The loser loses, the winner wins

[ad_1]

In August of 2019, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of VP Dick Cheney, one of the leading advocates of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, said about President Donald Trump’s attempts to make peace with the Taliban, the Taliban continue to support , maintained and fought alongside al Qaeda. They are not partners in peace. Any deal that fails to prevent America’s opponents from establishing safe havens on Afghan soil is a phony deal that threatens our security and threatens another 9/11.

Two years later, in August 2021, Cheney tweeted, The Trump / Biden disaster taking place in Afghanistan began with the Trump administration’s handling of terrorists and pretending they were partners for peace and ending with the surrender of American as Biden left the country to our terrorist enemies.

Now, September 2021, I can’t believe I’m inspired to offer Liz Cheney as an antidote to the anti-Biden, anti-American, anti-intellectual rhetoric that is currently taking over our public plaza and humiliating the sacrifices of Americans who honorably served their country in cinema and abroad, especially those who have served in Afghanistan since 2001.

Let’s understand clearly. America’s annoying withdrawal from Afghanistan is often described, beginning nearly 20 years ago when unrepentant warmongers President George W. Bush, VP Dick Cheney, along with the ruthless British PM Tony Blair and an assortment of chicken hawks strained to know the difference between Kalashnikovs and kabobs decided not to pursue Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora but chose only to try to change the regime in Baghdad.

That went really well.

More than $ 2 trillion eventually in Afghanistan alone, three administrations later, three levels of hubris and incompetence later, returned Afghans into the hands of the Taliban, a radical Islamist politico-military organization whose belief in Islam if what the KKK believes in Christianity.

In the shadow of such a dark history, I have not written a column for two of the past three weeks in large part because I, along with friends and colleagues, have been desperately trying to help a family I am close to in Kabul.

Due to differences in time zones (San Francisco – 3 hours, Berlin +6, Kabul +8.5, Islamabad +9) and attempts to communicate with people in many countries via WhatsApp, Signal, FaceTime and email , many nights are sleepless, exercise and pointless diet devoid of, all other activities set aside, and emotions are tightened by expectations that often rise and then break down.

Part of our mission ended Monday night when American forces left Hamid Karzai International Airport and returned the country to the successful Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The world is a game of chess; 19th century Afghan Muslim philosopher and activist Jamal Al-din Al-Afghani once said, the loser wins and the winner wins.

America was defeated. The family lost. The Taliban won.

The Afghan family of vulnerable Afghans that I consider like myself and along with educators and three generations of women were left behind despite the visas they were granted. However, do not worry and continue to look for alternative methods to rescue them.

Afghans, along with family, are in harm now in part because Presidents Bush, Obama, Trumpand Biden never understood Afghanistan but instead arrogantly believed that anything could be done to our own image and embrace values American.

While this is certainly true, as I cruelly wrote two weeks ago, that Biden, who ran as president on the promise of withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, and the military was caught stepping on the Taliban who rapid progress in Kabul and badly changed our retreat, equally true that he was noticed by the Trump administration’s missing hand.

To ignore what Biden inherited from Trump is shocking and dangerous.

Beginning, it appears, in 2018, Donald Trump, without telling either the Afghan government or NATO allies, has begun direct negotiations with the Taliban, including approving a plan for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan (which Congress tried to limit) to end May 2021.

Trump, who has never been shy about trying to recreate the world in his own image, is determined to reorganize Afghanistan to enhance his own chances of re-creation.

Trump has successfully forced the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban terrorist prisoners and he has also forced Pakistan to release Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, who has been imprisoned since 2010 at the insistence of the Obamas.

Baradar, who along with Mullah Omar is believed to have founded the Taliban, is now believed to be second in power to the Taliban’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

By November 17, 2020, 14 days after the determined defeat in his re-election bid, Trump had unilaterally, without consulting our military, falsely decided that American troops in Afghanistan would be reduced to 2,500 on January 15, 2021, preventing Bidens election victory and tactical options.

The options which Biden, our military, and our state department have never made competent nor fully managed properly, despite the evacuation of more than 120,000 people.

Now, a false hint to the American right, that has accepted a misconception, a false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen, that the January 6th uprising was kind, that vaccines don’t work, the Critical Race Theory is an anti-white movement, whose senile is the president, and climate change is a fraud, damaged the public square making it nearly impossible for Americans to rationally discuss the security issues facing America, issues including dealing with terrorism, domestic and foreign.

Now, as Americans attempt to unravel the detritus that Trump, who has not recognized a company he cannot bankrupt or an ally or country he cannot betray, join our sacred view that we must acknowledge has been undermined by not by our failure to defeat the Taliban abroad but by our failure to confront the demons of ignorance and rejection at home.

America was defeated. The Taliban won.

(Robert Azzi is a photographer and writer living in Exeter. His columns are archived at theotherazzi.wordpress.com.)

[ad_2]