“Joe is Joe”

Fox interviewed people in Los Angeles about the crisis in Afghanistan.  One man told Fox News: "Obviously the people in charge should be held responsible."  But he added: "Joe is Joe … You’re not gonna get rid of the Joe just 'cause of a bad decision."

And therein lies the problem.  Joe is Joe.  We just accept him and his “bad decisions.”  We ignore the fact that this is far more than a “bad decision.”

Joe is lying to us.  Just this morning we learned that the White House readout from his phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron omitted an impassioned plea from Macron for the U.S. to share in the moral responsibility to protect Afghan nationals that are in danger.

Who called Biden out on this?  Not the American news media or the American people but rather the British news.

Indeed, who in this country is calling Biden out on any of his “bad decisions”?  Sure, a few Republican leaders whom the media is likely to paint as extremist for doing so.  But where is the press?  Where are the people?  Or has this country simply decided to accept that “Joe is Joe” and let him be while they go about the mundane tasks of their daily lives?  Do they not see that the very essence of those lives are changing dramatically under Joe’s “leadership” of bad decisions?

So, we’re “not gonna get rid of the Joe just 'cause of a bad decision."  OK.  But at least look at the ramifications of some of these bad decisions.  They include: an open border crisis; institutionalization of the hatred of identity politics using indoctrination and flawed theories like CRT; politicization of Covid; encouragement of silencing of opposition voices and hence weakening the First Amendment; energy dependence and higher gas and energy prices; highest inflation perhaps ever; weakened economy; rising crime; and, of course, Afghanistan.

Regarding Afghanistan, the President is for the most part secluded, perhaps in the same basement where he hid during the presidential campaign.  He pops out, perhaps when his handlers demand or drag him to the door, and gives an incoherent speech or interview that has no connection to the reality of what is happening in Afghanistan. 

He made a “bad decision”, one that he believes is the best that anyone could have made.  Rather than getting civilians out first and then military, he without warning pulled the military.  There was chaos.  The Taliban immediately seized the country, reinstituting their Sharia rules and terrorist behavior.  They seized American equipment and weapons. 

Today the Taliban mocked us with this photo of Taliban warriors recreating the iconic Iwo Jima photo – in both pictures the uniforms and arms are American but the flag being raised in the new photo is that of the Taliban.  Terrorism experts are telling us that the dangers of terrorist acts have hugely increased as a result of the Taliban takeover.  This takeover is seen worldwide as a victory for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and terrorism and as an embarrassing defeat for America.

As Afghanistan fell, Joe started sending troops back in.  But at that point the embassy was closed and personnel were huddled at the airport.  Americans and American allies can’t get through Taliban check points to get to the airplanes waiting to evacuate them.  Today they were told not to come to the airport and also that we could not come to rescue them. 

Joe touts the few Americans who have been airlifted out, ignoring the 15,000 or so who remain (the administration says they have no estimate of how many Americans are in Afghanistan).  

As the Taliban was asserting its power which includes subjugation of women and complete intolerance of alternate lifestyles, Joe was celebrating World Humanitarian Day.  His mental competence apparently does not include an understanding of the word “irony” or “hypocritical.”

So, sure, Joe made a “bad decision,” but it does not, it cannot end there.  Every decision has consequences.  This one is abandoning Americans, turning Afghanistan back to terrorists, embarrassing America on the world stage, and acting with dishonor toward those whom we used to help us while there (e.g. Afghani translators) and toward the Afghani army and people who came to depend upon us.

I suspect most Americans believed we should get out of Afghanistan, but there were better ways to do it.  Trump’s plan included leaving some special forces there to ensure this debacle didn’t happen.  I think nearly anyone could have come up with a better plan than Joe for the actual withdrawal, beginning with removing civilians before the military.  There was no immediate rush – Americans were not being slaughtered.  It could have been planned and executed with more time and thought.  But it wasn’t and, again, Joe believes it is all good.

So, how many “bad decisions” will it take before the people decide that they are “gonna get rid of the Joe”?  I know if this were Trump, we would already have several investigations underway, an impeachment in progress, and serious talks about the 25^th Amendment as well as demands for his resignation.  Note, those Trump impeachments and investigations were all nothing but a waste of taxpayer money, as is the continuing investigations of Jan. 6 even though the FBI has found “scant evidence” of any coordination and “no evidence that Trump or people directly around him were involved in organizing the violence.”

But that was Trump and this is Joe.  "Joe is Joe … You’re not gonna get rid of the Joe just 'cause of a bad decision."  But what you are going to “get rid of” is America as the shining beacon of democracy and freedom.  Complacency can easily become misery and despair.  Let Joe be “Sleepy Joe” if you want, but America and Americans need to wake up and confront what is going on.

Ask yourself if America can survive another 3 ½ years of Joe’s “bad decisions”. Ask yourself if you care.  And if you do, ask yourself what you are going to do about it.

Putting on a Show is Not Leadership

Just an update from this morning’s post regarding Afghanistan and Biden.

So Joe flew in from vacation, gave a speech that did not address the real issue, and flew back out again.  Back to a vacation that seems to be more important to him that his job as leader of this country.  And so we go back to black out silence from the White House.

The speech was off point.  Biden’s assertive claim that “the buck stops here” was meaningless in light of the fact that he took no responsibility whatsoever for the disaster of this pull out. 

Rather, Biden (as predicted) blamed everyone but himself:  Trump, the Afghan military, the Afghan leaders, even the Afghan people themselves.  Perhaps even the people of America as he seemed to think we needed some sort of schooling about the history of American involvement in Afghanistan.

Trying to deflect from the real issue, Biden presented this crisis as if it were about the choice to stay in Afghanistan or pull out.  That is a different question from the issue of the actual circumstances of the pullout itself.  (Or, maybe he doesn’t really understand what today’s issue is)

Since the beginning of our involvement in Afghanistan the American people have been divided on whether or not we should be there and if so, how long we should remain.  Four presidents have presided over that question.   Previous presidents have worked to decrease the size of our military presence there.  Trump had a plan to pull out our troops which he was doing slowly, and with a plan that included severe response if the Taliban acted to take over the country.  Every former president’s plans regarding Afghanistan have been met with criticism, but they have not resulted in the ruinous consequences that we are seeing today.

While Biden can point to other presidents as having some responsibility for what happened throughout America’s time in Afghanistan, he cannot place blame for the actual manner in which the pull out was handled on those prior administrations.

Biden alone made the decision to fully pull out at this moment.  He can do that as president, even against the advice of his own military advisors.  While he focused on the question of whether or not we should remain in Afghanistan and spent most of the time defending his decision to pull out, that is not the issue today.

Biden’s decision to pull out ended the pending question of whether or not we should remain in Afghanistan. 

The current issue is the atrocious lack of planning and foresight of the Biden administration in carrying out that pull out decision. 

Biden’s pull out began in the middle of the night with no warning to our Afghani allies.  The Taliban acted in a way that was apparently predictable to most military and foreign affairs experts.  Those predictions were carried to Biden, but he either did not understand or ignored them and simply pulled out with no plan.

This calamitous pullout is catastrophic for human rights in Afghanistan – for women, children, LGBTQ+, and others.  It is a death sentence for many Afghanis.  It is a gift to terrorists such as Al Qaida. 

Biden in his speech asserted his concern for human rights in Afghanistan – yet at this point and with the Taliban in control, it will be close to impossible for him to do anything for those rights.

Biden also said we would get both our personnel and our allies out, from the airport.  Does he understand that the airport is not yet secured and that there is only one road into the airport which is controlled by a Taliban roadblock?  Does he know that many whom he says we will fly out are not at the airport having been told by his administration to shelter in place?  Does he even know there is no plan?

Biden gave a speech full of tough words and crocodile tears and statements of his concern for human rights and assertions of what a great leader he is.  He put on a show that I think the American people are smart enough not to fall for.

I think that Biden has no real idea at all what is going on and he has no plan (never had a plan) for the actual pull out that he decided to order.  He belatedly floats in from vacation, gives a speech that ignores the real issue and deflects blame on everyone but himself, and floats back off to who knows where.  He claims to be a humanitarian, that humanitarianism is the core of his foreign policy, but ignores that the manner in which this pull out was executed is devastating for any humanitarian cause.

The situation in Afghanistan is frightful, the horribly executed pull out is the cause, and the blame for that falls entirely upon Biden – yes, the buck for that does stop with him, if only he would acknowledge that.

I am left with the same question that I had when I wrote this morning’s post:  Do we even have a President?  At this point my answer is:  Certainly not a competent one.

 

Do We Even Have a President? A Rant.

As I write this our President is still in hiding.  The press secretary has closed her press office for a week.  Democrats continue to simply point a finger at the previous administration for every failure of the current Biden administration.  Indeed, as noted in my previous post, blame seems to be the only thing this administration does well.  This morning, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the failure of the Afghan military is to blame for the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan.

As America and the world fall apart around us, I wonder what the Biden voters are thinking?  How do they feel when they learn that the people we abandoned in the middle of the night in Afghanistan are clinging to the final aircraft leaving Kabul and then falling to their death from 1000 feet in the sky?  How do they feel when they learn that gunfire at the airport involving our military has now resulted in at least two deaths?  How do they feel when our woke Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley tells us that terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda will now reconstitute themselves far more quickly than expected and in less than 2 years?  What about the Afghani women and children to whom we gave education and hope who now will be faced with the harshness of Sharia law for their progress?

Do you even know that this embarrassment that some experts call the worst blunder in American international history is even going on?  Where is the outrage?  You certainly had plenty over every word out of President Trump’s mouth.  Or are you now just too busy wondering if your neighbor is wearing their mask when they have visitors inside their own house?

Those of you that are old enough must be feeling some of the same as you did in 1975 during the final pullout from Vietnam.  Or doesn’t it matter any more just so long as we don’t have Donald Trump for president?

The terrorist threat is back.   Not from your neighbor who opposes vaccines and mask mandates but from the new power of the Taliban combined with our open borders.  You who voted for Biden were so afraid of Trump – do you feel safer now?

But you have all seemingly gone into hiding with our supposed President.  Do you have any idea how Biden is absolutely destroying this country beyond any hope of repair?  And now he is doing the same to the world.

Good luck when you can’t buy gas or food or other necessary or nearly necessary consumer goods; when inflation is so high that your paycheck becomes close to worthless.  Good luck when the big government entitlement and other help programs run out of money because no one is working or able to pay the taxes they require.  Good luck when your primary value in life becomes hate rather than tolerance for anyone who thinks, looks, or is in a different identity group from you.

And as to the world and America’s place in it:  Biden’s handling (or mishandling) of the Afghanistan withdrawal has put us in peril with both our allies and our enemies.  The allies will never trust us again, and the enemies know that if they just are patient, we don’t have the stamina to finish the fight and they can win whatever battle they have with us in the end.

Perhaps you don’t know what is going on.  Afterall, while the Taliban can still post on Twitter and other social media, Trump along with other conservative voices are banned.  You are fed only what supports the party line; contrary facts and expert voices are excluded.  Pelosi banned questions from Republican Congress people to experts about what is happening in Afghanistan.   Even the facts you are given by the administration and the mainstream media are often distorted.  But perhaps you don’t care.  You got rid of the “evil orange man” and so all is well.

I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are clueless about what is going on.  So, here are some current news pieces you may not have seen.  I hope that you will read and think about them and perhaps take a moment to speak up.  At least take the time to say a prayer for the American lives that were and are being lost in Afghanistan apparently for nothing and for the Afghanis who stood by us and helped us while we were there and whom we are now abandoning to the Taliban.

From former U.S. Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill, who killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 :

“This is the worst loss in American history. Our most popular president has vanished. Prove me wrong.”

“Everything Democrats touch turns to s**t. Prove me wrong.”

“My friends who died for no reason would be disgusted with this administration.”

“Have any of our generals and admirals resigned out of disgrace yet?”

“We’ve heard more from The Taliban than we have from the most popular president in our history. Anything @PressSec ?”

“People are being killed trying to evacuate Kabul. But don’t worry… Jen Psaki will tell us what’s actually happening once dips**t goes to sleep.”

“Do I have this all right?: Our border is wide open, China’s biological weapon is surging, we closed our pipelines but opened Russia’s, the Taliban is back in charge, we are defunding the police and people with penises are women. What did I miss?”

“Joe Biden opposed the raid to kill bin Laden. At least he lost Afghanistan in 7 months.”

“Remember when people held hands and jump to their deaths out of the twin towers? Neither does @POTUS”

From Kurt Volker, expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with some 30 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities.  “Afghanistan’s End Portends a Darker U.S. Future” LINK  

NY Time Guest Opinion “Biden could have stopped the Taliban, He Chose not to” LINK

The New Yorker – “Does the Great Retreat from Afghanistan Mark the End of the American Era?” LINK

From USA Today,  “Biden's Afghanistan horror: A well-intentioned miscalculation with disastrous, predictable results”    LINK 

“Please America, don’t miss this one lesson from Afghanistan” LINK