The Fuck-Up Fairy has been busy in the Biden administration. And it's sad. It's almost hard to be mad at Biden as opposed to being mad at the people propping him up. It's been eight months. Only 40 to go.
I sincerely doubt the Taliban control Panjshir. The resistance may not control it either, but standing in the district capitals as the Taliban now do is not the same as controlling the rugged province.
An EU military force independent of NATO is a bad idea: "A new European Union military force advocated by senior EU officials after the fall of Afghanistan would weaken the transatlantic alliance and 'divide Europe', Nato’s secretary general has warned." The EU is exploiting the Afghanistan skedaddle debacle to do what they wanted to do before the Biden defeat. The EU wants to cripple NATO and push America out of Europe to strengthen the EU's proto-imperial state. If the EU has the authority to build a military, that's all the EU wants to erase the prefix.
The enemy of my space debris is my space friend?
An organization set up on the assumption that only Republicans sexually harass or assault women implodes. How bad? "A women’s rights group running cover for Democrats and ignoring its mission would seem like catnip to most honest, truth-telling reporters." Tip to Instapundit.
How releasing Taliban prisoners helped the Taliban win in Afghanistan. I was worried about dealing with the Taliban scum. We didn't even get our "decent interval". Biden scored this own-goal. But Trump gets an assist.
Good luck with over-the-horizon counter-terrorism in Afghanistan. It is very difficult and I doubt we can do it. I would not want to do it with anything but drones and cruise missiles given the risk of a manned plane going down in landlocked Afghanistan from mechanical problems and allowing the Taliban to capture the crew.
I guess we'll see if 20 years of strengthening intelligence and homeland security makes it irrelevant that the jihadi terrorists have a new haven in Afghanistan. Still, can our civil liberties withstand the need to rely on spies and tighter security at home? I'm very worried about this issue: "When faced with jihadi murderers, our strategy choices were going on
offense to destroy jihadis and drain the swamps of governments and
societies that incubate jihadis; and bolstering our defenses to stop
jihadis from hitting us at home. An intrusive government that must sift
everything we do to find jihadis here is the logical consequence of
declaring the war on terror over." For God's sake look what we are sacrificing to deal with a virus. What happens when terror hits at home again?
Well, you can't say this view is wrong based on the Afghanistan outcome: "When Western representatives condemn the behavior of foreign countries and non-state actors, Middle Eastern leaders interpret this to mean that those issuing the statements are not prepared to act. Experience has taught them that public statements are—as it is said in Persian, Turkish and Arabic—“empty words,” which constitute a license to do what they want with impunity. And history has repeatedly proven them right." Some people just need to be killed because negotiating with them about how many of our people they are allowed to kill is folly. And reprehensible.
Is our State Department enforcing Afghanistan's border controls while the Taliban are still too thin on the ground to stop Americans from leaving? "The State Department said it will not formally approve the departure of chartered planes from Afghanistan carrying Americans and allies — complicating efforts by private citizens to complete the evacuation of the left-behind, according to an email obtained by Fox News."
I missed the news that the Biden administration is reopening our consulate in Jerusalem. Doe that mean we won't have an embassy in Jerusalem? Wow. Pulling out of Afghanistan really was the only Trump policy Biden is unwilling to completely reject. Hat tip.
I didn't realize Italy's paramilitary Carabinieri deployed to Kabul to cover the final retreat from Afghanistan during Biden's skedaddle debacle. But rather than celebrate the abilities of these soldier-police units in an environment like Kabul in August 2021, I'd rather have actual soldiers win the war--or at least not lose it.
Russia is no longer a country that can lose 25-30 million people to win a war. Even if the country is willing to obey orders to do so, the people are running out: "Russia is facing a dire demographic crisis, and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon."
Biden deserves impeachment even before Pelosi lowered the standards to "he's in the other party". As an aside, I assume that when Biden talks to foreign leaders on the phone he is reading from a teleprompter as a staff member types in real time. Any lags can be explained away as communications delay. So the transcript of Biden's talk with Ghani doesn't indicate a lucid president. Indeed, his transcript lucidity is suspicious given what we can see live on camera.
Layers and layers of fact checkers. Somehow the members of the media just don't understand why we despise them.
I used to like Milley. I even gave him the benefit of the doubt for his purported view on his Lafayette Square appearance with the president even though I believed it was fully justified in the face of rioter violence. But I'm done with him. I have lost all confidence in General Milley. Of the troops who died there, he said: "They absolutely made a difference. They protected the United States from a kind of terror, from a terrorist attack for two decades. Their efforts were not in vain." But going forward he says terrorist attacks will resume from the Afghanistan region. So 20 years of protecting the United States was enough? When we hadn't suffered a combat death in 18 months there until the Kabul airport suicide bomber attack? That's his defense of this skeddadle debacle? He should be the first of many who must go.
I never trust these studies. They seem to find an answer that the bosses want: "A new tactical aircraft study underway could make certain what has until now been a suspicion: The U.S. Air Force is unlikely to purchase all of the 1,763 F-35A jets in its program of record." Let's hope that we really do need fewer to face off against China and their mini-me Russia. And what's with the F-16 replacement angle? The F-35 was supposed to be the replacement for the F-16. How did that get forgotten? For the record, my view is that it will be impossible to build a replacement for the F-16 that doesn't end up being more expensive than adding more F-35s to the existing production run. But at least fewer F-35s might lead to better maintenance for the planes that are built?
Biden voters didn't get the normality they thought they'd get.
College administrators really don't understand the concept of "incentives".
To be fair, he's just following the example of Western leaders who love the opportunity to blame something beyond their control for their own failures: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has blamed climate change as one of the reasons for the country's ongoing food crisis and cataclysmic floods that have battered its northeast regions." Yeah, climate change is the problem. But for Western leaders, it sounds more scientific than just saying "it is God's will".
People are tired of hearing about Biden's dead son because it seems like Biden is using him as a human shield to avoid responsibility for his policies.
I'm not a veteran of the Afghanistan war (or any war) and I feel depressed and angry over Biden's decision to lose the war. I can't imagine how actual veterans feel (tip to The Morning Briefing).
Taiwan put out its quadrennial defense review. I like this: "If the enemy launched attack to invade Taiwan, Our guiding principles were to 'resist the enemy on the opposite shore, attack it at sea, destroy it in the littoral area, and annihilate it on the beachhead,' and impose multiple interdictions and joint fire strikes to degrade its capabilities, disrupt its offensive and prevent it from landing, so as to ultimately defeat its aggression." [emphasis added] I agree with not ending the war as long as the PLA has a bridgehead, as I wrote in Military Review.
Democracy migrant kids die in darkness. It's always interesting to note what is no longer news when a Democrat is in office. Via Instapundit.
John Kerry is a black hole of charisma and talent. I'm just happy he's being kept busy with a task that just doesn't matter. Via Instapundit.
Japan tests a rotating detonation engine. Tip to Instapundit.
"Patient zero" for our corrupted media? Maybe. By I remember 1984 when CBS relentlessly pushed the idea that our economy for horrible even as the statistics showed a growing economy. All to hurt Reagan's reelection. That was when I first started my retrograde away from the "news" industry as a trustworthy source of information. It's just gotten worse and worse as the years go by.
So that was released under FOIA about the Wuhan, China lab: "'This is a roadmap to the high-risk research that could have led to the
current pandemic,' said Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To
Know, a group that has been investigating the origins of Covid-19." Via Instapundit.
The Su-25 and Russian air operations in Syria.
The American people aren't falling for Biden's "mission accomplished" spin on his Afghanistan skedaddle debacle. I think a major problem is that Biden's public efforts at spinning a giant pile of poo into a pony only serve to highlight his inability to simulate lucidity for even a short period of time. Even if Americans get over the Afghanistan defeat, will Americans get over seeing the true mental capacity of our president?
In the short run this is part of South Korea's hope to deter North Korean nukes by having precision rapid conventional strike capabilities that can go for nukes and leadership: "South Korea has successfully test-launched a missile from a submarine, stepping up its strike capabilities and joining a small list of seven other countries to demonstrate the technology." In the long run this builds the knowledge to have survivable nuclear weapons. It is a dangerous neighborhood.
Ivermectin is a drug useful for many uses to help people and animals. The media is spreading disinformation to condemn it as a horse de-wormer as it that is its only legitimate use. Gosh, why do so many people think of our media as "fake news"? Tip to Instapundit.
What the ef is wrong with Australia? Tip to Instapundit.
So you can't exercise your theoretical right to free speech on Covid issues: "The lawsuit contends that the federal government is 'colluding with
social media companies to monitor, flag, suspend and delete social media
posts it deems "misinformation."'" Via Instapundit.
Are men giving up on college? Is this bad? Or are young men quicker to appreciate that higher education in general is faltering and not providing the rewards to justify the sacrifices in time and money to get? Especially with the "guilty until proven innocent" system of adjudicating rape accusations within the college system without the legal protections to the accused rather than letting the criminal system handle them. Not that all colleges and universities are faltering and awful. But the system is going woke and failing to educate notwithstanding some schools that are still worth it. I certainly count on that for my children. Tip to The Morning Briefing.
Yes: "The US surrender to the
Taliban is already inspiring every jihadist group and sympathiser
across the world. Once again, from their perspective, a superpower has
thrown up its hands in the face of unwavering jihad in Afghanistan. This
will supercharge activity and likely provide a safe haven for decades
to come for those plotting and training."
But no worries! Biden planned for this contingency.
NATO needs to prepare for Russia. Although 20 new Russian units that the article mentions almost certainly just means putting existing units under new headquarters units. Russia's threat is to overrun lightly defended NATO frontier areas and then dig in while waving their nuclear weapons around. If NATO mobilizes its power to liberate what is taken, the Russian army can't hold it for long. But will NATO do that?
American forces based on a power projection platform are exercising with local states and Brazil off of West Africa: "It was just a practice drill, though, for the visit-board-search-seize team that climbed onto expeditionary sea base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4), which is serving as the training platform for exercise Operation Guinex that’s underway in the Gulf of Guinea. The area, with significant seaports and commercial traffic, is a known hotspot for piracy and theft on vessels at sea." This is basically my AFRICOM Queen modularized auxiliary cruiser idea, published in Military Review, but on a purpose-built hull. I'll always wonder if the prospect of the Army adapting its own such platform got the Navy to build and/or deploy an ESB to Africa.
The Coast Guard is reinforcing American naval power in the western Pacific with its law enforcement authorities. It's a good capability to have in the face of Chinese coast guard and naval militia operations against our allies and interests.
If we are debating whether Biden's Afghanistan skedaddle debacle is the result of incompetence or negligence, aren't we missing the point that Biden must resign?
Pakistan's nuclear-capable missiles.
Israel continues to fight to keep Hamas from killing Israelis: "Fighter jets struck a Hamas rocket manufacturing workshop as well as a Hamas military compound in Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza, according to the army statement. The army said the compound houses a cement factory used for building tunnels used for terror attacks 'and is purposefully located in a civilian area adjacent to a mosque and a water treatment site.'" Keep in mind that housing such facilities by civilians is a war crime. Any Palestinian civilian deaths during the strike are almost certainly the responsibility of whoever put the military assets there.
Poland girds itself for the human wave assault it is enduring and for a tank assault if the Russians get all Russia-like during their military exercises: "The Polish parliament has backed a state of emergency on the Belarus border amid a surge in migration and upcoming Russian-led military exercises." Those exercises.
Ending reliance on China for rare earth elements.
Can Pakistan afford winning in Afghanistan? Opportunities to skim American aid died with the Taliban victory. That opportunity died, right? Or is the Biden going to bounce the debacle rubble.
Are Turkey's drones good enough to equip their mini-carrier?
Justice delayed. Biden lost the war faster than we could try and convict the 9/11 masterminds. I wonder why the jihadis think God is on their side? Tell me you can't see the Taliban naming Khalid Sheikh Mohammed their new Minister of Cultural Affairs and demanding his release? And is it ludicrous to think Blinken might approve it, with Biden saying "What difference, at this point, does it make?" and let KSM go?
Ivermectin and Blue-Anon: "A note to our progressive friends: This is your version of Q-Anon —
falling for obvious, ridiculous lies because you want to believe the
worst about people you hate." I guess a college or university credential didn't improve critical thinking skills one bit.
Republicans should introduce a bill in Congress to direct college student loan payments to facilitate schools of choice for students in American cities. I'm not sure how much of those payments go to the government. But it would be glorious to see Democrats squirm. And the right thing to do rather than damn urban kids to crappy union schools while the children of the well off get their student loans repaid by the taxes of plumbers and mail carriers.
Are Americans tired of being told to believe lies told with the threat of being accused of being evil or stupid if you don't believe them? And yes, "To admit the obvious, yes, Republicans practice deception all the time. And it is also corrosive. But they do not control the government or, more importantly, the news. Their lies are almost always exposed, while those of the Democrats are often propagated." Exactly. Hell, the media makes up lies by Republicans and denies Democratic lies with deceitful "fact checking." Why is the media mistrusted, indeed.
One of the clusterfucks with a UN seat.
The last time jihadis ran a state. But the coin collectors got a bonus.
Well of course China is considering occupying Bagram air base. I mean, you'd have to be an effing idiot to not want it.
Biden excused his Afghanistan skedaddle debacle by saying he didn't want to pass on the Afghanistan war to the next president. Even though American troops hadn't died in combat for 18 months until the Kabul airport suicide bombing during the withdrawal. The war was between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But the debacle happened so quickly and early in his administration, will Biden need to begin Afghanistan War 2.0 the way Obama had to start Iraq War 2.0 after a partial debacle there? And does that mean Biden will do what it takes to win before having to turn the war over to the next president?
Two lightly-armed British patrol ships will show the flag across the Pacific. Of course, Britain's carrier deployment is for the purpose of reminding the region that the OPVs are just the tip of the spear.
India has been pulling away from Russia as Russia sides with China and China pressures India. But India is still a crown jewel and Russia's foreign ministry these days. Did America's debacle in Afghanistan put more strain on Russia-India ties? Still, India needs Russian weapons for now. And Russia needs Indian defense purchases.
Getting ashore: "The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has been increasing its ability to use civilian roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) ferries to move troops and equipment ashore in amphibious landing operations. In August 2020, the PLA conducted a cross-sea mobility evolution using RO-RO ferries. Exercise Eastern Transportation-Projection 2020A (东部运投—2020A) was unique in that it discharged military vehicles from RO-RO ferries directly onto a beach using a modular floating pier." Well. I've been warning about this capability for some time. Although I've assumed the ships would be used to reinforce early seizures of ports rather than going for an over-the-beach capability. Perhaps the Chinese want to do that or perhaps the Chinese just want us to think China will do that. However the PLA gets ashore, it must not stay ashore, as I discussed in Military Review.
DRAKE puts an electromagnetic bubble around Navy ships to protect against suicide drones.
More wondering about Xi's tightening grip on China and what if might mean.
Yes, this is banana republic stuff: "U.S. intelligence officials waged a politicized campaign to undermine President Trump and his administration, and the politicization undermined American security, according to a former U.S. intelligence analyst." But Trump is the one who undermined our norms and institutions, I'm told.
Will China learn enough from our communications and electronic gear abandoned in Afghanistan to harm us? I find it hard to believe we put anything that important there, but I can't say I know that rather than hope that.
Russia has forces to cope with any resistance to being conquered by the Russian military. Let's hope our special forces can raise the degree of difficulty. I did note that the Russian "national guard" looked like a good occupation force abroad.
I worry that calls for studying why we failed in Afghanistan will miss the obvious: We built an Afghan military and police force too small to control the countryside, designed to rely on air power for mobility, firepower, and logistics to compensate for the lack of countryside presence; and then removed the key American support that allowed the air power to function. How is this a mystery?
Iran denies it has a nuclear weapons program. However: "Tehran has quadrupled its stockpile of 60 percent-enriched uranium since May, in open contravention of the 2015 accord with world powers that was meant to contain its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported." Most nuclear energy reactors use 3-5% enriched uranium. But we're supposed to believe that Iran is openly moving toward nuclear weapon-grade enriched uranium in order to get a deal that ensures that Iran doesn't move toward nuclear weapons? Face it, the original deal was a shield for Iran to quietly pursue nukes and pursue aggression around the region--and not a means of stopping Iran. It was just a means to allow the West to pretend it solved the problem. It's hard to blame the Iranians. They are murderous nutballs. But why do so many Democrats just love Iran under the mullahs?
I don't rule out Biden's popularity recovering. It shouldn't from the depth and breadth of his ineptitude. But with the media the wind beneath his wings, who knows?
Of course, the point isn't to help Black people. The point is to use them as props to help leftist white people financially and emotionally. Black people will one day stop supporting these people and their harmful policies. But it takes time for inertia to be arrested and change direction.
I'm not sure why anybody reads Thomas Friedman. I'm not saying you can't drown in a pool of his wisdom. But you would have to be drunk and face down to do so. Tip to The Morning Briefing.
The Newspeak Dictionary evolves in real time to support the regime's needs of the moment. Tip to The Morning Briefing.
I don't think America's enemies have long views of struggles in contrast to our election cycle thinking. I think our enemies endure hardships to achieve their victories better. Remember, Osama bin Laden thought his 9/11 attacks would collapse America. He didn't foresee a 20-year war in Afghanistan that his Taliban and jihadi allies would eventually win--because we snatched defeat from the jaws of imperfect victory.
Our ability to bomb stuff precisely from "over the horizon" is surely better now than ever. But that's not the end of the story. What are we trying to achieve? And without allies on the ground we won't be sure if we are precisely bombing foes, empty tents, innocents, or even friends.
Integrating Israel into CENTCOM.
We don't need their permission and we won't ask for it: "A Navy aircraft carrier strike group and a destroyer steamed separately
through the South China Sea on Wednesday, just days after China imposed a
law requiring foreign vessels to give notice before entering waters
claimed by Beijing." The question is, does China eventually insist by ambushing one of our ships with their naval militia and pretending to rescue it with their coast guard while towing it back to a Chinese port? Overwatch, people. Overwatch.
Or maybe you could focus on preventing and controlling effing diseases!!! Don't we have enough faculty lounges and student governments across our university system? Just what is their major malfunction?
China's economic recovery from their virus not as good as it seemed they'd achieve?
This should be good news: "Despite media claims that 'We Can’t Turn the Corner on Covid,' the numbers of Covid-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths nationwide peaked and started to decline around the beginning of September. The combination of this milestone, new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing widespread levels of vaccination and natural immunity, and improved availability of treatments suggests that, outside of isolated pockets, Covid-19 is likely to become a diminishing health risk in the United States." But cue the scary music for the Mu variant! Salvation for the lockdown fanatics! Tip to Instapundit.
The pretending can go on! "Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency reached an agreement on Sunday that will allow the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group to provide upkeep on its monitoring cameras at Iranian nuclear sites." The writer presumes to explain "why it matters" as if the cameras pointed at things Iran allows cameras to be pointed at--and completely under Iran's ultimate physical control--actually matter for controlling Iran's nuclear programs. All it does is control Western reaction by allowing the West to pretend it is containing Iran's nuclear program. Why it matters, indeed.
Will we ever find out how successful or unsuccessful China's response to the Covid 19 Xi Jinping Flu panic--which started in Wuhan, China--was? "A city in southern China that is trying to contain a coronavirus
outbreak told the public Sunday not to leave town, suspended bus and
train service and closed cinemas, bars and other facilities." And if successful, what is the collateral damage? We can see what our response has done to worsen things in non-pandemic ways. Surely China had to accept trade offs, right?
Well of course the EU is willing to dance on America's defeat: "The European Union is ready to continue with emergency aid to Afghanistan but will keep a close eye on the new Taliban government, a senior member of the bloc's executive said on Wednesday."
China is nosing around Japanese territory: " Japan detected a submarine believed to be Chinese off a southern Japanese island, the defense ministry said Sunday, heightening Japan’s caution levels in the East China Sea as China increases its military activities."
Austin should be fired just for being open to this fantasy: "The Taliban’s newly named interim Afghan government, which includes former leaders ousted 20 years ago by the U.S. invasion and members of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, dashed international hopes of providing more representative leadership, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday."
It is good news that Americans are still getting out of Afghanistan. Will we ever find out the price we paid for the hostages?
Just fuck our military "leadership." They'll do this rather than focus on fighting and winning our wars: "The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal will more clearly than in the past delineate how the U.S. military proposes to pay for climate change mitigation efforts, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks." What is their major malfunction? Our enemies surely can't believe we are this stupid. Although the Afghanistan skedaddle debacle may convince them our stupidity is real and spectacular.
I'd think the information about the debacle would undermine us without resorting to misinformation: "The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has given NATO’s adversaries ammunition for disinformation attacks intended to sow doubt about America’s reliability as a security partner, officials here say."
I just came back from Las Vegas from a trip with a couple old college apartment mates. We gambled. I lost more than I expected but not more than I budgeted at worst case. And I drank way more than usual. So since I was mostly just paying tips for free drinks that clawed back some of the loss. We saw Penn and Teller plus Mac King. One friend was called up to assist. We relaxed at the pool a couple days for a bit. While we missed White Castle this year we did go to McDonald's once. The Palm was great as usual. And I made it to my favorite bakery there for my favorite cheese danish. We are just so sick of the masks, however. We had little sleep and I'm still not caught up with it. Perhaps reflecting 9/11, a large bar of specialty soap for Lamb attracted added security screening. It didn't take long but the TSA guy went right for the bar, asking me what it was. Soap. He smelled it. So I guess it was ruled out as potential C-4 explosives? And while I was coming in to the Detroit airport I saw my son who was leaving Detroit to go back to school. He came to Ann Arbor to go to the Michigan-Washington game. I watched it in a Giordano's with pizza and beer. Anyway, I look forward to the trip. My plan to try blackjack failed with events preventing proper preparations and practice. But next year for sure. Hopefully without masks, too.
