Beyond the obvious rise in terrorism now almost inevitable from the disaster in Afghanistan, beyond the many friends and allies likely to suffer death or torture, beyond the disgraceful waste of twenty years of American people and treasure, more than anything, our so-called progressive leaders—in their negligence—have inadvertently instigated one of the greatest examples of misogyny in human history.
Think of what will become of the women of that country at the hands of the Taliban—aware, as opposed to “woke,” people remember the summary executions of females in their soccer stadium—as well as their treatment at the equally “feminist” hands of al-Qaeda and the rapidly renewing ISIS.
These are the same Afghan women who were attending universities and working like normal modern people under our protection while we were there. Now they will be left trying to survive under the most extreme and oppressive versions of sharia law, if they are not raped or shot.
There has never been a disgrace to the United States of America even close to this. The inept Carter administration looks virtually Solomonic by comparison.
Nancy Pelosi is already doing damage control, suddenly tweeting her great concern for Afghan women and girls. How hollow it rings!
The Democratic Party must answer for the rank incompetence of their officials and for the “woke” generals they have installed at the highest positions in our military.
One can only hope a few of these “woke” people will wake up from this. If this doesn’t do it, nothing will.
But enough of my view. I will allow a woman friend who served with great honor and bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan as an intelligence officer to speak with more authority than I could ever have. She wrote this for a listserv. I quote her eloquent words anonymously with permission.
“Thank you to everyone who served downrange in GWOT, both in and out of uniform. We answered when our nation called, and that’s something we should always be proud of. A lot of people are struggling right now- please dm me if you want to talk. You are important and your service mattered,
“In our 20 years’ fight in Afghanistan, 2,312 Americans have been killed in action. We have had roughly 20,000 wounded and spent over $900 billion. Personally, I spent a total of nearly two years there over several deployments, working with our military and local Afghan partners. It is a beautiful place with wonderful people. The Afghans were not ready- the entire world knows that now. There were years when our military leaders got a pass instead of being held accountable. There should have been open and honest discussion/debate. Maybe if more people had paid attention, it would have been harder to hide. Any reckoning will have to come from outside- military leadership has shown its dishonesty. The emperor has no clothes.
“With respect to how this withdrawal was executed: our military planned for contingencies. The WH knew better and ignored every hard-learned lesson, disgracing themselves and our nation in the process. I am ashamed. Twenty years of bravery, service, sacrifice and loss ending in the most ignoble way imaginable- for us and our Afghan friends who are about to be murdered by the Taliban. The scenes of chaos and terror from the airport tonight and likely in the days to come should be played against the administration’s flaccid justifications. The sheer arrogance and disregard for the coming humanitarian catastrophe is beyond words.”
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