The Mushroom Wizard: Blinken's Afghanistan statements

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2024/09/27

April 11

"The president is committed to ending this war, to bringing our troops home, and to making sure - as we do that - (to the best of our ability) that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven to terrorism... "

April 14

"We will work very closely together, in the weeks and months ahead, on a safe, deliberate and coordinated withdrawal of our forces from Afghanistan. But even as we do that, our commitment to Afghanistan, to its future, will remain."

April 15

"I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing to commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan [...] The partnership is changing, but the partnership itself is enduring."

"The reason I'm here, so quickly after the president's speech last night, is to demonstrate literally, by our presence, that we have an enduring and ongoing commitment to Afghanistan."

May 6

"Even as we are withdrawing our forces, we are not disengaging from Afghanistan. We are going to continue a strong support economically, development assistance, humanitarian, support for their security forces we trained."

June 4

"As the United States withdraws military forces from Afghanistan, our enduring commitment is clear. We remain engaged through our full diplomatic, economic, and assistance toolkit to support the peaceful, stable future the Afghan people want and deserve."

July 28

"There is no military solution to the conflict that afflicts Afghanistan. There has to be a peaceful resolution which requires the Taliban and the Afghan government to come to the table..."

On August 15 the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul by force and President Ghani of Afghanistan fled the country.

Aftermath

Blinken refused to compare the fall of Kabul to the fall of Saigon in 1975 because - apparently - the goals of the Afghanistan campaign were reached.

What were these goals though?

As stated by George W. Bush on October 7 2001: "More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps; hand over leaders of the al Qaeda network; and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price. By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans."

Blinken, on the other hand, postulated a different goal altogether: The objective that we set: bringing those who attacked us to justice, making sure that they couldn’t attack us again from Afghanistan — we’ve succeeded in that mission" (see the link above for the source).

I will be fair and give Blinken credit for not being in charge of moving goal posts after 20 years of wasted lives and money.

But I will deny him the privilege of claiming that "goals" were met.

The Taliban are still in charge. God only knows what "terrorist training camps" are currently operating there. Oh, and bringing those who attacked the U.S. to justice? None of them were arrested in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, responsible for the 9/11 planning was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Ramzi bin al-Shibh, another 9/11 planner, was captured in Karachi, Pakistan. Perhaps one valid figure can be found still - Muhammad Atif. Alas, he was not "brought to justice" in the view of the over-cautious Democrat functionary sensitive to the spurious charge of Islamophobia (ever more damaging given Blinken's ethnicity), but killed in a vicious air bomb raid with extra help from a UAV, in November 2001.

But I should not be too harsh on Blinken. A bureaucrat low-life who started off as a staffer for Obama's apparatus does not deserve such harsh criticism. Words are cheap. Lives of people who trust them are even cheaper.

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