The Mirror contacted the office of Representative Elaine Luria to obtain a statement on the situation in Afghanistan. Her staff responded that she was not available to give a statement, and instead pointed us to here official statement via her Twitter account:
Paul Plante says
It’s always tomarrow with these politici8ans, isn’t it!
Well, we must ultimately grapple with the failures that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, but today, in this moment, let’s put off to tomarrow an investigation into what went wrong, although we don’t really need to wait, because we have the official white house transcript of Joe Biden’s “Remarks by President Biden on the Drawdown of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan” on July 08, 2021, where the goofball stated thusly:
Earlier today, I was briefed by our senior military and national security leaders on the status of the drawdown of U.S. forces and allied forces in Afghanistan., which takes us to
The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart.
Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown.
And in this context, speed is safety.
Conducting our drawdown differently would have certainly come with a increased risk of safety to our personnel.
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In other words, run like hell and get the **** out of there as quick as we can, unless someone else has a different way to interpret those words.
This is an even bigger ******-up mess than was LBJ’s fiasco in VEET NAM, another Democrat debacle, which takes us to a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Biden Says He Will Get Americans Out of Afghanistan” by Catherine Lucey and Andrew Restuccia on 20 August 2021, where we have the Democrat goofball on the record, as follows:
WASHINGTON—President Biden promised to evacuate every American who wants to leave Afghanistan and said he would seek to extract Afghan allies, but he cautioned that the mission is dangerous and didn’t rule out losses, following days of chaos at Kabul’s international airport.
“I cannot promise what the final outcome will be or that it will be without risk of loss, but as commander-in-chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary,” Mr. Biden said during a speech in the East Room of the White House Friday.
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So after rushing the exodus of our troops to get them out of the meat grinder keep them safe, goofy old Joe has put them right back into the meat grinder.
End of story!
Bottom line?
EVERYBODY who cast a vote for Joe Biden, this is on YOU!
Rob Stubbs says
This is disgusting! The men and women that have died for our freedom and been injured for our freedom deserved a much better outcome. This should be the start of an impeachment of this administration. Protect American and her citizens…. Thus protect those that serve her!
Paul Plante says
And as we all continue to grapple with the failures that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, for an inside view that congresswoman Luria, herself a Navy vet should appreciate for its candor and honesty, qualities greatly missing in Washington,. D.C., the capitol of lies, deceit and deception, let’s go to a National Review article entitled “Marine Battalion Commander Relieved of Duties after Calling Out Military Leaders over Afghanistan Chaos” by Caroline Downey on 28 August 2021, where we have this on those failures congresswoman Luria is continuing to grapple with, to wit:
In a video published to Facebook on Friday, one day after the bombing attacks in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. service members and hundreds of Afghan civilians, Marine battalion commander Stuart Scheller voiced his dissatisfaction with the conduct of the U.S. military’s exit from Afghanistan, rebuking the senior officers who oversaw the mission.
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Now, in my estimation, this is someone who the congresswoamn should be having as a witness before her hearings on those failures by the Biden administration, which takes us back to that story, to wit:.
Lieutenant Colonel Scheller posted on Facebook that he has been relieved of duty and will leave the Marine Corps for “cause based on lack of trust and confidence as of 14:30 today.”
Scheller said he considered the potential consequences of speaking out, since public criticism of leadership violates protocol and could result in his being demoted or discharged.
He also acknowledged that the video would likely be shared widely online.
As of Friday afternoon, it had racked up 15,000 likes and had been viewed 168,000 times on Facebook.
“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk.”
“So if I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family’s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, and accountability from my senior leaders,” he continued.
The outrage that enlisted Marines feel over the bloodshed and chaos of the evacuation, he said, is not directed at their fellow soldiers on the battlefield but at the senior military leaders who led the operation.
None of the senior officers are “raising their hands and accepting accountability and saying ‘we messed this up’,” Scheller complained.
“We have a secretary of defense who testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Force could withstand the Taliban advance.”
“We have chairmen of the Joint Chiefs [of Staff]…were supposed to advise on military policy.”
“We have a Marine combatant commander.”
“All of these people were supposed to advise.”
“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever.”
“But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield strategic airbase before we evacuate everyone,’” he said.
Later in the recording, Scheller read a letter issued to the Marine Corps that specifically advised service members battered by recent events to seek counseling, suggesting some may be struggling with mental health issues amid the crisis.
While the letter insisted that the Marines’ fellow comrades in arms did not fight or die in vain, Scheller questioned whether that is true, given the botched withdrawal and haphazard evacuation that left a steep American death toll and an even steeper Afghan death toll.
“From my position, potentially all those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say ‘we did not do this well,” Scheller concluded.
“Without that, the … higher military ranks are not holding up their end of the bargain,” he said.
“I have been fighting for 17 years.”
“I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, ‘I demand accountability.’”
When asked about Scheller’s video at a press briefing Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment, pointing out that the 13 deaths have been painfully felt by senior military leaders as well.
Paul Plante says
And as we all continue to grapple with the failures that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban along with congresswoman Luria, who commanded Assault Craft Unit TWO, a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors, from 2014 until her retirement in 2017, we are going to see from a Newsweek article just out entitled “China Seizes on Stuart Scheller Firing as Evidence of U.S. Military’s ‘Low Morale'” by Jason Lemon on 29 August 2021 the real harm Joe Biden is causing this nation with his incompetence, which should have congresswoman Luria leading the charge to have Joe Biden sent to the showers on 25th Amendment grounds, to wit:
Chinese state media claimed that the firing of U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is evidence of increasingly “low morale” in the U.S. military.
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Now, we know from her past press releases in the Cape Charles Mirror that the congresswoman, herself, unlike Joe Biden, who took a pass on military service, a real combat commander, is very concerned about China eating our lunch in the South China Sea, so one would think that she would be very concerned about how China sees the firing of this Marine for speaking out about the incompetence of the Biden administration which is a grave threat to our national security, and one can only hope that she is going to hold the Biden administration responsible for this mess, which takes us back to that story for more, as follows:
Scheller posted a video online last week criticizing the decisions of top military commanders amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan after two decades of war.
The clip quickly went viral, and on Friday Scheller posted to Facebook to say that he had been relieved of duty as a result of the public criticism.
A Marine Corps spokesperson also confirmed to media outlets that Scheller had been relieved of his command.
The Global Times, an English-language tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party, jumped on the incident in a Sunday opinion article to suggest that morale is declining among U.S. troops.
“Scheller’s dismissal indicates that U.S. military leadership is unwilling to listen to any suggestions or dissatisfaction, nor willing to admit or correct any of their strategic mistakes.”
“Instead, they spare no efforts to shun their responsibility.”
“This will inevitably bring more disasters,” the article’s author Lu Xue wrote.
“It signals that senior leaders attach little significance to the safety of these lower-ranked officers and soldiers, as the latter will continue to face more threats,” he continued.
Lu wrote that the “misjudgements” of top U.S. military commanders will result in troops’ “low morale in carrying out the mission.”
The writer argued that America’s “debacle in Afghanistan will make more U.S. soldiers and lower-ranked officers realize the folly of the military leadership.”
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Yes, indeed, people, speaking from first hand knowledge as an enlisted combat soldier in the VEET NAM war, another Democrat debacle, we have been there before, and now, thanks to Joe Biden, we are right back there, again, which is a real serious state to be in, when the troops no longer have trust in the chain of command, which starts with Joe Biden himself.
Getting back to that story, we have:
The Global Times has repeatedly taken aim at the U.S. and President Joe Biden amid the chaos of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
An opinion article published by the tabloid’s editorial board on Friday mocked Biden’s “incompetence.”
“Then will Biden go back to Afghanistan?”
“He dares not, because it may bring more shame to him.”
“It is difficult to leave, and it is even more difficult to leave gracefully,” the Chinese publication wrote.
“The fundamental reason lies in the incompetence of the current U.S. government, and the inability of the U.S. national strength in coping with complex situations.”
Paul Plante says
And as we all continue to grapple with the failures that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban along with congresswoman Luria, who commanded Assault Craft Unit TWO, a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors, from 2014 until her retirement in 2017, and who is now our best hope to lead the charge to get Joe Biden removed from office on grounds of incompetence pursuant to the 25th Amendment before he can do any more damage to our national security and standing in the world, talk about a downright cosmic confluence of events, where at the same time we learn from a Bloomberg article entitled “Harris Urges More China Pressure in Meeting With Vietnam Leader” by Jenny Leonard and Derek Wallbank on 25 August 2021 that American Vice President Kamala Harris has urged countries in the region to apply more pressure on China in a meeting with Vietnam’s president, stepping up her criticism of Beijing on a visit to Asia, where Harris’s trip to Singapore and Vietnam has been overshadowed by Afghanistan, where a rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed government has left the Biden administration rushing to evacuate Americans and those who assisted their 20-year war effort against the Taliban, which now controls almost all of the country, with photographs of helicopters over Kabul evoking images of air rescues from Saigon — now known as Ho Chi Minh City — more than 45 years ago, lending Harris’s previously scheduled visit to Vietnam an unplanned historical echo, we also are presented with an article from Newsweek entitled “Chinese State Media Says Afghanistan a Lesson for Taiwan on How U.S. Abandons Allies” by Jon Jackson on 8/16/21, where we have a real good look at the harm Joe Biden is causing, to wit:
The Global Times, a tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, warned Taiwan on Monday it could face the same fate as Afghanistan if it continued relying on the United States as an ally.
The paper’s editorial began by describing how the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan caused the Taliban’s forces to quickly seize control in what it deemed “a heavy blow to the credibility and reliability of the U.S.”
The Times then cited what it called similar situations, such as the fall of Saigon during the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 when the U.S. evacuated its citizens from the city.
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Anyone who has studied that Democrat debacle knows that before Saigon ultimately fell, our Congress, and this is all a matter of public record, greatly reduced the funding to that nation for its military, which then led to the collapse of the Saigon government, which only ever existed, like the government in Afghanistan, so long as the U.S. taxpayers were supporting it financially, which takes us back to that story, as follows:
The tabloid also wrote of how the U.S. “abandoned their allies, the Kurds,” when it withdrew troops from northern Syria in 2019.
“Some historians also point out that abandoning allies to protect U.S. interests is an inherent flaw that has been deeply rooted in the U.S. since the founding of the country,” the editorial contended before claiming America betrayed France soon after the latter aided the original colonies in gaining independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War.
Taiwan is similar to Afghanistan in that it has sought support from the U.S., the Global Times claimed, adding “Taiwan is the region that relies on the protection of the U.S. the most in Asia, and the island’s Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] authorities have made Taiwan go further and further down this abnormal path.”
The situation in Afghanistan spiraled quickly out of control “after the country was abandoned by the U.S.”
The paper asked, “Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and other members of the DPP have not fully acknowledged the severity of the circumstances in Afghanistan, the editorial warned.
“They must have known better in secret that the U.S. is not reliable.”
The article concluded by giving some advice to Taiwan’s leaders: “They need to change their course of bonding themselves to the anti-Chinese mainland chariot of the U.S.”
Paul Plante says
Some relevant American history to consider here, as we bail out of yet another country after constructing the illusion of a national army and making all kinds of promises to support them, leaving them in the lurch:
History News Network
What Happened When Democrats in Congress Cut Off Funding for the Vietnam War?
by Lauren Zanolli
Originally published 4-13-07
In the fall of 1974, Nixon resigned under the pressure of the Watergate scandal and was succeeded by Gerald Ford.
Congress cut funding to South Vietnam for the upcoming fiscal year from a proposed 1.26 billion to 700 million dollars.
These two events prompted Hanoi to make an all-out effort to conquer the South.
As the North Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary Le Duan observed in December 1974: “The Americans have withdrawn…this is what marks the opportune moment.”
The NVA drew up a two-year plan for the “liberation” of South Vietnam.
Owing to South Vietnam’s weakened state, this would only take fifty-five days.
The drastic reduction of American aid to South Vietnam caused a sharp decline in morale, as well as an increase in governmental corruption and a crackdown on domestic political dissent.
The South Vietnamese army was severely under-funded, greatly outnumbered, and lacked the support of the American allies with whom they were accustomed to fighting.
The NVA began its final assault in March of 1975 in the Central Highlands.
Ban Me Thout, a strategically important hamlet, quickly fell to North Vietnam.
On March 13, a panicked Thieu called for the retreat of his troops, surrendering Pleiku and Kontum to the NVA.
Thieu angrily blamed the US for his decision, saying, “If [the U.S.] grant full aid we will hold the whole country, but if they only give half of it, we will only hold half of the country.”
His decision to retreat increased internal opposition toward him and spurred a chaotic mass exodus of civilians and soldiers that clogged the dilapidated roads to the coast.
So many refugees died along the way that the migration along Highway 7B was alternatively described by journalists as the “convoy of tears” and the “convoy of death.”
On April 21, President Thieu resigned in a bitter televised speech in which he strongly denounced the United States.
Sensing that South Vietnam was on the verge of collapse, the NVA accelerated its attack and reached Saigon on April 23.
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And still I persist in wondering whether folly must always be our nemesis.