Memo to Joe: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Article by Mark Alexander in The Patriot Post
Memo to Joe: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
The blood of our military personnel and the coming bloodshed of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children being readied for slaughter is on the hands of every unrepentant Biden/Harris voter.
For any Biden/Harris snowflakes who come upon this post, if you have a problem with these words, come hot and heavy. Having devoted my entire adult life to the support and defense of Liberty at home, and in some s—tholes abroad, and now as the father of a Marine infantry officer, here is my perspective.
The last 24 hours have been devastating. After 18 months of no American deaths — zero — Taliban terror surrogates walked through multiple Taliban checkpoints and murdered 10 Marines, two Army soldiers, and a Navy corpsman, along with almost 100 Afghan civilian men, women, and children. There were 15 Americans injured and countless civilians severely injured. It was the worst military loss in a decade.
Joe Biden was AWOL after the attack — which was the direct result of his catastrophically failed exfil. But as I have noted, the failure is not Biden's plan; it's the man.
Then, more than eight hours after the attack, Biden stumbled up to a podium to deliver remarks and, right on cue, blamed ISIS-K instead of the Taliban. This is the same Taliban leadership who proclaimed last week that Osama bin Laden had no connection to the 9/11 Islamist attack on our country.
Biden attempted to draw a distinction between the Taliban and the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State now being hosted by the Taliban. He lied about this distinction because he could not blame the Taliban, upon whom he is now depending for protection of the airport. Fine job they did yesterday. Recall that the Taliban "head of security" in Kabul, Khalil Haqqani, is a designated terrorist by the U.S. government and has a $5 million bounty on his head. What could go wrong?
However, do not be confused by the spin from Biden, his team, and their Leftmedia propagandists about who is responsible for this attack.
Let me be crystal clear: There is virtually NO degree of ideological and methodological separation between the so-called "Taliban government" thugs and their surrogate terrorist groups. The Taliban is not a "government" but an amalgam of violent Islamist terrorists, and there is now no doubt that their deadly al-Qa'ida and ISIS surrogates have risen again under their protectorate. To insist that al-Qa'ida and ISIS are not under the Taliban umbrella is a distinction without a difference.
In his rambling teleprompted read, Biden declared we would bomb some tents somewhere in retaliation. Biden tried to put on his most menacing mean face and warned: "To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay." Of course, "those who carried out this attack" are already dead, but expect some significant air-delivered ordnance soon.
Asked who was responsible, Biden correctly said, "I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that's happened of late." Of course, all he has done of late is attempt to blame-shift his failures to Donald Trump. But recall, as I noted in "Biden's Afghan Blowup," that Trump's drawdown plan had two primary conditions: First, that the Taliban cut their ties with al-Qa'ida and ISIS, and second, that they successfully negotiate and maintain peace with the Afghan government.
With Trump gone, the Taliban summarily discarded those conditions and ousted the Afghan government. And why wouldn't they? Obviously, they have no fear of Biden enforcing those terms.
Next came a plethora of absurdities from Biden's spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Her obfuscations are too numerous to post here, but...
Asked about Biden's mental state, she responded: "Well, I would say that anyone who's watched the president up close ... knows that the — putting the lives of servicemen and women at risk, and those decisions that you have to make as commander-in-chief, weigh heavily on him." Indeed it should. But she added: "Any day where you lose service members is — may be the worst day of your presidency, and hopefully there's not more. But we are certainly early in the presidency at this point in time."
"But we are certainly early in the presidency at this point in time." There are still 41 months left for Biden's ineptitude to result in many more Americans deaths. Brace yourself, America.
Asked about extending Biden's 31 August exfiltration deadline, Psaki responded: "No. And here's why: The president relies on the advice of his military commanders, and they continue to believe that it is essential to get out by the 31st. That is their advice." Right, which is precisely why SecDef Lloyd Austin, CJCS Gen. Mark Milley, and CentCom Gen. Kenneth McKenzie need to resign into shameful obscurity.
As for concerns about the vetting of incoming Afghans, which Biden's "national security team" is now proposing should be up to 200,000, Psaki said: "I will tell you that what we have been working to do is to work closely with governors, with localities, with local leaders to give them detailed briefings on what our vetting process looks like, what the background check process looks like before any individual comes into the United States. And that is a background check process that's thorough before they are allowed to come in and step on U.S. soil."
They have done NONE of that regarding the 1.2 million illegal immigrants Biden has invited to step across our southern border, many of whom were then bussed and flown around the nation under cover of darkness. Oh, and that's 1.2 million we counted — the administration has no idea how many MS-13 gangsters and drug and sex traffickers have walked in.
In an effort to silence any objection to Biden's deadly folly, Psaki insisted: "This is a day where U.S. service members ... lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. It's not a day for politics, and we would expect that any American, whether they're elected or not, would stand with us in our commitment to going after and fighting and killing those terrorists wherever they live, and to honoring the memory of service members."
Well, OK then.
Where to from here?
The immediate concern is the evacuation of as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible before Biden's acquiescent timeline.
Allow me to raise a tactical departure question: Exactly how do those last massive transport planes full of American troops safely depart Kabul without a defended airport perimeter? Biden has pleaded with the Taliban to provide a perimeter, but that's the same perimeter they allowed terrorists to enter yesterday.
Air breaks in contact with the enemy are very difficult. Some of us are old enough to recall our helicopters shot down while attempting final exfil from Vietnam LZs with enemy fighters close. And recall the last major loss of military lives in Afghanistan. The deadliest day in SEAL Team Six history was 06 August, 2011, when Taliban in the Tangi Valley shot down a departing Chinook transport helicopter, killing all 38 service personnel on board. Among the 30 American warriors, 15 SEALS were from Team Six's Gold Squadron.
Veterans who have departed hostile regions by air know that combat aircraft departures depend on a lot of runway for airspeed in order to achieve a very high angle of climb to get above enemy fire at the end of a runway. But that presumes a secure airfield.
Yes, we utilize defensive departure corridor patterns and may deploy significant air support for cover, perhaps including A-10s for close cover, but our lumbering transport aircraft are now at significant risk from the weapons Biden allowed the Taliban to seize. And positioning American resources to prevent small-arms fire or a man-portable missile launch would mean abandoning those personnel in a zone completely overrun with the enemy.
Of course, the Taliban has no fear that Biden would obliterate Kabul in retaliation for attacking departing transports. Biden knows that the next week the whole world would be viewing images of dead and dying women and children as a result.
I suppose this means in addition to air cover, one of the last planes into Kabul will be loaded with large denomination American currency to bribe the Taliban to maintain that perimeter?
The aforementioned CentCom Gen. McKenzie assured that he is "reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing security for the outer cordon of the airfield to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us." McKenzie, who refers to the Taliban as "our Afghan partners," added, "They've cut some of our security concerns down and they've been useful to work with going forward."
Yet McKenzie says that departing aircraft are already taking small arms fire.
So trusting is the Biden military command of the Taliban that they gave them the names of Americans and Afghan allies still in Kabul trying to get to the airport. That prompted one defense official to conclude, "Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list."
BTW, who gets fired for the colossal strategic error of abandoning Bagram Air Base — all our assets and all the Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners there — before American civilians were safely out? Or was retreat from Bagram another indication that Biden lied about how fast the Taliban would take over, mocking Iwo Jima Marines along the way? SecDef Lloyd Austin and CJCS Mark Milley won't take responsibility.
Moving forward, the intermediate concern is the consequences for tens of thousands of Afghan allies, civilians, and families whom Biden abandoned. As the Taliban firms up its organizational structure and returns to its extremist tyrannical control, the bloody purges will be underway.
The extended concerns are that Biden has reseeded al-Qa'ida's and ISIS's turf, and that Biden's cowardly Afghan retreat will embolden far more powerful tyrants in Iran, Russia, and China.
Given the resurgence of the Taliban, there is now a very real renewed threat of terrorist assaults on American soil and Americans abroad. Recall that Biden's director of national intelligence warned him in April that the Taliban rise would result in an imminent and perilous threat to the continental U.S.
The consequences of animatronic Biden's now-obvious failure as commander-in-chief have immediate and dire implications for our national security that extend far beyond the borders of Afghanistan. China, Russia, and Iran are now greatly emboldened. Power does not tolerate a vacuum.
Allow me to reiterate: The problem was not Biden's plan; it was, and remains, the man. The Taliban had no fear of Joe Biden, which is why they seized Afghanistan in just days after he abandoned our Afghan army allies. And the Taliban's actions have confirmed that the world's tyrants need have no fear of Biden.
In the learned words of our national security analyst Gen. B.B. Bell (USA, Ret.), regarding Biden's shameful presidential dereliction of duty, "He should be impeached and removed from office immediately, and criminal charges should be considered."
It was no small irony that yesterday morning, before the Kabul attack, I read this report from political analyst Charles C.W. Cooke: "It's Dawning on the Democrats: Biden-Harris Will Drag Them Down."
Likewise, it is ironic that for 10 hours after the attack until Biden finally spoke, the White House briefing room had only one post — a "Proclamation on Women's Equality Day 2021." Ironic, of course, because it is not applicable to the Afghan women Biden and Harris left to the Taliban.
Again, as I asked Wednesday, please join us in lifting up in prayer our warriors and the hundreds of thousands of Afghans and their families who embraced our affirmation of Liberty. Many of them are now being systematically targeted for having collaborated with the nation whose inept president ordered them abandoned as evil swept over them — evil that rose because it knew it had nothing to fear from this president.
Consider these words from a bloodied Afghan father amid the devastation yesterday: "I am an Afghan translator for the United States Marine Corps. I was over here ... to get on a plane and get out of here. There was an explosion that happened inside the crowd. A lot of people got hurt. And I got a baby girl, she was five years old, and she died right in my hands."
We are also praying for those American service personnel and their families who have sacrificed so much to contain that evil prior to this disgraceful retreat.
While the focus now is on getting Americans out, the focus will soon turn to the disaster Biden left behind.
Finally, let me reiterate: Anyone — ANYONE — who believes that the resurgence of the Taliban would have occurred under a second Donald Trump term is so deeply deluded they are now in total denial. The blood of our military personnel and the coming bloodshed of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children being readied for slaughter is on the hands of every unrepentant Biden/Harris voter.
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