{"id":96556,"date":"2021-09-02T20:05:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T00:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=96556"},"modified":"2021-09-02T20:05:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T00:05:39","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-wednesday-september-1st-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=96556","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Wednesday, September 1st, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Wednesday, September 1st, 2021, and 82 years ago today, one of the worst actors on the world stage, emboldened by the weakness, vacillation and isolationism which possessed the forces of freedom, ignited a fire which soon engulfed the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It hasn’t taken long for Hitler’s contemporary equivalents to recognize the incredible of weakness of the today’s nominal leader of the free world, not only in terms of his physical and cognitive deficiencies but his many and manifest character flaws, spells opportunity…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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…opportunity of which they won’t hesitate to take advantage.\u00a0 Were we Taiwan<\/em><\/span>, we’d be on the highest possible alert.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BTW, WTF are these a*sclowns, all<\/em><\/span> of who have undoubtedly<\/em> been vaccinated<\/em><\/span>, wearing masks<\/em>…outside<\/em><\/span>?!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, courtesy of the New York Post<\/em> via FOX News<\/em>, Michael Goodwin asks the question on everyone’s mind, as he wonders, in light of the…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biden team’s meltdown \u2013 Afghanistan crisis renews doubts. Is he up to the job?<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

What if the Biden team is every bit as bad as it looks<\/span><\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/h3>\n

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“There\u2019s a maxim in sports that you are not as good as you look when you win, or as bad as you look when you lose. It aims to give athletes an even-keel attitude instead of riding an emotional roller coaster.<\/span>\u00a0No doubt there are\u00a0Democrats\u00a0and well-meaning others giving similar advice now to the Biden White House. The president\u2019s team is understandably shaken by the horrific events in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0and must fear it will never regain its footing and public trust.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But what if the sports approach isn\u2019t valid<\/em><\/span> in this case? What if the\u00a0Biden team is<\/u><\/i>\u00a0every bit as bad as it looks?<\/span>\u00a0Having been in office eight months, its successes are so minimal<\/em><\/span> and its mistakes so glaring<\/em><\/span> that doubts exist across the political spectrum about whether the president is up to the job. The doubts recall warnings about Biden from two people who know him best.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Don\u2019t underestimate Joe\u2019s ability to f-\u200a-k things up,” Barack Obama reportedly said.\u00a0<\/u>Then there\u2019s Robert Gates\u2019 charge that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign-policy and national-security issue over the past four decades.”<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Such devastating views take on added significance in light of Biden\u2019s obvious frailties and cognitive decline. The resulting leadership vacuum is so apparent that a well-connected Dem who asked a White House confidant how Biden could have chosen such an uninspiring roster of top aides was told Biden didn\u2019t make the choices<\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

As this snippet from the Journal<\/em><\/span><\/a> recounts…<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The way U.S. forces quietly slipped out of Bagram was also demoralizing for the Afghan army and probably contributed to its collapse. The Associated Press spoke to soldiers wandering the base the next day.<\/span> \u201cThey lost all the goodwill of 20 years,\u201d\u00a0one said<\/a><\/em><\/span>, \u201cby leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside patrolling the area.\u201d The word must have spread: If the U.S. is abandoning its prized air base, then it really was<\/em><\/span> bugging out altogether.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After the collapse of the Afghan government, Mr. Biden could have sent in enough U.S. troops to retake Bagram and provide for a safer evacuation. He declined that option in favor of getting to the exits as fast as possible, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the Taliban that could result in American casualties.<\/span> On Thursday<\/span><\/em> he got casualties anyway<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong>“<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with the tens of millions of the slaughtered unborn already on his conscience…assuming he has thoughts for anyone other than his dead, non-combatant Beau.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we’re on the subject of abject failures who need to go, the Post<\/em> also correctly concludes it’s time for Mark Milley to turn in his stars, as its Editorial Board recounts…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fatal failure of Gen. Mark A. Milley over closing Bagram Air Base<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

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“Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, must go<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

President Biden claims that the military advised him to close Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and instead use Kabul\u2019s airport to evacuate Americans.<\/span> They were the ones who said the Afghan army would hold, that the pullout would go smoothly.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If Biden is telling the truth, this disaster is on Milley\u2019s watch.<\/span> Or Biden is lying (the more likely scenario<\/em><\/span>, based on what sources inside the administration are saying) and Milley failed to do his duty<\/em><\/span> and push back against a commander in chief who is making deadly decisions. Either way<\/em><\/span>, he is derelict in his duty<\/em><\/span> \u2014 and must either take responsibility for what went wrong or tell Americans the truth about their president.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Biden was reportedly so intent on drawing down the number of troops in Afghanistan to less than 1,000, a force not large enough to secure Bagram, that we gave up its strategic advantage. Not only that, but we left in the dead of night, abandoning weapons and vehicles to the Taliban and demoralizing our Afghan allies.<\/span>That forced Marines to protect the perimeter of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a situation the parent of one of the 13 service members who lost their lives compared to a \u201cturkey shoot.\u201d Biden should never<\/em><\/span> have left the safety of evacuating Americans in the hands of the Taliban, nor put these young men and women \u2014 11 Marines, one Navy member and one Army soldier \u2014 in such danger.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to think of a worse way<\/em><\/span> to handle this pullout. Biden likes to blame former President Donald Trump\u2019s deal with the Taliban for the situation, but even setting aside that Biden could have negotiated to extend the deadline, he\u2019s been president since January.<\/span> Milley has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs since 2019. What have they been doing all these months<\/em><\/span>?<\/span> The US could have organized an evacuation from Bagram and held the base until Aug. 31 or longer, if necessary.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Instead<\/em><\/span>, Milley spent his time defending Critical Race Theory to Congress<\/em><\/span>, Biden ate ice cream<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And the response of the administration since? Let\u2019s talk about COVID, climate change, putting our kids in debt for generations.<\/span> Biden on Sunday angrily turned away from reporters when he was asked about Afghanistan, saying he\u2019d only talk about Hurricane Ida. Anything but<\/em><\/span> the mistakes that were made<\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

Hat tip to Speed for the above artwork.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a related item, The Daily Caller<\/em> via White House Dossier<\/em> informs us some\u00a0<\/strong>90 retired flag officers have called on Milley and SecDef Lloyd Austin to immediately resign<\/em><\/span>, noting:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf they did not<\/em><\/span> do everything within their authority to stop<\/em><\/span> the hasty withdrawal, they should resign<\/em><\/span>. Conversely, if they did do<\/span> <\/em>everything within their ability to persuade the [president] to not<\/em><\/span> hastily exit the country without ensuring the safety of our citizens and Afghans loyal to America, then they should have resigned in protest<\/em><\/span> as a matter of conscience and public statement.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which begs the question why these same flag officers didn’t publicly object to The Obamao’s evisceration of our Armed Forces.\u00a0 Evidently, courage, for some, is a situational attribute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, writing at the WSJ<\/em>, Paul Wolfowitz reminds us…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018Forever War\u2019 Hasn\u2019t Ended<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

Thursday\u2019s attacks were a reminder that \u2018the enemy always gets a vote.\u2019 With the Afghanistan pullout, the long war against jihadists has become more daunting<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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“…Those who complain of \u201cforever wars\u201d seem to ignore<\/em><\/span> the reason we were in Afghanistan in the first place, or they misstate it<\/em><\/span>, as Mr. Biden did in this instance. We were never in Afghanistan to participate in its civil war.<\/span> We went there to prevent a murderous gang from regaining control of Afghanistan, where they ruled 20 years ago and where they enabled an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The war with that gang and its affiliates won\u2019t end<\/em><\/span> because the U.S. has quit.<\/span> Nothing we know about the Taliban, much less anything that we have seen in the last month, suggests that they are ready to quit. Thursday\u2019s bombings appear to have been the work of a rival gang, ISIS-K.<\/span> Mr. Biden called it \u201can archenemy of the Taliban,\u201d but the two groups both hate the U.S. and believe it\u2019s glorious to kill Americans. It\u2019s a shame they can\u2019t both lose, as someone said in a different context\u2014but whoever wins<\/em><\/span> will make Afghanistan a haven for anti-American terrorists.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Taliban feel inspired by their victory over the U.S., which they portray as replicating the historic victory of the Afghan resistance over the Soviet Union in the 1980s\u2014even though the group didn\u2019t exist until after the Soviets had left. Almost all the leadership of the anti-Soviet resistance supported the U.S. after 9\/11.<\/span> The Taliban\u2014which was strongly supported by Pakistan\u2019s Inter-Services Intelligence beginning in the early 1990s\u2014drew on a new generation of fanatics who had been educated in Pakistani madrassas.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When Americans were asked in a poll last May whether they favored withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, without any context or qualification<\/em><\/span>, 69% said yes.<\/span> Had that same poll asked whether they favored withdrawing American troops and handing Afghanistan to a terrorist regime that could permit al Qaeda (and others) to re-establish terrorist bases and training camps, support for withdrawal would surely have been considerably less<\/em><\/span>. As Americans watched that outcome unfold in the past few weeks, support for withdrawal had already plummeted by 20 points<\/em><\/span> as of a week ago<\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

Along with support for the architect…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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….of this embarrassing debacle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s the juice: Jihadists are just like the Terminator, so…<\/strong><\/p>\n