The Richmond Observer – OPINION: Kabul has fallen but don’t blame Biden

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This weekend, the United States experienced another Saigon moment, this time in Afghanistan. After a 20-year war that emptied billions of billions from American pockets, the capital of Afghanistan fell without a fight. The corrupt Potemkin regime that the United States had supported for two decades and the Afghan army that we had spent billions to train have collapsed.

The urgency now is to find someone to blame for the chaos in Afghanistan. Many of the experts who point the finger are most to blame. Politicians and pundits who played the cheerleaders of that war for two decades are now rushing to accuse President Biden of finally bringing the United States out. Where were they when successive presidents continued to add troops and expand the mission in Afghanistan?

The American war on Afghanistan was not lost yesterday in Kabul. He was lost as he transitioned from a limited mission to apprehend those who planned the 9/11 attack, to an exercise in regime change and nation-building.

Immediately after the September 11 attacks, I proposed that we issue letters of marque and retaliation to bring those responsible to justice. But such a limited and targeted response to the attack was ridiculed at the time. How could the American war machine and all of its allied profiteers earn their billions if we did not wage a massive war?

So who is to blame for the Afghanistan scenes this weekend? There is plenty to go around.

Congress kicked the road for 20 years, continuing to fund the war in Afghanistan long after they even realized the US occupation was for nothing. Some members made efforts to end the war, but most, on a bipartisan basis, simply agreed to come to an agreement.

Generals and other high-ranking military officers have lied to their Commander-in-Chief and the American people for years about progress in Afghanistan. The same goes for US intelligence agencies. Unless there is a major purge of those who lied and misled, we can count on these disasters to continue until the last US dollar goes up in smoke.

The military-industrial complex has spent 20 years in the sauce train with the war in Afghanistan. They built missiles, they built tanks, they built planes and helicopters. They hired armies of lobbyists and think tank writers to continue the lie that made them rich. They have wrapped their graft in the American flag, but they are the opposite of the Patriots.

The mainstream media have uncritically repeated the propaganda of the military and political leaders on Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and all other unnecessary interventions by the United States. Many of these outlets are owned by companies related to the defense industry. The corruption runs deep.

American citizens must also share some of the blame. Until more and more Americans stand up and demand a pro-American, hands-off foreign policy, they will continue to be robbed by war profiteers.

Political control in Afghanistan went to the people who fought against those they saw as occupiers and for what they saw as their homeland. That’s the real lesson, but don’t expect it to be understood in Washington. War is too lucrative and political leaders are too cowardly to go against the grain. But the lesson is clear to anyone who wishes to see it: The US global military empire is a grave threat to the United States and its future.

Dr Ron Paul is a former OB / GYN and United States Representative for the State of Texas. Republished from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

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