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The Madness Of King Donald
This chap noted that something crazy is goin on …
I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks Sherlock
Well, yes, there is that - but then it is a bit different, specifically …
President Trump’s sad and crazy Afghanistan adventurism
Even this Chap, no historian he, knows that throughout history, rulers under threat at home have declared war abroad.
Great Movie - Wag The Dog. Doesn’t it seem so quaint and ‘pre history’ that a movie, although baked in satire, was all about the US going to war to cover up a sex scandal (I seem to recall that there was this chap Clinton that inspired it … but that’s another thing altogether.) Reminder, it is only twenty years ago that the movie was released.
But here is the thing. The ‘dossier’ which we started talking about a year ago … was published by Buzzfeed in January … and provided a source of such relentless humor as ‘even his showers are golden’ - was the subject just yesterday of a 10 hour session between the CEO of the company that did the work and Senate Judicuary investigators. The showers bit bearly got a mention - because it contains far, far worse stuff.
We’re going to war you say …. ?
… cough - may I continue?
Sorry. Yes. Do. … wanders away … stage left … muttering to self.
But this one flies in the face not just of sanity …
… but history. We Brits should know, and we can only look on in horror.
[In 1841,] The British sought a face saving measure to extricate themselves from what had become an untenable situation. They removed their puppet ruler, dusted off the ruler whom they had deposed in 1839, and reinstalled him in power in exchange for a promise to control the Afghan tribes long enough for the British to evacuate Afghanistan and withdraw in peace… Setting out from Kabul on January 6, 1842, amid falling snow, the British column of 16,500 soldiers and civilians was barely a mile beyond the city before it began to take sniper fire from the surrounding hills. By that first day’s end, emboldened parties of Afghan tribesmen were dashing in and out of the column to loot the supply train and butcher whoever they could lay their hands on. On January 13, a week after setting out from Kabul, the last group of survivors formed a tiny square and made a last stand. Later that afternoon, British sentries in Jellalabad, on the lookout for the arrival of the Kabul garrison, saw a single rider approaching. It was a Dr. Brydon, the sole survivor of the British retreat from Kabul. History Collection
Trump could have asked the Russians, driven out in 1989 after nine years. After all, they had plenty of chats recently.
Yes indeed. But here may be the worst part. According to this Intercept piece – a usually-reliable source – the Taliban tried to surrender in 1989. The US refused to accept it.
Maybe they didn’t trust them. Maybe they did look at history and realize that ‘surrender’ doesn’t mean ‘surrender’ in Afghanistan?
For centuries in Afghanistan, when a rival force had come to power, the defeated one would put down their weapons and be integrated into the new power structure — obviously with much less power, or none at all. That’s how you do with neighbors you have to continue to live with… So when the Taliban came to surrender, the U.S. turned them down repeatedly, in a series of arrogant blunders spelled out in Anand Gopal’s investigative treatment of the Afghanistan war, “No Good Men Among the Living.” Only full annihilation was enough for the Bush administration. They wanted more terrorists in body bags.
should ‘terrorists’ be in inverted commas in that last quote?
Well, here we go again anyway.
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