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Roundup — 42 Comments

  1. I was hoping your roundup would have mentioned the mother in Chicago who lost custody of her son because she hadn’t had the covid vaccine. This seems to be setting a terrifying precedent, but I’ve not seen many people mention it. Maybe you and other bloggers have more confidence than I do that it’ll be overturned. If it’s not…millions of parents and their children are in grave danger.

  2. The commenters at Powerline after Paul Mirengoff made not one, but two, extremely feeble attempts to defend the clearly incompetent Michael Byrd (who did himself no favors with any intelligent and sensible person in his interview) in the murder of Ashli were almost all in agreement that not only is it impossible to justify such a shooting but, had the races been reversed, the coverage in the MSM would have been rather different, to say the least. Perhaps the starkest illustration of the chasm separating our nation’s irrational citizens from those who can still think clearly is that, almost without exception, those who regarded the death of the blessed martyr Floyd as the saddest such event since the crucifixion of Jesus consider the actions of Byrd to have been “heroic” and commendable.

  3. NS:

    No such confidence on my part.. It’s merely that there are so many news stories that I have to pick and choose.

  4. One of the mistakes was believing the Afghan army would provide serious resistance to the Taliban, thereby allowing the evacuation to proceed more successfully. The counter-argument is that by bugging out surreptitiously the US disheartened the Afghans and facilitated the disaster.

    Leaving that aside, I’m reminded of the Gurkhas, the legendary fierce fighters from Nepal who were incorporated into the British Indian Army and fought just about everywhere, including in WWII, with distinction. So much so that there was a successful movement in the UK to bring Gurkha pensions in line with the official UK levels and allow Gurkhas to resettle in the UK if they wished.
    __________________________________

    Actress Joanna Lumley [“The Avengers” and “Absolutely Fabulous”], daughter of Gurkha corps Major James Lumley who had highlighted the treatment of the Gurkhas and campaigned for their rights, commented, “This is the welcome we have always longed to give”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha
    __________________________________

    I don’t know the story of the Gurkhas beyond the above, but I do wonder how the British acquired the loyalty of the Gurkhas and how differently Afghanistan might have gone if we had managed to do so with the Afghan army.

  5. Unless I missed it (entirely probable) I didn’t see it in your previous post on it, or in Turley’s piece, and didn’t watch the Frei and Barnes clip, but I think it’s strongly implied by you – Byrd has made his defense in the upcoming wrongful death suit significantly harder with that interview. That should be made plain. He was clearly ill-advised, or not advised by legal counsel before that.

    I was a bit shocked by his admissions, though in this day and age, I shouldn’t have been.

  6. gmmay70:

    Yes, that is covered at length, and is the main point that Frei and Barnes make.

  7. huxley:

    Headlines from behind the Telegraph paywall:
    Afghan commandos could fight for British Army like Gurkhas
    Government considering proposals to create brand new regiment consisting of Afghan special forces troops evacuated from Kabul

  8. “Almost 90 Retired Flag Officers Demand Mark Milley, Lloyd Austin Resign After Afghanistan Debacle”
    https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/30/almost-90-retired-flag-officers-demand-mark-milley-lloyd-austin-resign-after-afghanistan-debacle/

    Finally.

    “I do wonder how the British acquired the loyalty of the Gurkhas” huxley

    Back then, the Brits earned that loyalty by acting in a way that warriors could admire.

    The Gurkhas are citizens of the Kingdom of Nepal. 81% of the Nepalese are Hindus, 9% Buddhist, 4.4% are Muslim. Allah has forbidden Muslims to give their loyalty to anyone who is not Muslim. We were never going to earn the loyalty of the majority of the Afghans, only a temporary, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

  9. Neo,

    Regarding point 2. This is just my opinion and I hope I am wrong

    It seems we cannot get any actual numbers regarding which Americans have been left behind in this mess. Even though the government must have a pretty good idea who is still there.

    After last week when the government last week practically begged for any Americans still in country to contact them on twitter or by text. They were gathering that information. So that whomever was left behind would not be able to get any further messages out after the pull out. That is why they spent so much time trying to spin that whomever was left was still there of their own volition.

    I realize that probably comes off as overly cynical. But after watching this whole mess. And the Biden admin seemingly giving little care regarding anything else but the “optics” of the situation. It would seem totally in line with their thinking on the subject.

    I suspect some of them will be appearing in Taliban videos as their “guests” in the next few weeks.

  10. LtCol Stuart Scheller, I salute you sir. Stones as big as basketballs, the integrity, and responsibility of a Lincoln. You da Man! If there is cosmic justice, you words and actions will echo around the military, the Congress, the electorate, and bring some reform. You have fallen on your sword, it should not be in vain.

  11. LtCol Stuart Scheller, I salute you sir.–J.J.

    What does “relieved of duty” mean?

    Is it a time-out, a discharge, a loss of pension?

  12. On the airport situation: the last five U.S. planes left HKIA at 11:59 p.m. Kabul time. “The U.S. military has confirmed that all U.S. forces have left Afghanistan. It is now August 31st in Kabul, which had long been the scheduled date of the final American withdrawal from the country after nearly two decades of a U.S. military presence there in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. . . . Though the reports we have now are unconfirmed, a new Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) has emerged saying that Hamid Karzai International Airport is now ‘uncontrolled.'”

    I don’t know whether the figures given at the link will answer Mythx’s question about the numbers of those left behind, but in hopes that the link helps:
    https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42195/americas-20-year-war-in-afghanistan-ends-after-last-troops-depart-kabul

  13. Headlines from behind the Telegraph paywall:
    Afghan commandos could fight for British Army like Gurkhas

    tcrosse:

    I found this similar article at the Daily Mail:
    _____________________________________

    MPs and former military leaders have called on the government to create a new regiment in the British Army for Afghan special forces – just like the Gurkhas.

    Ministers are set to consider suggestions on how to best utilise the skills of hundreds of Afghan commandos, who UK troops helped train, who have arrived in the UK on the last evacuation flights from Kabul.

    The move already has support from veterans now in Parliament as well as the former head of Army.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9938445/Afghan-special-forces-commandos-fight-British-Army-like-Gurkhas.html
    _____________________________________

    The article has a good sidebar piece on the Gurkhas.

  14. Looks like we’re officially out.

    Clearly the plan was to finish the bug-out as quickly as possibly and before any more bombings. Best of luck to those Americans left behind to the tender mercies of the Taliban.

    But what next? The public ransoming or beheadings of those the Taliban finds?
    ___________________________________________

    Biden breaks promise to ‘stay’ in Afghanistan until every American evacuated

    Biden promised in interview: ‘If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out’

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-breaks-promise-stay-afghanistan-every-american-evacuated

  15. “Actually, rather than saying the war in Afghanistan is over, it would be more accurate to say the focus of operations has shifted, back to the U.S.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/470995/

    The top of the piece is a quote from Sen. Ben Sasse posting his “Ls” online so to speak.

  16. “But what next? The public ransoming or beheadings of those the Taliban finds?”

    For a Sept. 11th online worldwide video “Spectacular-Spectacular.”

  17. I’m not old but I’ve seen a decent amount of happenings and actions in my 64 years. Here is an aphorism, two actually, that I think apply to Biden, et al:

    1. A stopped clock is correct twice a day
    2. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile

    For Biden’s actions and failed outcomes to be the result of incompetence these two observations would have to be false. I am left to conclude that much of what he has destroyed over the past seven months has been done according to plan and on purpose.

  18. Neo,

    “Yes, that is covered at length, and is the main point that Frei and Barnes make.”

    Thanks for that. I didn’t really have time for the video, since I’m trying to consume as much info as possible in the time I have. I figured it must’ve been in there somewhere. Just figures it was in the one place I didn’t check.

  19. gmmay70:

    The video is over 2 hours long, but here I cued up a 6-minute segment just on Byrd.

  20. Huxley,

    “What does “relieved of duty” mean?

    Is it a time-out, a discharge, a loss of pension?”

    In the Marines (and the service in general), it means a reassignment to a lesser position and effectively the end of your career, or at least advancement. If you make it to 18 years, your pension is guaranteed, short of murdering someone. What Scheller did was ensure he’d never see Colonel, or a command position again.

    What he’s done since then is resign his commission, which is a far more substantial statement. Since he had only been in 17 years, he has voluntarily rejected his pension, among other things. This is the strongest statement a military officer can legally make regarding his convictions.

  21. Scheller: “I could stay in the Marine Corps for another three years, but I don’t think that’s the path I’m on. I’m resigning my commission as a United States Marine, effective now,” Scheller said. “I am forfeiting retirements, all entitlements, I don’t want a single dollar. I don’t want any money from the VA. I don’t want any VA benefits [even though] I’m sure I’m entitled 100%.”

  22. huxley:
    Before the Brits try to utilize the Afghan troops, they might want to review the history of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-59.

  23. gmmay70, Chases Eagles:

    Strong stuff. Hats off to Lt. Col. Scheller!

    Hope he’s got some $ socked away.

  24. LtCol Scheller resigns. WOW!! That’s the ultimate move of protest.

    He’s thrown away a lot of economic security as a signal of his seriousness. He has thrown down the gauntlet. His words and actions should reverberate even more loudly.

    Whatever his future course, I’m quite sure he will do well. There’s still a demand for men of honor and responsibility.

    Huxley: gmmay70 answered very well the question you asked. He could probably have stayed on active duty for 20 years and qualified for his retirement. However, there is a chance that higher ups may have ordered him to be court martialed per the UCMJ for disrespect for a senior officer.
    “CMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) disrespect falls under Article 89, which is disrespect toward a superior military officer. Charges for this form of disrespect can be given to anyone who shows disrespect to a superior officer and the officer doesn’t have to be present to be disrespected.”

    That would be an interesting trial, considering the circumstances. Unfortunately, in today’s military there’s a chance he might be convicted and stripped of rank ,pay, and benefits. That would be a rather dramatic punishment, but who knows what might happen in the “woke” military. That’s now off the table, though.

  25. Regarding the drone strike with significant collateral damage:

    Hellfire missiles carried by US drones now come armed with two different warheads — one with an explosive payload and one with a spinning set of blades that can cut through a car’s metal roof and slice up anyone inside. Not much publicity has surrounded the use of the second type of drone, but it has reportedly cut down on collateral damage significantly. It is now possible to take out the occupants of a single vehicle without harming anyone outside the vehicle.

    The military spokesman has not said which type of warhead was used on the drone strike outside the Hamid Karzai Airport. If it was the explosive type, that would indeed set off the explosives inside the car, and planner must have known that and weighed their options appropriately. If it was the spinning blade type, that would have killed people in the car (and probably rendered said car undriveable), but it would only have detonated the explosives if it had triggered the detonators in the car.

    That is not to say the military did not eff up, as they surely knew explosives were in the car (the reporting says they observed that from the drone) and they were likely to go off. Or even if they were using a non-explosive warhead, they must have known it was entirely possible it would hit the detonators.

    But using the second type of warhead would make collateral damage much less likely, something the ISIS-K suicide bombers were not concerned with the previous day.

    So of course it works for the next of kin to go to the press and describe their peace-loving dead relatives, and lots of news consumers in the USA will be chagrined over that. But I find it more and more difficult to shed a tear over non-combatant deaths that take place when suicide bombers do their stuff. It’s a little like the journalists in Palestine who claimed they never knew militants were firing rockets into Israel from their building. Their ability plausibly to claim deniability goes down with both the severity and frequency of terror being unleashed under their nose.

  26. @Huxley:

    Got some slight experience with Nepalese descendants of Gurkhas. Plenty in Hong Kong as the British kept Gurkhas here to guard the border and hunt down illegal immigrants and infiltrators. Very much suited to it because a chunk of the border region is mountainous and wild. Also, not being Chinese, it was harder for them to be corrupted by gangsters and other agencies. For the same reason, until recently, banks would hire Pakistani or Sikh security guards because rightly assumed they would be more inclined to unload one or both shotgun barrels into Chinese bank robbers.

    Well, Gurkhas who had served x number of years here were permitted to ship their wives over. So children were being born in Hong Kong and acquiring right of permanent residence automatically upon seeing the light of day. All good you might think? Hell no. They’re now a very problematic violent, drug, and prostitution-riddled deracinated underclass who can’t face or handle life back in Nepal (where they’d probably do fine had they been born there).

    If you look at a mean IQ map of Asia, Nepalese are the dumbest of the lot. Poor fellows, not their fault. They make great enlisted soldiers (inability to foresee future consequences of present actions as well as folks with more frontal matter might be one factor in their legendary bravery though) given discipline and lots of structure and regimental tradition. Free of that, they simply don’t have what it takes to be more than road gang or sanitation workers in a place with mean IQ 105. A few do a bit more OK as restaurant servers in the expat trade because have English skills. And note that only the most exceptional ones got recruited as mercenaries… there’s much reversion to the mean in the next generation and subsequent ones.

    Naturally the British *are* stupid enough to want to import more socio-economic and racial problems, so they will. It would make more sense to set up a grifting NGO in Nepal to look after retired Gurkhas and their immediate families for one generation extra only… would still end up being a terrible grift, but would do more good there than importing them to the West ever could.

    Singapore has the right idea. They use Gurkhas as a special security detachment whose job is to provide heavy firepower to protect the top leadership in the event of any kind of unrest or infiltration. They are kept totally isolated from the general public and not allowed under any circumstances to settle in or even re-enter Singapore after their contracts are up.

    Incredible infantrymen… as infantrymen. Legendary. They scared the living crap out of the notoriously vicious Japanese in the Burma fighting. But not who you want moving in next door and raising a clan.

  27. NS,

    The vaccine issue is only going to get worse. We’ve got two cases pending in NYS that are going the way the Chicago case is going.

    I probably won’t be around to see it. The NYS Unified Court System, my employer, has issued the ultimatum: All employees are to be vaccinated by 9/27/21 or be labeled unfit for work/duty and terminated. I have refused the vaccine thus far and have no plans to get it, especially now. I hate bullies and I hate bullying, in any form. I’m already putting out feelers for employment in some other industry, possibly another state, that won’t require vaccination. So, it looks like Biomedical Apartheid is now going to be “a thing”.

    We cannot comply our way out of this. They will make people jump through hoops and those hoops will get smaller and smaller and smaller.

    2021/2022 might make the previous two years look sane.

  28. Re: Gurkhas

    Zaphod:

    Well, that’s not quite the feelgood ending I hoped for. At least their bravery was on the mark and not some grift like all the black/female computer whizzes in Hollywood product.
    ___________________________

    Former Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once stated that: “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha.”

    –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha

  29. @huxley:

    Re Bravery:

    John Masters (Fascinating career — started out at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, then Indian Army, then eventually successful author living in USA) wrote a wonderful book about officering in a Gurkha regiment before and during WWII. In there, there’s a wonderful vignette about a platoon jogging up a jungly hill under machine gun fire grinning and *laughing*. Not as many came back down the hill after, but all the Japanese on top of it may safely be assumed to have died with their balls in their mouths. Gurkhas didn’t use their Kukri knives for decoration.

    They were proven time and again in real fighting, not Perfumed Prince Wargaming, so there’s no doubt as to their courage and fearsomeness.

    But not next door, please.

  30. “The video is over 2 hours long, but here I cued up a 6-minute segment just on Byrd.”

    Yeah, I know. I just rarely click on videos because I’ve become near-pathologically averse to watching or listening to people talk about politics or news. It’s a failing. Apologies.

  31. gmmay70:

    I don’t consider it a failing. I don’t like watching talk videos – too slow; I’d rather read the transcript. But I do watch certain people, and I like Frey and Barnes in particular. I’ve almost never watch a whole 2-hour-plus video, though. I just skip around and find the topic that interests me and listen to that part.

    Also, there’s a trick you can do of speeding videos up, so the voices sound a bit chipmunk-y. Not recommended for music!

  32. Hats off to (now) Mr. Scheller – please note, that is the same honorific George Washington chose as president.
    https://www.rd.com/article/presidential-title-facts/
    https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/facts/washington-stories/a-president-by-any-other-name/
    Semper fi.

    This was the post Neo linked.
    https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2021/08/29/marine-officer-relieved-of-duty-for-slamming-leaders-over-afghanistan-debacle-issues-blistering-warning-n434835

    Here are headlines from some of the other ones currently in the sidebar or directly accessible (not linking them, so as to not trigger the Hall Monitor):

    “USMC Take Troubling Step Against Marine Commander Who Demanded Accountability on Afghanistan”
    (threatening to paint him as having mental health problems and being a “threat” because he spoke about bringing the “system down.” — But as he said, “You can’t fire me, I resign!”)

    “ABC Just Did Something Unthinkable to Commander of Marine Company Hit by Kabul Suicide Attack”
    (He wrote a touching post about the death of his men; then ABC stole the post, used Capt. Ball’s name and published it as an op-ed by him, titled “My fallen Marines will always be my heroes: Opinion.” They even created an “author” profile for him on their website. All without his permission.)

    “NBC News Reporter Triggers Leftists After Brutally on-Point Assessment About Afghanistan Legacy”
    (Even the MSM are warmongers now.)

    “Jen Psaki’s Answer on if Biden Regrets How Afghanistan Exit Strategy Played out Is Unacceptable”
    (it certainly was)

    “The Administration Lied About Giving a List of Names to the Taliban and Not a Fact-Checker to Be Found”
    (some of those names were of the female students at the American University, mentioned in other threads)

    “Blinken Confirms Everything You Thought About Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster in One Awful Sentence”
    (to wit, on Americans and allies being free to leave: “Now, of course, we don’t take the Taliban at their word; we take them by their deed. And that’s what we’re going to be looking to.”)

    I will link this one, because it’s important to read the whole thing.

    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/08/30/blinken-official-final-remarks-on-afghanistan-show-how-little-they-care-about-americans-n435573

    Remember Obama’s strawman catchphrase?
    This IS what Democrats are.

  33. There are a lot more at RedState that are just as sickening.

    “As Biden Pulls out, bin Laden’s Security Chief Triumphantly Returns to Be Embraced in Afghanistan”

    Joe Biden has had talking points when he tries to talk about the “success” that he achieved in Afghanistan.

    Among those points are two things he constantly says: that we went in to get Osama bin Laden and that we went to make sure that we were safe from being attacked by al Qaeda/terrorists from Afghanistan again. He said that we successfully achieved both long ago.

    But he voted against getting bin Laden and he’s ensured that Afghanistan may be even more dangerous now than before, with the Taliban controlling the country. We were attacked by terrorists before we even left, with the Kabul Airport suicide attack. And now the country will be a haven, not just for the Taliban but for al Qaeda and for ISIS as well.

    Biden even lied and claimed that al Qaeda was gone from the country. His own team had to contradict him and say yes, al Qaeda was still in the country.

    But perhaps nothing was a more stark example of how empty Biden’s words were than the images today — as the U.S. finally pulled out after 20 years, having gone in to deal with al Qaeda — to have Osama bin Laden’s security chief now return to be embraced by admirers to his home province in Afghanistan, under Taliban protection. A gut-punching image as we come up on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, if ever there was one.

    “That’s It: All Planes Out of Afghanistan, Gen. McKenzie Admits Americans Were Left, Praises the Taliban”

    …“We were not able to bring any Americans out… none of them made it to the airport and were able to be accommodated.” Again, hundreds of Americans and allies did make it to the airport over the last couple of days, but were not allowed in. That’s shameful and now they’re trapped and McKenzie admitted it, trying to downplay it as “very few hundreds” left.”

    Joe Biden said they were going to stay until they got everyone out. We knew that was a lie at the time. He knew it was a lie at the time. Well, here it is, and yes, it’s a lie.
    He kept his word to the Taliban to get out by their date of August 31. He didn’t keep his word to the American people to get Americans out.

    “Reports of Americans, Allies Still Trapped: Some Say Denied Entry to Kabul Airport by US”

    …There was also an American family in contact with Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) who said they had tried multiple times to get into the airport but had been unable to get in. Kim said he asked the State Department for whatever emergency number they had for this situation to help people trying to get in. They told him there was no such number.

    Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson denied that Americans were being denied entry to the airport by the State Department but there are multiple reports about the State Department not letting people in, including among members of Congress who the people were contacting.

    The State Department says only a few hundred Americans are still trying to leave Afghanistan. I’m sorry, but that’s a LIE. We have WAY more requests than that coming in from people begging us to help them escape.— Glenn Beck

    Hundreds of Afghan students & alumni of American University in Kabul told evacuations are canceled after 7 hours waiting in buses today to get to the airport. They are in panic and say their names and passport information was shared with the Taliban.

    But THIS guy made it out.

    “Rapist Evacuated From Kabul to US Reveals Bigger Problem With People the Biden Team Evacuated”

    If only 5,400 of the 122,000 people are Americans and by some reports, only 7,000 are SIVs, who are all those other people, what kind of vetting did they get, and were they legitimately on the planes?

    But the Biden Administration is incompetent so they can’t even begin to tell us how many SIVs were among the group as we reported previously — something which should have been the primary part of putting people on the planes.

    Now, the SIV number can be a little deceptive in that those are the most vetted people and the ones who, along with Americans, should have been the ones they were trying to get out. There also would have been a number of Afghan allies who may have been contractors, embassy staff, interpreters who didn’t have SIVs, who still needed legitimately to get out with us because they helped us and that likely would be a big number.

    Unfortunately, because it’s the Biden Administration, lying and incompetence go hand in hand with each other so it raises the real question of whether people on the planes were adequately vetted or just packed onto the planes to bump the numbers. I put nothing past the Biden team at this point.

    This latest story confirms that not everyone was vetted sufficiently

    According to the Washington Times, a convicted rapist who had previously been deported from the United States was one of the people who made it on an evacuation flight all the way to the U.S., until he was flagged by border officials when he arrived at Dulles Airport. He’s now being held at a detention facility in Virginia.

    “Afghanistan Veteran Puts Dire Situation in Perspective With Message That Should Make Biden Feel Shame”

    Johnny “Joey” Jones is a retired United States Marine who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, Jones lost both his legs below the knee after he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. In addition to the loss of both of his legs, the explosion “caused severe damage to his right forearm and both wrists.”

    Jones, who is a Fox News contributor, naturally had a lot to say about the situation in Afghanistan during his appearance today on the network’s “Outnumbered” program. I transcribed the first two videos, but please make sure to watch all four clips below as he perfectly put in perspective why the sacrifices his fellow officers made mattered and how going forward we need to put leaders in charge who might have had the foresight to put forth an exit strategy from a country that didn’t lead to what we’ve seen happen over the last several days:

    “I have a daughter now. Every time I look at her I think about [ Gunnery Sgt. Floyd Holley] and his two daughters. And all I can think is that these men sacrificed not just their lives but when you sacrifice your life, you sacrifice every single minute and day that you would’ve stayed on this Earth making an impact in other people’s lives. And as mad and frustrated as I am today, I just hope the American people understand these people died for you. Let’s make this world a better place, let’s elect leaders that are leaders and not just politicians. And as much as we want to complain, maybe let’s look forward and look for the right people to do the right things because haven’t had much of that in a while.”

    Jones’ powerful message should be cc’d to Joe Biden and his apologists in the mainstream media who oddly believe that maybe Americans will be willing to give Biden a “pass” for the way the Afghanistan war ended, considering so many here are war-weary.

    The tragedy is that many Democrats will give him a pass (or even spin it up into credit!), but all of those trapped Americans and our allies from Afghanistan and NATO have families and friends; all of the killed and wounded troops, past and present, have families and friends; all of the veterans and charity groups and (yes, even some) politicians trying desperately to help get people out have families and friends.

    They won’t give Biden or anyone in his administration a pass.
    Not anymore.

  34. You thought I was kidding about spinning this mess into “credit” for Biden and his Bumbling Buffoons.

    Nope.

    https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2021/08/30/state-dept-spox-resorts-to-tweeting-jennifer-rubin-op-ed-about-who-deserves-more-credit-for-afghanistan-mess/

    The last of U.S. military personnel on the ground in Afghanistan flew out of the country before 4 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday. After that it didn’t take long for the Taliban to take over the side of the airport that was formerly controlled by the U.S.

    However, there are still, by the State Department’s estimate, around 200 Americans in Afghanistan who don’t want to be there in spite of Biden’s promise a couple weeks ago that nobody would be left behind.

    Add it all up and the Biden administration’s withdrawal has basically been a disaster. But as that was happening, State Department spokesman Jake Price found an unsurprising ally in the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin:

    Opinion | The State Department deserves more credit for its effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan – The Washington Post https://t.co/U7hmb6jRiu

    — Ned Price (@nedprice) August 30, 2021

    There’s shameless, and then there’s whatever THIS is.

    https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/08/30/royal-flush-of-ron-klain-retweets-white-house-chief-of-staff-retweets-joy-reid-responding-to-jennifer-rubin-praising-the-airlift/

    A lot of people think it’s White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain who’s calling the shots in the Biden administration; it has to be somebody. After all, somebody’s always instructing President Biden which reporter to call on, and he always says he’s going to get in trouble with someone if he takes unscripted questions.

    We know that Klain spends a lot of time on Twitter, because he does a lot of retweeting. Matt Whitlock caught him in the “royal flush” of retweets, retweeting MSNBC’s Joy Reid marveling at the “astounding human achievement” that was the bug-out from Afghanistan, in a reply to Jennifer Rubin being reminded of the end of “Schindler’s List.”

    But wait, there’s more: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about a scoop in the Washington Post that the Taliban offered control of Kabul to the U.S. military, but the military deferred and said the airport was fine. Psaki said she hadn’t heard about it.

    “Big news that Jen Psaki apparently doesn’t read the Washington Post while the WHCOS retweets Jen Rubin 30 times a day.”— Stephen L. Miller

    This debacle does have some resemblance to “Schindler’s List” – but not the positive one they are thinking about.
    https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1432399441139482633

    However, Schindler also lamented that he hadn’t done enough to save more people, so maybe they are right after all.

  35. @AesopFan:

    All Jennifer Rubin Reports gratefully accepted.

    Her utterances are to me as Beer was to Ben Franklin: Proof that God loves me and wants me to be happy!

  36. @ NS > “I was hoping your roundup would have mentioned the mother in Chicago who lost custody of her son because she hadn’t had the covid vaccine. This seems to be setting a terrifying precedent, but I’ve not seen many people mention it. Maybe you and other bloggers have more confidence than I do that it’ll be overturned. If it’s not…millions of parents and their children are in grave danger.”

    Circling back, as someone we know is wont to do…
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/08/30/judge-revokes-mothers-custody-of-son-over-vaccination-status-n2594999?utm_campaign=rightrailsticky3
    “Judge Shapiro just issued an order vacating portions of his prior order of August 11th so Rebecca Firlit can see her son again,”

  37. The worst disease that afflicts us is the hubris of the left. Humility is the foundational virtue. Liberals/leftists/Democrats have none. Pick any issue — masks, lockdowns, the non-vaccine vaccines, the rampant slanders of all who disagree, and all the awfulness that they have demonstrated for years. They show the same moral failing with regard to the way they handle every one of these issues: a complete absence of any humility. Hubris reigns.

  38. @ stan > “The worst disease that afflicts us is the hubris of the left.”

    Being right about everything means never having to say you’re sorry.

  39. @ Stan> “Humility is the foundational virtue.”
    For myself, I would suggest that honesty, truthfulness, “Thou shalt not bear false witness” is, or should be, the foundational virtue. AKA: Reality is not optional.
    I perceive it is their continual lying that turns our stomach, not so much their lack of humility. And all of us are subject to confirmation bias and the potential of lying to ourselves – a very difficult thing to avoid, but necessary if you are going to be a changer as was/is our hostess. One of the core benefits of blog postings and the multiple talents in comment threads such as this one is the ability to offer something that more closely approaches truth – initially or as later corrected.

    So a modest rephrasing: “They show the same moral failing with regard to the way they handle every one of these issues: a complete absence of honesty.”

    The talented, but still less than perfect, architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, was reported to have claimed in effect: “honest arrogance was preferable to hypocritical humility”. He was capable enough to get away with that – many others are not.

  40. @ stan > “The talented, but still less than perfect, architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, was reported to have claimed in effect: “honest arrogance was preferable to hypocritical humility”. He was capable enough to get away with that – many others are not.”

    He was responsible for a great many less-than-perfect creations, according to our son the architect, because he was too arrogant (honest or not) to let anyone interfere with his visions, including the clients paying for his services or the structural engineers pointing out the flaws.

    It is not hypocritical to admit your limits, or to decline the lure of making every issue all about yourself.

  41. The commenters at Powerline after Paul Mirengoff made not one, but two, extremely feeble attempts to defend the clearly incompetent Michael Byrd

    In the course of that bit of advocacy, for what did Mirengoff blame Trump?

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