Friday, August 27, 2021

This can't just be stupidity - it's too stupid for that. There HAS to be actual malice involved.

 

I was utterly flabbergasted to read this report yesterday.


U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that's prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.

The move, detailed to POLITICO by three U.S. and congressional officials, was designed to expedite the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan as chaos erupted in Afghanistan’s capital city last week after the Taliban seized control of the country. It also came as the Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport.

Since the fall of Kabul in mid-August, nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated, most of whom had to pass through the Taliban's many checkpoints. But the decision to provide specific names to the Taliban, which has a history of brutally murdering Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. and other coalition forces during the conflict, has angered lawmakers and military officials.

“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.”


There's more at the link.

This is so incredible, so absolutely, sickeningly incompetent, that I don't believe it can be incompetence alone.  There HAS to have been actual malice involved.  Someone, somewhere, must surely have thought along these lines:

"Well, we can't get all our allies and associates out, and we're going to get publicly pilloried for that:  but, if we hand them over to the Taliban, perhaps the Taliban will ignore our own people, and let us get them out while they take their revenge on collaborators.  We can at least get something good out of this mess, and claim some credit that way - and besides, they're not Americans, so they don't count. Yeah, let's try that."

I can think of no other possible explanation for any US bureaucrat, diplomat or official doing something so incredibly dumb, stupid, terminally obtuse and criminally cretinous.

The official(s) responsible have, by their actions, condemned every Afghan they named to the Taliban - and their wives, and their children, and their extended families - to death.  Some will already have been killed.  If the remainder are lucky, it'll be over quickly.  If they're not . . . it'll be a slow, lingering, living hell on earth until the final mercy.  That goes double (triple!) for the women.

It would be the most poetic of all possible justices if the official(s) who released those names to the Taliban missed the last flight out, and found themselves at the mercy of the new masters of Afghanistan.  It would be even more appropriate if they found themselves waiting for torture and execution alongside those they betrayed.

As for the US military personnel killed yesterday in Kabul . . . I'm sorry, guys.  You were put into an impossible situation - what Solomon calls a "self made kill box", which is as good a description as any - by the incompetence and short-sightedness of your leaders, both military and political.  As a combat veteran, I feel for you in a way that civilians can't possibly understand.  You answered Uncle Sam's call, and Uncle Sam's representatives threw away your lives.  I wish I could do more about that than apologize.  All I can offer you are my heartfelt, deepest thanks for doing your duty, and my condolences to those you left behind.  Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

I hope someone pays for that, too.




Peter


14 comments:

wtcreaux said...

At what point do people STOP calling it incompetence and START calling it enemy action.

We have TOO MANY people who are stuck in normalcy bias......and it will cost us.

SiGraybeard said...

I've heard it's even worse than you say, Peter.

Among the things they got when we left was the biometric data for entry into some bases. Things like retinal scans. If someone passes the scan, off with their head.



JG said...

It is clear these "Biden Admin" officials are against anything American and any American citizen. They clearly have broken their oath of office and every member should be up for treason.

ASM826 said...

I published a similar post this morning over at Borepatch. It's simply a deliberate plan. Just staging that much weaponry and equipment and then leaving it in pristine condition is a tell.

Sam said...

I guess I'm a little more suspicious.

It could be that those who control Biden's (and Obama's, et. al.) handlers sent someone to Afghanistan (perhaps a three-letter man) to cut a deal. The Taliban get plane loads of gold and in return they promise to let Americans go at the last minute; Biden looks good and half the gold is washed through shady (is there any other kind?) financial institutes to the proper people, and some anonymous three-letter agency gets a lock on the opium trade.

A bonus; further destruction of those hated American liberties the little people enjoy.

Too suspicious?

froginblender said...

A comment I posted to another article just a minute ago was published instantaneously, but the earlier comment I made in this thread seems to have vanished without a trace. Peter, how should we act in the way that is the least amount of work for you:
(1) Repost unchanged (but double-posted comments look ugly)
(2) Ask you to check spam folder (would not want to do this more than once a year out if respect for your time)
(3) Other

Sam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter said...

@froginblender: Blogger's comment function is wonky. Most of the time, it works fine, but sometimes it gets its knickers in a twist and does strange things. I have no control over it at all; in fact, sometimes I can't even use its features to delete duplicate comments, for example, because it won't let me in. It's frustrating, but it's a fact of life. Sorry about that.

Sam said...

Corrected link in deleted post.

I just read the Borepatch post. He says it better than I could: https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2021/08/deliberate.html

Sam said...

Someone over at This Ain't Hell posted a link to this facebook video which is well worth the view: https://www.facebook.com/100029569003221/videos/561114034931173/

Chip Anderson said...

It's the regional power game, Pakistan has nukes and run the Taliban. Sit back and consider.

Nahanni said...

It all makes sense when you understand that the enemy of the National Socialist Democrats of America Party and the globalist totalitarian puppet master's are the American people, the United States and anyone who looks kindly upon those entities.

Paul Doty said...

Eliminating witnesses.

Bear Claw Chris Lapp said...

Late to this party but after reading and comments my gut says deliberate but to stupid to see the eventual outcome and they will wish they had not, or run for the hills. To late the ball is rolling down hill headed for hell. - Merle Haggard.

Tom Clancy one of my favorites had a bookending with a van, a manpad type weapon and an airliner shot from the cell phone lot. I will not spoil the ending in case you have not read it. That damn author was highly prescient in future prediction with his fiction stories and detail. That's what made his books so good but the when the future comes true it can be unnerving.