The epitaph on the gravestone for the American century should read,”Despite all evidence to the contrary we believe that all cultures are the same as our own, and if we’re wrong about that, we believe that a sufficient quantity of high explosives will make them so.”
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Oddly, the military budgets of the past two decades lack granularity in that area.
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We have done nothing but decimate the “thriving middle class” in our own country for the last forty years at least. How could we be responsible for building it up elsewhere?
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It’s almost like the military industrial complex is a thing where the contractors pay off politicians to ensure they have their huge budget and some kind of “policing operation” to use it on.
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Gotta keep those red state job numbers up man!
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The big failing of the US in the Cold War was seeing everything through a paranoid vehemently anti-communist lens. Someone like Mossadegh in Iran, or Allende in Chile just wanted to nationalize a natural resource for the benefit of all citizens, a very moral thing to do-- why should a foreign corporation extract all their country’s wealth and leave them in poverty? It ends up being a very roundabout way of corporate welfare-- US military spending to keep a western corporation rolling in money. It would have been cheaper to make a diplomatic deal with Mossadegh or Allende to stay aligned with the west and tell the western business interests to be happy with the huge profits they already made. Or maybe I’m oversimplifying.
“Not one domino shall fall.” – D. Boon
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If they want World’s sherrif, assume their imperalistic urges for the good and ill. Taleban, Sadam, Iran-Contras, Operation Condor… Heck, go for Chilean deposition for Salvador Allende (on a September 11st, the irony). US didn’t dirtied their hands, never…
Oh, well, we get the same from the Christian Taliban here in the United States when they bum rush the capital building. Death to the liberals, but you know… all friendly and chummy about it. You know, people you could have a beer with right before they tie you to a bumper and drag you to death.
Sorry, that was bleak. I’m feeling bleak today. This whole thing stinks, and the people who helped us are the people who will pay. Not the people who mismanaged a twenty year old war from start to ending.
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No problem as long it’s an USian company (America is a F%@#ing continent, not a country). US called all Latin America Banana republic thanks US Fruit company
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This is the first genuine policy issue in recent memory that requires bipartisan examination. But they are yelling just as loud and as long about this incident as they did when Biden/Obama wear tan suits.
The GQP did 13 performative investigations of Benghazi, can you imagine what theyd do with this if they had power. (They’d have so much free time, with doing 0 investigations of Jan 6, and all.)
Oh, and Trump is baying that when he was in office, Taliban was “scared” of him and stayed away. Trump kept us in Afghanistan an extra 4 years just to avoid this PR scene. And he made the Taliban deal just to create this PR scene; he can take credit for “getting us out” and can issue blame for Biden “blowing” his “perfect deal”.
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Here’s what actually happened in Afghanistan:
- Feb 2020 , Mike pompeo gives in to Taliban at Doha, releases prisoners (including current leader), ends sanctions and has Trump announce date.
- Learning of this deal desertions within the Afghan forces immediately increases.
- The Taliban immediately start the takeover. Offering amnesty and cash to village governors and military forces so they can just roll on through without confrontation.
- Desertions start to snowball, this has been known for well over a year in the special forces community.
- The Taliban works their deals for over a year and a half moving from the outskirts to the provincial leadership thus ensuring an unchecked march all the way to Kabul when the time comes.
- US begins withdrawal, it doesn’t matter who the president is, the Taliban rolls in.
Pompeo’s deal and Trump stating the Taliban are a force of good that will fight terrorism was the final nail in the coffin regarding the morale/loyalty of the vast majority of the Afghani leaders and military. If you must play the blame game for the withdrawal, there’s the facts.
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It’s all horrible and depressing, especially for Afghan women. My brain doesn’t want to rest on it for long, because that way lies madness.
However, if you’re Biden, and you want to have, say, three years to do good things to ramp up to reelection, then now is the time to rip the Afghan bandaid off. Not a criticism; just the way the world works.
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Just who is this guy “Andrew, Chinese Characters, Belgium, Former Soldier”? And how does he know what actually happened?
That, in a nutshell, is what happened. These aren’t military secrets. It doesnt matter if he has Chinese characters in his name.
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I disagree- the failing was thinking it was any of the US’ business to go around the world “fixing” things. Even if all those countries were having full on communist revolutions, so what? It’s the business of those people. The US shouldn’t feel entitled to have a say.
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Because that is literally the definition of freedom! Corporation doesn’t have to be foreign. Multinational is fine too, as long as they don’t pay taxes.
Huh. Aside from the fact that the corporations want ALL the profits, limiting them to countries that want freedom (as defined above) is…limiting.
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Jesus, this is heartbreaking. I was reading they crammed 800 people into one of those cargo planes. Still not enough.
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Ah! A good old genetic fallacy!
What aspect of the most concise description of the rapid ascendancy of the Taliban do you take issue with?
Trump’s “deal” is here if you want to check it. DocumentCloud
Beware of self proclaimed know-it-alls is all I was saying. Need /s in lieu of periods I suppose.
Carry on.
I immediately thought of 1984, but this might not even be the most relevant portion:
War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed. A Floating Fortress, for example, has locked up in it the labour that would build several hundred cargo-ships. Ultimately it is scrapped as obsolete, never having brought any material benefit to anybody, and with further enormous labours another Floating Fortress is built.
When someone online (not here; e.g. on Twitter or FB) brings up 1984 it usually starts and ends with “Big Brother is watching,” although that’s possibly followed by the assertion that Orwell wasn’t really a socialist or wouldn’t be one today. It never mentions the real purpose of the Floating Fortresses, nor the “rough quadrilateral,” or the other things that were analogous with things that have actually happened.
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