The searing anger of those who know the truth about Afghanistan

 

Combat Flipflops is a company started by military veterans who wanted to make a difference in the world's combat zones.  They use their profits to help educate women, de-mine areas infested with minefields, and generally try to help rebuild societies that have been shattered by violence.  My wife is one of their customers.

In Afghanistan, they supported the education of thousands of girls who would otherwise have been deliberately left in ignorance by religious fundamentalists.  From their Web site:

Aid Afghanistan for Education (AAE) provides education to marginalized Afghan women and girls over the age of ten who are denied access to a formal education. Currently serving 3,000 girls and 104 boys, AAE is guided by the indomitable spirit of Afghan women and children who, despite over 30 years of war and violence, are determined to build a bright and prosperous future for themselves and their families.

I daresay that work has now been destroyed.  I can't see the Taliban allowing it to continue.

The founder of Combat Flipflops served in Afghanistan, and understands its problems intimately.  To say he's furious about the Biden administration's mishandling of the situation there is a massive understatement.  The company's latest corporate blog entry is explosively expressive.  Here's an excerpt.

Written in Taliban

The first time I saw you was in the Khyber pass.  You came with your technology, elite fighters fueled by revenge, and the hubris to believe you could disprove history.

This was a war that you didn’t have the stomach to fight.  But I’m glad you tried.

We bled you the same way we bled the Soviets in our Holy Land.  We bled you the same way the Vietnamese bled you in their home land.  We did it patiently and deliberately.

Patience.  Something Westerners never learn.

Our history is millennial.  We don’t yearn for an early victory when the Infidel ravages our Holy Land.  Our victory is celebrated decades from now.  We’ve endured, then ravaged every standing military that crossed our borders.   Why?  How?  We’re patient.

In 30 days, we’ll be stronger, richer, and have control over precious natural resources that you need for your pathetic life dictated by comfort.  We will have women, riches, land, guns, and ownership of one of the greatest chapters in military history.

You lose.

. . .

We will give your fighters credit.  Some are creative, tenacious, and fierce. They outgun us in every way possible.  But again, we simply wait them out.  Allah is patient.  You cycle them through our Holy Lands every 3 to 12 months for their combat rotations.  After their tour is complete, they return to the comfort of their warm beds and endless entertainment.  If you left them here, in our Holy Land, with no way out but to win, then you might of have had a chance of success.  The longer you poisoned our Holy Land with your presence, your “rules of engagement” only strengthened our position. There is only one rule in war - that is to win.

Your commanders made you fight with your hands tied behind your back. Your rules also confused our fighters too.  “We’re clearly the enemy; why are they letting us go?”  Thank you for your compassion as it allowed our fighters to kill more Infidels.  We began to feel as if your commanders were on our side.  We’re thankful your most vicious dogs were never allowed off their leash.

Your showcase Generals make us laugh.  You spend millions of dollars flying them around our country, inventing new ways to win while ignoring the guidance of our most capable foes.  Your Generals make decisions to minimize risk to their fragile reputation with the ultimate goal of securing a lucrative retirement--jobs with suppliers that fuel your losing force. A self-serving circle that’s built on the backs of your youngest and most naive fighters.

Your retired Generals “earn” tens of thousands of dollars talking to your political, industrial, and financial leaders about “teams, winning, and discipline.”  It’s a mockery of the war they refused to fight.  It’s a mockery of the Infidel warriors who died in our lands. We urge you to continue following their vacuous personalities so we can further watch your once great nation collapse.

Your statesman and elected officials are spineless, narcissistic, and more cowardly than your Generals.  They crave power over you above all else.  They come to our country, hide behind blast walls, and only heed the word of the indigenous leader they put in power.   I believe your soldiers call this a “self licking ice cream cone.”

. . .

Over the next few months, we will make the world understand that you failed worse than any fighting force that’s ever invaded our lands.  Today we celebrate victory.

There's more at the link.  Go read the whole thing.

I'm hearing similar expressions of anger, fury, disgust, contempt and all the rest from Afghanistan veterans of my acquaintance.  I'd say most of them feel personally betrayed by the actions (or lack thereof) of the Biden administration.  Interestingly, that applies across the political spectrum.  It's not just those with right-wing or Republican views who feel that way;  Democrats, even one or two fairly intense progressive leftists, feel that way too.  They believe their friends died in vain, that the wounded and maimed were crippled for no good reason, and that they're so much cannon fodder in the eyes of the current powers that be - including the senior commanders of the US military.

And they're very, very angry about that.

I suspect the Biden administration's failure in Afghanistan may have domestic political repercussions in a way the progressive left doesn't yet understand, and aren't going to like at all.  It's awakened people to what happens when you allow a bunch of ideologically blinkered incompetents to run your country.

It's going to be interesting to watch the fallout, domestically and abroad.

Speaking of fallout, Bryan Wright, a former CIA officer, has serious concerns about what's going to happen next after our Afghanistan debacle.  He writes in a series of tweets, consolidated here by Threadreader for ease of reading.

Former US intelligence colleagues are angry and deeply worried at what has happened in Afghanistan.

Here's what I'm hearing, and why there's nearly universal belief that America and the world are in for one of the most dangerous, unpredictable times in modern history.

. . .

America's Elites are trash. 

China knows it.

They will become emboldened, covertly & overtly. War over Taiwan and contested islands in the S. China Sea and E. China Sea is now more likely.

Russia will consider similar covert & overt moves, focused on Crimea, & former Soviet satellites. 

The fear is that China & Russia will act in concert.

. . .

But who will trust America after Afghanistan?

Who believes we have the leadership to use our military might well?

Who will trust us when we say "We Will Stand With You"? 

. . .

The existential problem is that America needs good leadership to right its ship but there is none.

. . .

The above threats by China, Russia, & Co will metastasize well before the 2024 elections, and even a heroic new President will need years to clean things up.

Again, our enemies and allies know this. 

Upshot: There is fear and outrage streaming through former intel officers over the Afghanistan debacle.

America is rudderless. And the world now knows it.

Grave dangers lie ahead, some predictable, others unimaginable.

Again, more at the link.

I agree with Mr. Wright.  The old cliche about "Nature abhorring a vacuum" applies in geopolitics as much as anywhere else.  The USA has just demonstrated that its leadership is incompetent, feckless and clueless.  Rival powers are not going to be slow to take advantage - to "make hay while the sun shines".  They want to grab all they can before our President is replaced by someone competent, who'll respond more forcefully and more capably to their shenanigans.

If I were a resident of Taiwan right now, I'd be packing my bags and looking for an exit as fast as I could.  (If I were a US manufacturer reliant on computer chips from Taiwan, which makes about half the world's supply, I'd be begging, borrowing and stealing any and all supplies I could get out of there before the invasion.). If I were in a country anywhere near China or the South China Sea - and that would include Australia - I'd be battening down the hatches, metaphorically speaking, and bracing for a geopolitical storm.  If I were in Ukraine, I'd be preparing for an actual Russian military invasion of the Donbas area, whether open or covert, to annex it and add it to their existing gains in the Crimea.  If I were in Western Europe, largely dependent as it is on Russian natural gas to get through the winter, I'd be standing by for shortages as Russia uses its energy resources as a geopolitical weapon.

And it's all down to the Biden administration, which took power illegitimately following massive electoral fraud in November 2020 - and is living up down to that illegitimacy on a daily basis.

Peter