Lt. Col Scheller made a public Facebook post criticizing the insufferable decisions in Afghanistan that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. Marines. The primary issue was the closure of Bagram air base, which many have looked upon at the most brutally obvious strategic blunders in the Afghan exit. Within his remarks Scheller said:
“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up’?” WATCH BELOW:
Shortly after Lt. Col. Scheller posted this video he was removed from command. Despite the overwhelming agreement we share with his outlook, it is also true that compromising or questioning command leadership is a valid reason for removal. That’s why CTH was angered at the Pentagon failure to remove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after he questioned the Commander in Chief, President Trump. A brutal double standard.
In a follow-up Facebook post, Scheller noted he was relieved of command at 14:30 today.
Rip those stars off your pathetic nostalgia costumes and
resign. Quit. Tell that crusty Pinocchio in the White House and the
faculty lounge Geppettos tugging his strings that you will have no more
to do with his human centipede of failure in Kabul.
It’s
not hard – your stars are right there, generals, right on the shoulders
of those new uniforms you decided to adopt with the express purpose of
evoking World War II and the memory of victory over a modern,
peer-competitor military. Maybe, you thought, wearing winner’s gear
would ease the pain of getting creamed by a bunch of Seventh Century
throwbacks.
Yeah, we know your boss is a senile old fool
with delusions of competence. His failure will be addressed at the
ballot box. But your failure, generals and admirals, is something only
you can address, at least until President DeSantis comes and separates
the wheat from the chaff in the Pentagon.
Yeah, we know,
you have to follow the orders of the civilian authorities – though not
if it’s Trump, since he was not part of the in-crowd you aspired to join
as adjunct military members. Your passive-aggressive mutiny against the
guy the American people elected set back civil-military relations 250
years. You took the one institution most Americans still trusted and
turned it into a roiling cauldron of hot garbage. And don’t try to hide
behind “You gotta support the troops.” We do. But you suck, and we know
you suck, and you know you suck.
If you didn’t suck, you’d have quit. When President
Durwood told you to ditch Bagram Air Base, you joint chiefs should have
got together, realized this was going to get a bunch of the guys that
America entrusted to you killed, and decided to resign. You can’t
disobey, but you can take a stand.
Well, you did take a
kind of stand. You just stood there. As one sergeant major told me
today, the newest second lieutenant would identify this op as a disaster
in the making. Now, far be it from me to contradict an E9, but I expect
he would agree that even the greenest Girl Scout recruit would ask,
“What the unholy hell are you idiots thinking, pulling the military out
and giving up our secure airbase before you’ve completed your
noncombatant evacuation operation?”
You could have quit.
You could have salvaged some shred of honor after your years of total
failure, but making a stand would come at the expense of your careers.
Yet
it would have worked. A bunch of generals saying “No more?” That would
have forced the politicians to do a rethink. But you just saluted, same
as the guys who enabled Vietnam – something Army schools used to tell us
(before they hired faculties full of pronoun people) we officers needed
to do if the time came.
You chose not to.
Maybe you dug the pomp and circumstance – it’s
good to be the general. Or maybe you imagined that you – the guys who
have not won a war in two decades – were the only ones competent and
capable enough to polish this strategic turd into a tactical diamond.
But
it’s hard to believe you’re that delusional. It’s hard to believe that
even the same band of Ibram X. Kendi fanboys who couldn’t decide whether
our greatest strategic threat is the weather or Americans who voted for
Donald Trump could imagine that only they stood between President
Asterisk and total defeat.
You know what the Sergeant
Major of the Army tweeted today, just before about a dozen of our troops
were blown apart in exactly the way anyone not rocking in his chair,
gulping mush, and staring at his stories on the tee-vee saw coming?
This gooey pablum would be funny if a dozen families
weren’t getting a knock on the door tonight. But they are, and this
frivolous idiocy is not funny. You need to resign too, Sergeant Major.
Just go away.
Maybe General Milley did get something
right. A soldier of recognized bravery earlier in his career, and
(according to one soldier who served under him) a good battalion
commander as a light colonel, he has demonstrated the Peter Principle in
spades. He is the worst Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in
history, a disaster in every way, but he has accomplished one thing
besides adding to America’s “L” column. He has united the country.
Remember his ridiculous screed about “white rage?” Well, today – because
of his failure – he has managed to unite Americans of all colors and
shades in their rage at a failed military establishment whose lack of
seriousness and gross incompetence has not only humiliated our country
but gotten our troops killed. He has created a rainbow of rage.
Resign.
Salvage some dignity.
Though, if I had a say, the whole lot of you would be court martialed
for your negligence. You’d happily nuke from orbit a specialist who
dropped his NVGs on a patrol, but you just lost another war and you’re
probably headed to a board seat at Raytheon. The British Royal Navy used
to shoot admirals for failure
to encourage the others. I note that when this innovative personnel
incentive program was in effect, Britannia ruled the waves.
Today,
what does America rule? The Chinese are laughing at us. The Taiwanese
have got to be rethinking their position. Iran is cackling. Our allies
are furious. Way to go.
This happened on your watch. You
didn’t give the order, but you chose to go along and get along. Now a
dozen of the men we entrusted to you are getting along to Dover, and we
can only pray more don’t follow.
You won’t do it,
because if you were the kind of men who would do it you would not have
to be told to do it. But you should do it. It might save a little shred
of your dignity. Rip those stars off your shoulders and throw them down
on the Resolute desk.
Joe Biden Is Unfit for Office, and Republicans Have a Choice to Make
Today was one of the darkest days the United States has suffered in the last two decades. It opened with suicide bombings
disrupting the already bungled evacuation attempt in Afghanistan. The
latest count is that at least 13 American soldiers have perished, with
at least 90 Afghans, including many women and children.
For nearly eight hours, the President of the United States remained
silent. Shockingly, even as the death toll rose, we heard nothing. No
written statement offering condolences for their deaths ever came. The
White House couldn’t even muster a quick show of empathy via Joe Biden’s
Twitter account. Once again, it became patently obvious that we simply
don’t have a president.
Then, Biden finally emerged.
Showing up 25 minutes late for the most important presser of his life,
in which he’d be reacting to the deadliest day for the military in over a
decade, the president’s performance ranged from cold to defensive to
incoherent. When pressed on what will happen to the Americans who remain
trapped in Afghanistan, Biden admitted that they would be left behind,
only offering a passing promise that we’d work to extract them by other
means.
To call what happened today a dereliction of duty would be too kind.
This is a man who isn’t cognizant enough to even be derelict because
that would require some semblance of awareness, and to be honest, I’m
not sure Biden knows where he is most of the time. This is a man who is
so out of it that it’s clear that his constant tardiness is likely not a
choice, but a necessity, given his physical condition.
With all that said, it’s become painfully, tragically obvious that Biden is unfit for office.
So, what now? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. But for
Republicans, they are answers nonetheless. Without control of the House,
the GOP cannot start hearings and investigations to figure out what
went into the series of incompetent, inexcusable decisions that led us
to this moment of national disgrace.
But what they can do is call for impeachment. They can call for
Biden’s resignation. They can start finally talking about his clear
mental and physical decline. Will any of that lead to his removal? I
have no idea, but what I do know is that this is no time to sit on the
sidelines and hide behind norms and decorum. Rather, this is the time to
take a strong position and take no prisoners in the process.
The GOP does not need a majority to file articles of impeachment.
They certainly don’t need a majority to get in front of a camera and
point out that Biden is suffering from some combination of senility and
dementia. I realize those are things that many Republican politicians
are averse to discussing. After all, conservatives typically don’t like
to rock the boat. They don’t like to be bombastic. They don’t like to
take a position that might elicit some semblance of heat in return.
Instead, they usually prefer to float above the fray, parroting platitudes like this.
Horrific terrorist attacks outside Kabul airport. My heart breaks for the U.S. servicemembers wounded in the explosion and the innocent Afghan lives lost. I am inspired by the strength and compassion of our troops and pray for their safety.
There’s nothing wrong with Romney’s statement in a vacuum, but
Republicans have to go farther now. They have to make the choice that,
whatever cordial relationship they had with Joe Biden, it is over now.
That might mean not getting an infrastructure deal passed. So be it. It
might mean having CNN say bad things about you. So be it. It might mean
having to actually get in the mud and fight. So be it.
The time for meekness is over. Americans are watching, and they want
accountability. They will not forget what happened today and what
brought us here. If Republicans can’t unite around a singular call for
Biden’s ouster, after everything that has occurred, then the GOP is
lost.
Australia Has Begun Building COVID Concentration Camps
Well, this is what happens when you don’t have a Second Amendment. This
is what happens when you don’t have a bill of rights. The hysterics over
COVID here are unbearable. It’s hyperbole on steroids. Anthony Fauci
and his clown troop have peddled science fiction for months. While
there’s debate over ending forever wars, the lab coats want a forever
pandemic. In Australia, that latter nightmare is already alive and well.
You’ve seen the reports of teenagers and old people being tasered and
pepper-sprayed for not abiding by the nation’s COVID protocols. We’re
tasering you for your health. We’re pepper-spraying you…for your health.
It’s part of Australia’s COVID zero policy which ensured a forever
pandemic, a never-ending lockdown. And now, we have COVID concentration
camps coming. It’s come full circle.
BREAKING: A dedicated regional quarantine facility will be built at Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba. As we contend with the dangerous Delta variant, we need fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities. #covid19pic.twitter.com/sv1qEHUL1Z
BREAKING: A dedicated regional quarantine facility will be built at Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba. As we contend with the dangerous Delta variant, we need fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities. #covid19pic.twitter.com/sv1qEHUL1Z
Aussies are cheering their government building literal internment camps for COVID + individuals. https://t.co/MKQu3QUI5H
— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) August 26, 2021
“A dedicated regional quarantine facility will be built at Wellcamp
Airport near Toowoomba. As we contend with the dangerous Delta variant,
we need fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities,” tweeted Queensland
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Toowoomba is outside of Brisbane. And
yes, the locals were kept in the dark about the construction of this
facility. Are locals upset that they weren’t given a heads up? Sure—but
there seems to be more of a fear that an outbreak could occur at the camp rather than what these facilities could lead to in the future.
#BREAKING: From September 13, NSW residents that are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be given new freedoms.
Residents of hotspots can leave home for an hour of recreation on top of their exercise hour, while people in other areas can meet five others outdoors.#9Newspic.twitter.com/exbgztAbwQ
Keep an eye out, folks. You know Fauci, Biden, and the Democrats are
just itching to enact an insane COVID agenda here. They want a
nationwide vaccine mandate. They would be happy to sign off on a
door-to-door forcible jab policy for sure. They can’t right now due to
Biden’s fiasco in Afghanistan and the upcoming midterm elections.
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.
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."
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.
More time in Afghanistan, and more Afghans in our homeland, will not contribute to our national priorities.
Having met a number of global traveler-types, I was surprised some years ago when I heard American citizenship described in very unromantic, mercantile terms. The most common expression was, “It’s a good passport to have.”
For born and bred Americans, citizenship is something entirely different. After all, two-thirds of Americans do not even have a passport. Rather, this nation is who we are. It is mom, apple pie, Main Street, the English language, our ancestors, our only political loyalty, and our destiny. Unlike globe-trotting “citizens of the world,” we are not just passing through.
A similarly crass view of citizenship is the root of the “birth tourism” phenomenon. Foreigners, typically Chinese, though sometimes Russians or Brazilians, come here late in their pregnancies for the sole purpose of giving their kid an American passport. Because of birthright citizenship, the young person is automatically considered a citizen upon birth.
After recuperating and acquiring the necessary documentation, the families return to their home countries, new American in tow. Now the child can serve as the “anchor” for his relatives’ chain migration. He can easily travel to or do business in the United States. While he is in every other respect a foreigner, he now has the golden ticket.
While I’m sure most of these American citizens raised overseas are lovely people, this group also includes the likes of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda leader, who returned to Yemen with his parents as a child. Like other American citizen-members of al-Qaeda, he had close connections to relatives overseas and traveled back and forth to the United States throughout his life. His citizenship made reentry significantly easier for him, while endangering the rest of us.
He was ultimately taken out by a drone attack in 2011.
Paper Americans
These marginal characters with American passports all come to mind when we hear the plaintive chorus about “Americans” stranded in Afghanistan. Who are these Americans? Why are their families not in the media, pleading and crying to get their husbands and wives and children out of the country? Where are the human interest stories about their many contributions to our homeland?
There are many testimonies by American servicemen about their loyal translators, as well as pleas by Afghans living in the United States about family left behind (citizenship unspecified), but barely a peep from the well-wishers of Americans allegedly in harm’s way. As with many other things in our dishonest age, we often have to figure out the truth by looking for anomalies, in this case, the conspicuous absence of any details about the stranded Americans.
As recently as a week ago, the military said that it had no idea quite how many Americans were still in the country. This is why I am extremely skeptical of the estimate of 15,000 Americans left in Afghanistan. I assume that number is fake. There is no real tracking of Americans exiting the country, after all. We can also reasonably assume the Afghan government’s recordkeeping in this area was as inefficient and corrupt as everything else. We do know that the more rooted Americans among the contractors, embassy personnel, and military are accounted for and either already out or in the process of leaving.
There are nearly 100,000 people of Afghan descent living in America, almost all of whom arrived as refugees after 1979. For the most part, we know nothing about them. They have made almost no impact on our collective life and live in the shadows, legal documents notwithstanding. Some have returned to do business or visit family or because they found it hard to adapt to life in America. Whether they have been living in Afghanistan one, 10, or 20 years after acquiring legal status in America, no one knows.
The Biden Administration has had to twist itself in knots defending its policies on “left behind” Americans, because its leftist worldview makes no distinction between Americans that are native-born and the al-Awlakis of the world, even though these distinctions are necessary and important, particularly when those “paper” Americans voluntarily repatriate themselves to their ancestral homelands.
Travel at Your Own Risk
This leads to a final thought regarding our government’s obligations to citizens overseas. That duty is limited. Deploying the military every time Americans are endangered abroad is a canard to justify America’s continued role as a global policeman and global empire. It renders every dingbat adventure tourist or cosmopolitan global traveler the arbiter of our nation’s obligations overseas.
The obligation to never leave an American behind is for those serving America, including our military and government personnel. It extended to our Libyan Ambassador, whom the Obama Administration left behind, to his fate. It extended to our P.O.W.s in Vietnam, for whom there was credible evidence some were left behind to facilitate the peace process. It does not extend to foreign-born dual citizens or American-born citizens of foreign extraction who have chosen to make a life for themselves in another country.
Afghanistan has been a dangerous country before and after the arrival of our forces in 2001. Our plans to withdraw have been in place since February of last year and have been widely publicized, particularly in Afghanistan. Those left behind were there by choice, deeply embedded in a society to which they felt greater affinity.
Reporting about Americans left behind has been a heavy-handed effort to manipulate the public into supporting further, indefinite involvement in Afghanistan. The prospect of “Americans left behind” conjures up images of our soldiers or diplomats stranded in the Hindu Kush, not the cab driver with whom one can barely communicate returning to live with his uncle.
As anyone who has watched “Locked Up Abroad” knows, when you travel internationally, you are mostly on your own. This is an inherent and unavoidable risk of foreign travel. The Marines were not dispatched for Natalie Holloway, nor when Americans go missing in Latin America, and they won’t be coming for you, either. The duty to protect Americans everywhere is only invoked selectively and cynically by the “forever war” caucus.
The State Department estimates 9 million Americans live abroad. There are likely American citizens with U.S. passports living in every country on earth. Our degree of friendliness to each of these nations varies widely. It is guaranteed every year that at least some of these expatriates will run into trouble, either because of their own foolishness or these foreign nations’ lackluster legal systems. A diverse nation, where many citizens have deep connections overseas and travel frequently to their ancestral homelands, artificially renders the rest of the world and its problems our own.
America is our home. Its government exists to protect its people, not wherever they may choose to be and do business, but rather when they choose to live here and contribute to our collective advancement. Even though there have been obvious flaws in the planning and execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, the maudlin propaganda for translators and refugees and missing Americans is the siren song of a cosmopolitan empire embarrassed by its incompetence.
This seems like bad news, but it is actually an opportunity. The American empire is corrosive to the historical American nation and its people. When the empire is not invading foreign nations and trying to remake them in our image, it is importing millions of refugees from the same nations it once declared to be enemies.
None of this activity accrues to the benefits of actualAmericans, whose homeland is in bad shape and needs serious attention and effort. More time in Afghanistan, and more Afghans in our homeland, will not contribute to that important national priority.
