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March 28th, 2024

Insight

Different time. Different continent. Same story

Don Feder

By Don Feder

Published August 18, 2021

Different time. Different continent. Same story
1. After 9/11, there was an understandable desire to strike back at the terrorists who killed more than 3,000 Americans.

2. Committing ground forces to Afghanistan wasn't the way to do it. As Winnie the Pooh says, "Sometimes nothing is the best something to do."

3. Afghanistan has always been outlaw country, stretching back as far as anyone can recall. The British (who were the world's super power of the age) failed to tame it in the 19th. century. The Russians failed to pacify it in the 20th century. I guess it was our turn to march into the quagmire (to put it in Vietnam-era terminology) in the 21st.

4. When the mission crept from excising terrorist bases to nation building, it went from silly to senseless. How well this worked may be seen in creating an Afghan Army that wouldn't fight without U.S. leadership and a civilian government whose integrity may be seen in its alleged president fleeing the country with billions of our money.

5. It's hard to imagine a worse withdrawal than the one devised by Sleepy Joe — whose instincts are invariably disastrous, and have been since he arrived in Washington in the 1970s.

6. We left without a plan in place to get Americans and our allies out. What the president said would never happen (Saigon 2021) is exactly what happened. Tons of sophisticated equipment were left for the Taliban and our terrified allies clung to the outside of departing helicopters.

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7. G od bless the Americans who fought there so bravely, one and all. They behaved heroically. The failure is political, not military.

8. The Afghans who wanted to escape the 13th century have my sympathy. If there's a way to get them to safety, we should. But, harsh as this may sound, they're not our responsibility. Savages have been butchering and tormenting the innocent throughout the course of history. America's destiny is to create a safe haven on these shores.

9. How anyone can put any credence in the White House sock-puppet is a mystery. When he finally deigned to address the nation, he beat his hollow chest and declared: "The buck stops here." For all it meant, he might as well have said "Remember Pearl Harbor" or "Fifty-Four Forty or fight," or "Would you like to super-size that?"

10. Different time. Different continent. Same story.

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