Monday, August 16, 2021

My Statement Regarding Our Exit From Afghanistan.

 We, the United States of America, are currently in the progress of leaving Afghanistan after some two decades of being the country's police force and army. 

We initially went in there in 2001 after the origin of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was traced back to Al Qaeda, and the origin of the attackers was traced to Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan. In this cause we were right to go in. Let that be known. We were attacked, and we responded, as a nation must so respond. 

It is now some twenty years later, and the USA is now removing itself from Afghanistan. As I knew we would do. We've cut and run, as we did before in Vietnam. People whom we promised to stand by have and are as we speak being left to the not-so tender mercies of the Taliban. My Statement : This is a black day for America. But I don't blame Joe Biden. The mechanics that led up to this day were born by "W" Bush, carried on by Barack Obama (who did try to fix things, but it really wasn't going to happen.) and the last knives were driven in by TFG. He set things up so this would happen on Biden's watch. He hosted the Taliban leaders here at Camp David, and basically gave them everything they asked for. The people at the top of the Afghani government were (and are) crooks and liars who own the lion's share of the blame for this. Had they been honest, and dealt fairly with their troops, and seen to it they got paid, supplied and occasional leave to see their families, perhaps then the ASG wouldn't have collapsed under the Taliban attacks. I also want to mention the Taliban, and the situation there in the region. The Taliban were never, ever going to deal honestly with the USA. They are religious zealots with a power addiction who need to be lording it over someone else, and nothing short of a total control of the country was ever going to satisfy them. There is no bargaining with people who believe that it is okay to break their word when that word is given to a nonbeliever or infidel. We should have expected this, and taken steps to protect those whom we need to help leave the country. Now, dozens of them have died, and thousands are in immediate peril of their lives. We are not doing enough to help them. We will wear the blood stains of this for a long time, and we should. My final comment: We MUST never make war unless we are willing to go the full distance, fight to the last, kill the enemy until he surrenders unconditionally or we wipe them off the face of the earth. No safe spaces. No havens. Even if it means pissing off the Russians, Chinese or whoever. IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE STONES FOR IT WE SHOULD NOT BE DOING IT. No half measures. No more wars of containment. No more Police Actions. We're either ALL IN or we STAY HOME.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

The Ghost of January 6th 2021

 Some dates to remember: November 3 2020. Election Day. a Red-Letter Day if ever there was. It began early, with voting in person being mostly stronger than anticipated, but with a lot of mail-in ballots. In Arizona, if you are registered to vote and made a request for it, you got a mail-in ballot automatically. You fill your ballot out, marking the candidates and issues you want with a black or blue pen. Felt tips are permitted. It's thick paper and won't bleed through. Live in-person voting carried on all day, but slowly. Around 10 pm  Eastern time, it looked to be very close, at least in the Electoral College. (in the national popular vote, it wasn't even close, with Biden eventually pulling a 7 million vote lead. ) By midnight, Trump started declaring himself the winner in states he clearly hadn't won. By 2 AM it was clear that, if Arizona and Georgia did not go for Trump, that he would not in fact be re-elected.