POST MORTEM

 

 

 

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

Taliban offered him to U.S., sut settled for moving him. (One year later).

 

 

POST-MORTEM

BY

HONEST CHARLIE

 

I first thought of doing the entire war, but then it became an onerous task and much has been done about the last 20 years. We need to look at the first 20 years just to get a real perspective. So here it is:

 

I think we have heard enough bull from our networks. We do have to remember that all of them are owned by large corporations and, no matter how accurate any individual reporter may be, there are limits as to what can be divulged. Of course, FOX NEWS can be dismissed easily as insane drivel. The others will only go so far with the facts.      A brief list of those that came out best in the war is at the end.

 

We can start with FOX, however, just to clear the air. With all the drivel they evening newstalkers espouse, it is worth noting that every employee of Fox is required to be vaccinated because it would not be profitable to have to train and replace them. The ownership has a monetary interest in maintaining the staff and thus the present audience, and it does know that value of vaccination in preventing Covid-19. It was unhappy when Shepard Smith left, but he followed protocol, said nice thing, and complied with the non-competetive clase of his contract. He is now at CNBC. That is enough.

 

First to deal with recent propaganda: yes, the "regular" army of Afghanistan did not resist the advance of the Taliban. I would not have expected it to, so I am not sure why Biden thought, or said, that they would. These soldiers had not been paid for at least three months and the supplies they ordered had never arrived. If one considers the situation, there is only one question: would you remain in your present position (if it is salaried) if you had not been paid for three months?  Supposed, simply to complicate it, would you remain if someone had guns and equiptment and was ready to shoot? Well, I would not. I would leave quickly, and perhaps a month earlier.

 

The "leader" of the country left and took millions of dollars with him. (Estimates vary.) This is not new. Leader of Korea, Shah of Iran, the guy whose wife was hooked on shoes (Marcos), all our "buddies" did the same thing. Wann wilt Mann je verstehen? This may take awhile as we have been messing around there for 40 years.

 

This fiasco started with Ronald Reagen. The idea was to give the Soviet Union problems as they were occupying Afghanistan.  It was very important to beat the Soviet Union we were told, so everyone went along. Now Ronnie was an actor and as such an excellent front man for corporate America. He once was a Progressive, believe it or not, head of the actors' Union, but he got a divorce and his new wife truned him the other way. He hawked 20 Mule Team Borax and GE on Death Valley Days and wound up governor of California. As soon as he realiazed that most of the dissent came from students, he increased tuition. The city that once had the Socialist Mayor Jack London was giving him too much trouble. Anyway….

 

He becomes President. His idea is to get some "freedom Fighters" (mujhadeen, army of God) to mess with the Soviets. A good leader is Bin Laden who has offices in New York. The idea is, since we at lest believe in a God and so do they, we make great allies against the Soviets who are Atheists. Yeah. Great idea. Give them all the support they need. Also, remember the Ayotollah? Yeah, he takes over Iran and Ronnie calls him, makes a deal: hold the hostages (in our embassy) until after the election and then release them to Ronnie. In return, we give you arms. Deal? Deal. That's how he becomes President.

 

He runs into a problem, however, because he has to support Israel. After Israel bombs the shit outta Lebanon and rips up our base there (with out weapons), Ronnie has engouh sense to get the hell out. However, he has to prove his manhood, be willing to have a war, so he invades Grenada. Nice. No weapons, no resistance, only 20 or 30 Cuban landscapers. WE WIN!!! Hooray for us.

 

The Soviets see this and decide "what the hell are we in damn Afghanistan for anyway?" They leave and invade someplace else – who cares? We however, move in to help.  We more or less leave it alone as we are busy fighting Sandinistas (Ollie North) and protected by the Attorney General, William Barr. CIA Director dies in the hospital, Ronnie gets Alzheimer's, and Bush Sr. Takes over and screws up. For awhile, things stay quiet.

 

Bush the Elder has his invasion of Iraq after luring Saddam into Iraq. Bin Laden calls Saddam an Infidel. Saddam goes back to his border. Bush is crushed in the next election. This becomes the time of the great sex attacks as Bill Clinton is President, popular because he can play a saxaphone. People don't buy it, but a prosecutor Ken Starr is appointed. The reason given is to examine Hillary Clinton's real estate dealings in Arkansas. HONEST!

 

Well, Bill withstands the change of focus and instead of invading further, merely announces and then proceeds to only enforce the "no-fly zone" (north aqand sourth Iraq.

 

It is now 2001, September 11.  Bush II is in office along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield. They convince Saddam to attack Iran and the war begins. Bin Laden coordinates a bunch of Saudis to attack the twin towers. All flights are grounded for several days while all the Bin Laden crowd flies out of the country.  About here, most accounts start as if our involvement with Afghanistan just began and I am so tired of it, I will let the vast coverage of it take over. The main point I am trying to make is that we have been involved in Afghanistan for 40, not just 20 years. I also remember that when we use the tem 9/11 it could related to the Nixon-Kissinger assassination of the democratically elected leader that replaced with Pinochet. See, what was proposed was nationalizing the phone company and Coca-Cola. Both were sacred here at the time.

 

Now we are supposed to mourn the lives lost at the twin towers. Too much else has happened, but this is enough for now. As to what this was really all about and who won, I quote Jon Schwarz of The Intercept in a passage I obtained from Code Pink:

 

THE TOP 5:

 

The top five biggest defense contractors — Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics — are of course part of the S&P 500, the remaining firms had lower returns than the overall S&P returns.

These numbers suggest that it is incorrect to conclude that the Taliban's immediate takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.'s departure means that the Afghanistan War was a failure. On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most powerful people in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Notably, the boards of directors of all five defense contractors include retired top-level military officers.