After I finished writing my blog post today word came out of Kabul regarding the tragic deaths of 13 U.S.military personnel along with at least 18 other wounded service casualties in Afghanistan.
In light of the import of the events that have transpired I am doing something I have never done before at BeeLine---I am posting two articles within 24 hours.
These brave soldiers were there dealing with the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies who were stranded in the country following Joe Biden's abrupt withdrawal plans from the country.
It comes as little surprise. In fact, it was all so predictable.
It was predictable observing Biden during the campaign last year.
I wrote this in September, 2020 in a blog post title "How Worried Should We Be About Joe Biden?"
As an American, it is deeply troubling if we have a candidate for President who may be in a condition of cognitive decline. This is especially true given the enormous challenges our nation faces right now. If there was ever a time when this country needed strong and determined leadership it is in 2020.
In this election every American is literally putting their life, livelihood, liberty and the legacy of the country on the line with their vote.
That is an awfully big bet to make on a 78 year old man who seems to have trouble knowing the difference between 200 and 200 million in a country of 328 million people.
Joe Biden did not have a very impressive record at making smart strategic decisions when he was on top of his game. It was predictable that he would be even worse when he was past his prime.
Every American is now dealing with the reality of what might very well be the single biggest strategic misstep in the nation's history.
It has also resulted in one of the most embarrassing episodes to the reputation of the United States spanning over two centuries.
Every President makes misjudgments and mistakes.
However, the Afghanistan debacle is such a multi-dimensional disaster it is hard to grasp all of the negative ramifications.
We have effectively surrendered a nation to terrorists who do not observe the most basic tenets of human rights or any rights for women.
That nation is now controlled by terrorists who we went to war with 20 years ago which cost us the blood of over 2,300 American deaths and almost 21,000 wounded in action. In total, 775,000 American service men and women served at one time in Afghanistan.
We abandoned advanced military bases, supplies and materials that are now in the hands of the terrorists and will undoubtedly be used against Americans at some point.
We stranded thousands and thousands of Americans in the country as well as tens of thousands of American allies who helped us over the last 20 years. It is still not clear if we are going to stay long enough to get them out. How long will it be before any Americans left will be taken as hostages with the Taliban or other terrorists demanding ransom?
We needed to bring in double the force to evacuate people in the country that we had in the country before the decision was made to withdraw.
We have emboldened every terrorist in the world with our weakness and our fecklessness to our allies.
We completely surprised our NATO allies with our withdrawal execution without consultation beforehand seriously undermining their trust in the USA.
We have provided China with an open invitation to access all of Afghanistan's natural resources and rare earth minerals.
We have allowed Afghanistan to become a future central point for terror plots against the United States and the West by radical Islamists.
We took more deaths today than in the last 20 months in Afghanistan. It also is the deadliest day for military forces in over a decade.
To make matters worse, for much of the day we heard nothing from Joe Biden who is supposed to be our leader and Commander in Chief.
It was so predictable.
It is so sad that the American people, and especially our brave service people, are paying the price now for those election results from last November.
It is not just the poor decision making.
It is not even clear who is making the decisions and why Joe Biden is missing in action most of the time in answering questions and taking responsibility for what is going on.
A sampling from Twitter on reactions to a very, very bad day.
Consider as well this CBS/YouGov poll from a week ago in which 74% of Americans thought that the removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan had gone "very badly" or "somewhat badly".
When I saw this poll earlier this week I wondered who the 5% werr who thought it was going "very well"?
I wonder if they changed their views today?
You now know what I meant when I wrote that every American was putting their life, livelihood, liberty and legacy on the line with their vote last November.
It is so predictable.
I only pray that we are all strong enough to survive what comes next.
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