Reprinted from The Eighteenth Century Club, July 31, 2022 One of my readers on my Substack newsletter, Trenchant Observations, has posed a very important question….
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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.
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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?
The U.S. surrender to the Taliban and the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan have produced days of stressful attention and observation, first, as the Taliban’s…
In failing to recognize that its surrender to the barbarism of the Taliban in Afghanistan was a major defeat for civilization and its defense of human rights and the rule law, the United States has committed a tragic mistake.
It has abandoned 38 million Afghans to the barbarism of a medieval terrorist regime, and 19 million Afghan women to the dictatorial rule of a misogynistic Islamic ideology which predates the Enlightenment and has not been influenced by it.
The American and allied capitulation to the barbarism of the Taliban must be understood as a terrible setback to civilization and the values of the Enlightenment.
President Joe Biden spoke to the nation today in an effort to justify his withdrawal from Aghanistan.
In his speech he demonstrated both his delusional state of mind and the stubborn, emotionally dug-in thinking that led to his decision to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan, and its botched execution.
It is absolutely appalling to speak to fellow Americans, even those who are highly educated and intelligent, and to understand the abysmal nature of their ignorance about Afghanistan, what has happened in that country in the last 20 years, and the people who live there today.
American news coverage from Afghanistan had almost disappeared until this summer, when President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. forces rekindled interest in some readers about the future of the country after America’s retreat.
To counter this ignorance, The Trenchant Observer is introducing a new feature under the heading, “Meet the Afghans America is abandoning.”
It is late in the game to try to counter the ignorance of the American population about Afghanistan in 2021.
We should bear in mind that polls that show 60% or 70% support for Biden’s withdrawal decision are measuring the views of ignorant and ill-informed people.
This is not so much their fault as it is the fault of American society and culture in 2021, when there is little interest in U.S. foreign policy or what is going on in the rest of the world, and news media–except for a few leading newspapers–which reflect that lack of interest.
Please accept our invitation to meet and learn about some of the Afghans who America is abandoning to the mercies of the Taliban.
We have described the horrific choices facing individual Afghan soldiers and officials:
Soldiers and government officials are faced with terrifying personal choices, as it begins to look like the Taliban will take over.
They and their families are extraordinarily exposed to Taliban reprisals, and may have to make excruciating decisions about whether they can better protect themselves and their families by putting aside their weapons and acquiescing in a Taliban takeover, or by sticking with the government forces and fighting for a future under the existing government.
The surrender and withdrawal of the Americans could well have a decisive impact on their calculus.
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The “will” that may proive to be the decisive determinant of the future of Afghanistan is not that of the Afghan soldier or government official, but rather that of Joe Biden and the government and people of the United States.
