Bombs, murder, it’s just a lie away
We handed the Taliban, now in control of Afghanistan a kill list. Don’t be surprised when ISIS or Al Queda kill squads come here to complete those missions.
Echols County, Georgia is 421 square miles of farm, swamp, and river, bordering Florida to the south, and Valdosta to the west, with 4,000 souls sharing the land. The county seat, Statenville, has one traffic light at the intersection of Georgia 94 and U.S. 129. Echols County has no incorporated towns or cities, so government is very simple: Clerks and officials use adhesive stamps on envelopes for letters and bill payments, and drop them across the street at the local post office.
In an oddity, Statenville and its residents also reside in a legal loophole, kind of like Wanda the Scarlet Witch’s “the hex” but dealing with banishment instead. Georgia’s constitution forbids judges from sentencing convicts to banishment from the state, but it does allow banishment from counties. So judges would simply sentence offenders to banishment from 158 of 159 counties, giving them the choice of living in Echols County, or nowhere in Georgia.
Most choose nowhere. This is apropos of nothing, really, but it reminded me that simple life and those living it goes on in America, while we’re just a lie away from bombs, murder, and abandonment.
In Kabul, the Taliban was handed a list of American citizens and Afghan allies, purportedly so that these people would be allowed access to the airport, which is nominally under U.S. control, to be evacuated. Someone in our military or diplomatic chain of command thought that the Taliban would react like the kind clerks and officials in Statenville, Georgia, where life is simple.
Are they insane? David Harsanyi at National Review:
Andrew McCarthy has already hit Joe Biden for his capitulation to the Islamic group earlier this week. Still, it’s worth noting that we just apparently provided this useful list of names to the same Taliban that says there’s no proof that bin Laden had anything to do with 9/11, that threatened Americans only days ago, and that is reportedly already hunting down and executing Afghans who partnered with the U.S. If Biden holds to his August 31 deadline and leaves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans behind, the Taliban now have a list to work off of. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” an anonymous defense official said. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.”
The latest estimates is that by Tuesday, there will likely be thousands of Americans and our allies who will be left behind to fend for themselves. The Taliban has a list of those names. ISIS-K, who are just fine sending bomb-vested suicide killers into our midst, along with our old enemy Al Queda, is operating at will in Kabul and many other provinces
Our government’s response? “New urgency.” The editors of USA Today bravely penned an opinion, as if, as my colleague David Thornton, dryly noted, changes everything.
For years, we were lied to. The truth was right in front of us, for anyone who was passably familiar with the situation in Afghanistan, but most Americans chose to just read the headlines, lovingly supplied to a compliant press by a government that wished to lull us to sleep.
The truth: Afghanistan was never a place where we could withdraw and leave it in the hands of those friendly to us. We were the “strongest tribe” in a nation of tribal warlords, and therefore the weaker tribes paid us tribute. We kept the Taliban at bay, because we could strike them anywhere they surfaced. They came out at times, during the “fighting season” (versus the agricultural planting the harvesting seasons), and planted roadside bombs, raped women, and intimidated families, preparing for the day when strong America would leave, just as others had left.
In the meantime, every stripe and breed of extremist religious zealot was watching and waiting for America to step away. Over the years, we signaled it was going to happen, and they stayed away from us to keep us, who knew no better, lulled into a sense of stability. It would not have mattered it if was George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, or Joe Biden who pulled the trigger, our extraction would be chaotic and bloody when our enemies filled the vacuum of our departure.
President Biden did everything wrong that could possibly be done wrong. He didn’t listen to his generals. He didn’t listen or consult with our western allies. He didn’t give the Afghan government and the Taliban time to work out some (at least titular) power sharing arrangement. He said his hands were tied by Trump’s May timeline, but that’s a horrendous lie.
President Biden pulled out U.S. contractors that provided Afghan support for the ANA, so that their warriors could not complete missions. Those who were passably familiar with what was going on, knew in June what was coming. The most elite unite in the ANA was the Afghanistan Commandos. They were trained by U.S. Special Forces and worked with our SEALS, Delta and other operators. They operated in the same theater tactics as their American counterparts—dependent on support, intelligence, and logistics of American-fueled military power.
The [Afghanistan] Commandos assaulted a village called Dawlat Abad and routed the Taliban. They called in the ANA to take over, and the ANA refused to enter, afraid of the Taliban. The Taliban regrouped and surrounded the village, pounding it with mortar fire and conducting a siege, until the small contingent of Commandos had no recourse but to surrender. Calls for air support went unheeded, because America had pulled the maintenance capability of the very aircraft that would have responded. There was no help coming.
Twenty-two Commandos surrendered to the Taliban. All 22 were summarily executed — on video. One of the men killed was a soldier named Sohrab Azimi. He was the son of an ANA general, trained in the United States, and engaged to be married to a United States citizen. He could have done anything with his life, but he chose to lead the Commandos. He was the best and brightest of Afghanistan, and he was killed on the street with a bullet to the back of his head because his pleas for air support went unheeded.
We knew in July when we summarily bugged out of Bagram Air Base, not even telling the Afghan commander our timeline, and leaving our British allies in the dark. We left behind biometric data for many contractors and others in our haste to depart. Now the Taliban has not only a list we conveniently provided, but also a way to determine if those on the list are actually the people they want to target.
We handed the Taliban, ISIS-K, Al-Queda and other terrorists now in control—or fighting for control—of Afghanistan a kill list. Don’t be surprised when they send kill squads to other countries to complete those missions, including to the U.S.
ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. service members in Kabul, in the deadliest day in Afghanistan since August 2011, and that’s just the start of their renewed terror campaign. President Biden responded with “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” Oh really? I thought we were leaving.
The American public was lied to, lulled into apathy, and then betrayed by four administrations of both political parties, along with a media who abdicated their jobs to become partisan hacks.
Now, the simple villages, places like Statenville, Georgia, will have to pay with the blood of our sons and daughters once again. We will have to fear the coming terror, the same organizations that took down the World Trade Center and collapsed a wall of the Pentagon on 9/11 will return for more blood on our soil. We will once again have to see headlines about mass shootings, bombings, and our military at risk in foreign lands and in ports.
It’s all because some government mandarins in Washington, D.C. would rather play political games, hunt down Trump voters in their own midst, and blame the January 6th insurrectionists for every woe and lie our government has shoved down our throats for the past two decades, than just tell us the truth.
Afghanistan didn’t have to be a lost cause, but only if we stayed for the next 50 years. We didn’t have to leave at all, but of course even if we did (and I agree with arguments supporting leaving), we didn’t have to leave the way we did. And we shouldn’t have.
The strongest tribe can’t leave, but they never told us that. We left believing a lie that President Biden tried to finesse past us and he got caught in the lie. Instead of fixing the problem, he tried to hand-wave it away. Now the media isn’t buying the lie they helped tell for two decades.
We get to pay for the lie
As the Rolling Stones wrote, If I don’t get some shelter, ooh yeah I’m gonna fade away.
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot awayRape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, yeah, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Bombs, murder, it’s just a lie away. That’s all that separates you in your American home from the chaos in Kabul. Afghanistan’s mess is the culmination of decades of lying by those who thought Americans can’t handle the truth.
I got news for those people. We can handle it. We’ve been coddled for far too long, and pitted against each other for power, fun and profit of those who do it for a living.
If President Biden really wanted to solve the problem, he’d fire his military leaders, stand up in front of the media and apologize for the lies. I’d hope he has the courage to do it. But I think it’s far too late.
Even if he did, tell that to the dead, and the families of the dead. Who will avenge them?
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Our inability to have a real discussion about the benefits of maintaining the 13k troops and providing support for the ANA is one of the root issues at play, for sure.
Very good article Steve. I have supported leaving Afghanistan but in the last week I have read dozens of arguments for and against leaving. I now think staying with a substantial military force is the best option. The idea that we need a larger, better equipped military gets a lot resistance. I think that ignores the potential threats. This isn't 1940. The oceans do not protect us, We can't wait until we are in a war to build a defense and an offense.