Guest Commentary

Outrage, anger, frustration, sorrow, horror, disbelief, shock, shame: it is impossible to know which emotion I feel most strongly right now. Never in my life have I been so ashamed of my country as I am today. We have gone from being the laughing-stock of the world to becoming a pariah and has-been world power lead by a doddering old fool, riddled with dementia who is out of his mind, out of his depth and out of excuses.

To be clear, I agree with Mr. Biden that it was time to leave Afghanistan. I agree that we were there too long–“aimless and missionless”. I agree that we need to get out of the business of nation building or anything like unto it, forever, amen. However, your average seventh grader could have come up with a better exit strategy than the fool in the White House. Biden has double-, triple-, quadrupled-down on the “fact” that he made the right decision. This political decision, poll-driven and optics-motivated is the biggest debacle in the history of the U.S. It makes the fall of Saigon look like playground recess. You keep talking, Joe, because you own this; every last bit of it. And in order for this to be a serious conversation, let me first ask some pointed questions:

1) Mr. Biden claimed that he had no choice about the withdrawal date. Are we to seriously believe that the man that reversed everything Trump did in his first two weeks of office, was incapable of changing the date? Don’t insult my intelligence.

2) Since when do we negotiate with terrorists? Trump did, which I was concerned about. But he told them that if they harmed a single interested party before the withdrawal, he would blow them into the next century. Anyone remember ISIS? Does any serious human believe that the President with the thinnest skin in history would have tolerated this behavior by the Taliban? Don’t even think about going there, because that is not a serious thought.

3) Since when does the most powerful country on earth take orders from the frigging Taliban? When in the history of our country have we forced the greatest military in the world to do obeisance to a bunch of terrorists? A Commander in Chief should have said, “We will leave on our time and our terms and if you step out of line, you will be die. Negotiations have now closed.” But no, the barbarians that are currently kidnapping girls as young as twelve to be their child brides, the scum that are hunting down Afghans friendly to the U.S. and executing them, the filth that are preventing our citizens from reaching the airport in Kabul are dictating terms to US!!!!

4) Anyone with an IQ over 5 knows that when you do a military drawdown, you remove the soft targets first: your own citizens, your allies, your assets, your intel and anything else of value. The troops go last. Why didn’t that happen?! Why did the CIA know and no-one else apparently did? Why hasn’t General Milley’s resignation been demanded?! Perhaps, just maybe, our military would be better served by someone who is more concerned about our troops lives than he is about this farcical witch hunt he has perpetrated in the military looking for non-existent white supremacists. Perhaps he could have been more concerned about the LIVES involved in this debacle than shoving Critical Race Theory down the soldier’s throats and forcing them to get vaccinated--neither of which is constitutional nor within the purview of the military. Perhaps he could have looked at this putrid exit plan, if there was one, and stopped the problem before it started.

5) Who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to hand over a $1 billion embassy, a multi-billion-dollar airbase (Bagram), countless millions of dollars of equipment and munitions and tens of thousands of support people stranded? What kind of idiotic thinking is this? If you ever needed assurance that this was a political decision, the decisions themselves are the proof. Only politicians, both in this White House and sadly in our military, would be stupid enough to screw this up so badly. A kindergarten class could not have gotten worse results if they had tried.

6) Who is going to comfort the families of the Marines that were murdered today? Biden’s hollow tribute to “those who gave their lives” was sickening beyond words. They did not give their lives. Their lives were stolen by the incompetent boobs that “lead” our country and our military. This did not have to happen; this is not the same as being killed in battle. They were sent into an extremely dangerous, volatile cluster-f*** and then had their hands tied...again...by the useless bureaucrats that rule this country. I cannot express strongly enough my sorrow over their deaths and my shame that they happened in this way. The “intelligence” apparatus failed them. The military brass failed them. The Commander in Chief failed them. The Taliban has been on the move since the spring (their fighting season) started. And why not? We gave them a date! They have just been biding their time until we left. That would have happened no matter when we left, but we FAILED to be wise, efficient, strategic or adaptable. Our failure in Afghanistan is inexcusable and unforgivable.

7) Who was the genius that thought giving a list to the Taliban, complete with pictures, of those who are trying to flee Taliban rule, would be a good idea? And yes, this actually happened. (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/taliban-given-list-americans-afghan-allies) We provided a detailed list of those who should be allowed into the airport in Kabul. What could possibly go wrong?! Surely the Taliban would never misuse this information. Are you kidding me?!

8) Which of our allies will ever trust us again in the future?

9) Who will ever help us with intel or as a translator ever again?

10) When are we going to realize that we have real enemies? Islamists, North Korea, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and China are prime examples, just to name a few. How long are we going to stand by and allow China to destroy and attack us in every way possible short of a physical invasion? They cannot even take us seriously any more. What is Taiwan to do? We have left them without hope.

11) Which of you who voted for Joe Biden seriously thought that a senile, stubborn fool would be a good Commander in Chief? I’ve seen the stubbornness of the senile and he exemplifies it. His commitment to this date, as if it was the most important thing in all of human history and stubborn refusal to change it according to the circumstances at hand, screams of his incapacity to lead. Trump Derangement Syndrome drove our politicians and half of our country to the brink of insanity; drove them to impeach President Trump TWICE over trumped-up, ridiculous charges while ignoring the horrifying screw-up that is President Biden. If ever a President should be impeached for abject failure to his duties as Commander in Chief it is this man. And what do we hear from the politicos? Crickets.

12) Where is the outrage about a President who throws open our southern border to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom have tested positive for COVID, that are being let in without question or hesitation? While this President dares to lecture his fellow-citizens about the requirement to wear a mask and get vaccinated, he turns a deliberately blind eye to the crisis he single-handedly has created with his abject failure to defend and protect this country’s borders.

13) Have you had enough yet? If not now, when? Must we lose the entirety of the protections outlined in the Bill of Rights to get your attention? By then it will be everlastingly too late.

Every drop of blood that was shed today is on your hands, Joe. Every single person that voted for Biden, owns this. This nation, with our ever-increasing failure to be serious about our role in the world and the necessity for actual leadership instead of non-stop politics, owns this. Those of you who were curled up in tears over Trump’s “mean” tweets and chose the mumbling, senile, unaccomplished life-long loser and politician, Joe Biden, own this. We, the nation, that has policed the world for a century, who supposedly set an example of what freedom looks like, who has wielded the most power in the history of the world without turning into conquerors, have failed miserably. We have abdicated our role to be filled by God-only-knows-whom and emboldened every barbarian, dictator, thug, cartel and terrorist on the planet with our abject refusal to be serious.

Finally, if this post offends you, I don’t particularly care. The state of our nation is too serious and too important to be ignored because of hurt feelings. It’s not that I don’t care about people and their feelings, but this debacle is well beyond the shallowness of our snowflake society and our perpetual focus on first world problems. I speak nothing but the unadulterated truth here and if that offends you, then you are part of the problem. Adults must deal with what is; not what we wish for, not what we want, not what we would like, but the reality of the situation at hand. If the adults cannot regain control, we are lost. The lack of seriousness with which we live our lives in America has lead to this precipitous cultural decline and if we are incapable of hearing and assessing the truth of where we are, then there is no hope for our future. May God help us all.

Burns is a political and current affairs Blogger.