is a rare breed for a politician.
I Don’t know where he stands on all issues.
But this day he was what we used to have more of –
A Statesman
Pingback: THVRSDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
Last sentence of Kathleen O’s comment:
“America, dead freaking last now.”
Isn’t that the purpose of the great “re-set”: to make American another
3rd world country.
Laura Logan’s incredible inteview (3 1/2minutes) with Tucker Carlson.
the link for Laura Logan:https://video.foxnews.com/v/6268475740001#sp=show-clips
Please listen to Jason Jones most recent podcast, where one will hear the voice of someone who know whereby he speaks. Jason Jones podcast in the search box will pop it up.
Whilst appreciating all that the MP said I must question what right we think we have to change a regime in a foreign sovereign nation? Whilst we may not – rightly – agree with the socio/political situation in a country it is not our place to change them. Change must come from within. How have the UK & US changed? By civil war in both cases. If an outside power felt our socio/political situation should change would we thank them for stepping in? I think not.
We are a military family through and through. This whole debacle makes me sad and so angry. My father and my husband were military officers when it was a great military; our son served before the insanity took over. I always appreciate your comments, Semper Gumby! I am praying that the Lord and Mama Mary and all the angels will keep our troops safe!
Anyone who has had a very basic course in Economics is more knowledgeable than all the Vatican Cardinals and Bishops together. Most of them think of wealth as a zero sum game. Concepts such as the multiplier effect and the velocity of money are Martian language to them.
I do agree than Marx was a moron.
Sandy: Thanks and God bless you and your family.
robtbrown: Good point, many clergy and laity would benefit by reading Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. In addition, they should be familiar with the Catholic Church and its development of the free market: how the monasteries encouraged free enterprise and entrepreneurship, Franciscan friar Pierre de Jean Olivi, Jean Buridan, Nicolas Oresme, Cardinal Cajetan, Cardinal Juan de Lugo, Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suarez, the Italian city-states and the insights of the late Scholastics and the School of Salamanca. The Catholic Church developed free market economics and set the course to lift billions out of poverty long before the cretinous Marx and Engels arrived on the scene in the 19th century. Furthermore, the roots of the Industrial Revolution were in monasteries (e.g. “ora et labora” and see Jean Gimpel’s “The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages”) which by the 16th century had developed early blast furnaces.
david-oneill3: With your logic the Bolsheviks would still be in power in the Soviet Union, the Nazis in Germany and the suicidal Imperial Japanese military in Tokyo. Also, define “Sovereignty” and how your concept should apply to a barbaric regime that enslaves its people and hosts international terrorist groups. Cheers.
Kerry and grateful: Thanks for the tips.
Another falsehood about Afghanistan and 9/11 is circulating in a certain quarter of the internet. It goes like this: “the 9/11 plot was masterminded mainly in Hamburg, Germany not Afghanistan.”
That is false.
The Hamburg cell (Mohamed Atta, Binalshibh) was helpful to the execution of the 9/11 plot given their knowledge of English and the West. However…
– the genesis of the plot: Ramzi Yousef, the 1993 WTC bombing, the Bojinka Plot and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).
– in Afghanistan KSM’s idea was both improved (in the sense of making it more likely to succeed by toning down the Bojinka element) and financed by UBL. KSM then formally joined alQaeda.
– the Hamburg cell visited Kandahar, Afghanistan and was recruited into the 9/11 plot by UBL.
– planning and training were conducted at alMatar near Kandahar and Mes Aynak near Kabul. The Taliban eventually gave UBL authorization to open alFaruq near Kandahar.
One of the people advancing this falsehood is Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon guy who has a book out next month about “strategy.” Here’s another falsehood he’s circulating:
“How did we get here? Answer: A foreign policy of aggressive liberal interventionism (aka neo-conservatism).”
It’s unclear whether Colby is racist (maybe he thinks brown people are incapable of planning and executing the 9/11 attack, so the fault must be with white Westerners) or just stupid (maybe he’s never heard of Islamism, alQaeda, the Taliban, Bojinka, UBL’s Declaration of War, KSM, etc.).
Twenty years later and these guys are still whining about “liberalism” and blaming the victim. These guys seem to be malicious morons out to preen and make a buck, who are actually aiding and abetting the crazy, violent Left.
Semper Gumby: you have multiple times accused others of being racist – first Julian Assange above, then Eldridge Colby. I do not follow how these accusations at all relate to the quotes you cited by these individuals or the points that they appear to be making.
My question remains unanswered: how long were we supposed to stay there, at what cost, and to what end? When we went there initially, we were told that we were going in order to get Usama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and those responsible for 9/11, and that it would be a limited and focused mission. Nearly twenty years later, UBL has been dead for ten years, but we are (or were) still there. During the ’08 election, I remember John McCain saying that he could see us being in the region for another 100 years. Did the American people support a 100 year presence when we went, and would they continue to support that?
In regard to other comments, it seems to me that one can simultaneously hold multiple opinions, (1) that the withdrawal and drawdown effort has been a debacle and an embarrassment on a global scale, (2) that the military expedition there in 2001 was just, even if the best of a lot of bad options, (3) that our goals in continuing to occupy the region are either undefined or untenable, and (4) that our presence there has manipulated by powerful forces with vested financial interests in the occupation, for their own gain. Some of these opinion in tension, but they can all hold at the same time. The situation does not seem to me to be quite black and white.
Another falsehood is circulating (this one has been around at least a decade), it goes something like this: “We took our eye off the Afghanistan ball when we went into Iraq.”
First, the phrasing is silly ESPN-speak. Second, by the logic of one thing at a time, then during WW II the U.S. should have operated solely in the Pacific and completely ignored Europe, the Arctic convoys to Murmansk, North Africa, Iran, and the China-Burma-India Theater.
Dustin F, OCDS: “Semper Gumby: you have multiple times accused others of being racist – first Julian Assange above, then Eldridge Colby. I do not follow how these accusations at all relate to the quotes you cited by these individuals or the points that they appear to be making.”
Kindly read those two remarks again, it’s quite clear.
“My question remains unanswered…”
First, you did not specifically address your question to anyone. Second, asking a question does not incur an obligation to answer. Third, your questions may have been viewed by others as rhetorical (or “thinking out loud”- which is Ok). Fourth, others may have not answered your questions in order that you do your own research and thereby ask more fruitful questions which, at a minimum, distinguish between political and military decision-making and policy. Fifth, (kindly do not overreact here, a possibility is merely being presented for your consideration) others may have noticed your “Should we just stay there running patrols and driving guerillas back into the mountains forever?” and simply decided not to spend their time answering your questions if you are still unaware after twenty years that far more than “running patrols” was going on.
“Did the American people support a 100 year presence when we went, and would they continue to support that?”
Did the American people on December 7, 1941 support an 80 year presence in Germany and Japan? Did anyone foresee that possibility on December 7, 1941?
“In regard to other comments, it seems to me that one can simultaneously hold multiple opinions…”
An excellent observation. Now, how are those opinions expressed? With what facts are they supported? What agenda is being advanced by advancing those opinions? How are those opinions translated into courses of action? How are those opinions, now courses of action, prioritized for feasibility and resource allocation?
“The situation does not seem to me to be quite black and white.”
Exactly. It’s not. Cheers.
He is a Catholic.
Post Catholic,
It’s not one or the other, but both. When US personnel have been assigned to the UN force, they are still US soldiers command but also Blue Helmets.
I think in joint operations the troops are usually not mixed. Rather, they are assembled in discrete units, so they don’t lose their identity.
I think in Afghanistan, at least toward the end, there were some co-commanders.
Raymond Arroyo had a terrific interview on World Over on Friday with
Walid Phares: “This is a religiously based fundamentalist movement called the jihadist….
…the caliphate…”
If you can’t watch the whole thing, watch the last couple of moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYBIRiBBGAk
A link to a transcript of Tom Tugendhat’s Afghanistan remarks:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/full-speech-tom-tugendhat-on-afghanistan
Also at the Spectator is a rambling piece of writing (the usual platitudes about “America” and “liberalism” and “Afghanistan is Vietnam”) by a silly English leftist girl named Katherine Bayford who studies “political theory” in college. Bayford would benefit by less theory and more situational awareness and actual experience- arrogant and ignorant is an unhealthy way to go through life.
Continuation of comment 20 Aug 21 at 1729.
1. Develop a thick skin.
A closer look at Sohrab Ahmari’s (an overzealous anti-American Integralist who demands that America be transformed into a Catholic theocracy) August 18 rant about Afghanistan at TAC:
“The case for putting America’s house in order before we try to remake the world is all around us.”
The case for putting the Vatican’s house in order before Integralists try to remake the world is all around us.
“Who could seriously deny that America’s regime-change wars were pointless and excessive, bankrupt in conception and not just in execution? And who could deny the parallel erosion of the domestic hearth during the same years?”
Who could seriously deny that the Vatican’s attempts to paganize Christianity are immoral and excessive, bankrupt in conception and not just in execution? And who could deny the parallel erosion of the domestic hearth during the same years?
“…the messy family on the block with the disorderly kids and absentee dad has no business sticking its nose into the affairs of other households and the neighborhood as a whole.”
…the messy family on the block with the disorderly kids and dad preaching a Leftist gospel has no business sticking its nose into the affairs of other households and the neighborhood as a whole.
“Likewise, a nation lacking internal cohesion and justice can’t, and shouldn’t, try to impose its will on faraway lands.”
Likewise, a Vatican lacking internal cohesion and justice can’t, and shouldn’t, try to impose its will on faraway lands.
“That moral and economic catastrophe alone should have been enough to prompt a profound and immediate rethink of America’s imperial ambitions.”
The moral and economic catastrophe of the Bergoglio Vatican should have been enough to prompt a profound and immediate rethink of the Integralist’s imperial ambitions.
“Look at American society. Forget the obvious signs of cultural decadence (not to say insanity).”
Look at the Bergoglio Vatican. Forget the obvious signs of cultural decadence (not to say insanity).
“…the Biden-Trump decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after two decades of failure, of blood and treasure traded for goat dung.”
The Bergoglio-McCarrick decision to withdraw from China, trading the souls and treasure of Chinese Christians for goat dung.
Which brings us to Mel Brooks and Blazing Saddles:
“Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said.”
Isn’t Afghanistan the 2021 international version of the 2020 “Summer of Love?” There appears to be a family resemblance.
2. Know your limitations.
Bayford’s brief article is titled “How America failed to learn its lessons from Vietnam.”
A lofty goal that Bayford sets for herself. Unfortunately, the inexperienced and prideful Bayford, fixated on theory, is unaware of (or bizarrely viewed it as irrelevant) a basic fact: North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and captured Saigon in 1975 using a force of a million soldiers and thousands of tanks, artillery pieces and aircraft.
Now, comparisons and analogies can be helpful, but 1) the author should demonstrate she has a basic command of the facts, and 2) she should avoid the trap of many novice writers who have “fallen in love with their words.” Bayford ignored or resisted basic research amidst her rush to express, not a reasonably informed analysis, but her personal sentiments.
3. Do not confuse vacuity for insight.
Bayford wrote: “Installing a political leadership that reflects the values of the invading nation is less likely to create a stable and happy society than empowering one that accurately reflects the host country.”
Briefly, Afghanistan is mostly Sunni but partly Shia. The main ethnic group (there are many) is Pashtun (most Taliban are Pashtun), most are Sunni and they speak Pashto. Also, note the existence of the Pakistani Pashtun and the ISI (Pakistani intelligence service). In 2001 the Pashtun were dominant in the south, meanwhile the Northern Alliance included Dari-speaking Tajiks and Shia Hizaris.
Now, that only scratches the surface. Stepping back for a moment, consider the United Kingdom and the Queen. A significant minority are opposed to a monarch, yet there is a Queen. A reasonable argument can be made both for and against a U.K. monarchy “accurately reflecting the host country.” Furthermore, note an additional complication: some polling indicates that the young are gradually turning against the monarchy (affected briefly by royal weddings). The situation is not so simple, nor should the situation be dismissed with cliches and buzzwords.
Returning to Afghanistan. In late 2001 a “loya jirga” elected Hamid Karzai as chairman of an interim authority. A second loya jirga was held in June 2002 to select a transitional government. A third loya jirga ratified a constitution in January 2004.
In October 2004 the first free presidential election took place and, despite threats from alQaeda and the Taliban, about eighty percent of the populace voted at polling places secured and monitored by NATO and UN personnel (another Bayford error is her fixation on “America” without a single mention of NATO or the UN; praise or criticize them- but be aware of their presence and activities). Every religious and ethnic group participated, so did millions of women. In September 2005 Afghans returned to the polls to elect a national legislature, which resulted in a National Assembly including almost every ethnic group and 68 women.
“I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am. I never thought I would be able to vote.” – A nineteen-year old Afghan girl, October 2004.
Theory has partial, limited use. It should be the beginning of thoughtfulness, not the end. Never forget there are real people who differ by ethnicity, language and religion who are experiencing stress yet persevering amidst a volatile and complex situation. In this crazy, mixed-up world victories are often temporary, defeat tends to be a state of mind and need not be permanent.
“I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am. I never thought I would be able to vote.” – A nineteen-year old Afghan girl, October 2004.
That girl, and a million more like her, will always harbor a memory of the 16 years they had of some sort, degree, or measure of self-rule. Taliban may win for a day, or a decade. They will have a great deal of trouble suppressing the very IDEA of freedom in those hearts and minds. 50 years from now, those girls, as grandmothers, may incite a revolution by teaching their granddaughters something true behind closed doors.
You can never know ALL of the effects of a good act, even if it seems to come to naught in the near term. The martyrs whose example of forgiveness of their tormentors invited some (few) guards to convert…eventually turned Rome around. By going to their deaths WELL.
About the politics: we didn’t go into Afghanistan in 2001 for mere regime change, nor with regime change as the per se basis: they committed an act of war on us, were unrepentant, and indicated willingness to do it again. That’s a just cause of war. We went in to DEFEAT those responsible. “Regime change” is merely the other side of the coin from defeating those responsible. Establishing a just government after you have eradicated an evil government may be possible to victors, but even when it is not, that does not all by itself make the war unjust: when the victors do not take the country for their own, it is not, primarily, the VICTORS who are responsible for establishing a just government for the losers, but the people of the country.
TonyO: Outstanding.
“And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” – Matthew 24:6
War is destructive, but so is appeasement and refusal to oppose evil. Thus, Just War Theory and Jus ad bellum (just cause for waging war).
During October 2001 CIA and Special Forces teams, supported by U.S. aircraft, were on the ground in Afghanistan, engaged in operations against alQaeda and the Taliban. They would soon be joined in the fight by Allied troops and aircraft. At the same time, an estimated six million Afghanis were malnourished- the U.S. Air Force was determined to do something about this, realizing their effort would fall far short of requirements.
Meanwhile, in New York City the fires at Ground Zero continued to burn and would not be extinguished until December.
US Air Force video from October 19, 2001 via AP:
https://youtu.be/3n_EfYHrfoA
The capability to feed six million daily via air drop did not exist, the air drops could only feed about 60,000 daily in varying locations. The situation differed strikingly from the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. In October 2001 U.S. Air Force cargo planes departed Ramstein, Germany for a 24-hour round-trip to Afghanistan which required three and sometimes four aerial refuelings. Criticism of these air drops as a “publicity stunt” was calmly answered by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld: “The food we are able to deliver is appreciated by those Afghans who receive it.” Ground convoys soon began after the fall of the Taliban regime, but the airdrops continued intermittently for many years, airdropping food and medicine to remote Afghan mountain villages during harsh winters.
Jus in bello (just conduct during war), it makes a difference in heaven and earth.
https://www.twitter.com/annewil75198453/status/1429971293294694402
4. Maneuver in Time and Space
Winston Churchill: “Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”
Reasonable.
Bayford wrote (Note: The second half of this sentence is a separate issue and it contains several errors, but I digress): “It is a simple fact of human nature that an invaded populace fighting for an ideal in opposition to an invading force will keep fighting…”
Here, Bayford picked up her pen, yelled “God save the Queen!” and charged berserker-like into no-man’s-land. Well, that happens.
Let’s begin by taking a closer look at her “simple fact of human nature.”
First, if Bayford was writing about the WW II French Resistance she would have a point about “invaded populace” and “keep fighting.” It’s an obvious point, but a reasonable point to make nonetheless. If her “simple fact of human nature” was true then it should hold up across time and space.
So, a practical application. If her sweeping generalization is true, then the eighty percent of Afghans who walked to the polling stations in October 2004 would not have voted. Rather, a significant majority of them would have pulled a ceremonial dagger from their embroidered waistcoats or brandished a Jezail traditional rifle and hurled themselves at every U.S., NATO and U.N. soldier in sight.
During WW II the French Resistance sabotaged locomotives, blew up telephone poles and fought the 2nd SS Panzer Division in June 1944 as it matched north from southern France to oppose the Normandy landings. In Afghanistan the Taliban and alQaeda (recall, alQaeda is mainly Arab foreign fighters) fought not only against the Coalition but also Afghans.
More specifically, the Taliban and alQaeda (both with foreign assistance…) fought against a large majority of the Afghan people and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force, established in 2001- a more specific term than “Coalition”). The ISAF forces included not only conventional and special forces, but other units such as Civil Affairs Teams, Provincial Reconstruction Teams, Female Engagement Teams, and Agriculture Development Teams.
The situation in Afghanistan varied by space: a province may border Iran or Pakistan; the terrain mountainous or desert; the road network adequate or meager; territory could differ by ethnicity or tribe; the security situation could differ by district or province (e.g. a certain ISAF military unit from Europe was not allowed to patrol at night- the problem with that is obvious and there were several other internal ISAF issues such as with Rules of Engagement).
Simultaneously, the situation varied by time (the following simplifies a complex process): near-term goals of improving security so that medical clinics and water treatment plants are not repeatedly bombed; mid-term goals of improving host country security forces and reducing (not eliminating) corruption; long-term goals such as improving education. Again, that is a simplification, and the division into three time periods is rather arbitrary and meant only as a basic illustration.
Maneuvering in time and space is essential when conducting international security operations, it is also essential when writing about international security affairs. True, only so much can be said in an article of eight hundred or a thousand words. All the more reason to avoid presenting a brief glimpse of the horizon in grandiose terms- it merely displays the author’s sentiments. If a novice author would like to accomplish something useful or productive in the limited space of a column, then focus on one aspect, program, unit or geographical area such as a district. What worked? What did not work? What took time and adjustment but eventually worked? Compare and contrast with roughly similar situations not only in neighboring districts but in other wars in other regions of the world. Though only a brief column, such writing could, maybe, possibly, perhaps produce a Lesson Learned. Lessons accumulated over time enhance maneuver and reduce slaughter.
Father,
Belated thanks for your bracketed comments! Indeed – did I search successfully for his quotations under ‘Tugendhat’ only to somehow uncritically and over-confidently mistype it ‘Tugenthat’? Fie! But, ah the joys of Germanic philology (even for the rankest amateurs)! E.g., Old High German ‘tugund’, Middle High German ‘tugend’, Middle Dutch ‘doge(n)t’, Old English ‘duguth’, Germanic *’thuginthi-‘, etc.
It has everything to do with the speaker’s history both with respect to Afghanistan and more generally. Not only ‘is this well said, whoever may have said it’, but ‘what does saying this have to do with the (history of the) speaker as agent and thoughtful, moral person’? If not, why not?
E.g., today we were practicing the Gradual, “Bonum est confidere in Domino, quam confidere in homine. Bonum est sperare in Domino, quam sperare in principibus.”
I still consider I was right to say, “To paraphase St. Cyril of Alexandria, not everything a heretic says is heretical.” He may speak well to the point – I do not suggest otherwise, nor dismiss possibly intelligent and just words, on the mere basis of other utterances.
I have not yet done my homework as to what may be discovered as to what he has said about Afghanistan in the course of the past 18 years of his militry and political life – but would be glad to know it, e.g., to see what (in)consistency, public accounting for revisions, etc., he has evinced.
“Is this evidence of some general repentence or conversion on the part of Mr. Tugen[d]hat?” is not merely a rhetorical question. He would seem, from what I have read of him over the years, not only, as all of us (or so I suppose) in need of repentence and deeper conversion, but, for his soul’s – and service’s – sake, in need of repentence and conversion in various specific public respects, for which I – and one should – pray. I.e., e.g., are some of the things I quoted, if accurate, not worthy of consideration in respect of Canon 915 on “manifest grave sin”?
Apologies for more unchecked (persistent mis-)spelling: ‘repentence’>’repentance’, and bad proofreading: ‘militry’>’military’. Hurrah for the errata-slip capacity of comments!
Following up grateful, I have seen a swatch of observations apparently transcribed or cut and pasted from Lara Logan’s Facebook account, which reward looking up and reading – and commentary by the knowledgeable on (some or any of) them would be very welcome!
Semper Gumby,
What is to be said (a) as to these provisions of the 2004 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and (b) as to those non-Moslems who facilitated their bringing about?:
“The sacred religion of Islam shall be the religion of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rights.
“No law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam in Afghanistan.”
What is to be said as to the ways in which the U.S., NATO, UN, et al., addressed ‘bacha bazi’ and related matters?
Kathleen10: Cardinal Sarah is a good man and a good priest, but you raise a good point about reality. An illustration: Cardinal Sarah is quoted as saying, “Man is not born to manage his bank account; he is born to find God and to love his neighbor.”
A fine sentiment, it orients us toward the Good, the True and the Beautiful. However, there are two errors. First, man is also born to “be fruitful and multiply”- which means families, which means managing family finances. Second, the Vatican obviously has a role in the Great Commission (though currently the Bergoglio-Pachamama Vatican is clearly opposed to the Great Commission), which means the Vatican should morally manage its bank accounts, real estate and utility bills.
Venerator Sti Lot: You raise two good questions.
First, bacha bazi is an immoral tribal custom practiced by a few tribes and warlords. It takes time to change those customs in the same way it’s taking time to disclose and prosecute the bacha bazi practiced by a few degenerate Catholic clergy (who probably never had an authentic vocation to the priesthood in the first place), and it is a practice vociferously opposed by all faithful Catholic clergy.
Second, “Followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rights.” This is reasonable. View it as a glass half-full, rather than half-empty.
Progress takes time. Sometimes it’s a matter of two steps forward, one step back, or even just a tiny step forward to see who comes rushing out of the night with a large knife looking for a head to saw off.
In 1991 a Coalition of Western and Middle Eastern governments and militaries cooperated to liberate Kuwait. After a few years reasonable questions were raised about women’s rights such as voting. It then took more years, and uneven progress, but progress has been made. And, in 2018 a member of the 1991 Coalition, Saudi Arabia, began issuing driver’s licenses to women.
In the U.S. it took a civil war to end slavery (but the KKK was the paramilitary wing of the “Democrat” Party after the war). It took the Nineteenth Amendment for women to vote. But, just last year, the then-editor of the Catholic Crisis magazine published an article proposing that the Nineteenth Amendment be repealed.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance- which means spiritual and situational awareness. The Great Commission is not simply a matter of “love” and “neighbor.” “Finding God” clearly has something to do with the Gospel, a Gospel that includes parables, the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, and hard sayings.
InFormationDiakonia: “Our military leadership, now indoctrinates with CRT, white shame, LGBTQRST ideology, drag queens as “morale” boosters, and climate change…”
On Thursday, August 26 the Command Sergeant Major of the Army, Social Justice Warrior Michael Grinston, spent his time tweeting this:
“Diversity is a number – do you have people that don’t look or think like you in the room? Inclusion is listening and valuing those people.”
Grinston could make an actual contribution to national security by peeling potatos in the mess hall.
Kathleen10: “…millions of Americans are horrified at what the man that sits in the Oval Office said, as well as what he said a month ago, last week, yesterday, and surely next week. It is shocking, to see America leave behind people to fend for themselves in this situation…”
May I suggest: “America” did not leave people behind. The responsibility for this is ultimately that of the Death Party politicians occupying the White House for the greater glory of Karl Marx, race war, and killing babies to sell their body parts.
Where there is a Will there is a Way. Please do a web search on “Task Force Pineapple Afghanistan” or “Pineapple Express Afghanistan.” Now that’s the spirit of America and those are Americans. God bless America.
– The anti-American Biden regime equipped the Taliban with an estimated half-million vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, machine guns, rifles, artillery pieces, night vision goggles and sniper rifles.
– In April Biden signed executive orders targeting the 2nd Amendment (Biden: “No amendment to the Constitution is absolute”), and in June reminded law-abiding U.S. citizens who own firearms that “the government has nukes and F-15s.” The CDC recently determined guns are a “public health crisis” (CDC Director: “Now is the time- it’s pedal to the metal time”).
– The anti-American Biden regime’s UN Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stated in April that the U.S. Founding was based on “white supremacy.” In June Navy chief Admiral Gilday, who previously placed a racist book (“How to Be an Anti-Racist”) on the Navy’s Professional Reading List, refused to condemn the conspiracy theory that white people created AIDS.
– In May Attorney General Garland stated to Congress that white violence is “the most dangerous threat to our democracy” [the U.S. is a Republic]. In June Biden stated “terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today.”
– The Taliban regime may take Afghanistan’s seat on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. China recently has begun greatly expanding its strategic nuclear force. Credible reporting indicates North Korea restarted its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
– Last week former four-star general and ex-NSA and ex-CIA director Michael Hayden agreed that deporting to Afghanistan American citizens who voted for Pres. Trump was a “good idea.” Last Thursday as Marines were dying during a humanitarian mission in Kabul, Vice magazine labeled Marines as “neo-Nazis.”
– In June sixty Death Party “Democrats” issued a letter to U.S. Catholic bishops demanding that those who support killing unborn infants [abortion in the U.S. and globally tends to kill female and black unborn infants disproportionately] dismembering them and selling their body parts should receive Communion, adding that there was a “separation of Church and State” [which does not appear in the Constitution, rather an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson]. Recently Jorge Bergoglio stated that the Ten Commandments were “not absolutes” [thereby denouncing John 14:15, 14:21, and 15:10-11].
– Several years ago Sen. Kamala Harris joked on a TV show about killing Pres. Trump, VP Pence and Attorney General Sessions. Last November numerous Death Party journalists called for American citizens whose vote differed from theirs to be interned in “re-education camps” or face “firing squads.”
– John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People.”
– Ronald Reagan: “Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in totalitarian darkness- pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.”