US President Joe Biden delivered a speech Tuesday afternoon declaring an end to the 20-year US war in Afghanistan.
Coming the day after a C-17 military transport plane flew the last US troops out of Kabul and in the midst of celebrations in the streets of Afghanistan of the end of US occupation, Biden’s speech included statements never before heard from the White House, acknowledging the devastating costs of a war that ended in a humiliating debacle.
President Joe Biden speaks about the end of the war in Afghanistan from the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The defeat suffered by the United States at the hands of the Taliban insurgency exposes the failure of not just the policies pursued in Afghanistan but the entire strategy that has guided the actions of US imperialism both at home and abroad for decades.
The immediate political purpose of Biden’s speech was to defend his administration from ferocious criticism of its handling of the chaotic 17-day evacuation that followed the overrunning of the country by the Taliban and the precipitous collapse of the Kabul puppet regime and its US-trained security forces. Thirteen US military personnel lost their lives in the operation, while another 20 were wounded.
The attacks have come not only from Republicans but also a wide layer of Democratic officials. The media, having “embedded” itself within the US military and serving as an unflagging cheerleader for US wars, has responded with particularly bitter hostility.
The Washington Post’s editorial Tuesday described the Kabul evacuation as “a moral disaster, one attributable not to the actions of military and diplomatic personnel in Kabul … but to mistakes, strategic and tactical, by Mr. Biden and his administration.” For good measure, it published a column by Michael Gerson, the former senior aide and speechwriter for George W. Bush, who shares political responsibility for the criminal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, condemning “the Biden administration’s panicky, slapdash, humiliating exit from Afghanistan—dependent on the kindness of the Taliban and commemorated by indelible images of chaos and betrayal.”
Such super-heated rhetoric reflects the savage divisions and recriminations within the US ruling establishment and its military and intelligence apparatus over the Afghanistan debacle.
While shot through with contradictions, evasions and historical falsifications, Biden’s speech was directed at least in part at appealing to the broad anti-war sentiments within the American population.
It was “time to be honest with the American people again,” he said, tacitly acknowledging that the US ruling class had systematically lied to the American people about the reasons for and the conduct of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
He stated that the US had spent “$300 million a day for two decades,” on the war in Afghanistan, adding that “yes, the American people should hear this. ... And what have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities.”
He stressed the grievous losses in lives and limbs, with 2,461 US troops killed and another 20,744 wounded.
“A lot of our veterans have gone through hell,” he said. “Deployment after deployment. Months and years away from their families … financial struggles, divorces, loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress. We see it in the struggles many have when they come home. … The cost of war they will carry with them their whole lives.”
Biden cited the “shocking and stunning statistic that should give pause to anyone who thinks war can ever be low-grade, low-risk, or low-cost: 18 veterans, on average, who die by suicide every single day in America—not in a far-off place, but right here in America.”
He also referred obliquely to the societal costs incurred by a country perpetually at war: “If you are 20 years old today, you’ve never known an America at peace.”
The portrait painted in this speech is a damning indictment of the US ruling establishment and both its political parties, which have perpetuated wars that have inflicted untold suffering, robbed society of vast resources and subjected an entire generation to uninterrupted violence and terror.
The US president made no mention, however, of the greatest cost of the US war and occupation: The deaths of somewhere between 170,000 and a quarter of a million Afghans, the wounding of hundreds of thousands more and the displacement of millions.
Biden was incapable of providing a rational explanation for the Afghan war, claiming that it had been launched in response to the still unexplained September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington D.C., in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and none were Afghans.
He boasted that the US war had “decimated” Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, while acknowledging that “the terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan,” citing Al Qaeda-linked elements in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula and “across Africa and Asia.” Indeed, within Afghanistan itself, US intelligence estimates that Islamic State-Khoran (ISIS-K), responsible for the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, has some 2,000 fighters, as opposed to a few hundred Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan in 2001.
The growth of these forces is the direct product of the US wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Washington’s utilization of Al Qaeda-linked militias as proxy ground troops in its regime-change wars in both Libya and Syria.
Taken as a whole, Biden’s speech is a devastating exposure of US wars based on lies and fabrications that have been waged at a horrific cost. In this regard, Afghanistan cannot be separated from Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere.
What was it all for? What justified the waste of trillions of dollars and the taking of hundreds of thousands of lives? And who is to be held accountable for these crimes within the government, the major parties, the military high command, the US corporations, the media and academic figures who promoted and justified these wars?
Biden affirmed in his speech, “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.”
Indeed, a disaster of this magnitude signals the end of an era and the shattering of an entire strategy pursued by US imperialism based on the utilization of military force to overcome the progressive erosion of its global hegemony.
From the 1980s on, Washington was determined to “kick the Vietnam syndrome,” i.e., reverse the political consequences of the defeat suffered by US imperialism in Vietnam in order to launch new wars of imperialist aggression.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the hands of the Moscow Stalinist bureaucracy, this policy took off, anticipated by the first US war in the Persian Gulf and followed by American interventions in the Balkans. Washington embraced the concept that the world had arrived at a “unipolar moment” in which US imperialism could engage in an unrestrained pursuit of global domination and global counterrevolution.
The dubious events of September 11, 2001, which have to this day never been really explained, were then exploited to justify wars of aggression abroad, torture and the erection of the scaffolding of a police state within the US itself.
The humiliating retreat from Afghanistan signals the failure not just of US policy in that one country, but of an entire strategy, world view and program of global domination and domestic reaction that has persisted for 30 years.
This debacle, which is intersecting with an escalation of the class struggle in the US and internationally under the impact of growing social inequality and the homicidal, profit-driven policies of the world’s ruling classes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has profoundly revolutionary implications.
This has not lessened the danger of war in the least. Indeed, Biden used his speech to insist on US imperialism’s ability to continue murderous “over-the-horizon” attacks on Afghanistan or any other country in the world, while shifting its military might toward far more dangerous confrontations with China and Russia, both nuclear-armed powers.
The decisive question is the arming of the emerging movement of the working class with a socialist and internationalist perspective to put an end to war and the capitalist system which is its source.
FUCK BIDEN!
Report: Pregnant American Kicked in Stomach by Taliban After Stranded by Joe Biden Taliban fighters patrol on a pick-up vehicle along in a street in Kabul on August 31, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war -- one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. (Photo by Hoshang Hashimi / AFP) (Photo by HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images 2:19
A pregnant American woman from California who is trapped in Afghanistan, who goes by ‘Nasria,’ was kicked in the stomach by the Taliban and forced into hiding, according to the Daily Mail.
Nasria was forced into hiding after she was blocked from going past one of the checkpoints set up by the Taliban terrorists en route to the Kabul airport where she was trying to flee with her husband, the report said . She was kicked in the stomach when she was blocked from the checkpoint.
The couple is amongst Americans — whom the administration is unable to number — who were stranded in the county after the last of the U.S. troops left the country and stopped transporting evacuees out.
The Americans are left there despite President Joe Biden’s promise to make sure all Americans were out by the deadline set by him and accepted by the jihadist group.
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has been working on trying to get Nasria and her husband out of the country. On Tuesday, he made an appearance on Fox News’s morning show Fox & Friends , where he described what Nasria was going through based on their communication.
“She was kicked in the stomach, but she was kicked in the stomach well after – as she got through the first checkpoint for hours, waiting for those people at the south point to supposedly come and get her,” Issa said.
According to the report, the couple never made it onto one of the evacuation flights; before the C-17 left, there were no American civilians on the last five flights to leave.
“It wasn’t until it was clear they had closed, they weren’t taking anyone else for quite awhile, that finally, she accepted that she was going to have to go back and hide in her apartment,” the congressman added.
Issa said the woman made “multiple trips” to the airport.
He said, “We’ve agreed that she’s going to stay sheltered in place, hiding her identity and hoping that her friends will continue to bring her food and keep her secret until frankly, we can come up with something new.”
While addressing the nation on Tuesday, Biden admitted that he was leaving ten percent of Americans, who the United States intended to evacuate, in the country now controlled by a jihadist organization.
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss .
Mother of Slain Marine Excoriates Joe Biden for Checking Watch While Honoring Soldiers, Rolling His Eyes at Her Chip Somodevilla/Getty 2:07
Shana Chappell, the mother of a U.S. Marine killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in Afghanistan last week, excoriated President Joe Biden on social media after meeting him in Dover.
Chappell is the mother of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui of Norco, California, age 20 – one of 13 American casualties that occurred after terrorists struck a military checkpoint during Biden’s disastrous exit from Afghanistan.
She recounted that she met Biden at the Dover Airport for the dignified transfer ceremony and said the president tried to talk to her about his son Beau Biden who died of cancer.
“[Y]ou tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and i had to tell you ‘that this isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!!!'” Chappell wrote.
Chappell also wrote that Biden grew frustrated with her as she continued talking to him.
C-SPAN “U then rolled your fucking eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me and i let you know that the only reason i was talking to you was out of respect for my son…” she wrote.
She says that Biden turned to walk away and threw up his hand behind him as she continued to speak.
“U turned to walk away and i let you know my sons blood was on your hands and you threw your hand up behind you as you walked away from me like you were saying ‘ok whatever!!!'” she wrote.
She said she watched as Biden checked his watch five different times during the ceremony.
“What the fuck was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch????” she asked. “You are nobody special Biden!!! America Hates you!!!!!”
Full post below:
Chappell’s Instagram account was suspended by the Facebook-owned company but restored after Breitbart News highlighted the latest example of censorship by the company.
“We express our deepest condolences to Ms. Chappell and her family,” said the Instagram spokeswoman. “Her tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies. While the post was not removed, her account was incorrectly deleted and we have since restored it.”
FAIR: Biden’s Chaotic Afghan Migration Imports Fraud ARMEND NIMANI/AFP via Getty Images 6:40
The government programs that import people from chaotic countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, are riddled with fraud and national security risks, according to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
President Joe Biden’s deputies have already admitted many thousands — perhaps 25,000 — Afghan migrants with little or no vetting. Once in the United States, the unvetted migrants can use U.S. lawyers to slow or prevent their repatriation, even after committing crimes.
“Conducting an extensive vetting process before the entry of any foreign national is commonsense and must be a part of any policy that includes bringing refugees or SIV [Special Immigrant Visas] applicants into the country,” FAIR reported on August 31. FAIR continued:
Mass-refugee resettlement in the states – with no adequate vetting procedure – would simply be an attempt to correct our mistakes in Afghanistan by making new mistakes that place American citizens and Afghan refugees alike at risk.
Biden’s left-wing supporters and migration advocates are urging the inflow of more than one million Afghan consumers, renters, and workers, based on the moral claims that some Afghans risked their lives to help modernize their undeveloped Islamic country.
This push is backed by business lobbies and progressives, even though nearly all Afghans support Sharia law, which would define crimes and penalties according to Islam’s founding document, the Koran.
Sharia law also rejects the legitimacy of many Western laws, such as free speech protections and protections for young girls who may be sold off to older men. For example, many Afghans jumped on U.S. evacuation aircraft regardless of eligibility. The New York Times reported August 31:
Instead, in the first few frenzied days under the Taliban, when rumors swirled of American planes transporting Afghans directly to the United States, thousands of people without passports, visas or identification cards flooded Kabul’s airport and were placed on Doha-bound planes.
There are shopkeepers whose stores were next to the airport, members of the security forces who abandoned their posts there and employees of Kam Air, an Afghan airline, still in their uniforms after jumping on planes.
Prior importation programs provide useful examples of the costs and risks, FAIR reported:
More than 100,000 Iraqi refugees have been resettled in the United States … [amid] widespread evidence of fraud and abuse led to the program’s temporary suspension in early 2021.
Around 4,000 Iraqi nationals are suspected of filing fraudulent applications for the Direct Access Program. To date, more than 500 already-admitted refugees have been involved in the alleged fraud and may be subject to deportation and/or revocation of their acquired citizenship. This massive uncovering has led US authorities to re-examine more than 104,000 other cases.
The report cited some of the crimes committed by Iraq’s migrants into the United States:
According to the indictment, three foreign nationals have also been accused of money laundering, fraud, and records theft. These men allegedly stole information from the State Department’s Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System that was used to assist applicants in fraudulently gaining admission into the US.
Numerous government reports have pointed out corruption and fraud in the immigration programs, FAIR reported:
In total, 45 of 70 relevant Refugee Affairs Division (RAD) trip reports recently analyzed by the GAO identified major concerns with the quality of certain case files including missing documentation. The report also found that [the Department of Homeland Security] has not conducted Quality Assurance Assessments (QAA) of Refugee Adjudications since FY 2015.
The Department of Justice announced on August 2019:
NEWARK, N.J. – An Afghani citizen and United States Lawful Permanent Resident was indicted today by a federal grand jury for his role in a scheme to smuggle undocumented aliens from Afghanistan to the United States:
Mujeeb Rahman Saify, 32, is an Afghanistan national who received a Special Immigrant Visa and became a U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident in 2009, after serving as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Since 2009, Saify has resided in New York and Newark. Saify was charged in the District of New Jersey with conspiracy to smuggle aliens to the United States, encouraging and inducing alien smuggling, and attempting to bring aliens to the United States. If convicted, Saify faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, as well as forfeiture.
Refuges also bring their home-country politics with them, generating many investigations into emerging terror threats, FAIR reported. “Accepting such risk is reckless and unconscionable,” FAIR said, adding:
Clearly, the refugee program in the Unites States already struggles with vetting issues and an alarming rate of fraudulent applications. Weakening or eliminating our vetting process while simultaneously increasing admissions is a recipe for disaster.
“People seeking to support or commit terrorist attacks here will try to enter through our refugee program,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“In fact, today more than 300 people who came here as refugees are under FBI investigation for potential terrorism-related activities,” he said in March 2017.
Overall, Biden’s government is expected to import 1.6 million migrants in 2021, or roughly one migrant for every two American births in the year.
This policy extracts many new workers, consumers, and renters from poor countries for the benefit of U.S. employers, investors, and government agencies — and also to eventually deliver many potential voters to the Democratic Party.
This policy of extraction migration damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities , cuts their wages and raises their housing costs .
More migration also means that coastal investors can hire cheap foreign labor on the coasts instead of investing in heartland jobs or deploying wage-boosting robots . Immigration also shrinks Americans’ political clout and wrecks their open-minded, equality-promoting civic
culture .
Joe Biden Admits to Stranding 10 Percent of Americans in Afghanistan 1:54
In his first address to the American people after completely pulling out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden admitted he was leaving ten percent of Americans, who the United States intended to evacuate, in the country now controlled by a jihadist organization.
The president during the speech said, “the bottom line” — now that the U.S. evacuations are complete and service members will not be shuttling Americans and high-risk Afghans out of the country — is only “90 percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.”
By saying this, Biden is openly admitting to the country — and the world — there are still ten percent of Americans who the U.S. wanted to evacuate out of the country left there by Biden.
Taliban fighters atop a Humvee vehicle take part in a rally in Kabul on August 31, 2021 as they celebrate after the US pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war — one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. (Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden, in his remarks, echoed the words of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Monday, not being able to give the exact numbers of Americans left, claiming that they made their best effort to take as many out as they can, but there are still Americans left.
“Now, we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with some intention to leave. Most of those who remain are dual citizens, longtime residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” Biden said.
Biden added that there is no deadline for Americans trapped in Afghanistan who still are trying to come to the U.S.
President Joe Biden walks from the podium after speaking about the end of the war in Afghanistan from the State Dining Room of the White House, August 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“Secretary of State Blinken is leading the continued diplomatic efforts to ensure safe passage for any American, Afghan partner, or foreign national who wants to leave Afghanistan,” he said.
Poll: Americans Oppose Joe Biden’s Handling of Afghanistan, Immigration, Crime, and Gun Violence JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images 1:53
Americans oppose President Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, immigration, crime, and gun violence, an ABC News/Ipsos Monday poll conducted August 27 to August 28 revealed.
Afghanistan:
Fifty-nine percent disapprove of Biden’s handing of the deadly Afghan crisis with 38 approving. Forty-one percent disapproved in July with 55 percent approving.
Immigration:
Fifty-six percent disapprove of Biden’s handing of immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, down five percent since July. Only 41 percent currently approve of Biden’s immigration performance.
Crime:
Fifty percent disapprove of Joe Biden’s handling of crime while 46 percent approve. In July, 58 percent disapproved of Biden on crime with 39 percent approving.
Gun Violence:
Concerning gun violence, 52 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling while 44 percent approve. July’s numbers indicate 61 percent disapproved and 37 approved.
The poll also asked if “U.S. troops should stay in Afghanistan until all Americans have been evacuated, or not?” 84 percent said yes and 15 percent said no.
Breitbart News reported thousands of Americans are still stranded in Afghanistan. The State Department originally indicated about 11,000 Americans were in the country at the time of its collapse. As of Monday, only 5,400 have been evacuated.
The poll sampled 513 Americans and has a sampling error rate of 4.9 percent.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
JOE BIDEN, ONE OF THE BIGGEST CON MAN SINCE THE LAST LAWYER THE BANKSTERS PUT IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Rebellion Must Be Its Own justification | Chris Hedges (THIS IS AMERICA)
Tucker: Whenever you think we've reached peak insanity, Biden doubles-down
It's 'hard to exaggerate' how 'dangerously bad' US President Joe Biden is
US Vice President Kamala Harris 'is such a hoax'
Cotton: ‘Joe Biden Is Solely Responsible’ for ‘Fiasco’ in Afghanistan
1:34
Tuesday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) blamed President Joe Biden for the “fiasco” in Afghanistan which resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members and many others injured in Kabul.
While as many as 100-200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, Cotton questioned on Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus” why Biden decided to keep his evacuation promise to the Taliban instead of to American citizens.
“[T]his is a debacle that will reverberate for many, many years to come, not just in Afghanistan, but in relation to our adversaries around the world,” Cotton emphasized. “They’re trying to put a happy face on it. They’re trying to spin it for domestic and political purposes, but most Americans realize Joe Biden is solely responsible for the fiasco we’ve seen in the last three weeks in Afghanistan.”
He added, “Joe Biden promised the Taliban America would leave by August 31. Joe Biden promised American citizens in Afghanistan he would stay until he got them out. When the rubber hit the road, Joe Biden kept his promise to the Taliban, and he broke his promise to Americans.”
“That attack didn’t just happen on Joe Biden’s watch,” Cotton continued. “It happened as a direct result of Joe Biden’s decisions — the decisions to withdraw in such a disorganized, ill-planned, chaotic fashion.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
Angry Joe Biden Refuses to Admit Mistakes or Accept Accountability in Disastrous Afghanistan Exit Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images A defiant President Joe Biden defended his tumultuous exit from Afghanistan on Tuesday, refusing to admit mistakes or accept blame for lives lost or Americans left behind.
“Some say that the evacuation from Afghanistan could have been started sooner and completed in a more orderly fashion,” Biden said. “I respectfully disagree.”
Biden began by describing the military evacuation as a success, defying critics of his rushed exit from the country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – AUGUST 21: In this handout provided by the U.S. Air Force, a loadmaster assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)
“The extraordinary success of this mission is due to the incredible skill bravely (sic) and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,” he said.
Biden was 44 minutes late for his scheduled speech — even though it was already rescheduled from earlier in the afternoon. He began his speech by nearly shouting from the podium as he defended his efforts.
His address took place more than 24 hours after the last flight left the Kabul airport, leaving the State Department and the Pentagon to explain why Americans were left behind, even after Biden promised to stay until every American was evacuated.
The president also defended leaving Americans behind in Afghanistan, arguing that 90 percent of Americans who wanted to leave were evacuated. Biden said the decision to leave on August 31 was a decision supported by his military and civilian advisors.
He said the August 31 deadline for departure was not an “arbitrary” deadline but “designed to save American lives” — even though he repeatedly changed the exit date since he became president.
In this image provided by the Department of Defense, two paratroopers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conduct security while a C-130 Hercules takes off during a evacuation operation in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. (Department of Defense via AP)
Biden also tried to excuse his failure by suggesting that many Americans who remained in Afghanistan were staying willingly.
“The bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, threats we faced. None,” he said.
Biden again blamed his predecessor for empowering the Taliban in Afghanistan, arguing he had no intention of staying longer than August 31.
“That was the real choice, between leaving and escalating,” he said. “I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not going to extend a forever exit.”
Poll: Americans Oppose Joe Biden’s Handling of Afghanistan, Immigration, Crime, and Gun Violence JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images 1:53
Americans oppose President Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, immigration, crime, and gun violence, an ABC News/Ipsos Monday poll conducted August 27 to August 28 revealed.
Afghanistan:
Fifty-nine percent disapprove of Biden’s handing of the deadly Afghan crisis with 38 approving. Forty-one percent disapproved in July with 55 percent approving.
Immigration:
Fifty-six percent disapprove of Biden’s handing of immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, down five percent since July. Only 41 percent currently approve of Biden’s immigration performance.
Crime:
Fifty percent disapprove of Joe Biden’s handling of crime while 46 percent approve. In July, 58 percent disapproved of Biden on crime with 39 percent approving.
Gun Violence:
Concerning gun violence, 52 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling while 44 percent approve. July’s numbers indicate 61 percent disapproved and 37 approved.
The poll also asked if “U.S. troops should stay in Afghanistan until all Americans have been evacuated, or not?” 84 percent said yes and 15 percent said no.
Breitbart News reported thousands of Americans are still stranded in Afghanistan. The State Department originally indicated about 11,000 Americans were in the country at the time of its collapse. As of Monday, only 5,400 have been evacuated.
The poll sampled 513 Americans and has a sampling error rate of 4.9 percent.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
Biden’s Catastrophic Policies: Immigration and Afghanistan Shocking and dangerous parallels.
Tue Aug 31, 2021 Nearly twenty years ago, on September 11, 2001 ago radical Islamist terrorists conducted the deadliest terror attacks ever carried out on American soil, in the history of our nation.
The administration of President George W. Bush, in response to the terror attacks, working with America’s allies sent the military to the Middle East to hunt down those responsible for the deadly attacks and to deprive al-Qaeda and other terror organization with sanctuaries from which they could launch terror attacks in the United States and other countries around the world.
Afghanistan was considered a key to our military operations.
President George W. Bush and then President Obama both justified the use of our military forces overseas by declaring that we were fighting the terrorists “over there” so that we would not have to fight them “over here.”
I took issue with that absurd statement in an article I wrote several years ago, Fighting The War On Terror Here, There And Everywhere
We will delve into the issue of how the war on terror needed to be pursued domestically as well as overseas shortly. (Think immigration law enforcement.)
But first, the disastrous strategic decisions of President Joe Biden to pull our troops out of Afghanistan have reverberated around the world.
Our allies fear that America can not be trusted and has no resolve to stand up and our nation’s enemies are greatly encouraged by Biden’s lack of resolve. There is a fundamental principle that states that negotiations should never be conducted from a position of weakness but from a position of strength, however Joe and his policies could not be weaker.
The issue is not that Biden ordered our troops out of Afghanistan, there are many, including former President Trump, who believe that the time has come for American forces to be removed from Afghanistan.
The issue is how Biden ordered the removal of troops to be conducted- he got the sequence of the evacuation ass-backwards!
At the pistol range the orders are, Ready- Aim- Fire.
In essence, Biden’s orders were Fire- Ready- Aim!
Sky divers are instructed to pull their ripcords BEFORE they hit the ground.
Biden would have instructed them to pull the ripcord AFTER impact!
Biden did not consult with America’s allies including NATO even though there are NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Biden ordered our troops to abandon Kandahar International Airport, literally in the dead of night without even notifying Afghan troops who were fighting alongside American soldiers.
Biden evacuated the soldiers before he evacuated American civilians or the Afghanis who had worked with our military and our government are were, consequently at mortal risk.
This sets up a very real possibility of Americans and allies being taken hostage by the terrorists.
Biden evacuated the military before removing or destroying a huge arsenal of military hardware and weaponry so that terrorists would have access to these weapons.
Under federal law, anyone who provides weapons or items of potential military use to certain prohibited countries is subject to criminal prosecution that carries severe penalties. The 19 hijackers who carried out the terror attacks of 9/11 wielded boxcutters. Imagine what terrorists who could gain access to a huge arsenal could do!
Finally, he left thousands of terrorists in prisons at Kandahar and elsewhere who were promptly released by the Taliban.
How many U.S. or allied soldiers died or were seriously injured in operations to capture of these highly dangerous terrorists? Now that they are free, they will once again pose a threat, not only to the citizens of Afghanistan but to countries around the world, including the United States of America.
If you thought “Catch & Release” only applied to the Border Patrol, Biden has allowed that dangerous practice to metastasize to our military operations in what is one of the most dangerous places on earth!
Having mentioned the Border Patrol we now need to turn our attention to the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, to which I provided testimony.
That commission ultimately determined that those terror attacks were facilitated and, indeed, made possible, by multiple failures of the immigration system.
In the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11 I have testified before numerous hearings conducted in the House and Senate about failures of the immigration system that undermine national security and public safety.
On May 5, 2010 I testified at a hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on the topic: New ''Dual Missions'' Of The Immigration Enforcement Agencies
Back then the chairman of that important subcommittee was Republican Congressman John Hostettler from Indiana who was extremely critical of the way that President George W. Bush failed to follow the guidelines established by the Homeland Security Act to create the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Hostettler’s prepared remarks included this paragraph that succinctly laid out just how critical immigration law enforcement is to protecting the United States from international terrorists and is worth considering today:
The 9/11 terrorists all came to the United States without weapons or contraband—Added customs enforcement would not have stopped 9/11 from happening. What might have foiled al Qaeda's plan was additional immigration focus, vetting and enforcement. And so what is needed is recognition that, one, immigration is a very important national security issue that cannot take a back seat to customs or agriculture. Two, immigration is a very complex issue, and immigration enforcement agencies need experts in immigration enforcement. And three, the leadership of our immigration agencies should be shielded from political pressures to act in a way which could compromise the Nation's security.
The frustration and consternation of Chairman Hostettler was absolutely justified, yet our political leaders from both parties refused to take commonsense measures needed to protect America and Americans.
President Trump was the only president to accept the critical nature of America’s borders and immigration laws and act accordingly.
In my view, as a result of his efforts to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws, came under fire in unprecedented ways.
For decades immigration law enforcement was hobbled by a policy of “Catch & Release” whereby illegal aliens who were arrested by the Border Patrol were promptly released from custody. Only a very small percentage ever showed up for their hearings. What was never discussed publicly was that the lunacy of Catch & Release also included the enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.
On March 10, 2005 the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims conducted a hearing on Interior Immigration Enforcement Resources
I urge you to read the transcript of that entire hearing and that you pay particular attention to the prepared statement of no other than Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who, in criticizing President Bush for not providing necessary resources stated, in part:
The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement merged the investigative function of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Customs Service, the INS detention and removal functions, most of the INS intelligence operation, the Federal Protective Service, and the Federal Air Marshals Service. ICE's areas of responsibility include the enforcement of laws dealing with the presence and activities of terrorists, human trafficking, commercial alien smuggling operations, document fraud, and drug trafficking, and many important aspects of their work have been successful.
Just recently, for example, we were able to applaud Operation Predator, which was able to bring in 5,000 arrests since 2003 on the question of those who are non-citizens who have come into this country and who have been predators against our children.
Also, for instance, ICE investigators conducted an 8-month investigation last year of two men who were selling false identity documents to members of terrorist organizations. The ICE investigators developed such a strong case against these individuals that they pleaded guilty on February 28, 2005, to a charge of involvement in a conspiracy to sell false documents to purported members of Abu Sayyaf, a Philippines-based group that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 authorized 800 new ICE investigators for FY 2006 through FY 2010. The President's budget only requests funding for 143 new ICE investigators for FY 2006, which is only 17 percent of the authorized number. We need all of the 800 additional ICE investigators authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.
And with a little lightness, Mr. Chairman, maybe the Administration was simply trying to tease us, to egg us on, to see if we had the stomach to do what is right, and that means that we need to fully fund the 800 additional ICE investigators. Let's take the bait, if you will, accept the challenge, and do what we need to do.
The National Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act also authorized 8,000 new detention beds each year from FY 2006 through 2010. The President, however, has requested funding for 1,920 beds for FY 2006, which is only 24 percent of the authorized number. Mr. Chairman, I know that you are headed to the border, at least a portion thereof. I have spent some time at the border with Congressman Ortiz. I saw what the need was and the crisis—hard-working men and women who understand the needs of securing the border, but more importantly, understanding the needs of retaining those who have entered this country illegally. They cannot do their job without the full funding of these detention beds and the recognition that, in fact, we have a responsibility to provide them with the necessary resources.
Whatever happened to Sheila and her Democrat friends since that hearing?
Clearly she very well understands the perils we face because of systemic failures of the immigration system.
Even after the terror attacks of 9/11 increasing numbers of cities and even some states declared themselves to be “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens and among them criminal aliens and terrorists, in directly contradiction to the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
Now Biden’s immigration policies have turned America into a Sanctuary Country for illegal aliens and Afghanistan into a Sanctuary for terrorists who seek the destruction of the United States and our allies.
The title of my recent article will serve as my summation today, Biden Ends War On Radical Islamist Terrorists 'Over Here' and 'Over There' Too bad the terrorists aren’t calling it quits.
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