Comments by "wily wascal" (@wilywascal2024) on "Inside the Taliban's Takeover of Afghanistan" video.

  1. "Peace is not a very big thing to ask for, is it?" ~ Fatima Gailani, Afghan activist and negotiator, pleading for continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan It is when asking the Taliban, who do not seek peace or to bargain in good faith, but total domination once again. U.S. has spent 20 years and $2 trillion trying to achieve peace in Afghanistan, losing over 4000 American lives (military and civilian contractors), with tens of thousands of Americans wounded there. "The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials … have given Afghans little reason to support their government," Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of U.S. forces in the country, wrote in a 2009 memorandum. "This crisis of confidence, coupled with a distinct lack of economic and educational opportunity, has created fertile ground for the insurgency." That was 11 years ago, and little has changed since. Thought the invasion of Afghanistan by Bush was a mistake that would lead to a quagmire, and have been proven correct. Still, initially supported efforts to bring peace and stability there, along with basic human and civil-rights, because after invading felt we had an obligation to rebuild. However, while U.S. blunders there have contributed to a failure, Afghans are their own worst enemy, and no one can help them until enough of them are willing to help themselves.
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  2. Americans just got tired of too much "winning" in Afghanistan, but some in the press are more interesting in winning profits from the Biden blame game than holding the corrupt war profiteers, the corrupt politicians, the Afghanis and the Taliban accountable.
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  3. Trump excluded the Afghan government from peace negotiations with the Taliban, legitimizing the Taliban by making a separate peace deal with them and delegitimizing the government we worked so long and hard at so much cost to build and support, while releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners and agreeing to withdraw all U.S. forces by May 1, 2021, guaranteeing failure. Trump and Pompeo could hardly have screwed up our foreign policy any worse, and the damage they did will take decades to repair. But the Republican cult morons are too stupid to know and too stupid to care; they'll just deny and try to shift blame, as usual.
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  4. While the Talibanization of Afghanistan is of concern, of far greater concern is the Talibanization of America by Reich-wing plutocrats, Reich-wing media, Reich-wing demagogues, Reich-wing politicians and Christian nationalists.
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