UPDATE August 31, 2023 See David French, “The Articulate Ignorance of Vivek Ramaswamy,” New York Times, August 31, 2023, (3:00 p.m. ET), *** Original text…
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Developing Because so much is being written about the Ukraine Crisis, we are providing links to the most important news dispatches and analyses, in particular…
See, 1) “Merrick Garland should indict Trump today. If he dosn’t, Democrats should impeach Garland tomorrow,” The Trenchant Observer, January 3, 2022; 2) “Democrats should…
See, Ross Douthat, “What Is Joe Biden Thinking?”, New York Times, January 15, 2022. Ross Douthat has done an excellent job in summing up the…
Reports of the rescue of hostages and the killing of the hostage-taking gunman in Collingwood, Texas are extremely opaque as to how the hostage-taker, identified as Malik Faisal Akram, was actually killed.
Official statemeents simply say that he was dead, with absolutely no details, raising a lot if questions.
According to one report, “One hostage who had been held was released during the stand-off and the three others got out when an FBI Swat team entered the building, authorities in the US said.”
Questions raised include the following:
Why was it necessary to kill the hostage-taker?
Was he simply executed after the hostages had escaped or been released?
…
It may seem to some that, given the heinous nature of the crime, these details are unimportant. There was a similar disinterest in the details of the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2010, after he had apparently been brought under control.
These little details are important.
An entire civilization built on the rule of law depends on them.
Having sworn in his confirmation hearings that he would not allow political considerations to influene his decisions to prosecute individuals, he has blatantly violated his oath and his duty under the Constitution and the law.
Specifically, he has failed to initiate prosecution of Donald Trump and his many co-conspirators for the many electoral crimes committed after the November 3, 2020 presidential election, or for the many instances of obstruction of justice including witness tampering committed if full view by Trump. Among these apparent crimes are the 10 instances of obstruction of justice laid out, in explicit detail and with summaries of the relevant evidence, in the Mueller Report.
There appears to be a conspiracy of silence among Democratic leaders to not even discuss the issue of whether Trump should be prosecuted.
Developing See, David Ignatius, “The Biden administration weighs backing Ukraine insurgents if Russia invades,” Washington Post, December 19, 2021 The “Children Editors” at the…
UPDATE September 6, 2021, 5:00p.m. EDT News Reports say Baradar wounded in gunfight on Friday, September 3, currently receiving medical treatment in Pakistan See, 1)…
See, “Should U.S. and allies seek to influence Taliban government in formation through negotiating agreements?,” The Trenchant Observer, August 25, 2021. The terrorist attack at…
President Joe Biden, Captain of the Titanic
Sometimes a metaphor can help us understand a complicated reality, highlighting the most important features so that we can keep them clearly in mind.
With respect to Afghanistan, the metaphor that comes to mind is that of President Joe Biden as Captain of the Titanic.
Biden steered the ship directly at the Iceberg
A big difference from the historical example is that unlike the captain of the real Titanic, this time Captain Joe steered the ship directly at the iceberg, despite all the warnings of his top officers and their urgings to change course.
…
The Titanic hit the iceberg, and is going down
The Titanic hit the iceberg. As the ship is sinking, Captain Joe has dug in and is insisting he made the right decision to steer at the iceberg.
He and his officers go on television frequently to defend his decision to hit the iceberg.
Now, Captain Joe is working hard to ensure that all of the first-class passengers get into lifeboats and safely away from the sinking ship
The decision to surrender to the Taliban and abandon our Afghan allies and supporters is among the most craven and dastardly decisions in U.S. military and foreign policy history. One searches in history for a decision of such dishonorable magnitude.
The comparison that comes to mind is the agreement by Neville Chamberlain of England and Ėdouard Daladier of France with Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgarten in October, 1938. The agreement, known as tge Munich Pact, has become synonymous with betrayal and appeasement
That will be Joe Biden’s legacy, unless he changes course, which seems unlikely.
Yet however emotionally appealing Noonan’s prescriptions may be, to follow them would be to court disaster on an extraordinary scale. Any attempt to force open corridors by the use of military force would produce open armed conflict between the Taliban and the U.S. forces, which were sent to Afghanistan on an evacuation mission. American soldiers would be killed.
The Taliban occupy the entire city of Kabul, and the rest of the country. Who knows how many people would die if the U.S. tried to force the issue with military force.
Anyone entertaining such ideas should immediately watch the classic movie, Black Hawk Down (2001) which realistically depicts what happened in 1993 when American forces attempted to extract a relatively small number of soldiers from a firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Why are F-16’s overflying Kabul?
