First of all, it must be
noted that Trump, not Biden, was the one who initiated the idea of a full
termination of American involvement in Afghanistan, when in February of 2020
Trump negotiated an American pullout with the Taliban, scheduled for May 1st
of 2021 – Trump presuming to be reelected in the coming November elections and
thus able to preside over this event.
Bush Jr.'s decision in 2001
to send the US military into Afghanistan after al Qaeda – and then resorting to
pro-Western nation-building in that country when nothing came of the anti-al-Qaeda
effort – was a terrible idea ... on a number of fronts. Billions of dollars would have to be devoted
to curbing the Taliban's power ... and building some kind of pro-Western
political system in Afghanistan to counter the Taliban. And once the program was put in place, it
would take years, even generations, of ongoing American support to lay the
cultural groundwork that would give this nation-building effort some degree of
sustainability. After all, American
troops are still in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kosovo ... serving just such a
purpose: protecting the social
groundwork laid out by an America that in the mid-20th-century took
up major responsibilities as one of the world's global superpowers.
In short, nation-building is
a huge responsibility that should never be undertaken on the basis of a mere
political whim. And pulling out abruptly for a mere short-term political gain can
have only one result: social
catastrophe.
What seems to have inspired Trump
to undertake this pullout was that Americans had tired deeply of the country's
involvement in an Afghanistan that seemed to have no further relevance to
American politics.
But worse, Trump seemed to
have believed that the Taliban would of its own hold to the various conditions
(support of an orderly American pullout and certain personal freedoms for the
Afghans even after the American departure) of the agreement – and thus began to
pull American troops out of Afghanistan, with only 2500 still left in the
country as of the end of his presidency ... and even those still on schedule for
a final pullout in May.
In coming to office as
president, Biden took up the same policy ... although there were advisors who
warned him of the dangers of a full pullout.
But Biden assured even the press, which now was awakened to the potential
problems involved in a full pullout, that he expected the Taliban to respect
the terms of the agreement. However, he
simply would not face up to the fact that with the removal of the American
troops, America would have no means to enforce the terms of that agreement. So, just a few months into his presidency
(April), he announced a full American pullout, to be completed by the end of
the coming August.
With this announcement,
political morale of the pro-American Afghan social-political system began to
collapse. Indeed, the speed of the
Taliban takeover of regions, towns and villages apparently surprised even the
Taliban. And as the end-of-August
deadline approached, the country's capital, Kabul, resembled the scene of
Saigon when in the mid-1970s Congress terminated American support of the South
Vietnamese society and government. It
was a horrible scene of people grabbing onto airplanes as they began their
takeoff from the country.
However, by the end of the
month thousands of people, locals as well as American citizens, were brought
out of the country. Yet shamefully, with
the last American soldier pulled out, large amounts of military equipment
remained left behind (supposedly dismantled ... but also quite able to be
repaired by clever hands). And by no
means were all the people who would certainly be hunted down by the Taliban
airlifted out of the country ... likely including some Americans still remaining
in the country.
All in all, it was a grand
American disaster. And China had to be
loving to watch America sneak off from a serious global responsibility ... quick
to bring notice to the rest of the world that it would be wise not to put trust
in America's promise of great-power protection.
And indeed, America was not looking at all like a great power at that
point.
Did the president(s) of the
United States not understand any of this dynamic? What did they think they were achieving from
this tactical retreat? Was there some
hidden strategic advantage to be gained that would compensate for the obvious
political loss from this move? If so, it
would remain a mystery
And again, China had to be
loving all of this!
Biden, on April 14th, announcing his intention of pulling out all
American military support from Afghanistan as of the end of
August (2021). America was therefore invited to watch a
disaster that had all the
characteristics of a similar American
pullout from Vietnam a
half-century ago. Not pretty!
Panic sets in as Biden's August pullout date approaches
Horrible panic on the part of Afghans who had hoped to be
able to escape a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan
Some refugees made it all the way to Dulles Airport in DC
Taliban who have taken control of the Afghan President's Office
August 2021
Taliban leader Anas Haqqani surveying some of the military
equipment the Taliban has inherited
| RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE (FEBRUARY 2022) |
February 24, 2022 – The Russians invade Ukraine ... after a
deep buildup of Russian forces along the Ukrainian border
Putin claimed that by doing so, he was "de-Nazifying" Ukraine ...
a strange justification for someone who himself was acting
more the part of a Nazi!
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
shows no sign of surrendering to the invading Russians
Zelensky addressing the Ukrainian people
Zelensky out among his troops
Contrast: A leader (Zelensky – above)
versus a dictator (Putin – below)
Putin discussing nuclear options over Ukraine
with his far-off cabinet
Ukrainians fleeing the battle zones – February 2022
Russian tanks destroyed by the Ukrainians – February 2022
But ... Ukraine slowly being destroy by Russian invaders
March 2022
The Ukrainian city of Mariupol is slowly being destroyed
by the Russians – March 2022
And the damage Russia continues to inflict on Ukraine only
mounts (mid-2023)
At
another BRICS summit meeting – held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
August of 2023 – it was announced that six countries had been invited
to join the organization ... becoming full members January 1st,
2024: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates. These were quite strategic countries ... very influential powers in their own regions.
Ultimately, with a change in government in November of 2024 in Argentina, that country chose to withdraw its
membership application. And Saudi Arabia simply sat things out,
choosing not to take on full membership (in May of 2025, Saudi
Arabia declined actual membership in BRICS ... chosing instead to
enter a $600 billion strategic pact (trade, defense, energy, technology
and finance) with America.
Nonetheless, the organization soon
announced that it was planning to invite some additional 30 countries
to join the group ... in this effort to offer the world an path of
economic development no longer dependent on the dollar-dominated
international financial system.
| ISRAEL AND HAMAS GO AT EACH OTHER (BEGINNING OCTOBER 2023) |
Wikipedia
Hamas troops in Gaza
Israel strikes back in city after city – October 9, 2023
| MORAL COLLAPSE AT THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS |
One of the most amazing events expressing the political-moral character
of 21st century Western society was the four-hour-long opening
ceremony of the 2024 Olympics on July 26th, presented along Paris's Seine
River. Clearly there was an effort on multiple fronts to show
that modern Western culture has "freed" itself from its more
traditional political-moral restraints. It's as if Paris was
attemping another "French Revolution" ... although only along the moral
rather than political path.
The
supreme shocker to more conservative sensitivities was the French
offering of a colorful rehersal of a Bacchanalian feast, supposedly
representative of the "Greek" nature of the lusty offerings of the
opening Paris ceremonies. But Christians were shocked more by the
way that the Bacchanalian feast was
carefully designed to mimic closely Leonardo da Vinci's famous "Last
Supper" of Jesus Christ with his disciples ... except the Paris
participants were clearly representing the gay-homosexual world of
"drag queens" rather than the world of Jesus and his disciples.
But maybe that was just the point: French culture has supposedly
"liberated" itself from what is now considered dead religious tradition.
The "Last Supper" in Paris!
| THE 2024 VENEZUELAN ELECTIONS |
On
July 28 (2024) Venezuela held another round of national elections ...
with 12 million Venezuelans going to the polls. The Venezuelan National
Electoral Council was quick to announce that President Maduro
had been reelected ... even though a specific count of the votes was
never offered.
Indeed,
the opposition party, headed by Edmundo González Urrutia, was soon able
to publish more than 80 percent of the tally sheets ... showing
clearly that González, not Maduro, had won the election ... and by a huge
margin. But that served to change nothing. Maduro intended to remain in office as Venezuelan president.
Mass
protests, which developed quickly in Venezuela, of course were met with
arrests: 700 people in the first few days alone, and 11 deaths.
Maduro,
and his wife Cilia Flores, celebrating the
announcement of his
presidential victory that same day
(Sunday, July 28th)
Protests over the election results
Go on to the next section:
Miles
H. Hodges
The Afghan catastrophe (August 2021)
Russia attacks Ukraine (February 2022) 
The BRICS expansion
Israel and Hamas go at each other (beginning October 2023) 
Moral collapse at the 2024 Paris Olympics
The 2024 Venezuelan elections
