I’m sure that’s perfectly true, actually. He sees only what his handlers allow him to, understands very little of it, and immediately forgets the whole thing the moment somebody hands him another ice cream cone.
Biden says he’s seen no ‘questioning’ of Afghan policy by allies – despite angry scenes in UK parliament
But despite Mr Biden’s words, plenty of European politicians have objected.In the UK, former prime minister Theresa May was among dozens who criticised Mr Biden’s decision to follow through with former president Donald Trump’s exit plan from Afghanistan.
Similarly, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, himself a veteran of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told The Independent earlier this week: “Blame shifting in the face of the predicted disaster that is Afghanistan today is extraordinary.”
Following Mr Biden’s speech on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday, British Conservative MP Simon Clarke posted on social media: “The more you reflect, the more you realise the speech POTUS gave last night was grotesque.
“An utter repudiation of the America so many of us have admired so deeply all our lives – the champion of liberty and democracy and the guardian of what’s right in the world.”
Not quite. In truth, it’s the repudiation of Amerika v2.0—the misbegotten, dysfunctional obscenity that replaced the America you’re talking about. And that phony “America” is deserving of all the repudiation that can be heaped upon it, and of a lot of other things besides.
And with that, the time has come for me to write something I never, ever expected to.
I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army’s 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request.
Emphasis mine, and nothing short of stunning, at least to me. With all the fissures, fractures, and structural weakness now being laid bare by the stresses this past week has subjected Amerika v2.0’s jerry-rigged foundation to, British soldiers are displaying some of the good old Limey mettle that saw them through the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz so long ago—the grit and balls-out courage that made Britain truly Great, that inspired the awe and admiration of the once-free world, but that afterwards appeared to have been forever lost. Good on ya, chaps, and may God bless you all.
The headline of that last piece says something very different about our own military “leadership,” alas:
US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you’re making us look bad
Umm, no sir (spelled with a “c” and a “u,” mind), not exactly. From what I can tell, you accomplished that mission quite thoroughly on your own, with no assistance necessary from those stout SAS and 2nd Para squaddies. Further deets:
According to some reports, conflict is developing between US forces, who seem to be content to let potential evacuees make their own way through Taliban checkpoints to the airport (we are literally referring them to a web form Up to 10,000 Americans Remain Trapped in Afghanistan as We Face a Second Iran Hostage Crisis) and the British forces who are going out to bring in evacuees. This is from a freelancer inside Kabul Airport.
There are also unconfirmed reports that 2 Para has exchanged shots with the Taliban on some patrols.
Some thoughts on all of this.
The tweets from the freelancer mesh with the frustration expressed by the British commander on the scene. I don’t know anything about the journalist’s background, but bashing the American Army and puffing the British Army up as superheroes is an accepted journalism genre in Britain; keep that in mind. [I have some personal experience with 2 Para; they were the partnership battalion with my battalion in Berlin. The troops are tough…I might even say sort of thuggish. One of my friends was chatting up a German girl outside the Irish Harp in Charlottenburg. The last thing he heard before getting his ass kicked was, “F***, it’s a Yank!” He knew it was 2 Para because the people stomping him wore jump boots with their civvies.] There is no doubt that they are aggressive, and if their vision of evacuation is pulling people in while ours is waiting for them to walk through Taliban checkpoints, I have no doubt that there have been several frank and open exchanges of views. The cascading tragedy at Kabul probably hasn’t helped the working relationship, either. As with any terrific story, there are caveats. The actual veracity of the report of conflict between British paras and American airborne is being challenged.
I’ve seen and heard reports that, far from being “content to let potential evacuees make their own way…to the airport,” there is widespread and increasing anger in the US rank-and-file over having been told to sit on their hands whilst the Brits—even the French, for chrissakes—are going out and getting the job done.
Another interesting item I saw the other day said that British troops at Karzai airport charged with checking the IDs of British and Irish civvies before allowing them inside their perimeter were summarily denying entry to all Afghan nationals, regardless of any claimed status as employees, translators, and etc. In fact, the story said that the Brits were turning them down flat without even bothering to check any paperwork the Afghanis had with them at all, grounds for that being that UK subjects had first claim on the limited airlift capacity available to evacuate them.
Which seems to me to be the correct way to handle this mess. If these stories are accurate, which I hope they are, then the British military has its priorities squarely in order here, in a way that Americans can only envy. Then again, if our military and political “leadership” had their priorities similarly aligned—putting the interests of their country and its people first and foremost, as they should be—it’s doubtful any of this would be happening in the first damned place.
In any event, if the Brits are angry about all this, well, they’re right to be. ALL of us ought to be, and ought to keep that anger well-stoked, too. For my part, I intend to go right on hammering away at this story indefinitely; right now, my big fear is that the Biden Bugout will be encouraged to slink quietly out of the national Zeitgest and then fade away, just as the Benghazi blunder has done. Don’t kid yourself that it couldn’t happen, either. It most certainly could, and a lot faster than you might believe. It cannot, MUST not, be allowed to happen this time. The blaze of anger and disgust sparked in so broad and varied a portion of the population must instead be not just maintained, but intensified.
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Agree about continuing to hammer this one, Mike. But I think it is also vital to stress that the problem was NOT the decision to get out of Ashcanistan. That was the correct move, and should have happened many years ago.
Note that first article you linked says Brit pols including former PM May were upset that Biden pulled US troops out. Sure, the chaos and destruction and abandoned people and many many billions worth of weapons left behind for the Taliban to claim are a problem from the Brits’ point of view, but mainly they object to our leaving at all. How dare the US stop being the world’s policeman, spending our blood and treasure for everyone else’s benefit? That is what really has them upset.
The US hanging up the world policeman badge is long overdue. But it is going to mean much of the world becomes a far more chaotic and dangerous place. Considering how bad much of the world already is, that is not a pleasant prospect. The fall of empire is rarely a sign of good things to come for the average person. But once gravity takes hold and the long fall begins, there is not much chance of reversing it. There will be a period of chaos, followed by the rise of a new empire. And I expect the rule of China is going to make much of the world look back wistfully on the lost golden age of European/American supremacy.
I’m hoping this is getting a whole bunch of people to stop looking at Not The President Obergroperdrüler and the Junta behind him as merely a political problem that we need to Vote Harderer to correct in 2022 and 2024 and instead look at it as the Existential Crisis it really is in fact.
TINVOWOOT.
Having the rank and file military on our side of the fence is going to be crucial once the Crisis reaches its inevitable end game.
Hammer away Mike.
Meanwhile our commanders are telling the Brita to stop going out and rescuing their people because they’re “making us look bad”.
Of course the rest of the world is not questioning our credibility. It’s obvious we have no credibility, no question mark needed.
Of course, this is all on purpose. The same Stand Down approach that got us crushed in Vietnam, lost China to the ChiComs, allowed the ChiComs to retake North Korea after MacArthur had taken it all back, left Saddam in Power after retaking Kuwait, left our people to die in Benghazi and allowed the rise of ISIS.
Yep. The left does not project American power effectively because they believe that American power is inherently evil. Thus leftists in charge always leads to this kind of debacle, and was baked in the cake once the junta took power.
Any “commanding general'” of any US division, let alone the 82d Airborne, who would issue such a request or “order” to an ally, rather than threaten to turn in his stars and grant a full media interview on the topic while simultaneously opening offensive operations to recover all outstanding American nationals, should be shot for cowardice by his own troops on the spot.
Somebody needs to give that guy a gun and one bullet on his return to the States, and suggest that in lieu of further military service, he do the right thing for the good of all concerned.
Neither thing has happened.
That’s how rotten and gutless the dotMil has become.
And Gropey Dopey and his entire illegitimate regime owns this entire debacle, top to bottom, in spades.
Obuttsuck gets a lot of blame, too, for the purges of the generals and colonels.