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Sunday, August 15, 2021
History Repeats Itself
Is it just me, or does anyone else think the chaotic fall of Kabul is a monumental fuck-up?
And the blame for whatever is happening there right now is squarely on Biden's shoulders. Though the last three presidents also bear responsibility for this long, ghastly misadventure on the other side of the world.
I am proud of our troops, who by all accounts have done an excellent job in a bad situation - but I am deeply ashamed of the waste of lives and money and goodwill in Afghanistan these twenty years.
I remember the pictures of the fall of Saigon, and today's events seem to be a rerun of that debacle.
Not that I ever wanted us to be in Vietnam OR in Afghanistan; but there's a good way to leave and a bad way. Again we see the same lies, the same denials, the same "alternate facts" that clearly are at odds with the images on the TV screen.
I remember very clearly sending off a hot email to George Bush when he sent the troops to Afghanistan, reminding him that the Russians had tried for twenty years to pacify those people without a shred of success, ditto the British before them, and what made him think we could do any better?
Alas, my words, like many others', fell on deaf ears, apparently. Now, for all we expended in that far-off wasteland, there is only blood and sorrow and shame to show for it.
I am completely disgusted. Nauseated. Mortified. What a black day for America. Again.
When will they ever learn?
Update, 8/16/21: President Biden spoke from the White House this afternoon on the situation in Afghanistan, putting the best face possible on a colossal 20-year mistake. He states plainly that it is hopeless to pour men, machines, and money into a faraway country whose own government is corrupt, divided, and unwilling to defend its own people in a civil war that the United States has no business meddling in. These are the glaringly obvious truths it took American leaders 20 long years to admit in the Vietnam debacle.
At least Biden is stating them plainly here and now, saying at the 4:45 mark, "I stand squarely behind my decision." And at 6:30, "We gave [the Afghans] every opportunity to fight for their future. We could not give them the the will to fight for that future." No, of course not - it wasn't their dream of the future, only an outsider's idea. You simply can't live someone else's life for him - whether speaking of individuals or nations. It goes deeply against the grain of human nature to be reduced to a mere puppet, even if it is for his own good. That 's not liberty, is it?
Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam! If I foresaw this, living in obscurity far out on the Texas prairie twenty years ago, why did no one in Washington? What the hell is wrong with people?
When will they ever learn?
Update, 8/17/21: Jonathan Steele has written a fine opinion piece in the Guardian on the lessons of history in Afghanistan that is worth reading.
Also noteworthy: The Guardian'seditorial on the manifest unfitness of Boris Johnson for his office: "When events demand stature, Mr Johnson always shrinks to the occasion, and the vacuum where leadership should be diminishes Britain in the eyes of the world." Quite.
Sad, disgusting, yes. But all beyond the common sense or influence of us commoners. There is enough blame to go around and although a good chunk of it falls on the Biden administration there is plenty to lay on X45 and previous guys. Apparently we will never learn from history. I’m beginning to think that stupidity, chaos, disaster, blunders, divisiveness, and stagnation are the new normal.
Yes, there is plenty of blame to spread around. Just as with Vietnam, the Afghan debacle developed over twenty years, under four presidents, two from each main party. (In years to come, this will be the stuff of countless college essays - an easy set-up for comparison and contrast).
The horror of it is that fifty years later, we have ended up with the same kind of mess. I feel like, this is where I came in.
How hard is it to understand that when the troops leave, the natives will do what they please? Just as you can't live someone else's life for them, you can't run another country's government and society unless you sit on them - like a colony - and force them to do your bidding. But then you are riding the tiger . . . .
As you suggested, though, this is just one more dark chapter in the long, tragic story of mankind - which is also lit by many bright, shining moments of goodness and peace - but the wheel is always turning, and we can never rest on the heights for long, but must dredge the depths of our human nature too.
The human story is always the same, with changes of scenery and costume. We don't have to repeat the past - but alas, we often do.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
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8 comments:
Sad, disgusting, yes. But all beyond the common sense or influence of us commoners. There is enough blame to go around and although a good chunk of it falls on the Biden administration there is plenty to lay on X45 and previous guys. Apparently we will never learn from history. I’m beginning to think that stupidity, chaos, disaster, blunders, divisiveness, and stagnation are the new normal.
Also: https://www.joemygod.com/2021/08/rnc-deletes-page-touting-trumps-deal-with-taliban/
Yes, there is plenty of blame to spread around. Just as with Vietnam, the Afghan debacle developed over twenty years, under four presidents, two from each main party. (In years to come, this will be the stuff of countless college essays - an easy set-up for comparison and contrast).
The horror of it is that fifty years later, we have ended up with the same kind of mess. I feel like, this is where I came in.
How hard is it to understand that when the troops leave, the natives will do what they please? Just as you can't live someone else's life for them, you can't run another country's government and society unless you sit on them - like a colony - and force them to do your bidding. But then you are riding the tiger . . . .
As you suggested, though, this is just one more dark chapter in the long, tragic story of mankind - which is also lit by many bright, shining moments of goodness and peace - but the wheel is always turning, and we can never rest on the heights for long, but must dredge the depths of our human nature too.
The human story is always the same, with changes of scenery and costume. We don't have to repeat the past - but alas, we often do.
I disagree.
With what? Why? What is your point?
If you have no logical point to make, why comment at all?
I don't care if you disagree. This is my soapbox, not yours.
With you 100% including the updates. Terribly sad all around.
Where have all the protest songs gone? Where have all the people who agreed with Pete Paul and Mary gone? Where have all the hippies gone?
Apparently gone to flowers, every one . . .
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