The long strange trip edition.
I don’t have much to say on this 20th anniversary, other than it appears that the terrorists, both overseas and domestic, won. And I am not referring to what happened on January 6th.
[Afternoon update]
A much longer (and depressing) version of what I wrote above.
[Sunday-morning update]
It’s like we’re living in Jerry Pournelle’s vision of future America as a giant socialist dumpster (as in his “Birth of Fire” and “Higher Education” books).
Being an optimist, I look on the bright side of things.
Hundreds of thousands of Taliban are now extremely happy, and happiness is a good thing.
We’ve taken a primitive, backwards, and violent people and shown them the superiority of Ford Trucks, Humvees, and US aircraft. Of their own free will they’ve moved to the AR platform instead of the AK, which is a huge win for the West, one that will reverberate through countless regional conflicts that are liable to suck us back in.
The elite Taliban strike teams have adopted all of our Special Forces gear, showing that we are the best of the best when it comes to equipment and tactics. When you’re enemy slavishly copies you, you’re doing things right. Along with that they now have guided anti-tank missiles, laser-guided bombs, and night vision scopes for US built sniper rifles. At least when they blow up a bunch of innocent civilians, they won’t be doing it through staggering ineptitude like our leaders do, which is bound to be a plus.
Our top military leaders, diplomats, and the White House have shown that they would lose a war with Grenada, so their tyrannical nature no longer gives me much cause for concern. If the feckless imbeciles keep pushing our buttons, we’ll just steal all their weapons, take over the capital, and watch them all fly to Bermuda and ask for asylum.
Our “elites” have shown us that we can easily beat them up and take their lunch money.
Based on many pictures I’ve seen we’ve also shown them the superiority of footwear that encloses ones toes. I mean, they got by just fine with sandals for a thousand years. I’m not sure to what extent happiness means not stubbing your toe every other day but it must be at least somewhat substantial.
That Forbes headline:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2015/10/27/nobel-prize-winning-drug-ivermectin-may-fight-malaria/
It was too good to be true.
“1) That our enemies have taken our measure, and we never took theirs. Bin Laden’s strategic predictions vis a vis Afghanistan and the United States have been vindicated: 9/11 was for the other side a massive, generational strategic success.”
True to some extent but people could draw the wrong lessons. Afghanistan was a war that no one paid attention to yet we stayed there for 20 years just kicking Taliban ass every day. What was our strategic goal? Who can say but sometimes, kicking someone’s ass repeatedly for two decades has a strategic quality all its own.
It isn’t like we went unscathed. Americans died. Not as many as in other conflicts and there were a lot injured, which we wont know the full effects of for some time. We didn’t lose a large number of people when compared to our population and the money spent was significant but not that big a yearly expense when compared to the total budget.
The ability for the USA to park troops in a country for 20 years while experiencing no war at home, sustaining few casualties, and not spending that much money to use our opponent as a punching bag while limiting our actions far below what we are capable of is a serious threat.
This was with an unfocused government that often competed against itself and a population that was largely unaware the war was taking place. It was a good thing for the Taliban that our country wasn’t paying attention. Society would have demanded more from our government, which is probably why our media never covered Afghanistan.
The “win” here was the Taliban waiting us out. Congratulations? It is like winning the contest of who has the worst scar or which city has the worst traffic, even when you win you lose. I see three big questions. One, is whether or not they will do anything to entice us back. Do they want us to come back for another 20 years? Do they think China will protect them? Do they think Americans won’t demand that our government use all of the tools at our disposal if we have to go back?
I suspect that the nukes not troops sentiment will be popular in the future and that few if any countries want to get into a twenty year war with the USA.
Back on the actual day (on sff.net, I think), I suggested the attack was an opportunity to end the undeclared wars paradigm that’s held sway since 1945. I suggested distributing copies of 20,000 John Doe warrants for members of Taliban to every government in the world, and then have Congress formally declare war on Afghanistan, and conduct a full-scale invasion and conquest. Do to the country what was done to Germany and Japan. And if Congress said no, then we obviously don’t mean business and should cut the crap, stay home, and mind our own business. Spend our Defense budget on actual defense. Nobody thought it was a good idea except Pournelle.
F*** Joe Biden’! Biden TROLLED and HECKLED Across the Nation!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kM2kGrZ_Bo
Mocked and ridiculed everywhere he goes…poll numbers in free-fall. The other day they again had to kill the mike to prevent more dementia joe mental wanderings being sent out to the public:
“The White House abruptly cut the feed of President Biden’s briefing on wildfires with federal and state officials.
During Monday’s visit to Boise, Idaho, Biden received a briefing about the ongoing wildfires that have plagued several states out west.
While Biden spoke for much of the briefing, at one point he said he wanted to hear more from George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters. “Can I ask you a question?” Biden asked.
“Of course,” Geissler responded.
“One of the things that I’ve been working on with some others is —” Biden said before being cut off mid-sentence.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment. ”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/white-house-cuts-feed-biden-wildfires-briefing
More:
“White House abruptly cuts media feed as Biden goes off script during Idaho event.
The White House has bizarrely cut the feed during a meeting about wildfire preparedness with officials and President Joe Biden on Monday, local time.
President Biden attended a meeting in Boise, Idaho, about the ongoing wildfires that have plagued several states in the country’s west.
The president spoke for the majority of the address, but he stopped when he wanted to hear more from George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters.
Midway through Mr Biden’s question, which was not part of his prepared remarks, the White House abruptly cut the feed.
The incident is one of many occasions where the White House cut the media feed when the president went off his prepared remarks,
The incident comes only a few days after Politico reported how White House staffers will “either mute [Biden] or turn off his remarks” because they were anxious that he would veer from “the West Wing’s carefully orchestrated messaging.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHPTdvk79dI