[Update a while later]
Fire the military and intelligence higher ups now. And yes, Biden should be fired, too, but that’s the job of either the Congress now, or the voters later.
15 thoughts on “Our Whole National-Security Apparatus”
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My comments at Althouse, who linked to the same article at Instapundit:
If there is one consistency from 11 September 2001 to now; it is our national Intelligence community (FBI, CIA, DIA, DHS) is a disaster. They missed 9/11, failed to track Bin Laden or Saddam, convinced leadership on WMD in Iraq, failed to warn of Russia taking Georgia, failed to see overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt, failed to see overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, failed to see rise of ISIS, failed to predict Russia taking of Crimea, finally managed to find Bin Laden, spent years telling us Russia interfered in 2016 Elections, and predicted months for Afghanistan to be retaken by the Taliban when it only took a few weeks. That’s 2 decades and 4 Presidencies of utter failure. When you get garbage coming in…
It goes back further than that. They didn’t see the Shah falling in Iran, or the collapse of the Soviet Union.
I can’t comment on the fall of the Shah, though it seems unlikely that the IC didn’t see it coming. I was at Purdue at the time, and everyone on campus saw it coming.
As for the collapse of the Soviet Union, the IC not only knew about it, they made it happen. Jus’ sayin’.
Biden was briefed daily on the situation in Afghanistan, but the IC doesn’t make timeline predictions – just daily status updates, all of which, if heeded, showed that things were going south very, very quickly. But Biden – or whoever Oruns him – didn’t pay attention because of an alternate agenda, which is bearing the expected fruit right now.
I’ll also add that Biden was right that Afghanistan would not be like Saigon. The evacuation from Saigon was better planned.
I have many many things to say about our national security state … but I can’t. Which is perhaps the root of the problem, isn’t it?
Depends on why you can’t.
If the ‘why’ involves restrictions on which countries he can visit, I get it… Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have justifiable opinions….
Biden should be removed for election fraud. Not through impeachment since he is not legally the president.
” but for his decision to “shift the goalposts” and attempt to reform Afghanistan society.”
We never tried changing Afghan society. Letting girls go to school isn’t changing their society when you leave the society and culture in place that lead to them not attending school in the first place. We didn’t export our own culture or even demand they change theirs. How can you fight against corruption when we had Obama, Clinton, and Biden in charge?
How could we promote conversion when the State Department doesn’t think the USA should exist? How is it that the people in charge of diplomacy and “nation building” aren’t burdened with their share of the blame for how the last 20 years unfolded?
What Americans were making money off the opium trade? preventing that industry from being expunged?
Yes, yes, fire all the generals and several rungs down but why does the State Department get a free pass?
On generals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxZWxxZ2JGE
Same guy maybe same speech, I have this one queued up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZbhIr04B5g
It was all fake. They kept trying to delay our departure, because whenever we left it would become clear that they had only been pretending. They took the unending supply of money we sent them and built a Potemkin Afghan army. It was all fake.
I doubt they are terribly worried about voters.
It will take a new administration.
Right now the only person I can see with the balls to do it is Trump.
Personally, not a big fan of Trump, but right now I can’t see any ‘R’ from either the gubernatorial or Senate ranks with both the required skill and energy to do it. Oh if only we had an Ike or a McArthur. I always wondered what kind of President Mac would have made. If the movie is to be believed, FDR gave him the encouragement, and Japan turned out rather well after the war. Well, one of those imponderables we’ll never know.
DeSantis perhaps
Reynolds makes a good point:
Failure MUST be punished.
“Good Morning. You have reached the White House Emergency Line. The time is currently 3am. Please leave your message after the tone and the President will return your call during normal working hours of 10am to 4pm Monday through Thursday. 10am to Noon on Fridays. Or if you have a point to make you may also press 2 for the Vice Presidential Emergency Voicemail and leave a voicemail for her, hahaha! (beep)!”