Where Does One Begin, When Describing The Collapse Of America?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written an article entitled “Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party:  

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

With this remark — arrogant, dismissive, contemptuous — in his debate with Glenn Youngkin, Terry McAuliffe committed a historic gaffe.

From that debate forward, his poll numbers steadily sank until McAuliffe lost his lead, and with it, the election.

And going down to defeat, McAuliffe dragged with him his fellow Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general and watched Virginia’s House of Delegates revert to Republican rule.

What was McAuliffe saying, and what were Virginians hearing, in his remark? McAuliffe was saying that, in deciding what should be taught in its public schools, Virginia parents should just sit down and shut up.

Thus, a year after Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points did McAuliffe lose the state by three, a 13-point turnaround. In New Jersey, which Biden had won by 16, the popular Democratic governor barely survived a cliffhanger.

These dramatic shifts in voter behavior testify to a serious misreading by Democrats of the presidential election returns of 2020.

Biden’s total of 81 million votes, with a 7-million vote margin over former President Donald Trump, had been hailed as testament that his time had come and that the American people had both rejected Trumpism and embraced the liberal policies and politics of good old Uncle Joe.

But the 2020 election was in reality a referendum on a single simple question: Do you want four more years of Trump? Yes or no?

Some 74 million people came out and voted to keep Trump in the White House, the largest number of voters ever won by a president.

However, an even larger number of voters were saying, “Enough!”

As moderate Democrats, desperate to halt the progress of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries, had voted for Biden to prevent a socialist from winning their nomination, voters who wanted an end to the Trump era cast their votes for the other name on the ballot, which was also Biden.

In 2020, Biden lit no fires in the primaries and spent most of the general election sheltering in the basement of his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

A vote for Biden was a mandate to replace Trump, not to overturn Trump’s signature policies of no more wars, secure the border, cut taxes, rebuild the manufacturing base, reduce trade deficits, deregulate the economy and unleash the power of the U.S. free market system.

The Biden victory was a rejection of Trump, not a mandate for the agenda of Biden’s party, which, with its left-wing core dominant, is outside the mainstream of America.

When the American people voted for Biden, they were voting for competence and an end to the daily conflict and chaos, not a Second Great Society.

They were not voting for $6 trillion or $3.5 trillion for cradle-to-grave socialism. They were not voting to “Defund the Police!” or tear down statues of Christopher Columbus and Confederate soldiers, or rename schools carrying the names of George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

They were certainly not voting to abandon Trump’s wall and throw open the nation’s borders to anyone who can make it through Mexico to the Rio Grande — or to give $450,000 in reparations for migrant families who were separated from their children after breaching our border.

They were not voting to have their children taught in public schools that the country they love is shot through with “systemic racism,” and most children in America are born into “white privilege” and belong to an oppressor class whose victims are children of color.

The message to the Democratic Party Virginia sent was this:

“You can indulge the crazies in your party, but if the American people come to believe you share their ideas and intend to implement them, we are going to relieve you of control of Congress in 2022 and of the White House in 2024. Rely upon it.”

Biden, who is today 10 points down from where he began his presidency, is facing some seemingly insurmountable problems.

More than 1 million people have illegally crossed the U.S. border into our country since he took office. The debacle of the early days of our withdrawal from Afghanistan are indelibly fixed in the public mind and identified with him.

Prices of food and gas and other necessities have risen even more rapidly than the 4-5% inflation that shows no sign of abating.

Supply chains for U.S. goods from abroad, from autos to appliances, are clogged, with container ships backed up in the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. And Biden is himself a portrait in confusion and contradiction.

Daily he loses his train of thought in public fora, forgetting places and names. While shutting down pipelines from Canada into our country to save the planet from the scourge of fossil fuels, Biden is calling on the Saudis to pump more oil to cut gasoline prices at the pump in the USA.

Having lost Virginia, Biden and his party look today like they are beginning to lose America.[2]  

What Pat Buchanan has written in this article is true.  And yes, a fair question to ask is: “Where Does One Begin, When Describing The Collapse Of America?”[3]  

As Buchanan stated, one might discuss the notion of paying illegal aliens a half million dollars for their “injuries,” while vast numbers of our fellow American citizens are struggling to make ends meet and to avoid—or deal with—chronic homelessness. Or we might discuss how our already-blighted, crime-ridden and dangerous cities are becoming even more lawless as police officers and firefighters are sent home because they refuse to be vaccinated.

For many years now, the thugs, slugs, hoods and mongrels of “Black Lives Matter,” Antifa and other far-Left groups have burned our cities; killed or hurt innocent Americans including our police; and destroyed black and other businesses. Yet, thugs like George Floyd are lionized, and treated as heroes. And Leftists describe themselves as “Progressives,” which is the farthest thing from the truth.

Or one might discuss how mothers and fathers of young children are petrified at the thought of them being vaccinated because of the risks involved. Many are seriously considering the idea of homeschooling their kids for the first time. Or how little kids are being taught things that the parents find abhorrent, and the parents are told to “butt out” of their kids’ educations.

Or we might discuss how oil and other prices have soared as the Keystone Pipeline was scrapped and thousands of American jobs were lost; and our realistic goal of energy independence is trashed, and we are dependent on oil from the volatile Middle East again.

Or how the lots of auto dealerships are bare because of the shortage of chips and other parts that are essential to new state-of-the-art vehicles. And how ports on our west and east coasts have been crowded with ships offshore because of the shortage of workers to unload them and truckers to transport their contents. 

Or we might discuss how China unleashed the deadly Coronavirus, which has killed or hurt millions globally. Yet that Communist-run country has not paid any reparations for doing so, much less trillions of dollars. And how China’s goal of global domination by the end of this decade is not a pipe dream anymore.

As I concluded in an article that I wrote about the Coronavirus:

This is a bizarre new Orwellian world in which we are living—as if in a dream (or nightmare), or straight out of a horror movie—surreal. But it is real, and each of us is living in it.[4]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://buchanan.org/blog/virginia-secedes-from-bidens-party-158712 (“Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party”)

[3] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/who-and-what-is-tearing-the-us-apart/ (“Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/censorship-at-dia-no-wonder-we-lost-afghanistan/ (“Censorship At DIA, No Wonder We Lost Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/afghanistan-the-future-looks-grim-for-those-left-behind/ (“Afghanistan, The Future Looks Grim For Those Left Behind”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/the-tragedy-of-afghanistan/ (“The Tragedy Of Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/is-america-becoming-a-failed-state/ (“Is America Becoming a Failed State?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/will-the-coronavirus-mutations-cripple-america-when-it-is-becoming-clear-to-the-world-that-joe-biden-is-not-fit-to-serve-as-president/ (“Will The Coronavirus’ Mutations Cripple America When It Is Becoming Clear To The World That Joe Biden Is Not Fit To Serve As President?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/war-with-china/ (“War With China?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-day-america-died/ (“The Day America Died?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/2020-annus-horribilis/ (“2020 Annus Horribilis”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”) (see also the comments beneath each of these articles)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”), p. 305.

Who And What Is Tearing The US Apart?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written a sobering article that asks this ominous question, as follows:  

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, former President George W. Bush’s theme was national unity — and how it has been lost over these past 20 years.

“In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks,” said Bush, “I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures.”

Though he surely did not realize it, Bush had himself, moments before, given us an example of how that unity was destroyed when he drew a parallel between the terrorists of 9/11 and the Trump protesters of Jan 6. Said Bush:

“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.”

What is Bush saying here?

That Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran shot to death trying to enter the House chamber on Jan. 6, and Mohamed Atta, who drove an airliner into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in a massacre of close to 3,000 people, are “children of the same foul spirit.”

Query: Was not Bush himself here giving us an example of the “malign force” that “turns every disagreement … into a clash of cultures”?

Bush did not mention his own contribution to our national divide: his invasion of a country, Iraq, that did not threaten us, did not attack us, and did not want war with us — to disarm it of weapons it did not even have.

Which contributed more to the loss of America’s national unity?

The four hours of mob violence in the Capitol the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, or the 18-year war in Iraq that Bush launched in 2003?

“In those fateful hours” after 9/11, said Bush, “Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal.”

Yet, well before 9/11, Osama bin Laden, in his declaration of war on us, listed his grievances. Our sanctions were starving the children of Iraq. Our military presence on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca, was a national insult and a blasphemous outrage to Islam.

After 9/11, Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. President Barack Obama attacked Libya and plunged us into the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

Thus, over 20 years, we have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands — Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, soldiers and civilians alike — and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes and their countries.

Are Americans really as oblivious, as Bush suggests, as to why it was that our enemies “hate us with such zeal”?

Many of these peoples want us out of their countries for the same reason that 18th- and 19th-century Americans wanted the French, British and Spanish out of our country and out of our hemisphere.

Yet, it is not only the Bush and Obama wars that have made us so many enemies abroad and so deeply divided us at home.

Our southern border is being overrun by illegal immigrants whose number, since President Joe Biden took office, has been running at close to 2 million a year, with 30,000 “get-aways” a month. These last are mostly males who never make contact with the Border Patrol as they move on to their chosen destinations. They are coming now not only from Mexico and the northern tier countries of Central America but also from some 100 countries around the world.

Americans fear they are losing their country to the uninvited and invading millions of the Global South coming to dispossess them of their patrimony. They never voted for this invasion and have wanted their chosen leaders to stop it.

Former President Donald Trump earned their trust because he tried and, to a great degree, succeeded.

Unlike previous generations, our 21st-century divisions are far broader — not just economic and political, but social, moral, cultural and racial.

Abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights divide us. Socialism and capitalism divide us. Affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, urban crime, gun violence and critical race theory divide us. Allegations of white privilege and white supremacy, and demands that equality of opportunity give way to equity of rewards, divide us. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of masks and vaccine mandates divide us.

Demands to tear down monuments and memorials to those who were, until lately, America’s greats — from Christopher Columbus to George Washington to Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert E. Lee to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — divide us.

We are even divided today on the most fundamental of questions:

Is America now, and has it always been, a good and great country, worthy of the loyalty and love of all its children, of all its citizens?

And are we Americans proceeding toward that “more perfect union” or heading for a reenactment of our previous violent disunion?[2]  

Everything that Pat Buchanan has said in this article is true.  I have written about these and similar issues, over and over again; and about the corruption of our organs of government, and the traitors within.[3]. What is our fate, and the fate of the great American experiment of which each of us is a part?  Is it inevitable that our nation will be torn asunder, and spin off like whirling dervishes into the great unknown? 

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 has come and gone, with remembrances of that tragic day in our history and those who suffered so—and our heroes—taking place across our land and abroad.[4].  One thing is certain: we are all Americans, regardless of our skin colors, faiths or backgrounds.  Indeed, almost 12 years ago, I concluded:

I believe in this country, and I believe in Americans of all colors, faiths and backgrounds. The United States is the only true melting pot in the world, with its populace representing a United Nations of the world’s peoples. Yes, we fight and we even discriminate, but when times are tough—like after 9/11—we come together as one nation, which makes this country so great and special. Also, all of us or our ancestors came here from somewhere else. Even the American Indians are descended from those who crossed the Bering Strait—or the “Bering land bridge”—according to anthropologists.[5] 

I have not changed that conclusion.  

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://buchanan.org/blog/who-and-what-is-tearing-the-us-apart-158535 (“Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?”)

[3] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/censorship-at-dia-no-wonder-we-lost-afghanistan/ (“Censorship At DIA, No Wonder We Lost Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/afghanistan-the-future-looks-grim-for-those-left-behind/ (“Afghanistan, The Future Looks Grim For Those Left Behind”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/the-tragedy-of-afghanistan/ (“The Tragedy Of Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/is-america-becoming-a-failed-state/ (“Is America Becoming a Failed State?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/will-the-coronavirus-mutations-cripple-america-when-it-is-becoming-clear-to-the-world-that-joe-biden-is-not-fit-to-serve-as-president/ (“Will The Coronavirus’ Mutations Cripple America When It Is Becoming Clear To The World That Joe Biden Is Not Fit To Serve As President?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/war-with-china/ (“War With China?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-day-america-died/ (“The Day America Died?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/2020-annus-horribilis/ (“2020 Annus Horribilis”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”) (see also the comments beneath each of these articles)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/13/9-11-every-american-should-read-this/ (“9/11—Every American Should Read This”)

[5] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/america-a-rich-tapestry-of-life/ (“America: A Rich Tapestry Of Life”); see also https://www.philstockworld.com/2009/10/11/greenspan%E2%80%99s-legacy-more-suffering-to-come/ (“Greenspan’s legacy: more suffering to come”—Interview with Timothy D. Naegele)

9/11—Every American Should Read This

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

What follows is the transcript of a recorded call on 9/11 between Todd Beamer, a passenger aboard United Airlines flight 93 between the Newark International Airport in New Jersey and the San Francisco International Airport in California; Lisa Jefferson, a telephone supervisor for GTE; and a FBI agent named Goodwin.  It should be read by every American to understand fully what happened on 9/11.[2]  

I had visited the “Windows on the World” restaurant on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower of the World Trade Center[3].  I had served as an Army Captain assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where across the hall from the door to our offices were massive windows that looked out on the garden at the center of the Pentagon.  And I was in California on that fateful day, and got up early to watch First Lady Laura Bush testify on Capitol Hill, where I had worked.  Then it happened; and it is a day that I will never forget.

Lots of Americans were born and raised after September 11, 2001; and like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in the Pacific, 9/11 is not personal to them, which is understandable.  Yet, it is personal to me; and I urge every American to read the following transcript.  

Todd: Hello… Operator…listen to me…I can’t speak very loud. – This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco..  We have a situation here….Our plane has been hijacked…..can you understand me?

Lisa: (exhaling a deep breath to herself) I understand… Can the hijackers see you talking on the phone?

Todd: No

Lisa: Can you tell me how many hijackers are on the plane?

Todd: There are three that we know of.

Lisa: Can you see any weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?

Todd: Yes…. they don’t have guns….they have knives – they took over the plane with knives.

Lisa: Do you mean…like steak knives?

Todd: No, these are razor knives…like box cutters.

Lisa: Can you tell what country these people are from?

Todd: No…..I don’t know. They sound like they’re from the mid-east.

Lisa: Have they said what they want?

Todd: Someone announced from the cockpit that there was a bomb on board.  He said he was the captain and to stay in our seats and stay quiet.  He said that they were meeting these men’s demands and returning to the airport… It was very broken English, and… I’m telling you…it sounded fake!

Lisa: Ok sir, please give me your name.

Todd: My name is Todd Beamer.

Lisa: Ok Todd….my name is Lisa…Do you know your flight number? If you can’t remember, it’s on your ticket.

Todd: It’s United Flight 93.

Lisa: Now Todd, can you try to tell me exactly what happened?

Todd: Two of the hijackers were sitting in first class near the cockpit.  A third one was sitting near the back of the coach section. The two up. front got into the cockpit somehow; there was shouting. The third hijacker said he had a bomb. It looks like a bomb. He’s got it tied to his waist with a red belt of some kind.

Lisa: So is the door to the cockpit open?

Todd: No, the hijackers shut it behind them.

Lisa: Has anyone been injured?

Todd: Yes, ..they…they killed one passenger sitting in first class. There’s been lots of shouting. We don’t know if the pilots are dead or alive. A flight attendant told me that the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.

Lisa: Where is the 3rd hijacker now Todd?

Todd: He’s near the back of the plane. They forced most of the passengers into first class. There are fourteen of us here in the back. Five are flight attendants. He hasn’t noticed that I slipped into this pantry to get the phone. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor in the rear of the plane……….oh Jesus.. Help!

Lisa: Todd….are you ok? Tell me what’s happening!

Todd: Hello…..We’re going down….I think we’re going to crash……Wait – wait a minute. No, we’re leveling off….we’re ok. I think we may be turning around…..That’s it – we changed directions.  Do you hear me….we’re flying east again.

Lisa: Ok Todd…. What’s going on with the other passengers?

Todd: Everyone is… really scared. A few passengers with cell phones have made calls to relatives. A guy, Jeremy, was talking to his wife just before the hijacking started. She told him that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center……Lisa is that true??

Lisa: Todd…..I have to tell you the truth…..it’s very bad.  The World Trade Center is gone. Both of the towers have been destroyed.

Todd: Oh God —help us!

Lisa: A third plane was taken over by terrorists. It crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Our country is under attack….and I’m afraid that your plane may be part of their plan.

Todd: Oh dear God. Dear God…….Lisa, will you do something for me?

Lisa: I’ll try….if I can….Yes.

Todd: I want you to call my wife and my kids for me and tell them what’s happened. Promise me you’ll call..

Lisa: I promise – I’ll call.

Todd: Our home number is 201 353-1073…….You have the same name as my wife…Lisa….We’ve been married for 10 years. She’s pregnant with our 3rd child. Tell her that I love her…….(choking up)..I’ll always love her..(clearing throat) We have two boys.. David, he’s 3 and Andrew, he’s 1…..Tell them……(choking) tell them that their daddy loves them and that he is so proud of them. (clearing throat again) Our baby is due January 12th…..I saw an ultra sound…..it was great….we still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy………Lisa?

Lisa: (barely able to speak) I’ll tell them, I promise Todd.

Todd: I’m going back to the group—if I can get back I will…

Lisa: Todd, leave this line open…are you still there?……

Lisa: (dials the phone..) Hello, FBI, my name is Lisa Jefferson, I’m a telephone supervisor for GTE. I need to report a terrorist hijacking of a United Airlines Flight 93….Yes I’ll hold.

Goodwin: Hello, this is Agent Goodwin.. I understand you have a hijacking situation?

Lisa: Yes sir, I’ve been talking with a passenger, a Todd Beamer, on Flight 93 who managed to get to an air phone unnoticed.

Goodwin: Where did this flight originate, and what was its destination?

Lisa: The flight left Newark New Jersey at 8 A.M. departing for San Francisco. The hijackers took over the plane shortly after takeoff, and several minutes later the plane changed course – it is now flying east.

Goodwin: Ms. Jefferson…I need to talk to someone aboard that plane. Can you get me thru to the planes phone?

Lisa: I still have that line open sir, I can patch you through on a conference call…hold a mo…..

Todd: Hello Lisa, Lisa are you there?

Lisa: Yes, I’m here. Todd, I made a call to the FBI, Agent Goodwin is on the line and will be talking to you as well.

Todd: The others all know that this isn’t your normal hijacking. Jeremy called his wife again on his cell phone. She told him more about the World Trade Center and all.

Goodwin: Hello Todd. This is Agent Goodwin with the FBI. We have been monitoring your flight. Your plane is on a course for Washington, DC. These terrorists sent two planes into the World Trade Center and one plane into the Pentagon. Our best guess is that they plan to fly your plane into either the White House or the United States Capital Building.

Todd: I understand…hold on……I’ll…….I’ll be back..

Lisa: Mr. Goodwin, how much time do they have before they get to Washington?

Goodwin: Not long ma’am. They changed course over Cleveland; they’re approaching Pittsburgh now. Washington may be twenty minutes away.

Todd: (breathing a little heavier) The plane seems to be changing directions just a little. It’s getting pretty rough up here. The plane is flying real erratic….We’re not going to make it out of here. Listen to me….I want you to hear this….I have talked with the others….we have decided we would not be pawns in these hijackers suicidal plot.

Lisa: Todd, what are you going to do?

Todd: We’ve hatched a plan. Four of us are going to rush the hijacker with the bomb. After we take him out, we’ll break into the cockpit. A stewardess is getting some boiling water to throw on the hijackers at the controls. We’ll get them….and we’ll take them out. Lisa, …..will you do one last thing for me?

Lisa: Yes…What is it?

Todd: Would you pray with me?

They pray: Our father which art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive our trespassers,

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory

Forever…..Amen

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…

He makes me to lie down in green pastures

He leads me beside the still waters

He restores my soul

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…..

Todd: (softer) God help me…Jesus help me….(clears throat and louder)

Are you guys ready?……..
Let’s Roll……………………

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 recedes into the memories of many or most Americans, each of us should read and reread this transcript periodically to appreciate the heroism of our fellow citizens on that fateful day. 

If anyone believes that such a day cannot occur again—here in the United States, or affecting our allies—they are naive.  The collapse of Afghanistan, and the humiliation of the United States, underscored this in spades.[4]

This is a disturbing realization for all of us, certainly in the midst of so many American deaths and so much suffering from China’s Coronavirus and its mutations—physically, psychologically and economically—with more to come.

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks (“September 11 attacks”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93 (“United Airlines Flight 93”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Beamer (“Todd Beamer”)

[3] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_the_World (“Windows on the World”)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”)

The Taliban Are Victorious

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Victor Davis Hanson—a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution—has written a sobering and lengthy article that discusses this obvious and ominous conclusion and its ramifications for all of us, as follows:  

Joe Biden’s scripted or no-questions press conferences, and the clean-up afterward by Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Jen Psaki, have been some of the most misleading episodes in modern presidential history—mostly in what was not said rather than was exaggerated, warped, and misrepresented.  

Biden as Commander-in-Chief

The more Joe Biden mutters “The buck stops here” or “I take full responsibility,” the more we know he will not—and not just because of his now reduced mental state, but because 1) he repeats the same opportunist messaging that he has for the last 50 years of his political career, and 2) the only true thing he could say was “I ordered a withdrawal in the most reckless manner in U.S. military history.”

When Biden then blames Donald Trump, it raises the immediate questions:

1) If the Afghanistan deal was so flawed, why did Biden stick with it, given his other radical departures from what he inherited on the border, on fossil fuels, on the Middle East—on just about everything before January 20, 2021?

2) So, was it good or bad to withdraw all U.S. troops? Was Trump wrong to have bequeathed him a policy of graduated withdrawal, but Biden was right to have continued it for a while—only to have accelerated it into surrender and flight?

3) Why did the violence erupt on Biden’s rather than on Trump’s watch? And was his order for a hasty flight in the dead of night from Bagram Air Base also the inherited Trump departure plan?

When Joe Biden now threatens al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, and others with revenge, he sounds, unfortunately, more like the ridiculous Joe of “Corn Pop” braggadocio with his weaponized chain, or Joe taking Trump behind the gym to womp on him, or young Joe Biden slamming the mouthy kid’s head on the lunch counter. Speaking softly with a club is preferable to being loud with a twig.

We have all heard, ad nauseam, too many of Biden’s He-Man stories. The latest rhetoric does not hide the fact that Biden had opposed the Osama bin Laden raid, criticized the termination of Qasem Soleimani, left Afghanistan in the most shameful retreat in U.S. history, and is now begging the Saudis to pump more oil after cutting back on our ample supplies and trashing Riyadh as part of his return to the Obama pivot to Iran. 

Biden loves appeasement lists. He provided the Taliban with a list of whom we wished to evacuate. (When the Taliban soon knock on the door of an American in Kabul who thinks their message will be, “We’re here to escort you to your flight”?) In the same manner, Biden provided Putin with a helpful list of institutions he wanted Putin’s satellite cyber-criminals to exempt from hacking. 

The blame for this sordid mess is threefold: 

1) The media that knew Biden was debilitated and so covered up that fact to carry the candidate across the finish line in November. 

2) The Democratic apparat that envisioned Biden lasting just long enough (the country be damned) to provide the needed cover of a sharply left-wing agenda. 

3) The Pentagon’s top brass, active and retired, who for years leaked about and obstructed Trump, sought to toady up to the press in its “wokeness,” and posed as speaking truth to power, but have now gone strangely silent when we need public voices to oppose the present Afghanistan nihilism of the administration.

Partnering With the Taliban

The Taliban are to al-Qaeda and ISIS as the Nazis in World War II were to fellow fascists of the Spanish Blue Division, the Hungarian Arrow Cross, and the Romanian Iron Guard—ethnic and ideological variants of the same radical nihilist cause. No act of terror goes on in Afghanistan without someone in the Taliban ordering or allowing it. Their “ring” around the airport is only an obstruction for whom they choose: Americans and their allies. 

The Taliban may for a moment seek plausible deniability of suicide bombings to hasten the U.S. departure in shame, temporarily disavowing credit for slaughtering Americans as they leave. But as soon as U.S. soldiers are gone, the Taliban will give free rein to its hounds al-Qaeda and ISIS, brag that they drove out the United States, and then resume their accustomed murdering and raping of civilians. We should expect lots of silent, under-the-table Bowe Bergdahl-type swaps, trades, and humiliations for the next year or so. We will likely sell out our former friends in the Northern Alliance, pay cash under the table per hostage head, and lie about a “new” Taliban. 

So, should we laugh or cry when General Kenneth McKenzie assures us that the Taliban and the U.S. military have the same agenda: Americans exiting Afghanistan as soon as possible? 

Yes, their agenda is the Pentagon exiting Afghanistan as soon as possible—but with the greatest global humiliation, loss of life, and general sense of defeat. In contrast, our agenda is to leave Afghanistan soberly and methodically, even if that means regaining Bagram for as long as necessary to achieve our own strategic goals.

The Abandoned Arsenal

The administration never mentions the vast horde of U.S. weaponry that was simply abandoned to the Taliban. Why? Is it to be “$80 billion here, thousands of machine guns there—no big deal”?

Estimates of the trove’s value range from $70 billion to $90 billion. The stockpile likely includes 80,000 vehicles, including 4,700 late-model Humvees, 600,000 weapons of various sorts, 162,643 pieces of communications equipment, more than 200 aircraft, and 16,000 pieces of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment, including late-model drones. Especially worrisome are the loss of night-vision equipment, 20,000-plus grenades, and 1,400 grenade launchers, as well as more than 7,000 machine guns—the perfect equipment for jihadist terror operations and asymmetrical street fighting. 

We can look at this disaster in a number of depressing ways. One would be to compare this giveaway to military aid given to Israel over the last 70 years, which more or less has amounted to about an aggregate $100 billion. In other words, in one fell swoop, the Pentagon deposited into Taliban hands about 80 percent of all the military aid that we’ve ever given to Israelsince the founding of the Jewish state. In terms of tactical and operational capability, the Taliban may now be the best-equipped terrorist force in Asia and the Middle East.

Assume that for the next quarter-century, Afghanistan will become not just the world’s training haven for Islamic terrorists, but an international, no-questions-asked, cash-on-the-barrel arms market for anti-Western terrorist cliques. 

Or we can assess the damage psychologically. For the immediate future (possibly over the next few days or weeks), American soldiers could face the prospect of being attacked or killed by those who are outfitted in their own mirror image, and they might be blown up by their own former weapons. 

Yet the media never asked for, nor did the Pentagon volunteer, any explanation of why such stocks were simply abandoned, or at least not destroyed before fleeing, or not later bombed. Since nothing makes sense, we must strain the imagination: was the $80 billion in arms given as de facto bribe money to get our own out? 

In addition, the beefed-up U.S. embassy in Kabul reportedly cost nearly $1 billion, comparable to America’s most expensive embassy in London. It will now become a Taliban stronghold. Bagram Air Base—originally built with U.S. help and money during the Eisenhower Administration—has been updated with hundreds of millions of dollars of American investment in the last 20 years, in buildings, a new runway, personnel accommodations, detention facilities, and infrastructure. 

Although it had been the target of several Taliban attacks, Bagram was largely considered defensible. It allowed coalition and Afghan forces to enjoy 100 percent air superiority over the entire country. Biden talks endlessly of the “over the horizon” capability of distant bases and ships, while omitting that he destroyed “right over the target” current capability. Why these vital American investments were simply surrendered in the dead of night to looters first, and Taliban second, will be an object of controversy and investigation for decades to come. To think of anything similar, imagine the British surrender of Singapore in 1942 or a combination of Fort Sumter, the burning of Washington in 1814, and Wake Island, December 1941.

The End of American Stature

Regional countries will no longer wish to join the United States in any war on terror because they know they are always just one election from a radical flip-flop in American foreign policy. There is no such thing anymore as bipartisan foreign affairs, since policy is seen as an extension of the revolutionary agendas here at home. Our allies are concluding that the United States is not a bastion of sobriety and careful deliberation that takes its leadership of the free world seriously, but a mercurial, radical leftist country that in a second may self-immolate, as we did in the woke summer of 2020. 

Donald Trump reportedly offended NATO members and weakened the alliance by his bombast. Perhaps, but the record shows a funny type of allied enervation, because his jawboning resulted in a much larger NATO budget, marked gains in military expenditures on the part of NATO members, and a dramatic increase in those nations finally meeting or nearly meeting their two percent of GDP military investment promises. 

And during the Trump Administration, NATO nations could claim that they destroyed ISIS in Syria under U.S. leadership, kept Afghanistan safe while reducing troops, frightened Iran, and taught Russians in Syria not to assault U.S. garrisons. For all the graduated withdrawals of the United States from Afghanistan in 2010-2020, not a single U.S. soldier had died in the 12 months prior to the inauguration of Joe Biden.  

But now? Most of the major NATO nations have condemned the U.S. skedaddle from Afghanistan. They are angry that they were not consulted, and not synchronized in the complex airlift and withdrawal. And they resent the “every man for himself” unilateralism on the part of the United States.

We cannot expect the European NATO members to stand with the United States in trying to check Chinese aggression. The alliance will no longer badger Germany to cease its new de facto economic alliance with Russia or to stand firm against Russian bullying of frontline NATO states, or to present a unified skeptical front about reentering the flawed Iran deal. Differing views about assistance to Israel will only acerbate. NATO members, rightly or wrongly, feel they were bullied into Afghanistan by the United States, and 20 years later outnumbered the U.S. contingent by nearly fourfold—only to be left stunned as their supposed spiritual and military leader fled first for the exits, after itself surrendering the country to NATO enemies. 

The Future

In an ideal world, Biden would order a nocturnal retaking of Bagram, shift all U.S. evacuation efforts there, and provide air cover for incoming and outcoming flights as well as retaliatory strikes on terrorist enclaves as necessary. He would tell the Taliban that $80 billion of free military stuff was enough of bribes and that any more obstructive efforts will be met with bombs, not more cash and weapons.  

Joe Biden thinks August 31, 2021, is the “end” of Afghanistan. In fact, it is a new beginning of yet another chapter in the much despised “war on terror.” But this time around, the Taliban are victorious. They have been reinvented as the best-equipped jihadist nation in the world, basking in the prestige of humiliating the world’s superpower, and will take ownership of hundreds of billions of dollars of Western investment in infrastructure in Afghanistan’s major cities. 

This disaster can be attributed to Biden’s apparent desire for a 9/11 “no more Afghanistan” anniversary parade—itself to be staged to hide his multifaceted border, economy, energy, and foreign policy failures.

The Chinese are debating now whether to ramp up the assault rhetoric against Taiwan, as more Chinese voices conclude that Biden would support the Taiwanese in meager fashion, as he did U.S. contractors and Afghan interpreters. The Russians are pondering which exposed NATO country or which former Soviet republic might be probed and dissected—in expectation of a tough-guy Biden Corn-Pop lecture but not much else. Kim Jong-un is considering replaying his old role of rocket man, as he calibrates the Biden responses to more missiles launched in Japanese air or water space.

Watch Iran especially. The theocracy believes this is the most opportune time in 20 years to announce that it is or will soon be nuclear, to unleash Hezbollah, and to step up global terrorist operations on the assumption that Biden will bow his head and declare “We do not forgive; we do not forget” and then retire for an early nap.[2]  

This article echoes what I have written here:

(1) [O]ur trillion-dollar project to plant Western democracy in a Muslim nation has failed dramatically; (2) our final departure from Kabul may become, like JFK’s Bay of Pigs, a synonym for American failure; (3) NATO may collapse, for all intents and purposes; (4) a few mortar shells landing on the tarmac of the lone runway in Kabul, and no plane can fly in or out . . . ; (5) our Afghan allies face murderous reprisals and retribution; (6) the Americans left in Kabul and other cities may become hostages to the Taliban; (7) the future looks grim for those left behind; (8) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin [should] be sacked; (9) our intelligence agencies have failed us; [(10) the world is watching with horror or glee, depending on whether one is a friend or foe; (11) China may move on Taiwan, while Russia moves on Ukraine; (12) the possibilities of 9/11-like attacks on the American mainland are not beyond the pale of reason; and (13) we have Brain Dead Joe Biden in the White House, with Willie Brown’s ho Kamala Harris standing in the wings to succede him.][3]

These are disturbing conclusions for all of us, certainly in the midst of so many American deaths and so much suffering from China’s Coronavirus and its mutations, physically, psychologically and economically—with more to come.[4]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/29/our-afghan-nightmare-tanks-for-nothing/

[3] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/afghanistan-the-future-looks-grim-for-those-left-behind/ 

[4] See https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/last-plane-carrying-americans-afghanistan-departs-nation-s-longest-war-n1278012 (“Last plane carrying Americans from Afghanistan departs as longest U.S. war concludes”) and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9941147/Pentagon-says-troops-left-Afghanistan-just-midnight-Kabul.html (“Pentagon confirms the LAST US troops and evacuation flights have left Afghanistan just after midnight in Kabul: Taliban ‘takes control of airport and celebrates with gunfire’ as 20-year war ends”) 

Censorship At DIA, No Wonder We Lost Afghanistan

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

I spent two years working in the Pentagon, where I served as an Army officer assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).  When I finished my service there—as a Captain—I received the distinguished Joint Service Commendation Medal, before going to work in the U.S. Senate.[2]

Like many organizations, DIA has an alumni group, which ostensibly posts comments about timely issues.  None is more important today than the collapse of our great nation’s presence in Afghanistan, and the loss of American, allied and Afghan lives.  It is front and center globally.  Yet, a former DIA employee, James Beirne—who presumably was a civilian when he worked there—has decided to ban my comments, which constitutes gross and unconscionable censorship.  Americans have fought and died for our freedoms; and they are dying in Afghanistan today, to preserve them.[3]

No wonder Afghanistan constitutes a colossal defeat for the United States, which may surpass the fall of Saigon and Vietnam, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, in terms of its national gravity.  Presumably Beirne is part of the reckless “cancel culture,” which has no place in America today.  He is a stain on the DIA where I worked before him, with outstanding co-workers who contributed greatly to our national security.

Beirne should resign in disgrace.  Our nation is not well served by the likes of him.  Indeed, the association’s motto is “Still Serving in Defense of the Nation.”  Clearly, Beirne is not doing this, especially in crucial times like this when China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin—and our other adversaries globally—are watching every move that we make, and gauging their responses accordingly.[4] 

America does not need traitors at this critical juncture in our history. 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6, https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-21-8-6.pdf

He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).

Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6, https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-21-8-6.pdf

[3] See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9931085/Joe-Biden-tense-forth-interesting-guy-Steve-Doocy-Fox-News.html (“Nowhere to hide, Joe: President adopts fetal position pose as he crumbles under questioning from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy and tries to blame Trump for the catastrophe in Afghanistan”)

On August 26, 2021, Beirne posted the following notice:

“You can’t post or comment in this group.
“The admin has temporarily turned off your ability to post or comment in the group until September 23, 2021, 2:07 PM.”

Needless to say, by late September, the world will know in meticulous detail what an unmitigated disaster Afghanistan has become for the United States, our friends in Afghanistan, and our allies globally.

See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/26/the-biden-harris-presidency-has-ended/ (“The Biden-Harris Presidency Has Ended”)

[4]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9905015/China-vows-crush-troops-Taiwan-force-Biden-abandoned-Afghanistan.html (“China vows to ‘crush’ any US troops on Taiwan ‘by force’ and conducts live fire naval exercises in South China Sea after Biden abandoned Afghanistan”)

The Biden-Harris Presidency Has Ended

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Yes, it hasn’t come to an end officially, yet.  But for all intents and purposes, it is done.  Lyndon Johnson’s presidency was finished after the fall of Saigon and Vietnam.  He was hated, and could not run for reelection.[2]

The tragedy of epic proportions that is emerging in Afghanistan and the fall of its capital Kabul, and America’s humiliation at the hands of the Taliban, has trumpeted the end of the Biden-Harris presidency to the world—to friends and foes alike.[3]

Is Joe Biden “Brain Dead”?  All indications are that this is true.[4]  But in a sense, it is irrelevant.  The world has watched the only true superpower disgraced like perhaps never before.[5]  And the ripple effects will spread far and wide.[6]

The rise of Coronavirus hospitalizations in the United States adds an exclamation point to this.[7]  Needless to say, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are watching these developments closely.  As “chess masters,” they will be calibrating their moves accordingly; and they are observing America mired down, like Gulliver and the Lilliputians.[8]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1968_presidential_election

[3] See, e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/25/world/asia/afghanistan-evacuations-estimates.html (“At Least 250,000 Afghans Who Worked With U.S. Haven’t Been Evacuated, Estimates Say”)

[4] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”) 

[5]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9905015/China-vows-crush-troops-Taiwan-force-Biden-abandoned-Afghanistan.html (“China vows to ‘crush’ any US troops on Taiwan ‘by force’ and conducts live fire naval exercises in South China Sea after Biden abandoned Afghanistan”) 

[6]  See, e.g., https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/08/28/after-afghanistan-where-next-for-global-jihad (“After Afghanistan, where next for global jihad?”)

[7]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9929493/More-100-000-Americans-hospitalized-COVID-19-time-January.html (“More than 100,000 Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19 for the first time since January: Doctors say they’ve had to turn away patients as virus cases rise 138% over the last month”)

[8] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels

Afghanistan, The Future Looks Grim For Those Left Behind

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written a sobering article that discusses this obvious and ominous conclusion and its ramifications for all of us, as follows:

In Afghanistan, the mission failure appears complete.

The trillion-dollar project to plant Western democracy in a Muslim nation historically fabled for driving out imperial intruders has crashed and burned after 20 years, and the Taliban are suddenly back in power.

After investing scores of billions in training and arming a force of 350,000 Afghani troops, the U.S. could not stand up an army and a government that could survive our departure.

And the final U.S. departure from Hamid Karzai International Airport may become, like JFK’s Bay of Pigs, a synonym for American debacle.

Nor is the failure ours alone. Many of our principal allies were heavily invested. The British are now attempting to bring their people out of Kabul under the same conditions as ours.

The leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party and possibly the next chancellor of Germany, Armin Laschet, calls the withdrawal “the biggest debacle that NATO has suffered since its founding.”

Three decades ago, after the breakup of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar said that NATO, having lost the rationale for its existence — containment of the Soviet Union — would now have “to go out of area or go out of business.”

Cynics might say that, in Afghanistan, NATO did both.

After 9/11, “the most successful alliance in history” invoked Article 5 and backed the U.S. war to oust the Taliban and annihilate the Al Qaeda terrorists who had carried out 9/11. Many sent troops.

But there could be worse to come.

While there are about 4,000 U.S. troops at the Kabul airport, U.S. control does not extend beyond the airport perimeter.

When asked if U.S. troops could enter Kabul and extract American citizens, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin replied, “I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul.” Americans in Kabul and other cities must make their own way to the Kabul airport.

The U.S. thus depends today upon the sufferance of the Taliban to let the Americans through the gridlocked highway. Many Afghan allies are being impeded and turned back. Having aided our troops during the war, these Afghan allies face murderous reprisals and retribution.

There are other present perils.

A few mortar shells landing on the tarmac of the lone runway at HKIA, and no plane can fly in or out until the runway is repaired. The arrival of troops and supplies, and any daily departure of 5,000 to 9,000 people, would be halted.

If fighting is renewed, the Americans left in Kabul and other cities become hostages to the Taliban. And there are many more out there than the 52 Americans held by Iran in the hostage crisis that ended the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

The U.S. does, however, retain leverage. U.S. airpower can still do damage to the Taliban, and the U.S. can veto any International Monetary Fund money and cut the Taliban’s access to Afghanistan’s financial reserves in U.S. banks.

Without cash, the Taliban will have a hellish time providing for the necessities the country needs to stay viable.

Right now, the Americans and the Taliban need each other. The Taliban need time to consider their control, and the Americans need time to get their people and their Afghan allies out.

Thus, the Taliban are putting on a moderate face at the top level.

Yet, given the character of the Taliban, as revealed in its previous tenure, and the desire for revenge against those who have been killing Taliban comrades, the future looks grim for those left behind.

When Saigon fell in 1975, its armed forces went into re-education camps — concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled on rafts, many to their deaths in the South China Sea. The Cambodians who backed us underwent a genocide, with a fraction of the entire population annihilated by the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot.

As for the damage done to Joe Biden’s presidency, it is significant and permanent. The collapse of the regime, and the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops, U.S. citizens and Afghan friends and allies, have tarnished any reputation for competence Biden had.

As for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Austin, it is hard to see either surviving long in their positions after learning they did not see coming the imminent and worst foreign policy debacle since the fall of Saigon.

Did the U.S. intelligence agencies see it coming? Did they fail to inform the Pentagon or White House?

After the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, former CIA Director Allen Dulles, who had a role in the failed invasion, was, after a decent interval of six months, cashiered.

One imagines that senior Biden officials’ heads will roll well before that date in the Biden administration. For in this disaster, it seems, no one saw it coming so soon, or becoming so sweeping.[2]

What Pat Buchanan is saying emphatically is that (1) our trillion-dollar project to plant Western democracy in a Muslim nation has failed dramatically; (2) our final departure from Kabul may become, like JFK’s Bay of Pigs, a synonym for American failure; (3) NATO may collapse, for all intents and purposes; (4) a few mortar shells landing on the tarmac of the lone runway in Kabul, and no plane can fly in or out, and the arrival of troops and supplies and any daily departure of American citizens and others would be halted; (5) our Afghan allies face murderous reprisals and retribution; (6) the Americans left in Kabul and other cities may become hostages to the Taliban; (7) the future looks grim for those left behind; (8) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be sacked; and (9) our intelligence agencies have failed us.

Obviously, the world is watching with horror or glee, depending on whether one is a friend or foe.  China may move on Taiwan, while Russia moves on Ukraine.  And the possibilities of 9/11-like attacks on the American mainland are not beyond the pale of reason, while Americans remain traumatized by the Coronavirus’ effects, physically, psychologically and economically—which China launched, and whether the vaccines are really effective.  Meanwhile, we have Brain Dead Joe Biden in the White House, with Willie Brown’s ho Kamala Harris standing in the wings to succede him.[3]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://buchanan.org/blog/aftermath-of-an-afghanistan-debacle-149926%22

[3] See also https://www.gingrich360.com/2021/08/18/with-the-talibans-victory-a-caliphate-rises-from-the-ashes/ (“With the Taliban’s Victory, a Caliphate Rises from the Ashes”) (“[A]fter President Biden announced his decision in April to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan, the U.S. pulled its air support and intelligence for the Afghan military. As a result, the Afghans couldn’t operate. . . . The Biden administration even refused to allow private contractors from entering Afghanistan to service Afghan aircraft. . . . America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is about to unleash hell on the Afghan people. That’s undeniable. Whether the withdrawal leads to disaster elsewhere in the world remains to be seen”)

The Tragedy Of Afghanistan

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

The photo below is of a young Afghan woman who was disfigured years ago.  Her turmoil was discussed here[2]; and her plight is cited again, because what happened to her may be illustrative of what happens to so many Afghan women and young girls in the days and months to come.  They will be raped, disfigured and become sexual slaves of the Taliban.  It will be as if the gates of Hell have been opened wide to them, and there is no mercy or kindness in this world.

The same thing happened in Syria and in the countries of Africa; and human trafficking is a fact of life in the United States and globally.[3]  Also, the harvesting of human body parts is real and happens every day in Mexico and elsewhere.[4]  Some of us are so repulsed by such thoughts that we say prayers for the victims, but turn our attentions elsewhere.  We need to stay as positive as possible in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic that has claimed so many lives, and hurt others physically, psychologically and economically.[5]

Historically, Mujahideen fighters helped the United States drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, which led to the collapse of the “Evil Empire” ultimately.  Instead of helping them, Congress turned its back, just like it abandoned our allies in Vietnam.  The Mujahideen fighters morphed into today’s Taliban, who quite naturally have hated Americans ever since, after being betrayed.[6]

Seared into the memories of some of us are the images of people being airlifted from the roof of our embassy in Saigon, before Vietnam fell, which has been occurring in Kabul as America abandons that doomed capital too.[7]  And then there was the day when we turned on our TVs to watch the twin towers collapsing in New York City on 9/11, as well as the Pentagon—where I had worked—being attacked, and the passenger jet crashing in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.[8]

It has been written that the fall of Afghanistan and the slaughter there, and the raping and enslavement of Afghan women and young girls, will haunt the Democrats for a generation.  Surely, it is the defining moment of the failed Biden-Harris presidency, just as Lyndon Johnson could not run for reelection in the wake of the Vietnam tragedy.[9]  Like the image below, at the very least the fall of Afghanistan may produce scenes that are never forgotten by Americans or others globally.

Lastly, the open question is whether the fall of Afghanistan and America’s humiliation will create or trigger a “domino effect,” whereby other countries in the region (or globally) fall, which have been our allies?  Obituaries will be written for decades to come, and the victors will write theirs.[10] But right now our prayers are with our friends in Afghanistan who will suffer terribly.  Some will wonder where a loving God is, in the midst of so much madness.

 

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/obama-in-afghanistan-doomed-from-the-start/ (“Obama In Afghanistan: Doomed From The Start?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/are-afghanistan-iraq-and-pakistan-hopeless-and-is-the-spread-of-radical-islam-inevitable-and-is-barack-obama-finished-as-americas-president/ (“Are Afghanistan, Iraq And Pakistan Hopeless, And Is The Spread Of Radical Islam Inevitable, And Is Barack Obama Finished As America’s President?”) (see also the comments beneath these articles)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/remembering-the-comfort-women-victims-of-human-trafficking-and-slavery/ (“Remembering The Comfort Women, Victims Of Human Trafficking And Slavery”) (see also the comments beneath this article)

[4]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/15/who-is-next-the-murder-of-a-young-american-and-the-harvesting-of-his-body-parts-in-mexico/ (“Who Is Next? The Murder Of A Young American And The Harvesting Of His Body Parts In Mexico”) (see also the comments beneath this article)

[5] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (“The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_mujahideen (“Afghan mujahideen”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_mujahideen#Relationship_with_the_Taliban

[7]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Saigon (“Fall of Saigon”)

[8] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks (“September 11 attacks”); and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanksville,_Pennsylvania#September_11,_2001

[9] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1968_presidential_election

[10]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9896007/Taliban-commander-gives-press-conference-INSIDE-Kabuls-Presidential-Palace.html (“Taliban leader claims he ‘spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay’ in triumphant speech from Kabul palace as Islamists seize Afghanistan – while thousands fight to flee country out chaotic scenes at airport”)

Barack Obama: America’s Second Emperor?

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Just days after announcing the surge of 30,000 more U.S. troops in his Afghan war, Barack Obama was in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize that was announced shortly after he became president—before he had done anything.  Next, he was in Copenhagen accepting a deal without any teeth to address “global warming,” in the midst of a blizzard that dumped snow on the Danish capital, suggesting to most people that the issue is a “hoax.”

Straddling his back-to-back trips to Europe, he was in Washington, D.C.—where he was met by a blizzard on his return from Denmark—pushing for the enactment of ObamaCare that Americans oppose[2].  The legislation is so reckless that it had to be rammed through the U.S. Senate on a partisan vote.  Also, the Democrats’ leadership hid the exact nature of the health care bill from senators, who surely had a right to know what they were voting for.

Then the president jetted off to spend the holidays in Hawaii[3], having irresponsibly saddled the people with ObamaCare—after the legislation clears a joint Senate-House conference committee and he signs some version of it into law—which is reprehensible, certainly with respect to its impact on Medicare patients[4].  His recent travels alone create a carbon footprint globally that boggles the mind, especially when so many Americans are suffering from an economic meltdown that shows few real signs of abating.  Indeed, 49 States have lost jobs since his so-called “Stimulus Package” was enacted.[5]

His popularity poll numbers have been plummeting[6], but he is seemingly oblivious to the will of the people and determined to remake the United States and the world in his own image.  Never mind that his life was shaped by years growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, he is bent on changing this country.  He did not set foot on the American mainland until he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and Columbia University in New York City; and when he did so, he was a druggie—according to his own admissions[7].

He ignores a super-majority of Americans who believe warming and cooling are natural phenomena that have occurred in cycles on this planet for millions of years.  Science and common sense tell us that some of the coldest temperatures recorded to date have occurred in recent years.[8] Yet, in remarks prepared for delivery in Denmark, he called on heads of state and other attendees to forge a deal, warning that “[u]nchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet.  This much we know.”[9]

What we know for certain is that scientific studies support the opposite conclusion, namely that “global warming” is a hoax; and they have been suppressed and their authors have been intimidated.  Also, the leaders who arrived in Copenhagen did so on private jets, and they commandeered a fleet of limousines in the midst of global economic problems—as if to thumb their noses at “commoners” worldwide who pay for their trips and lavish life styles, and say: “Let them eat cake.”

Obama is determined to close our detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer its “detainees” (or jihadists) to prisons in the continental U.S., which the American people oppose.  Also, he pushes for the trial of terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City—rather than in a military tribunal—which will make a public spectacle of the event, and expose the city to more chaos and the risk of additional attacks at a time when it is still traumatized by 9/11.

His decisions on both issues are wrong and irresponsible, which was underscored by the attempted Christmas Day terrorist bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.[10] Earlier in the year, the president had the audacity to give himself a “B+” for his performance in office.  However, it is doubtful that a majority of Americans would give him a grade even remotely approaching that.  In fact, he has been given an “F” for protecting Americans, and criticized harshly.[11]

Obama is pursuing his war in Afghanistan, but failing to heed the advice of his generals and trying to micromanage the war on the cheap, thereby endangering the mission as well as brave members of our military—which is stretched too thin already.  They do not deserve to be hamstrung into failure by an anti-war community organizer-president, who is half-heartedly supporting the war and unable (or unwilling) to state that the goal of winning is why we are there.[12]

He is pursuing deals with Russia’s “dictator-for-life” Putin, who is a smoother version of Stalin.  Both men are known for the brutal oppression and systematic elimination of their critics.[13] Russia is no longer a super power, and it is little more than a Third World country with severe economic problems.  It should not be helped by the United States, much less coddled; and Putin should be treated as our enemy[14]. Obama has befriended Venezuela’s Chavez too, and other tinhorn dictators and enemies of America.

In 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton—better known as “Emperor Norton I,” a celebrated citizen of San Francisco—proclaimed himself “Emperor of these United States.”  He issued numerous proclamations including his “order” that the U.S. Congress be dissolved by force.[15] If there was ever an American who had regal notions of grandeur and an imperial presidency, it is Barack Obama.  His naïveté[16] has been matched by his arrogance and overarching narcissism.  Ultimately, he may be viewed as a tragic Shakespearean figure who is forgotten and consigned to the dustheap of history.

In a famous Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, an emperor marches in a procession under a beautiful canopy wearing a new suit of clothes that does not exist, provided by two swindlers. A little child says at last: “But he has nothing on at all.”[17] Obama’s core beliefs and modus operandi are becoming clear for Americans and the world to see[18], as the first decade of the 21st Century ends ominously.  He is a mistake of potentially cataclysmic proportions.[19]

© 2010, Timothy D. Naegele

---

[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), the first black senator since Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War.  He practices law in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles with his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates (www.naegele.com).  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA, as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He is a member of the District of Columbia and California bars.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal.  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years.  See, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles

[2] See http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/december_2009/voter_attitudes_towards_health_care_plan_harden_58_opposed (December 30, 2009: “(“Thirty-nine percent (39%) of voters nationwide support the plan, and 58% are opposed.  That’s consistent with our weekly tracking of the issue which has found support between 38% and 41% every week from just before Thanksgiving to the end of 2009.  The new figures include 19% who Strongly Favor the plan and 46% who Strongly Oppose it.”)

[3] See, e.g., http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091224/NEWS01/912240345/Timing++of+Obama+s+family+vacation+in+Hawaii+is++perfect+

[4] See, e.g., http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHoYSI84VdL0

[5] See, e.g., http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=164206

[6] See, e.g., http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

[7] See Barack Obama, “Dreams from My Father” (paperback “Revised Edition,” published by Three Rivers Press, 2004), p. 93 (“Junkie.  Pothead.  That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man.”); see also pp. 120, 270; https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/.

[8] See, e.g., http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/22/cold-weather-europe-death-toll; http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6787095.html (“[T]he Dallas-Fort Worth area was experiencing its first White Christmas in more than 80 years”); http://www.weather.com/newscenter/stormwatch (“Historic snowstorm enters the record book”); http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248956/Snowmageddon-brings-chaos-U-S-East-Coast-Washington-DC-braces-worst-blizzard-90-years.html (“[‘Snowmageddon’ brings] the heaviest snowfall in [Washington, D.C.] for 90 years”)

[9] See, e.g., http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/12/18/text-of-obamas-remarks-in-copenhagen (“All of you would not be here unless you, like me, were convinced that this danger is real.  This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet.  This much we know.”)

[10] See, e.g., http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126209221278008901.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESecondNews AND http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624503147162222.html (“Sending Gitmo’s jihadists back to this [Yemeni] maelstrom makes no security sense”)

[11] See, e.g., http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100020934/barack-obama-gets-an-f-for-protecting-americans AND http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101744.html (“The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration’s response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension”)

[12] See, e.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/25/AR2009122501923_pf.html (“Terms such as ‘winning’ and ‘victory’ have been eschewed by the White House.  Obama did not use either in his Dec. 1 address, and he said in an interview earlier this year that he was uncomfortable using the term ‘victory’ when fighting ‘a non-state actor, a shadowy operation like al-Qaeda.’”).

[13] See, e.g., http://www.theotherrussia.org/

[14] See, e.g., http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/29/ap/world/main6032803.shtml

[15] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton

[16] See, e.g., http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=DEE3CCB3-18FE-70B2-A8EADFBA65A39259

[17] See, e.g., http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes

[18] See, e.g., Barack Obama, “Dreams from My Father” (paperback “Revised Edition,” published by Three Rivers Press, 2004).  See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist

[19] See, e.g., http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574628134281062714.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read (“[The] patina of cosmopolitanism in President Obama’s background concealed the isolationism of the liberal coalition that brought him to power.  . . . The man who demolished the Iraqi tyranny, George. W. Bush, is no longer in power, and a different sentiment drives America’s conduct abroad.  . . . No despot fears Mr. Obama, and no blogger in Cairo or Damascus or Tehran, no demonstrator in those cruel Iranian streets, expects Mr. Obama to ride to the rescue.  . . . He had declared a unilateral end to the ‘war on terror,’ but the jihadists and their mentors are yet to call their war to a halt.  From Yemen to Fort Hood and Detroit, the terror continues.”)

Obama In Afghanistan: Doomed From The Start?

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

At the same time that President Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan, he said the U.S. would begin pulling out by July of 2011—just before his reelection campaign begins in earnest, and only one year after our forces will have been deployed fully.  It is a political decision, and tantamount to conceding the country to our enemies sometime that year.  The president’s decisions are not surprising because he is an anti-war politician who never served in the U.S. military, and he knows nothing about running a war.  His plans are designed to appease his political soul mates and constituency, America’s anti-war far-Left.

His “dithering” for months now has undermined the support of our allies, and sent a clear signal to our enemies that he is weak and indecisive, and America is too.  The halfway measures of his new Afghan policies will not satisfy the American political Left or Right, our allies or the Afghan people—whose suffering will continue.  However, the president will have pleased our enemies, especially when he is focused on an “exit strategy” instead of winning.  It is disturbing to watch him pathetically try to micro-manage the war in Afghanistan from the White House.[2] Indeed, it smacks of Lyndon Johnson’s tragic handling of the Vietnam War that resulted in the senseless deaths of more than 58,000 Americans, and more than 150,000 who were wounded[3]; and the end of his presidency.

We began in Afghanistan militarily shortly after 9/11, and were successful in taking over the country and ousting the Taliban.  The poppy crops should have been eradicated then, so the worldwide supply of heroin would have been reduced dramatically.  The Associated Press reported on November 23, 2009: “The poppy crop in Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the world’s supply of opium, is linked to corruption, addiction and a drug trade that bankrolls the Taliban insurgency.”  Opium poppies are the raw ingredient in making heroin.

We should not have turned our attention to Iraq until Afghanistan was stabilized fully.  Because we directed our resources to Iraq, Afghanistan was allowed to “languish” and the Taliban were permitted to regain traction.  We have made great strides in helping the long-suffering women of Afghanistan, and that must not cease or be neglected.  Afghanistan is important to us strategically as well, because the Taliban “straddle” both Afghanistan and Pakistan; and if Afghanistan falls, Pakistan might descend into unfathomable chaos, with its nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of our enemies.

President Obama is a far-Left neophyte who is in the process of presiding over a failed presidency, which is likely to get worse with the passage of time.  General David Petraeus and other leaders in our military chain of command have endorsed General Stanley McChrystal’s requests for more troops, which according to reports involve far more than 40,000.  The president should let the military handle Afghanistan, and allow General McChrystal to do his job.

Obama has not been successful at running anything, ever; and it is unlikely that Afghanistan will be an exception.  At best he is a failed “community organizer” from Chicago, who was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia.  Just read his book, “Dreams from My Father”—which is a real eye opener—if you have any doubts.[4] His beliefs are premised on naïveté and defeat, as well as the notion that the U.S. cannot send additional troops without a plan for getting them out.  For example, the Washington Post quotes White House officials as stating: “[Obama’s] desired end state in Afghanistan envisions more informal local security arrangements than in Iraq, a less-capable national government and a greater tolerance of insurgent violence.”[5]

This is a prescription for defeat, and it sends precisely the wrong message to our enemies, who will simply wait for Obama to get weaker and for America to leave Afghanistan.  It will result in the shedding of American blood and that of our allies for nothing, like Vietnam.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney is correct when he says that the average Afghan citizen “sees talk about exit strategies and how soon we can get out, instead of talk about how we win.  Those folks . . . begin to look for ways to accommodate their enemies.  They’re worried the United States isn’t going to be there much longer and the bad guys are.”

President Obama is correct that the people of Afghanistan have endured violence for decades, which makes his exit strategy of one year after deployment so unrealistic.  A year passes in the flash of an eye; and it is not long enough to make a difference in Afghanistan.  Just imagine Franklin Delano Roosevelt saying that he would not commit U.S. troops to the war against Hitler in Europe, or the war against Japan in the Pacific, unless he had an exit strategy in place and operating one year after they were deployed.  Thank God that Obama was not in charge of the D-Day invasion of Europe, or other decision-making in World War II.  Hitler would have won, and Europe (including the UK) would be speaking German.

More and more Americans are realizing that Obama is a mistake, even though he is personable, intelligent and certainly a fine speaker.  The highly-respected Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll—for December 24, 2009—shows that 43 percent of U.S. voters Strongly Disapprove of the way Obama is performing his role as president, while 27 percent Strongly Approve, giving him a negative Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.[6] That speaks volumes about where Obama and America are heading.

The president’s Afghan policies are doomed from the start because he is not sending enough troops to succeed; he has set an unrealistic exit date; Al Qaeda and the Taliban will be active and aggressive in Afghanistan long after Obama exits politics; he will not be able to hold even his own party together with respect to this issue; and like Vietnam for Lyndon Johnson, Afghanistan may prove to be Obama’s political undoing—apart from the economy, ObamaCare, national security and other vital issues.  Since when does an anti-war far-Left community organizer know how to run a war, much less successfully?

© 2009, Timothy D. Naegele

---

[1] Mr. Naegele was counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), the first black senator since Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War.  He practices law in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles with his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates (www.naegele.com).  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA, as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He is a member of the District of Columbia and California bars.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal.  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years.  See, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles

[2] See, e.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/25/AR2009122501923_pf.html

[3] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_casualties_of_war

[4] See Obama, “Dreams from My Father” (paperback “Revised Edition,” published by Three Rivers Press, 2004); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/

[5] See infra n.2.

[6] See http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll