America's Longest War Is OVER!

 

War has always generated euphemism. Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby referred to the withdrawal from Afghanistan this way: “We have begun retrograding…” Even the word ‘withdrawal’ was too loaded for the bruised national ego, so ‘retrograding’ was purloined and twisted to fit. Make no mistake; what we witnessed was a retreat.

GOP criticism of the ‘retrograde’ has been harsh and dutifully ignored the role that the Former Doofus and Pompous Mike Pompeo had in its calamitous execution. The traitorous deal made in Doha was called by Trump's first national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, "… a surrender agreement with the Taliban". 

In a presser on the eve of America’s final day in America’s longest war, John Kirby was asked again why the evacuation – the ‘retrograde’ – hadn’t gone better. Mr Kirby’s answer brings a clarity which has been obfuscated by GOP bluster. 

America had a partner in Afghanistan; it was the Afghani government supported by the Afghan military – the same military that was supplied and trained for decades by America. Unfortunately, TFG and Pompeo hadn’t surrendered to the Afghani government; they had struck their craven deal with the Taliban! 

When the rubber met the road, Biden fleshed out that ill-advised surrender… er… ‘retrograding’ with the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul; the one party who had had no part in the surrender to the Taliban in Doha. That is the worn nub upon which this calamitous carousel wobbled its final revolution.

America had depended on the existence of the Afghan government and the Afghan military to make secure the withdrawal…er… ‘retrograding’ by protecting the airport and facilitating the processing of Afghan civilians whose live were forfeited by assisting the American occupation. 

Then, reality struck; the Taliban were resurgent. The Ghani government was gone with the wind and with the cash. The Afghan military evaporated like dew on a hot rock. That left the US to depend on the trustworthiness of an untrustworthy accomplice to secure the airport and secure Kabul. It left the US dependent on the undependable. Striking a deal by which your generational enemy provides cover for your retreat…er… ‘retrograde’ is ludicrous on its face. 

That more than 122,000 were evacuated from Afghanistan is remarkable considering how TFG and his doltish minion, Pompeo the Paunch, left Mr Biden holding a soggy paper bag of diarrhetic feces.