I have some questions for armchair generals and presidents:
How do you disengage from a failed occupation of a place like Afghanistan? Is there any way to disappear up your own asshole while surrounded by hostile Taliban and ISIS forces?
I’d say we’ve been doing a damn good job of getting Americans and Afghan allies out. But now there’s been an ISIS suicide attack outside the airport gates, with the reported deaths of 12 U.S. Marines and dozens of Afghan citizens. Such an attack was inevitable; President Biden warned us it was coming. What happened today may signal the premature end of the evacuation; it may not. Obviously the administration knew it was likely to happen and presumably has given some thought as to how it will react. All I can do, and you, is wait and see.
Imagine what it would be like to be the last American troop on the ground in Afghanistan, waiting for airlift to get you the fuck out of there after you helped safely evacuate everyone ahead of you. That’s where we’re at today, and it’s a sobering thought. Can there be anything more courageous and self-sacrificing right now than guarding the perimeter of the airport in Kabul?
President Biden is finishing what Trump put in motion but didn’t have the courage to do himself. I wonder, if Trump had won the election and was right now serving a second term, whether he wouldn’t have reversed the troop pullout he ordered in 2020 rather than face the pro-war press and political second-guessing President Biden is facing now?
Yes, you got that right. Trump. President Biden. Around these parts you don’t get to use the title unless you legitimately earn it. Trump wasn’t elected and thus didn’t earn it.
Even when you know the bad guys are going to attack us in Afghanistan as we try to get out the door, it’s infuriating when it happens, and thank god for dogs.
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I snapped these photos last night during dinner: Mr. B and Lulu on my right, Fritzi at my feet. The dogs were fed, but we ate our own dinner after serving them and, as always, they took a great interest in what was on our trays.
Here’s to getting out of Afghanistan once and for all, and may we enjoy a brief respite before we have to go into Pakistan to keep ISIS and the Taliban from getting their hands on nuclear weapons, yet another can past presidents (Trump too, seat warmer between elected presidents that he was) kicked down the road, hoping someone with courage would deal with it some day.