the *DON* JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED
	8/20/21… 14,285.60 8/13/21… 14,288.94 6/27/13… 15,000.00
*(THE DOW* JONES INDEX: 8/20/21…35,064.25; 8/13/21…35,499.85; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)**

LESSON for August 20, 2021 – IMPEACH BIDEN!

Last week we promised a roundup of Peanut Gallery shells on the topic of eviction moratoria “barring some major occurrence”…

So much for promises – whether from politicians, the media, the social or anti-social media and partisan tigers of any, every and no stripes. A brand, spanking new Afghan military, moral, political, homeland security and historical kerfuffle emerged… more or less as predicted, but at least a month ahead of time.

Like a horned child of Chaos, prematurely born but healthy, hale and howling, the sudden Taliban takeover of Afghanistan deposits our peanuts on the back burner, for another week (or more, pending resolution… or, at least, further developments in the courts… in a near future of their own).

As to our premise… simple justice. Back in the day… or, rather, a couple of days in October, 2019 when President Trump decided to pull a George McGovern and simply pull out of Syria and Northeastern Iraq (see pertinent remarks on our Lessons of October 15 and 22, 2019, Attachments A and B), he undoubtedly saved dozens, maybe hundreds of American lives, but left our allies, the Kurds, holding a bag of very unpleasant consequences, enduring until today.

In early October of 2019, recalled Sam Clench of Australia’s news.com (See Attachment Three), Donald Trump “made one of the more morally repugnant decisions of his presidency.

“Blindsiding the world with an announcement on Twitter, he ordered a sudden withdrawal of what few US military forces remained near Syria’s northern border.

“It is time for us to get out of these ridiculous endless wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. We will fight where it is to our benefit,” Mr Trump said at the time.

“Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out.”

“It was a staggering betrayal of America’s allies, the Kurds, whose help had been invaluable in the fight to crush ISIS.”

At home, even the Des Moines Register in red, red Iowa had reported upon Joe’s excoriation of the then-incumbent.

"The events of this past week ... have had devastating clarity on just how dangerous he is to our national security, to our leadership around the world and to the lives of the brave women and men serving in uniform," Biden said.

The decision to withdraw troops from Syria, Biden said, created a humanitarian crisis, forced the United States military into retreat and gave ISIS "a new lease on life."

"Those brave Kurdish and Arab forces paid a steep price. Defeating ISIS and the caliphate, they lost over 10,000 soldiers," Biden said. "Hear me? Ten thousand. Ten thousand dead. They made the ultimate sacrifice. And then Trump sold them out."

Many (including this Index) deemed this betrayal sufficient for Trump’s impeachment… Impeachment Number One, as it turned out, the real impeachment (conviction in which case would have result in a Pence presidency and, presuming that he did not hang himself as diehards POTheads might have wished, re-election in 2020. The Democrats in the Senate, however, thought domestic issues alone would garner them the 67 votes necessary for conviction, and they didn’t even come close. Which led to… well, you know…

Among other things, Djonald the Dealer’s deal with the Taliban, was probably undertaken once he knew, but would not admit, that somebody else would be occupying the White House in 2021, stolen election or not. So he did what he did and the Taliban did what they did, and our armed forces played around in dirt, more or less anticipating the day when they’d go home to a grateful America while the 300,000 Afghan troops that they’d trained and gifted with nifty devices for killing people would engage the enemy in a shadow war that might last for a few more years, or a few more centuries (conditions in that part of the world being what they were).

Even a Republican like Liz Cheney could say that while Biden “absolutely” bears responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan, so, too, does Trump. "There is no question that President Trump, his administration, Secretary Pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this,” she told ABC.

The leftish media unrolled a flying carpet of excuses to justify the pullout… most of which centered upon Trump’s “deal” with the Taliban (aka the Doha Agreement) and President Joe’s resident honor in honoring it… no matter how one-sided and craven. The Guardian UK hailed Biden’s “robust defence of the strategic reasons America was ending its longest war”, but CNN’s Peter Bergen cited Biden’s contention that he was bound by the Trump administration’s “genuinely terrible deal with the Taliban” to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan. “However, there are multiple flaws with this argument…”

“First, the Taliban never observed the terms of that agreement, including that they would break ties with al-Qaeda. According to a UN report released earlier this year, they didn’t.

“Second, the agreement said that the Taliban would enter genuine peace negotiations with the Afghan government. That didn’t happen either.

“Third, the US-Taliban agreement was negotiated without any input from the Afghan government – which, after all, was the elected government of the country. Conveniently for the Taliban, they don’t believe in elections.

“So, the Biden administration felt bound to an agreement made by the previous administration with an insurgent group that had excluded the actual government of Afghanistan.”

Trump’s Taliban deal failed, his re-election failed, his attempted coup on January 6^th also failed and then Joe from Scranton moved into 1600 Pennsylvania and, being an honorable Joe, honored his predecessor’s deal with an enemy army of questionable humanity, fronting for a terrorist network lacking humanity entirely.

The 300,000 Afghan armed forces, their one percent American security blanket yanked away, melted like milkshakes in Mazar-i-Sharif.

The Australians noted that Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen had appeared in an interview with Sky News UK, claiming that the US had already “violated the time frame” within the Doha agreement, and needs to “get their troops out of Afghanistan”. The Doha Agreement is a four-page agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in February, 2020, which sealed the deal with America’s withdrawal. (See article and Agreement as Attachment Four and Four A)

On Sunday the Taliban wafted into Kabul like so many vulture feathers blowing in the wind while the 2,000 remaining American troops, mostly at the airport and embassy, shredded documents and issued the prescribed official forms to the thousands of Afghan collaborators certain to be pried out of their basements, tried (sort of) and beheaded. The 2,000 became 3,000 on Monday, then 5,000, then 6,000 on Wednesday and then, with desperate civilians trying to cling to the retreating aircraft yesterday, 5,000 again.

Biden’s eagerness to pull American troops out completely by the symbolic deadline of September 11, no matter what, has left insufficient time for ensuring the evacuation of Afghans who assisted the U.S. and have good reason to fear they’ll be imprisoned or executed because of that once the Taliban gets hold of them, warned Jonah Shepp of New York Magazine. “Those who are not far enough along in the process of applying for special immigrant visas (SIVs), or stuck in Taliban-controlled territory or otherwise unable to travel to Kabul, are “shit out of luck,” as a congressional aide put it to the Washington Post on Friday. Around 19,000 Afghans who qualify for SIVs are still in the queue. Along with their families, that’s about 88,000 hopeful evacuees — and that’s not counting all the journalists, activists, and other highly vulnerable people who qualify for refugee status or asylum under other visa programs.”

The refugees are being stacked up like firewood in Doha, Qatar, with no feasible plan about how, where and when they will be dispersed to what are likely will be permanent domiciles. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. “Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan?” (Jon Sopel – BBC, See Attachment Five)

Perhaps President Joe was hoping for a best case scenario… flushed with and magnanimous in victory, the Taliban would trade in their dirty robes for Hugo Boss suits, trim the beards to Brooklyn hipster stubble… maybe even don fedoras. These haven’t happened… but the terrorists’ first press conference was an exercise in pivoting towards the sentiments of sense and sensibility, really the sort of neighbors you can do business with (if, that is, your business is opioids).

The takeover spin doctors spun a feisty web… portraying their bearded myrmidons as wide-eyed children enjoying a confiscated carnival: crashing about in bumper cars and riding the carousel.

The leaders of the gang held their first press conference in Kabul, with the Australians of news.com in attendance; notorious Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahed claiming “security and peace” is its top priority and urging local businesses to carry on to ensure a “smooth transfer of power”.

Mr Mujahed said “we hold no grudges against anyone” and tried to assure foreign diplomats living in Kabul and non-government organisations that “no one will be threatened”.

“We want the world to trust us,” he said, claiming the Taliban “do not want them to leave the country” and they “will be pardoned” if they stay.

And then there’s the worst case scenario… think Pol Pot on steroids, Osama on nukes...

Untold human rights abuses will follow, Clench predicted… “(I)n fact they’ve already started.”

Captured Afghan soldiers are being executed, civilians are being attacked, and women are being forced into marriage.

Taliban rule will mean ethnic cleansing, the death penalty for homosexuality, the end of education for women, and many more indignities for the Afghan people. All the progress of the last two decades will be undone.

“Afghanistan is in the throes of yet another chaotic and desperate chapter, an incredible tragedy for its long-suffering people,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today.

“Mr Biden has chosen this outcome,” Clench scolded. “It didn’t need to happen. He has decided Afghanistan’s return to the dark ages is an acceptable price for ending America’s longest war.

“So far, the politician who campaigned on “restoring the soul of America” hasn’t even had the decency to express regret for what’s unfolding.”

While denizens of America’s Grub Street rolled over and hit the snooz button, other foreigners (who apparently have more to lose than do Americans with the crumbling of America’s moral, military and economic prestige) were shaking in their trilbies and lederhosen… “what if terror groups, feeling emboldened by the Taliban victory, decide to launch their own attacks on Americans abroad - or Americans at home?” asked and answered the BBC. Then it could be politically catastrophic. (See Attachment Four)

Who knows what emboldened dictators might do? Iran might ramp up its nuclear adventure or infiltrate and overthrow the shaky Iraqi regime. China could wholly absorb Hong Kong – then march forward to conquer Taiwan (or Vietnam), Russia could ramp up its cybermischief… or invade Ukraine, or the Baltics,,,

“Fewer US troops in Afghanistan could derail peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban,” Vox postulated - this being one of four crises that could derail his administration shortly after the 46^th Chief Executive took office.

“With just two months left in office, the Trump administration is rushing to wind down the 19-year US war in Afghanistan by cutting the number of US troops in the country from 4,500 to 2,500 by January 15 — five days before Biden is to be sworn in,” Voxthing Alex Ward predicted, less than a month after the Democrat won (or stole) the 2020 election…

“(W)hile many on both the left and the right in the US support bringing that war to an end, experts worry such a quick withdrawal will harm America’s interests in the country. “It’s hard to imagine a less responsible way to withdraw,” Jason Dempsey, a former Army infantry officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told me earlier this month.

The main concern is what leaving so abruptly means for America’s diplomatic pact with the Taliban. The deal both parties signed earlier this year said all US troops had to leave by May 2021, assuming conditions in the country are relatively peaceful and the Taliban has upheld its end of the deal, which includes engaging in peace talks with the Afghan government and not attacking international forces.

Those peace talks began in September but are not going very well — not least because Taliban fighters have increased their attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians across the country in recent months.”

A perfect storm of plague, economic volatility and the inability (or unwillingness) of the 300,000 troops Americans bought and paid for to defend their own county has had Democrats shaking their heads, Republican planning for the reckoning in 2022 and our enemies abroad licking their chops.

Former president Donald Trump and other figures on the right are spinning the rapid collapse of the Afghan army and government as a massive failure on the part of the Biden administration. (Jonah Shepp in New York Magazine) Their fantasy narrative is that Trump would have managed the withdrawal (which his administration negotiated with the Taliban and agreed to last year) more effectively, and somehow Afghanistan would have remained intact in the aftermath.

“This is, of course, nonsense,” Shepp contends. Trump would not have made any greater effort than Biden to protect the Afghan people as he withdrew U.S. forces — if anything, his track record and character suggest he would have been even more indifferent.”

Another creature licking its chops… and formidable chops they are… is Ol’ 45, suddenly seeing a brand new path back to the White House… the lost Mississippi mansion of antediluvian days… not in 2024, but in 2023! The Independent UK tolled off Djonald Unbound’s twelve tweets of the dog days on Friday the Thirteenth… highlighting the question: “Do you miss me yet?”

He followed President Joe Biden's speech on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan with a brief message on Monday, criticizing the U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

"It's not that we left Afghanistan," Trump tweeted. "It's the grossly incompetent way we left!"

Bipartisan hypocrisy is nothing new, but we have a rather spectacular more or less mirror-image duplicate of a problem aired before the 2020 election in… of all places… Iowa! (See Attachment Seven)

Mr Trump, the Independent noted, was accused of abandoning the Kurds after he pulled about 1,000 US troops out of Syria in October 2019.

“The Kurds fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so,” Mr. Trump said.

The decision led to the slaughter of hundreds of Kurdish fighters who had fought ISIS alongside US troops.

As recently as April Mr Trump was claiming credit for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Twenty one years is enough,” Mr Trump said.

The liberal Guardian UK even waxed wishy washy on Joe’s Big Speech – calling it “resolute, but lack(ing) contrition or humility.” They drew a contrast with John F Kennedy’s acknowledgment of defeat after the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

Kennedy said: “We intend to profit from this lesson. We intend to re-examine and reorient our forces of all kinds – our tactics and our institutions here in this community. We intend to intensify our efforts for a struggle in many ways more difficult than war, where disappointment will often accompany us.”

Trump’s military leaders… Admiral William McRaven (who took out Osama) and Gen. Jim Mattis have not been exactly complimentary of Djonald (Attachment B). Without specifying impeachment, McRaven, nonetheless, said “if this president doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office,” after the Kurdish debacle.

Shouldn’t like follow like?

American politics lives, breathes and dies by the polls. So the polls said Biden’s formerly positive rating had turned negative. (See RCP’s numbers as Attachment Five)

A Politico-Morning Consult poll on Monday found that 49% of registered voters supported the withdrawal from Afghanistan, down from 69% in April, when Biden first announced the exit plan.

John Zogby, a senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, found that 49% of American adults support Biden’s decision to leave the country while 37% oppose it. There was a partisan split, with 73% of Democrats backing the move and just 26% of Republicans.

Zogby wrote: “In the first full day following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban … Joe Biden seems to have survived a major hit in public opinion. His winning coalition of 2020 appears to be intact and his decision to take ownership of a most difficult decision appears to have acted like a tourniquet to stop any bleeding.

“In the next few days the media will continue to focus on the thus far poorly executed withdrawal of Afghans to see how many can be saved and safely evacuated. If this story continues with the same intensity it has received in the past 72 hours, it could damage Mr Biden’s presidency. So far, that is not the case.”

Over the last three days, calls for impeachment have swelled from the marginal (Marjorie Taylor Green) to the limpid (Lindsay Graham) to the global (the Republic of Pakistan… nominal Talibaniacs constantly embroiled on conflicts with an apprehensive India. (See Attachments Nine A and B)

Greene told pardoned Trump aide turned Real America host Steve Bannon that the Afghan meltdown had inspired to file a second Act of Impeachment against President Joe (the first highlighted immigration, the stolen election, the usual fluffernutters) and actually accused Biden of paying the Taliban to humiliate and, presumably in the near future, terrorize America.

Bannon, by the way, when not dancing and romancing with his new girlfriend Marjorie, is feuding with another POThead… MyPillow’s Mike Lindell. Apparently, Steve took umbrage at the shaky stats provided by Lindell’s team of hackers/crackers/crackpots and, according to a Newsweek Peanut, was “disappointed”.

(The real cause of the schism, more likely is that Lindell is still fighting the stolen election fight, while Bannon and fellow Steve, Steve Miller, have a more complicated scheme in mind, as below…)

Monday’s “Newsweek” also counted off the growing contingent of impeach-er-ers, citing Candace Owens, one of the most prominent political spokespeople on the #ImpeachBiden hashtag platform with 2.8 million followers, shared a photo comparing America's exit by helicopter from Vietnam and from Afghanistan with the words, "Biden's Saigon”, Rudy Giuliani, who tweeted "It's such a bad #BidenDisaster, it may lead to an #IMPEACHBIDENNOW, and Amy Tarkanian, former Nevada GOP chairwoman, who tweeted “The Cabinet should immediately invoke the 25th Amendment. If they won't do that, the Congress should move to impeach him. Him remaining as our Commander In Chief is a national security threat."

Also, here and there around America: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fl) who offered, as an alternative, the 25^th Amendment (Biden being deposed by his own Cabinet… rotsa ruck!), Virginia Congressional candidate Jerome Bell for lying about military intelligence in his July 8^th press conference, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) contending: "With this administration it is failure after failure after failure," and a chorus of lepers and leprechauns chanting “Go! Go! Go!”

A peanut in Arizona with spelling (or maybe deep pun) issues warned America: No rights are permanent according to hiden (sic – in the basement?).

“I am looking forward to a red wave sweeping leftist politicians out of office. Get ready for the backlash, you know is coming. It's time for people to put aside fear and take to the streets again and to make their voices louder than ever. The words "shale not be infringed" should be shouted from rooftops, guns and flags waving in unwavering support. Check your rights before someone takes them.” And go frack the Democrats!

And the WashTimes, infamous defenders of Richard Nixon founded by convicted Korean cult-criminal Sun Myung Moon, unloaded both barrels on President Joe. “This president is more concerned about appeasing his radical left-wing base than keeping America safe,” wrote opinionator and Citizens United President David Bossie… (mastermind of the SCOTUS-sanctioned view that corporate bribery for political advertising is just another constituent of “free speech”) portraying Ol’ 46 as a helpless puppet of the diabolical Alexandria (Sandy) Ocasio-Cortez transfixed by crime, immigrants and masks and of kowtowing Clintonian George Stephanopolous. (No mention of George Soros, but he’ll surface, eventually.) (See Attachment Ten)

Lionizing Joe’s predecessor as the heroic author of “a conditions-based withdrawal strategy for Afghanistan”, overturned by “pure hatred” (and in conflict with other scriveners who condemned Biden for over-faithfulness to Djonald’s unconditional conditions, Bossie saved his sharpest throwing stars for the non-Moonie media…

“Let’s not forget the liberal media’s role in this mess. In the time Mr. Biden’s been in office, his allies in the mainstream media legions have given him free rein and felt better asking him about his ice cream choices than life and death foreign policy issues. I’ve said it a million times already, and I’ll repeat it. Our constitutional republic cannot function properly without critical media.”

Speaking of the media, the usual media suspects on the left and left-center were spinning spaghetti – tangled in a few meatballs and treason sauce, distancing Their President from the “humiliation” or, where that failed, themselves from Their President. But even in blue and purple states, bitterness manifested…

L “America lost more than a war in Afghanistan,” stated the Houston Chronicle. “We lost our conscience.”

L “A self-inflicted wound,” editorialized the popular and semi-populist USA Today, that could scuttle Biden’s domestic agenda, and also a Katrina moment.

L Politico called Joe a “micromanager” who overruled his top military advisers and all but compared him to Jimmy Carter… citing his “history lesson” to Obama crony Richard Holbrooke about the chaotic flights from Saigon in 1973: “‘Fuck that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.’”

L Biden’s record was “tainted, probably permanently, by the catastrophic intelligence failure that handed victory to the Taliban,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On Sunday, NPR’s Tamara Keith sounded out famed pundit Mara Liasson who said that “American voters have lost their stomach for foreign military interventions and especially long occupations over a very long period of time.” Ultimately, she predicted, several questions will determine the political fallout for Joe. “For instance, will the Taliban give al-Qaida a safe haven again?” Yes… check and done. “And what happens now?” Mayhem!

“Untold human rights abuses will follow,” forecast Aussie Clench. “In fact they’ve already started. Captured Afghan soldiers are being executed, civilians are being attacked, and women are being forced into marriage.

“Taliban rule will mean ethnic cleansing, the death penalty for homosexuality, the end of education for women, and many more indignities for the Afghan people. All the progress of the last two decades will be undone.”

And that’s not even the worse! While Liasson called the “elite reaction” devastating and cited American “humiliation”, she ducked the apex question: whether the Taliban/alQaeda marriage will lead to terrorism on US soil… when, where and how deadly.

That sliver of America called the center… paleoconservative-leaning Democrats and red, red RINOs as well as the vast swamp of the unknowing, uncaring and confused… rolled with the latest Punch and Counterpunch show.

Calling the week "…a disaster, and a stain on the entire nation," Trump disloyalist Adam Kinzinger told Jacob Jarvis in Monday’s Newsweek that: “Both the GOP and Dems failed here. Time for Americans to put their country over their party.

“I have equally attacked Trump and Biden but the tribalism comes through on both ends of politics. Maybe we just be pro American first vs our party. Both parties have failed America."

The rest of the Western world… still in apparent shock, reacted unfavorably.

“America’s intelligence was flawed and its planning rigid,” scoffed the center-of-center Economist UK. “Mr Biden was capricious and his concern for allies minimal. That is likely to embolden jihadists everywhere. It will also dismay America’s friends and encourage adventurism on the part of hostile governments such as Russia’s or China’s.” British and French sources trumpeted their own successful efforts to evacuate their citizens, and liberal birdcage liners The Atlantic and The Hill jousted over whether the real villains in this swampdrop are the average American citizens – too distracted by the fruits of consumption to care about murdered (dark-skinned, Bible disbelieving) foreigners and, further, would, “memories being short…” “eventually forget the tumult at the Kabul airport” according to a separate article by Peter Nicholas, adding that “grisly images of desperate Afghans clinging to a C-17 fade,” will be replaced by “collective relief that no more Americans will die in a murky, brutal war that spanned two decades and four presidencies.”

Presumably then to switch the channels for a “Bachelor in Paradise” promo asking: “Think you can find a better summer drama?”

As for the non-Taliban Afghans… like Joe told Richard Holbrooke, above, re the Vietnamese evacuations: “Fuck that!”

And then the big dog barked... the disparate elements of The Plan began coalescing like shards of bones, drops of blood and scraps of flesh in a horror re-animation movie. On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News that Republicans could technically start an impeachment trial on President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris now that former President Donald Trump has been impeached twice. Graham argued that the trial over the Capitol insurrection “opened Pandora’s Box”.

It would seem to make no sense for the far right to impeach Biden, the alternatives… Kamala and Nancy… are just as bad. Maybe worse: they’re women! So: Summoning up their inner Talibans, some POTheads have decided to forgive Graham for past infidelities and enlistment in the cult of Steve and Marjorie and their reptile-fighting superheroes and go along to get along with the scenario as goes like this…

Arguing that the GOP could open a case based on Harris’s support for a bail-out fund for protesters over the summer, the gentleman from South Carolina declared: “If you use this model (of the Trump conviction-less impeachments), I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House,” Graham explained (in, of all places, “Film Daily” magazine. “Because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open. So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here and I’m sad for the country.”

After all, those old guys in the 70’s didn’t even consider impeaching Dick Nixon until Spiro Agnew had been sent packing for Watergate-unrelated crimes and misdemeanors.

Maybe Lindsey’s sad because… if Biden goes and Harris goes… the gavel flies through the air and lands in the withered and witchy hand of Nancy Pelosi.

But there’s a plan for that, too. And it goes like this…

Donald Trump sucks in his tummy and, after Gov. Ron deSantis (R-Fl) oversees a census-imposed redistricting to move a few blocks this way in the 21^st District as encompasses Mar a Lago, a few other blocks that way, runs as a Republican (with perhaps a set-up “opponent” to maximize his free media time) and then confronts and trounces the Democratic incumbent, former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel (who herself exploited the previous Census gerrymandering to hijack the 21^st from long-time Republican Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart).

After the Republicans win back the House and Senate the only way they can… by fingerpointing at the Biden-abetted wave of domestic terror initiated by AQIT (the nascent Al Qaeda, Isis, Taliban axis) and perhaps using a few useful MAGA idiots, the Republican Congress appoints Djonald Undeterred as Speaker, then impeaches and the Senate convicts Harris… first, remember Spiro!… then President Joe.

Perfect!

There is, of course, a monkey in the ointment… deSantis is a protégé, but also potential competitor to Djonald for 2024) which may make for complications, but nothing that the Steves (Bannon and Miller) can’t fix by, perhaps, appointing Ron as Vice President with a clear path… not to 2028, of course, but maybe in 2032 or ’36. (The nine Republican Supremes will have to sharpen the fuzziness of the consecutivity of the two term limit to accommodate their by-2036 ninety year old master’s voice.)

Fetal cell tissue and, perhaps, bleach have been known perform life and competency-extending miracles.

AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19

Friday, August 13, 2021

Infected: 36,597,564

Dead: 621,016

Dow: 35,515.38

It’s Friday the Thirteenth. Bad luck for Afghanistan… and it’s only going to get worse (unless you’re an Al Qaeda sleeper agent, sleeping in a rented basement room in New Jersey for the past decade, awaiting the rebirth of the Party of God. As the insurrectionists… they, unlike Mister Trump’s balmy brigades, knew how to overthrow a government… partied in Heart, the second largest city, a flurry of executions began and a flotsam and jetsam of refugees began pouring into the “ – ’stans” (Paki and assorted former Soviet castawhats).

“Surprising, not shocking,” declared TV soldier Colonel Daniels as Homeland Security cranked up warnings of both foreign and domestic terrorism… with particular attention paid to the 20^th anniversary of Nine Eleven, upcoming. Frowning at the untrimmed hair and beards of the rebels, their likely indulgence in mind-warping drugs and religious beliefs, and their indulgence in copious “nonconsensual” sexual liberties taken with the civilian women, boys and goats, former Acting C.I.A. Director Michael Morell compared their campaign to “a Woodstock of terrorism.”

Largely unnoticed, record swarms of immigrants reached and crossed our southern border, many on inflatable or jerry-managed contraptions of duct tape, rope and old tires with which to ford the mighty (though drying up) Rio Grande.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Infected: 36,626,813

Dead: 621,226

President Joe pivoted and reconstituted Afghan occupation forces to 5,000 – presumably to protect Americans still here and there in Kabul (expected to fall in about a month) and to locate and destroy potentially embarrassing document lurking here and there in the American Embassy.

Probing patriotic probers probed and then compared the one-six army to the British troops resisting American independence. CNN’s Tim Naftali cited a belief that the riots had been planned by the FBI.

Back from the fantasy-litigation world of eviction moratoria, the CDC found itself caught in a dueling chainsaw match between teachers, hospital workers and fast food fry guys still refusing to take the vaccines as would mark them “disloyal” to their President-in-exile and pro-Vaxxers so pro that they were even obtaining and shooting up with amateur booster doses from China.

And… oh yeah… Haiti was slammed with a 7.2 quake between two tropical storms Fred and Grace.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Infected: 36,678,753 Dead: 621,635

While partisan vaxx and mask marauders do battle on the streets of America and Haitians start digging out of the quake rubble that has claimed an official 700 lives, the Taliban take Kabul with little or no resistance. “Polls showed Americans experiencing bipartisan war fatigue,” said ABC’s Jon Karl.

Senate Minority Leader Mitchy pivots, turns war hawk and calls for more air strikes. Instead, President Joe pumps the evacuation protection detail to 5,000 as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani scarpers off to Tajikistan with as much as 169M in cash and the old folks at home call it “Saigon on steroids.”

Half-Haitian tennis star Naomi Osaka pledges prize money to a foundation to help the Haitian earthquake and Grace victims.

Monday, August 16, 2021

Infected: 36,888,741 Dead: 622,218 Dow: 35,635.40

It’s National Roller Coaster Day. Don Jones may not have thought that the past few months (or even years) were a long pull up, but it’s all downhill from here on three and a half fronts, and no brakes!

One: British-American newsman Ian Pannell, one of the last in Kabul reports that half of the population is hiding behind closed doors in the “new Afghanistan”. President Joe blames Trump for the chaos, most everyone else blames Biden; spokescreatures “assure” Americans that it’s better to look at terrorism in “a broad context”.

Two: Haitian earthquake toll up to 1,300 with no food, no shelter, no nothing and “local gangs running wild” due to no gumment. Plus failed hurricane Grace. It’s a libertarian purge-paradise.

Three: Dr. Francis Collins predicts the plague will be claiming 200,000 cases daily while vaxxing refuseniks warn that the shots will sterilize the American Male; a good thing for POTheads who can then sell their sperm on the Internet (or barter at the nearest hotel lounge). Dr. LaPook hits the talkshow circuit and counsels being “empathetic” to the benighted imbeciles of the mountains and plains.

And… the usual weather: heat dome, fires and flooding, three “tropical depressions” and silly, snoozing savages who drive (or, rather, autopilot) at night and crash into emergency vehicles.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Infected: 36,051,126 Dead: 618,114 Dow: 35,343.28

The Taliban play nice for surviving cameras in Kabul: commandeering a carnival to drive the bumper cars and ride the merry-go-round, allowing Pannell into a press conference and American evacuation planes to leave without behind shot down. They proclaim an amnesty to women for having been born female. Republicans snipe at President Joe, who dispatches another thousand troops, making 6,000. Democrats counsel prayer.

Haitian death toll is 1,400 at dawn, 1,900 at dusk. Fear of more aftershocks has families living in the rubble under tarps held up by sticks – until Grace blows in and blows it all away.

Harried and hurried CDC researchers greenlight a 3^rd booster shot for everybody, 8 months after their second vaxx. Vaxx/Mask (verbal) refusenik Gov. Abbott (R-Tx) gets it despite having had secret shots. (Maybe it was just meth.)

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Infected: 36,150,142 Dead: 618,479 Dow: 35,343.28

President Joe returns from Camp David to accusations, recriminations, calls for his impeachment and multiple crisis. Two days after the fact, a roller coaster in Cedar Point, OH simply falls apart like an American bridge or beach condo – heavy chunks of metal bombard pleasure seekers, resulting in many injuries but, fortunately, no deaths.

Not so in Afghanistan where the Taliban dismount from their newly confiscated bumper cars and painted ponies and get down to their usual occupation of killing people. His polite press conference with the terrorists over, Ian Pannell declares that “darkness has settled over Kabul.” The T-men are respecting temporary American sovereignty over the airport but the road thereto is deemed happy hunting ground for the insurgents – DefSec Austin admits that Americans and Afghan attempting to reach it are “at their own risk”.

Not so in California where the Dixie Fire achieves greatness as history’s Number One and the newer, smaller but deadlier Caldor fire incinerates the town of Grizzly Flats, menaces Pollock Pines and takes aim at Susanville. Nor the East Coast, where tropical depression Fred floods and blows away people, trees and economies from Georgia to New York (Grace, fortunately, is headed to Mexico, Henri to Canada).

And not so in a world of plague – doctors starting to call the Delta and inevitable successors a “forever virus”, “negative” hospital beds arise (patients stacked up in ambulances, garages and the such) and mask re-mandates, quarantines and lockdowns return to less than popular support.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Infected: 35,499.85 Dead: 615,319 Dow: 35,064.25

George Stephanopolous interviews Angry Joe who blames everybody else for the debacle in Afghanistan. (See above and, for text, Attachment Two) Meanwhile Gayle King over on the other network interviews Mark Zuckerberg, who says he’s removed 20M pages of mis-information.¹

In Afghanistan itself, more and more planes are taking off full of American evacuees and some locals, although the Taliban’s murderous roadblocks are causing chaos just outside the airport.

Delta Variant spike prompts return to mask and vaxx mandates, re-closes schools, restaurants, public spaces and transit. Garth Brooks cancels his concerts. Three Senators… one Democrat, one Republican and one Independent get it.

Wildfires roar, up 50% over record 2020 – not only in California but in glitzy, cinder-y St. Tropez, France. Hurricane Henri pivots back on a track to Boston. Dozens missing after Fred floods N. Carolina.

¹ Mis-information is false, but rational commentary such as “You shouldn’t take the shot because the FDA hasn’t done enough testing.” Dis-information is flat-out Koo Koo for Cocoa Pops like “You shouldn’t take the shot because reptilian space aliens will steal your sperm and sell it.” See more here.

Such a catastrophic week should have cost the Don two, maybe three hundred points. That the week ended down three… one, two, three… points and change is attributable to the degradation of the “terror” category; there hasn’t been much call for good cheer except the arresting of an occasional nutcase with a defective bomb and a rambling social media manifesto. If we’d put Afghanistan into “foreign affairs”, there would have been twice as much damage, but still a miniscule toll. Something is going to have before the end of the year changes, and that might come if and when either a functional A-Z vaxx or a fundamental refusenik wakeup occurs. If those happen…

THE DON JONES INDEX CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) See a further explanation of categories here… ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

DON JONES’ PERSONAL ECONOMIC INDEX
(45% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)

CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS			SCORE	SCORE	OUR SOURCES and COMENTS
INCOME	24%	6/17/13	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	8/13/21	8/20/21	SOURCE
Wages (hourly, per capita)	9%	1350 points	8/13/21	+0.58%	8/27/21	1,462.32	1,462.32	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 25.83
Median Income (yearly)	4%	600	8/13/21	+0.03%	8/27/21	672.16	672.35	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 35,591 601
*Unempl. (BLS – in millions	4%	600	8/13/21	-9.76%	8/27/21	371.34	371.34	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/ 5.4%
*Official (DC – in millions)	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.007%	8/27/21	412.11	412.14	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 9,476.7 476
*Unofficl. (DC – in millions)	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.07%	8/27/21	353.99	353.75	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 16,391 402
Workforce Participtn. Number Percent	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.022% +0.011%	8/27/21	317.81	317.85	In 151,806 839 Out 100,235 232 Total: 251,071 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 60.47
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	8/13/21	+0.16%	8/27/21	152.48	152.48	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 61.70 nc
OUTGO	(15%)
Total Inflation	7%	1050	8/13/21	+0.5%	8/27/21	985.14	980.21	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.5
Food	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.7%	8/27/21	278.09	276.14	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.7
Gasoline	2%	300	8/13/21	+2.4%	8/27/21	268.80	262.35	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +2.4
Medical Costs	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.3%	8/27/21	287.06	286.20	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3
Shelter	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.4%	8/27/21	289.93	288.77	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.4
WEALTH	(6%)
*Dow* Jones Index	2%	300	8/13/21	-0.54%	8/27/21	382.80	380.72	https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/DJIA 35,064.25
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	5/21/21	+1.03% +3.71%	8/27/21	170.29 182.84	170.29 182.84	https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M): 5.86 Valuations (K): 363.3 nc
Debt (Personal)	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.2%	8/27/21	272.38	271.83	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 64,706 836

	AMERICAN ECONOMIC INDEX (15% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)
NATIONAL	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	8/13/21	+4.99%	8/27/21	311.71	327.27	debtclock.org/ 3,645 827
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	8/13/21	+1.37%	8/27/21	218.90	216.12	debtclock.org/ 6,836 931
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	8/13/21	+0.09%	8/27/21	321.32	321.10	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 28,633 660
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	8/13/21	+0.10%	8/27/21	369.39	369.01	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 85,598 685

GLOBAL	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	8/13/21	+0.04%	8/27/21	292.06	291.94	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,104 107
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	8/13/21	+0.825%	8/27/21	184.48	184.48	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 207.7
Imports (bl.)	1%	150	8/13/21	- 2.15%	8/27/21	116.57	116.57	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 283.4
Trade Deficit (bl.)	1%	150	8/13/21	- 5.95%	8/27/21	91.37	91.37	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 75.7
SOCIAL INDICES (40%)
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Affairs	3%	450	8/13/21	-0.9%	8/27/21	389.08	385.58	Haitian earthquake kills… well, they haven’t counted the bodies yet due to Tropical Depression Grace holding up the search and rescue teams. A lot. (Maybe not as many as last quake in 2010, but a lot.)
Terrorism	2%	300	8/13/21	-2.2%	8/27/21	231.73	226.63	Taliban take Kabul. Al Qaeda celebrates, riding the merry-go-round. American enemies like Iran, Russia and China salivate at our weakness and cluelessness; allies spit in disgust.
Politics	3%	450	8/13/21	-0.5%	8/27/21	439.49	437.29	Repubs point fingers, Dems make excuses. Trump did it! No… ‘twas Obama, Bush, Clinton, Russia, Alexander the Great. President Joe proposes 25% increase in food stamp swag. Census shows American white people are dying off – redistricting fun getting underway.
Economics	3%	450	8/13/21	+0.2%	8/27/21	407.92	408.74	Dow celebrates Rollercoaster Day by soaring up, then reality sets in and down it goes. Then a real rollercoaster falls apart in Ohio, reminding Americans that we still don’t have an infrastructure plan. Schools, hospitals and employers are firing refuseniks. Prices up for food but starting to come down for lumber, oil and used cars. Nabisco workers go on strike, opening door for new Girl Scout “Adventurful” cookies.
Crime	1%	150	8/13/21	-0.2%	8/27/21	242.84	242.35	New York beats Philadelphia in Friday shootings, 16=11. Albuquerque celebrates “Back to School” with… no surprise… a Back to School murder. Two women killed in Indiana, two cops shot in San Berdoo. CDC decries forged vaccine passports, counterfeit shots and pirated or bogus “cures”. Mad bomber surrenders after five hours in front of the Library of Congress… he’s a fake!

ACTS of GOD	(6%)
Environment/Weather	3%	450	8/13/21	-0.3%	8/27/21	404.88	403.67	Pro-wildfire pyropaths whistle for Dixie: now Number One in California history. Post-Olympic flooding in Japan, Fred flooding in South and moving north, desert flooding in Tucson. Warmer ocean currents draw more baitfish north, prompting NYs “summer of the shark”. (Raise those purple flags!)
Natural/Unnatural Disaster	3%	450	8/13/21	-0.3%	8/27/21	403.56	402.35	Roller coaster disintegration mocks day of honor but… no fatalities. Supermarket collapse in Vegas reprises Florida condo, but again… no fatalities. 50+ injured in Niagara Falls tour bus crash – still… no fatalities. Woman severely injured… not killed… by moose attack in Colorado.
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX (15%)
Science, Tech, Education	4%	600	8/13/21	+0.1%	8/27/21	676.63	677.31	Student debt moratorium (1.7T of it) extended to 12/22. Boston Dynamics invents dancing, parcoursing robots (for search and rescue ops, space explorations and weird sex). Zuckerberg touts VR “metaverse” but they’re only cartoons… (Mark looks like that guy in the online auto parts ad!)
Equality (econ/social)	4%	600	8/13/21	-0.1 %	8/27/21	560.47	559.91	Dr. Besser… poor countries that can’t afford vaccines will make for a “forever plague”. (See above) RIP James Hormel (America’s first gay ambassador). Wretched excess: Honus Wagner baseball card sells for record 6.6M, messy tissue soccer star Messi wiped his face with for 1M, slice of wedding cake from Charles and Di – a paltry $2,500.
Health Plague	4%	600	8/13/21	-0.3% -0.5%	8/27/21	498.72 - 102.20	497.22 - 102.71	Tesla autopilots fail night sleepers. Murder hornets return to Washington State. FDA blames tainted pet food for death of at least 130 pets. Hostess recalls tainted hotdog and hamburger buns. (Happy Labor Day, cookouter-outerers!) New refusenik conspiracy: vaxxes sterilize American Men so patriots can sell their sperm on the Internet. Dr. LaPook on talk show circuit wheedles “don’t mock them.” (!) Dr. Collins predicts return to 200K daily infections by Labor Day and a Nashville nurse intones: “Death is back!” while Mississippi doctors wail: “We’re beyond disaster!” Anti-mask/vaxx Gov. Abbott (R-Tx) gets it as do 3 senators. Dallas runs out of pediatric ICU beds; doctors tell parents they can move their sick kid in when someone else’s child dies. Astra Zeneca fails more tests, said to decline after 90 days. CDC first greenlights boosters for “immune-compromised” (3% of population) then for everybody after 8 months.
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	8/13/21	+0.1%	8/27/21	459.57	460.03	R. Kelly goes on trial. Bob Dylan accused of 1965 rape. Airlines, losing business again, ban duct-taping refuseniks to seats. Fellow celebs like Paris Hilton and Cher applaud Britney’s liberation; fellow Dems sneer at Andrew Cuomo’s contention: “I am not a martyr,” as he files papers for his pension (a measly 50K). North Carolina raises marryin’ age to 16.


MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX (7%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	8/13/21	+0.2%	8/27/21	526.81	527.86	Abbey Road Studios reopen in London. College football poll says that Alabama will repeat as #1. New Jeopardy host Michael Richards channels old Michael Richards, accused of saying bad words in 2013.
Miscellaneous incidents	4%	450	8/13/21	+0.1%	8/27/21	484.04	484.52	RIP Maki Saji, Sudoku creator, author Joseph Galloway (“We Were Soldiers…). Bystander rassles alligator, saves zookeeper. Cockroach trips home security camera, summoning SWAT teams.

The Don Jones Index for the week of August 13th through August 19th, 2021 was DOWN 3.34 points.

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com

ATTACHMENT ONE – From whitehouse.gov

Remarks by President Biden on Afghanistan

AUGUST 16, 2021

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan: the developments that have taken place in the last week and the steps we’re taking to address the rapidly evolving events.

My national security team and I have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including — and contingency — including the rapid collapse we’re seeing now.

I’ll speak more in a moment about the specific steps we’re taking, but I want to remind everyone how we got here and what America’s interests are in Afghanistan.

We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again.

We did that. We severely degraded al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and we got him. That was a decade ago.

Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy.

Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland.

I’ve argued for many years that our mission should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism — not counterinsurgency or nation building. That’s why I opposed the surge when it was proposed in 2009 when I was Vice President.

And that’s why, as President, I am adamant that we focus on the threats we face today in 2021 — not yesterday’s threats.

Today, the terrorist threat has metastasized well beyond Afghanistan: al Shabaab in Somalia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Nusra in Syria, ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries in Africa and Asia. These threats warrant our attention and our resources.

We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don’t have a permanent military presence.

If necessary, we will do the same in Afghanistan. We’ve developed counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on any direct threats to the United States in the region and to act quickly and decisively if needed.

When I came into office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 — just a little over three months after I took office.

U.S. forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001.

The choice I had to make, as your President, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.

There would have been no ceasefire after May 1. There was no agreement protecting our forces after May 1. There was no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1.

There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into the third decade of conflict.

I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.

That’s why we were still there. We were clear-eyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency.

But I always promised the American people that I will be straight with you. The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.

So what’s happened? Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight.

If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.

American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. We spent over a trillion dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong — incredibly well equipped — a force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies.

We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force — something the Taliban doesn’t have. Taliban does not have an air force. We provided close air support.

We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.

There’s some very brave and capable Afghan special forces units and soldiers, but if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that 1 year — 1 more year, 5 more years, or 20 more years of U.S. military boots on the ground would’ve made any difference.

And here’s what I believe to my core: It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not. If the political leaders of Afghanistan were unable to come together for the good of their people, unable to negotiate for the future of their country when the chips were down, they would never have done so while U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan bearing the brunt of the fighting for them.

And our true strategic competitors — China and Russia — would love nothing more than the United States to continue to funnel billions of dollars in resources and attention into stabilizing Afghanistan indefinitely.

When I hosted President Ghani and Chairman Abdullah at the White House in June and again when I spoke by phone to Ghani in July, we had very frank conversations. We talked about how Afghanistan should prepare to fight their civil wars after the U.S. military departed, to clean up the corruption in government so the government could function for the Afghan people. We talked extensively about the need for Afghan leaders to unite politically.

They failed to do any of that.

I also urged them to engage in diplomacy, to seek a political settlement with the Taliban. This advice was flatly refused. Mr. Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong.

So I’m left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans — Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not? How many more lives — American lives — is it worth? How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?

I’m clear on my answer: I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past — the mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces.

Those are the mistakes we cannot continue to repeat, because we have significant vital interests in the world that we cannot afford to ignore.

I also want to acknowledge how painful this is to so many of us. The scenes we’re seeing in Afghanistan, they’re gut-wrenching, particularly for our veterans, our diplomats, humanitarian workers, for anyone who has spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people.

For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and for Americans who have fought and served in the country — serve our country in Afghanistan — this is deeply, deeply personal.

It is for me as well. I’ve worked on these issues as long as anyone. I’ve been throughout Afghanistan during this war — while the war was going on — from Kabul to Kandahar to the Kunar Valley.

I’ve traveled there on four different occasions. I met with the people. I’ve spoken to the leaders. I spent time with our troops. And I came to understand firsthand what was and was not possible in Afghanistan.

So, now we’re fercus [sic] — focused on what is possible.

We will continue to support the Afghan people. We will lead with our diplomacy, our international influence, and our humanitarian aid.

We’ll continue to push for regional diplomacy and engagement to prevent violence and instability.

We’ll continue to speak out for the basic rights of the Afghan people — of women and girls — just as we speak out all over the world.

I have been clear that human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments; it’s with our diplomacy, our economic tools, and rallying the world to join us.

Now, let me lay out the current mission in Afghanistan. I was asked to authorize — and I did — 6,000 U.S. troops to deploy to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting in the departure of U.S. and Allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan, and to evacuate our Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of Afghanistan.

Our troops are working to secure the airfield and to ensure continued operation of both the civilian and military flights. We’re taking over air traffic control.

We have safely shut down our embassy and transferred our diplomats. Our dip- — our diplomatic presence is now consolidated at the airport as well.

Over the coming days, we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan.

We’ll also continue to support the safe departure of civilian personnel — the civilian personnel of our Allies who are still serving in Afghanistan.

Operation Allies Refugee [Refuge], which I announced back in July, has already moved 2,000 Afghans who are eligible for Special Immigration Visas and their families to the United States.

In the coming days, the U.S. military will provide assistance to move more SIV-eligible Afghans and their families out of Afghanistan.

We’re also expanding refugee access to cover other vulnerable Afghans who worked for our embassy: U.S. non-governmental agencies — or the U.S. non-governmental organizations; and Afghans who otherwise are at great risk; and U.S. news agencies.

I know that there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghans — civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier — still hopeful for their country. And part of it was because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, “a crisis of confidence.”

American troops are performing this mission as professionally and as effectively as they always do, but it is not without risks.

As we carry out this departure, we have made it clear to the Taliban: If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the U.S. presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful. We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary.

Our current military mission will be short in time, limited in scope, and focused in its objectives: Get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible.

And once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military withdrawal. We will end America’s longest war after 20 long years of bloodshed.

The events we’re seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, and secure Afghanistan — as known in history as the “graveyard of empires.”

What is happening now could just as easily have happened 5 years ago or 15 years in the future. We have to be honest: Our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps — made many missteps over the past two decades.

I’m now the fourth American President to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth President.

I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference. Nor will I shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today and how we must move forward from here.

I am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.

I am deeply saddened by the facts we now face. But I do not regret my decision to end America’s warfighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser-focus on our counterterrorism missions there and in other parts of the world.

Our mission to degrade the terrorist threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and kill Osama bin Laden was a success.

Our decades-long effort to overcome centuries of history and permanently change and remake Afghanistan was not, and I wrote and believed it never could be.

I cannot and I will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another — in another country’s civil war, taking casualties, suffering life-shattering injuries, leaving families broken by grief and loss.

This is not in our national security interest. It is not what the American people want. It is not what our troops, who have sacrificed so much over the past two decades, deserve.

I made a commitment to the American people when I ran for President that I would bring America’s military involvement in Afghanistan to an end. And while it’s been hard and messy — and yes, far from perfect — I’ve honored that commitment.

More importantly, I made a commitment to the brave men and women who serve this nation that I wasn’t going to ask them to continue to risk their lives in a military action that should have ended long ago.

Our leaders did that in Vietnam when I got here as a young man. I will not do it in Afghanistan.

I know my decision will be criticized, but I would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another President of the United States — yet another one — a fifth one.

Because it’s the right one — it’s the right decision for our people. The right one for our brave service members who have risked their lives serving our nation. And it’s the right one for America.

So, thank you. May God protect our troops, our diplomats, and all of the brave Americans serving in harm’s way.

ATTACHMENT TWO – From ABC News

Full transcript of ABC News' George Stephanopoulos' interview with President Joe Biden

Stephanopoulos spoke to Biden in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

By ABC News August 19, 2021, 7:33 AM

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for doing this.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Thank you for doin' it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's get right to it. Back in July, you said a Taliban takeover was highly unlikely. Was the intelligence wrong, or did you downplay it?

BIDEN: I think -- there was no consensus. If you go back and look at the intelligence reports, they said that it's more likely to be sometime by the end of the year. The idea that the tal -- and then it goes further on, even as late as August. I think you're gonna see -- the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and others speaking about this later today.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you didn't put a timeline on it when you said it was highly unlikely. You just said flat out, "It's highly unlikely the Taliban would take over."

BIDEN: Yeah. Well, the question was whether or not it w-- the idea that the Taliban would take over was premised on the notion that the -- that somehow, the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped was gonna just collapse, they were gonna give up. I don't think anybody anticipated that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know that Senator McConnell, others say this was not only predictable, it was predicted, including by him, based on intelligence briefings he was getting.

BIDEN: What -- what did he say was predicted?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator McConnell said it was predictable that the Taliban was gonna take over.

BIDEN: Well, by the end of the year, I said that's that was -- that was a real possibility. But no one said it was gonna take over then when it was bein' asked.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So when you look at what's happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?

BIDEN: Look, I don't think it was a fa-- look, it was a simple choice, George. When the-- when the Taliban -- let me back -- put it another way. When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government get in a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the ta-- of the-- Afghan troops we had trained -- up to 300,000 of them just leaving their equipment and taking off, that was -- you know, I'm not-- this -- that -- that's what happened.

That's simply what happened. So the question was in the beginning the-- the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we've set? We extended it to September 1st. Or do we put significantly more troops in? I hear people say, "Well, you had 2,500 folks in there and nothin' was happening. You know, there wasn't any war."

But guess what? The fact was that the reason it wasn't happening is the last president negotiated a year earlier that he'd be out by May 1st and that-- in return, there'd be no attack on American forces. That's what was done. That's why nothing was happening. But the idea if I had said -- I had a simple choice. If I had said, "We're gonna stay," then we'd better prepare to put a whole hell of a lot more troops in --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But your top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops.

BIDEN: No, they didn't. It was split. Tha-- that wasn't true. That wasn't true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay?

BIDEN: No. Not at -- not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. They didn't argue against that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no one told -- your military advisors did not tell you, "No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It's been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that"?

BIDEN: No. No one said that to me that I can recall. Look, George, the reason why it's been stable for a year is because the last president said, "We're leaving. And here's the deal I wanna make with you, Taliban. We're agreeing to leave if you agree not to attack us between now and the time we leave on May the 1st."

I got into office, George. Less than two months after I elected to office, I was sworn in, all of a sudden, I have a May 1 deadline. I have a May 1 deadline. I got one of two choices. Do I say we're staying? And do you think we would not have to put a hell of a lot more troops? B-- you know, we had hundreds-- we had tens of thousands of troops there before. Tens of thousands.

Do you think we woulda -- that we would've just said, "No problem. Don't worry about it, we're not gonna attack anybody. We're okay"? In the meantime, the Taliban was takin' territory all throughout the country in the north and down in the south, in the Pasthtun area.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So would you have withdrawn troops like this even if President Trump had not made that deal with the Taliban?

BIDEN: I would've tried to figure out how to withdraw those troops, yes, because look, George. There is no good time to leave Afghanistan. Fifteen years ago would've been a problem, 15 years from now. The basic choice is am I gonna send your sons and your daughters to war in Afghanistan in perpetuity?

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's--

BIDEN: No one can name for me a time when this would end. And what-- wha-- wha-- what-- what constitutes defeat of the Taliban? What constitutes defeat? Would we have left then? Let's say they surrender like before. OK. Do we leave then? Do you think anybody-- the same people who think we should stay would've said, "No, good time to go"? We spent over $1 trillion, George, 20 years. There was no good time to leave.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if there's no good time, if you know you're gonna have to leave eventually, why not have th-- everything in place to make sure Americans could get out, to make sure our Afghan allies get out, so we don't have these chaotic scenes in Kabul?

BIDEN: Number one, as you know, the intelligence community did not say back in June or July that, in fact, this was gonna collapse like it did. Number one.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They thought the Taliban would take over, but not this quickly?

BIDEN: But not this quickly. Not even close. We had already issued several thousand passports to the-- the SIVs, the people-- the-- the-- the translators when I came into office before we had negotiated getting out at the end of s-- August.

Secondly, we're in a position where what we did was took precautions. That's why I authorized that there be 6,000 American troops to flow in to accommodate this exit, number one. And number two, provided all that aircraft in the Gulf to get people out. We pre-positioned all that, anticipated that. Now, granted, it took two days to take control of the airport. We have control of the airport now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Still a lotta pandemonium outside the airport.

BIDEN: Oh, there is. But, look, b-- but no one's being killed right now, God forgive me if I'm wrong about that, but no one's being killed right now. People are-- we got 1,000-somewhat, 1,200 out, yesterday, a couple thousand today. And it's increasing. We're gonna get those people out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But we've all seen the pictures. We've seen those hundreds of people packed into a C-17. You've seen Afghans falling--

BIDEN: That was four days ago, five days ago.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What did you think when you first saw those pictures?

BIDEN: What I thought was we ha-- we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I-- I think a lot of-- a lot of Americans, and a l-- even a lot of veterans who served in Afghanistan agree with you on the big, strategic picture. They believe we had to get out. But I wonder how you respond to an Army Special Forces officer, Javier McKay (PH). He did seven tours. He was shot twice. He agrees with you. He says, "We have to cut our losses in Afghanistan." But he adds, "I just wish we could've left with honor."

BIDEN: Look, that's like askin' my deceased son Beau, who spent six months in Kosovo and a year in Iraq as a Navy captain and then major-- I mean, as an Army major. And, you know, I'm sure h-- he had regrets comin' out of Afganista-- I mean, out of Iraq.

He had regrets to what's-- how-- how it's going. But the idea-- what's the alternative? The alternative is why are we staying in Afghanistan? Why are we there? Don't you think that the one-- you know who's most disappointed in us getting out? Russia and China. They'd love us to continue to have to--

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't think this could've been handled, this exit could've been handled better in any way? No mistakes?

BIDEN: No. I-- I don't think it could've been handled in a way that there-- we-- we're gonna go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So for you, that was always priced into the decision?

BIDEN: Yes. Now, exactly what happened-- is not priced in. But I knew that they're gonna have an enormous, enorm-- look, one of the things we didn't know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out, what they would do.What are they doing now? They're cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera. But they're having-- we're having some more difficulty in having those who helped us when we were in there--

STEPHANOPOULOS: And we don't really know what's happening outside of Kabul.

BIDEN: Pardon me?

STEPHANOPOULOS: We don't really know what's happening outside of Kabul.

BIDEN: Well-- we do know generically and in some specificity what's happening outside of Kabul. We don't know it in great detail. But we do know. And guess what? The Taliban knows if they take on American citizens or American military, we will strike them back like hell won't have it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: All troops are supposed to be out by August 31st. Even if Americans and our Afghan allies are still trying to get out, they're gonna leave?

BIDEN: We're gonna do everything in our power to get all Americans out and our allies out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does that mean troops will stay beyond August 31st if necessary?

BIDEN: It depends on where we are and whether we can get-- ramp these numbers up to 5,000 to 7,000 a day coming out. If that's the case, we'll be-- they'll all be out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: 'Cause we've got, like, 10,000 to 15,000 Americans in the country right now, right? And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out--

BIDEN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- is out?

BIDEN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about our Afghan allies? We have about 80,000 people--

BIDEN: Well, that's not the s--

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that too high?

BIDEN: That's too high.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How many--

BIDEN: The estimate we're giving is somewhere between 50,000 and 65,000 folks total, counting their families.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does the commitment hold for them as well?

BIDEN: The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone that should come out. And that's the objective. That's what we're doing now, that's the path we're on. And I think we'll get there.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So Americans should understand that troops might have to be there beyond August 31st?

BIDEN: No. Americans should understand that we're gonna try to get it done before August 31st.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if we don't, the troops will stay--

BIDEN: If -- if we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And?

BIDEN: And if you're American force -- if there's American citizens left, we're gonna stay to get them all out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You talked about our adversaries, China and Russia. You already see China telling Taiwan, "See? You can't count on the Americans." (LAUGH)

BIDEN: Sh-- why wouldn't China say that? Look, George, the idea that w-- there's a fundamental difference between-- between Taiwan, South Korea, NATO. We are in a situation where they are in-- entities we've made agreements with based on not a civil war they're having on that island or in South Korea, but on an agreement where they have a unity government that, in fact, is trying to keep bad guys from doin' bad things to them.

We have made-- kept every commitment. We made a sacred commitment to Article Five that if in fact anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with-- Taiwan. It's not even comparable to talk about that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, but those--

BIDEN: It's not comparable to t--

STEPHANOPOULOS: --who say, "Look, America cannot be trusted now, America does not keep its promises…"

BIDEN: Who-- who's gonna say that? Look, before I made this decision, I met with all our allies, our NATO allies in Europe. They agreed. We should be getting out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did they have a choice?

BIDEN: Sure, they had a choice. Look, the one thing I promise you in private, NATO allies are not quiet. You remember from your old days. They're not gonna be quiet. And so-- and by the way, you know, what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be putting together a group of the G-7, the folks that we work with the most-- to-- I was on the phone with-- with Angela Merkel today. I was on the phone with the British prime minister. I'm gonna be talking to Macron in France to make sure we have a coherent view of how we're gonna deal from this point on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What happens now in Afghanistan? Do you believe the Taliban have changed?

BIDEN: No. I think-- let me put it this way. I think they're going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government. I'm not sure they do. But look, they have--

STEPHANOPOULOS: They care about their beliefs more?

BIDEN: Well, they do. But they also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income that they can provide for their f-- that they can make any money and run an economy. They care about whether or not they can hold together the society that they in fact say they care so much about.

I'm not counting on any of that. I'm not cou-- but that is part of what I think is going on right now in terms of I-- I'm not sure I would've predicted, George, nor would you or anyone else, that when we decided to leave, that they'd provide safe passage for Americans to get out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Beyond Americans, what do we owe the Afghans who are left behind, particularly Afghan women who are facing the prospect of subjugation again?

BIDEN: As many as we can get out, we should. For example, I had a meeting today for a couple hours in the Situation Room just below here. There are Afghan women outside the gate. I told 'em, "Get 'em on the planes. Get them out. Get them out. Get their families out if you can."

But here's the deal, George. The idea that we're able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational. Not rational. Look what's happened to the Uighurs in western China. Look what's happening in other parts of the world.

Look what's happenin' in, you know, in-- in the Congo. I mean, there are a lotta places where women are being subjugated. The way to deal with that is not with a military invasion. The way to deal with that is putting economic, diplomatic, and national pre-- international pressure on them to change their behavior.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the threat to the United States? Most intelligence analysis has predicted that Al Qaeda would come back 18 to 24 months after a withdrawal of American troops. Is that analysis now being revised? Could it be sooner?

BIDEN: It could be. But George, look, here's the deal. Al Qaeda, ISIS, they metastasize. There's a significantly greater threat to the United States from Syria. There's a significantly greater threat from East Africa. There's significant greater threat to other places in the world than it is from the mountains of Afghanistan. And we have maintained the ability to have an over-the-horizon capability to take them out. We're-- we don't have military in Syria to make sure that we're gonna be protected--

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you're confident we're gonna have that in Afghanistan?

BIDEN: Yeah. I'm confident we're gonna have the overriding capability, yes. Look, George, it's like asking me, you know, am I confident that people are gonna act even remotely rationally. Here's the deal. The deal is the threat from Al Qaeda and their associate organizations is greater in other parts of the world to the United States than it is from Afghanistan.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And th-- that tells you that you're-- it's safe to leave?

BIDEN: No. That tells me that-- my dad used to have an expression, George. If everything's equally important to you, nothing's important to you. We should be focusing on where the threat is the greatest. And the threat-- the idea-- we can continue to spend $1 trillion and have tens of thousands of American forces in Afghanistan when we have what's going on around the world, in the Middle East and North Africa and west-- I mean, excuse me-- yeah, North Africa and Western Africa. The idea we can do that and ignore those-- those looming problems, growing problems, is not-- not rational.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Final question on this. You know, in a couple weeks, we're all gonna commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The Taliban are gonna be ruling Afghanistan, just l-- like they were when our country was attacked. How do you explain that to the American people?

BIDEN: Not true. It's not true. They're not gonna look just like they were we were attacked. There was a guy named Osama bin Laden that was still alive and well. They were organized in a big way, that they had significant help from arou-- from other parts of the world.

We went there for two reasons, George. Two reasons. One, to get Bin Laden, and two, to wipe out as best we could, and we did, the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did it. Then what happened? Began to morph into the notion that, instead of having a counterterrorism capability to have small forces there in-- or in the region to be able to take on Al Qaeda if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation building. In nation building. That never made any sense to me.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It sounds like you think we shoulda gotten out a long time ago--

BIDEN: We should've.

STEPHANOPOULOS: --and-- and accept the idea that it was gonna be messy no matter what.

BIDEN: Well, by the-- what would be messy?

STEPHANOPOULOS: The exit--

BIDEN: If we had gotten out a long time ago-- getting out would be messy no matter when it occurred. I ask you, you want me to stay, you want us to stay and send your kids back to Afghanistan? How about it? Are you g-- if you had a son or daughter, would you send them in Afghanistan now? Or later?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Would be hard, but a lot of families have done it.

BIDEN: They've done it because, in fact, there was a circumstance that was different when we started. We were there for two reasons, George. And we accomplished both ten years ago. We got Osama bin Laden. As I said and got criticized for saying at the time, we're gonna follow him to the gates of hell. Hell, we did--

STEPHANOPOULOS: How will history judge the United States' experience in Afghanistan?

BIDEN: One that we overextended what we needed to do to deal with our national interest. That's like my sayin' they-- they're-- they-- they b-- b-- the border of Tajikistan-- and-- other-- what-- does it matter? Are we gonna go to war because of what's goin' on in Tajikistan? What do you think?

Tell me what-- where in that isolated country that has never, never, never in all of history been united, all the way back to Alexander the Great, straight through the British Empire and the Russians, what is the idea? Are we gonna s-- continue to lose thousands of Americans to injury and death to try to unite that country? What do you think? I think not.

I think the American people are with me. And when you unite that country, what do you have? They're surrounded by Russia in the north or the Stans in the north. You have-- to the west, they have Iran. To the south, they have Pakistan, who's supporting them. And to the-- and-- actually, the east, they have Pakistan and China. Tell me. Tell me. Is that worth our national interest to continue to spend another $1 trillion and lose thousands more American lives? For what?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know we're outta time. I have two quick questions on COVID. I know you're gonna make-- be makin' an announcement on booster shots today. Have you and the first lady gotten your booster shots yet?

BIDEN: We're gonna get the booster shots. And-- it's somethin' that I think-- you know, because we g-- w-- we got our shots all the way back in I think December. So it's-- it's-- it's past time. And so the idea (NOISE) that the recommendation-- that's my wife calling. (LAUGH) No. (LAUGH) But all kiddin' aside, yes, we will get the booster shots.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And-- and finally-- are you comfortable with Americans getting a third shot when so many millions around the world haven't had their first?

BIDEN: Absolutely because we're providing more to the rest of the world than all the rest of the world combined. We got enough for everybody American, plus before this year is-- before we get to the middle of next year, we're gonna provide a half a billion shots to the rest of the world. We're keepin' our part of the bargain. We're doin' more than anybody.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thanks for your time.

BIDEN: Thank you.

ATTACHMENT THREE – From news.com au

JOE BIDEN BETRAYS ANOTHER US ALLY AS HE LEAVES AFGHANISTAN TO BE CONQUERED BY THE TALIBAN

As four more key cities fell to the surging Taliban today, the withdrawing United States was coming to terms with another stain on its conscience.

By Sam Clench, AUGUST 14, 20217:36 AM

In early October of 2019, Donald Trump made one of the more morally repugnant decisions of his presidency.

Blindsiding the world with an announcement on Twitter, he ordered a sudden withdrawal of what few US military forces remained near Syria’s northern border.

“It is time for us to get out of these ridiculous endless wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. We will fight where it is to our benefit,” Mr Trump said at the time.

“Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out.”

It was a staggering betrayal of America’s allies, the Kurds, whose help had been invaluable in the fight to crush ISIS.

Mr Trump, in his self-described “great and unmatched wisdom”, left the Kurds at Turkey’s mercy. The US funded, trained and armed Kurdish units throughout the war with ISIS, and in return they did the bulk of the fighting, suffering more than 12,000 casualties in the process.

Mr Trump rewarded that sacrifice by abandoning them, clearing the way for neighbouring Turkey to invade northern Syria and attack them.

“If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey,” Mr Trump warned.

It was a hollow threat.

Within days, more than 100,000 people had been displaced from their homes, and the Kurds had already been subjected to war crimes and executions.

“They abandoned us,” said the Kurdish commander, General Mazloum Ebdi. The US withdrawal was labelled a “stab in the back”.

The words of the retreating American soldiers were just as haunting.

“They trusted us, and we broke that trust. It’s a stain on the American conscience,” said one Army officer.

Why am I bringing this up? Because now Joe Biden is doing the same thing, abandoning America’s allies in Afghanistan to be conquered and oppressed by the Taliban.

On Friday the Taliban captured four more provincial capitals, adding to its seizure of Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, the day before. It now controls more than two-thirds of the country.

Soon the militants will have encircled the national capital, Kabul.

So, 20 years after the Taliban was swept from power, the return of its evil regime now seems inevitable. Untold human rights abuses will follow.

In fact they’ve already started. Captured Afghan soldiers are being executed, civilians are being attacked, and women are being forced into marriage.

“Afghanistan is in the throes of yet another chaotic and desperate chapter, an incredible tragedy for its long-suffering people,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today.

“Afghanistan is spinning out of control.”

He said it was “particularly horrifying and heartbreaking” to see reports of Afghan women having their hard-won rights “ripped away from them”.

Mr Biden has chosen this outcome. It didn’t need to happen. He has decided Afghanistan’s return to the dark ages is an acceptable price for ending America’s longest war.

So far, the politician who campaigned on “restoring the soul of America” hasn’t even had the decency to express regret for what’s unfolding.

“I do not regret my decision,” the President said on Tuesday.

“We spent over $US1 trillion over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces. We lost thousands to death and injury, thousands of American personnel. They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was no more sympathetic.

“They have what they need. What they need to determine is whether they have the political will to fight back,” she told reporters.

The only somewhat senior Biden administration official to display any real empathy has been Molly Montgomery, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department.

“Woke up with a heavy heart, thinking about all the Afghan women and girls I worked with during my time in Kabul,” Ms Montgomery wrote on Twitter today.

“They were the beneficiaries of many of the gains we made, and now they stand to lose everything. We empowered them to lead, and now we are powerless to protect them.”

Tellingly, she deleted the tweet shortly afterwards.

Mr Biden knows he is unlikely to pay any immediate political price for the withdrawal.

Polls consistently show more than two-thirds of Americans support leaving Afghanistan, and you can understand why. Continuing the war indefinitely, at a significant financial and human cost, is not an appealing proposition.

But would staying have been better than the alternative, which is now happening at sickening speed before our eyes?

Will Americans still support the withdrawal five years from now, if the Taliban once again turns Afghanistan into a haven for terrorists to plot attacks on the West?

Will they even support it five months from now, when the Taliban has taken Kabul and dealt the US a humiliating defeat?

We all remember what happened after Barack Obama withdrew from Iraq: the power vacuum allowed the Islamic State to rise, and the US was forced to deploy forces to the region again. That could happen in Afghanistan as well.

But even if those nightmare scenarios don’t come to pass, Mr Biden has already left another dark stain on his nation’s conscience.

The US, which so often claims to speak from the moral high ground, has hung another ally out to dry. And it will do lasting harm to the country’s reputation.

“With America’s allies left in the lurch, prospective partners will think twice before offering up their support in future conflicts,” the military historian Frederick Kagan wrote this week.

“They know that this is not how a global leader acts. And most important, so do we.”

The article contains several useful graphs and charts, see them here.

AND… ATTACHMENT FOUR –

TALIBAN GIVES INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE IN INTERVIEW AND FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE

The Taliban’s “behind-the-scenes voice” has made some bold promises about the future but skepticism remains high.

By Matt Young, AUGUST 18, 20217:29 AM

The Taliban’s “behind-the-scenes voice” has appeared for the first time before the world’s press, holding the militant group’s first press conference since its takeover of Afghanistan.

The Taliban also gave the United States a telling deadline to evacuate its troops in a wide-ranging interview with Sky News UK, in a night which provided some insight into what the future holds for Afghanistan.

It came as the capital city, Kabul, continued its shift to Taliban rule, with Mullah Baradar, the group’s founder and chief of its political office, arriving in Afghanistan to form a government.

The group held its first press conference in Kabul, with notorious Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahed claiming “security and peace” is its top priority and urging local businesses to carry on to ensure a “smooth transfer of power”.

Mr Mujahed said “we hold no grudges against anyone” and tried to assure foreign diplomats living in Kabul and non-government organisations that “no one will be threatened”.

“We want the world to trust us,” he said, claiming the Taliban “do not want them to leave the country” and they “will be pardoned” if they stay.

Yet not all are convinced. BBC Afghan Service’s Sana Safi told the publication the Taliban made “lots of good promises” at the press conference, but worried its words were too “vague”.

“I think we’re being fooled by this. People listening might think, ‘What was all the fuss about? These are great guys.’

“I was born in Afghanistan, I was seven-years-old when they took power. They did not allow me to go to school so I missed on education for five years.

“There will be one rule for the international community but there will be another rule for the Afghans.”

Under previous Taliban rule girls weren’t allowed to go to school, women were forced to wear the burqa and weren’t allowed out without a male guardian.

Many women in Kabul are scared for their lives. Zarifa Ghafari, 27, the country’s first female mayor, told the UK’s i newspaper last week: “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There’s no one to help me or my family; they’ll come for people like me and kill me,” she said.

Meanwhile, Saad Mohseni, Chief Executive of the Moby Media Group, warned the BBC that that the world doesn’t “quite know” what the Taliban has in store next.

US given deadline, foreigners assured

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen appeared in an interview with Sky News UK, claiming that the US had already “violated the time frame” within the Doha agreement, and needs to “get their troops out of Afghanistan”.

The Doha Agreement is a four-page agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in February, 2020, which sealed the deal with America’s withdrawal. (See Attachment Four A)

While claiming they have no international allies, Mr Shaheen said the US should “withdraw all their forces” by 11 September but “we are committed not to attack them”.

The US and its allies went to war in Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks and Operation Enduring Freedom, as it was known back then, began less than one month later on October 7, 2001.

Leaders across the globe from Australia to the US have expressed their surprise at how quickly the Taliban took control, but speaking from Doha, Mr Shaheen said it was because the group had the “people’s support” and claimed the Afghan government was “corrupt”.

He said it was a “necessity” to take control of the airport at Kabul after chaotic scenes which saw people clinging to US Air Force military planes and eventually dropping from the skies.

Mr Shaheen said taking control is “for the security of the people” and will “prevent such incidents once more”.

Cautious residents ventured out of their homes to see what life would be like under the Taliban following their astonishing return to power at the weekend.

Mr Shaheen assured residents of a “general amnesty for all Afghan people” under the Taliban transition, including those who have “worked with foreigners”.

“All those are safe, they should not be worried”.

Women can continue education, work

Despite fears that the group’s hard line Islamic rule will include oppression of women, the Taliban claimed women will be able to access higher education under its policies, saying “thousands” of schools were still in operation.

“Our women are Muslim and will be happy to live within the framework of our law,” Mr Mujahed said, adding women would also be allowed to work in schools and hospitals.

“Afghans have the rights to live under their own laws,” he added.

Mr Shaheen said they will expect women to wear a hijab but nor a burka, “for their security”.

When pressed on why Afghan women, who have worn whatever they could over the years, must return to a hijab, Mr Shaheen said it was “not our rules”, but “Islamic rules”.

“Muslim women are not only in Afghanistan but all Islam countries, they are obliged to observe the hijab. All practising women are observant to hijab, it’s a part of their belief”.

“I don’t think they will have a problem with that because it is part of Islamic rules and part of our culture.

“It is their basic right to have access to education and access to work, that is maintained, they can have those rights, there will be no problem with that.”

Mr Shaheen was challenged that “Islam doesn’t necessarily teach women to wear the hijab” but he continued: “It’s the rules of our religion. It’s for their security.”

Taliban calls on world leaders

Mr Shaheen called on “all leaders of the world” to work with the Taliban and “assist in order to provide a proper, dignified life for the people of Afghanistan”.

He denied he was receiving financial aid from China, Pakistan and Russia but said they had “good relations” with the controversial countries.

He said the world needed to “respect the people of Afghanistan who fought for their freedom with their lives”.

US President Joe Biden faces increasing criticism over the disorganised pullout of American troops after 20 years of US-led military intervention, defending the withdrawal while blaming Afghan forces whom he said were “not willing to fight for themselves”.

“We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future,” Mr Biden said in his address at the White House.

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

The Taliban said the Afghanistan people wanted to “open a new chapter of peace” but blamed the US and its allies for “the destruction of Afghanistan”, claiming it was their “moral obligation” to help rebuild the city.

He said the Taliban were committed to doing the same, including freedom of speech.

“All people, all citizens should be equal in law and there should not be any kind of discrimination. That is some of the general principles we believe.”

People falling from planes

Mr Shaheen blamed “the Americans” for the “horror” images of people falling from the sky after terrified Afghans clamoured onto the side of an evacuating USAFC-17 and clinging on to its undercarriage as it struggled down the tarmac.

More footage posted by Aśvaka News Agency, based in Kabul, showed bodies tumbling as the plane took off, and further bodies falling from the sky.

“Our forces were not there. We were not responsible, they were responsible, it was their aeroplane, not ours.”

He said the airport was now in an “orderly manner” but everyone wanted to flee because “Afghanistan is a poor country”.

AND… ATTACHMENT FOUR A – From Donald Trump and the Taliban

Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America

February 29, 2020 which corresponds to Rajab 5, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Hoot 10, 1398 on the Hijri Solar calendar

A comprehensive peace agreement is made of four parts:

1. Guarantees and enforcement mechanisms that will prevent the use of the soil of Afghanistan by any group or individual against the security of the United States and its allies.

2. Guarantees, enforcement mechanisms, and announcement of a timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.

3. After the announcement of guarantees for a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and timeline in the presence of international witnesses, and guarantees and the announcement in the presence of international witnesses that Afghan soil will not be used against the security of the United States and its allies, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will start intra-Afghan negotiations with Afghan sides on March 10, 2020, which corresponds to Rajab 15, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Hoot 20, 1398 on the Hijri Solar calendar.

4. A permanent and comprehensive ceasefire will be an item on the agenda of the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations. The participants of intra-Afghan negotiations will discuss the date and modalities of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, including joint implementation mechanisms, which will be announced along with the completion and agreement over the future political roadmap of Afghanistan.

The four parts above are interrelated and each will be implemented in accordance with its own agreed timeline and agreed terms. Agreement on the first two parts paves the way for the last two parts. Following is the text of the agreement for the implementation of parts one and two of the above. Both sides agree that these two parts are interconnected. The obligations of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban in this agreement apply in areas under their control until the formation of the new post-settlement Afghan Islamic government as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations.

PART ONE

The United States is committed to withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel within fourteen (14) months following announcement of this agreement, and will take the following measures in this regard:

A. The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will take the following measures in the first one hundred thirty-five (135) days:

1) They will reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to eight thousand six hundred (8,600) and proportionally bring reduction in the number of its allies and Coalition forces.

2) The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will withdraw all their forces from five (5) military bases.

B. With the commitment and action on the obligations of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban in Part Two of this agreement, the United States, its allies, and the Coalition will execute the following:

1) The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will complete withdrawal of all remaining forces from Afghanistan within the remaining nine and a half (9.5) months.

2) The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will withdraw all their forces from remaining bases.

C. The United States is committed to start immediately to work with all relevant sides on a plan to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence building measure with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides. Up to five thousand (5,000) prisoners of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and up to one thousand (1,000) prisoners of the other side will be released by March 10, 2020, the first day of intra-Afghan negotiations, which corresponds to Rajab 15, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Hoot 20, 1398 on the Hijri Solar calendar.

The relevant sides have the goal of releasing all the remaining prisoners over the course of the subsequent three months. The United States commits to completing this goal. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban commits that its released prisoners will be committed to the responsibilities mentioned in this agreement so that they will not pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.

D. With the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the United States will initiate an administrative review of current U.S. sanctions and the rewards list against members of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban with the goal of removing these sanctions by August 27, 2020, which corresponds to Muharram 8, 1442 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Saunbola 6, 1399 on the Hijri Solar calendar.

E. With the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the United States will start diplomatic engagement with other members of the United Nations Security Council and Afghanistan to remove members of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban from the sanctions list with the aim of achieving this objective by May 29, 2020, which corresponds to Shawwal 6, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Jawza 9, 1399 on the Hijri Solar calendar.

F. The United States and its allies will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs.

PART TWO

In conjunction with the announcement of this agreement, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will take the following steps to prevent any group or individual, including al-Qa’ida, from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies:

1. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al-Qa’ida, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.

2. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will send a clear message that those who pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies have no place in Afghanistan, and will instruct members of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban not to cooperate with groups or individuals threatening the security of the United States and its allies.

3. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will prevent any group or individual in Afghanistan from threatening the security of the United States and its allies, and will prevent them from recruiting, training, and fundraising and will not host them in accordance with the commitments in this agreement.

4. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban is committed to deal with those seeking asylum or residence in Afghanistan according to international migration law and the commitments of this agreement, so that such persons do not pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.

5. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will not provide visas, passports, travel permits, or other legal documents to those who pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies to enter Afghanistan.

PART THREE

1. The United States will request the recognition and endorsement of the United Nations Security Council for this agreement.

2. The United States and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the UnitedStates as a state and is known as the Taliban seek positive relations with each other and expect that the relations between the United States and the new post-settlement Afghan Islamic government as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations will be positive.

3. The United States will seek economic cooperation for reconstruction with the new post-settlement Afghan Islamic government as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations, and will not intervene in its internal affairs.

Signed in Doha, Qatar on February 29, 2020, which corresponds to Rajab 5, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Hoot 10, 1398 on the Hijri Solar calendar, in duplicate, in Pashto, Dari, and English languages, each text being equally authentic.

ATTACHMENT FIVE – From the BBC

Three ways this Afghanistan crisis really hurts Biden

By Jon Sopel

There's a quote in To Kill A Mockingbird where Jem is told by Miss Maudie that "things are never as bad as they seem." For Joe Biden, right now, things do look pretty dark.

But if I'm digging into my quotations book, who can better Kipling's If - and that line about treating triumph and failure as the impostors that they are? Politicians have been told down the ages that there is no coming back from this or that catastrophe, and - yet - back they come.

The shambolic unravelling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan comes from a yet to be written textbook of "how to lose at everything". Warnings hadn't been heeded, intelligence was clearly totally inadequate, planning was lamentable, execution woeful.

Let's just focus in on one thing - although there are any number that are worthy of examination.

The withdrawal came during the "fighting season" - a phrase I have to say I have always found rather odd. But in Afghanistan there is a fighting season which starts in spring - and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Did no-one think that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren't there, poised to fill the vacuum?

The end result might have been the same - a Taliban takeover - but it would have almost certainly led to a more orderly drawdown. Yet the Biden administration wanted an eye-catching date. They wanted the withdrawal completed by 11 September. Twenty years on from 9/11 - an artificial, self-imposed deadline.

One more quote. After the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion, when Cuban emigres backed by the CIA tried to overthrow Fidel Castro, John F Kennedy - the president at the time of that debacle - noted sorrowfully that victory has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan.

Joe Biden is an orphan right now. And that could have consequences for his presidency; and far more importantly how the rest of the world sees America.

Biden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of "America First", it would be replaced by the mantra "America is back".

But in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.

And after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back? Many see what has unfolded on President Biden's watch in Afghanistan as a linear continuation of Donald Trump's America First policies - and, as some have joked cruelly, not as well organised.

That is potentially deeply damaging.

But on the policy itself, Joe Biden is utterly defiant. He summoned up his inner Harry Truman and made clear in his speech that the buck stops with him. He was, however, happy to distribute blame in much the same way that a muck spreader disperses manure in all directions. The Afghan leadership weren't up to it, the Afghan armed forces had no fight in them; Donald Trump had negotiated a bad deal.

There can be an endearing chirpiness to Joe Biden, but there's also a chippiness. He doesn't like being questioned, and on many foreign policy questions he is convinced of his own rightness.

Joe Biden has never been a "liberal interventionist", thinking that liberal democracy is something that can be shipped out of Baltimore Harbour in 40ft containers and exported around the world. He thinks the US military should only be overseas to defend vital US interests. And with al-Qaeda largely beaten, Osama Bin Laden dead, it was job done. Time to come home.

That is a view, I should add, shared by millions of Americans. But approving of the policy is very different from the dysfunctional implementation. And what if terror groups, feeling emboldened by the Taliban victory, decide to launch their own attacks on Americans abroad - or Americans at home? Then it could be politically catastrophic.

Which brings us to how Western leaders see America now. A fascinating nugget from a briefing that's just been given by Joe Biden's National Security Adviser. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan? Following Sullivan's briefing, the White House announced that Biden had spoken with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

When the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.

And who will feel they have gained most from America's departure - apart from the Taliban, of course? Why, three countries that neighbour Afghanistan - Russia, Iran and China. I'm not sure that is what Joe Biden had in mind when he said after his inauguration that "America is back".

ATTACHMENT SIX – From RCP

President Biden Job Approval

President Job Approval: Trump | Obama | Bush

Job Approval on Economy | Job Approval on Immigration | Job Approval on Coronavirus | Direction of the Country

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Approve	Disapprove	Spread
RCP Average	8/7 - 8/19	--	48.6	48.2	+0.4
Reuters	8/18 - 8/19	1002 A	46	49	-3
Rasmussen	8/17 - 8/19	1500 LV	46	53	-7
YouGov	8/14 - 8/17	1250 RV	47	47	Tie
Politico	8/13 - 8/16	1998 RV	51	46	+5
FOX News	8/7 - 8/10	1002 RV	53	46	+7

All President Biden Job Approval Polling Data

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – from the Des Moines Register

'TRUMP SOLD THEM OUT': JOE BIDEN HITS THE PRESIDENT OVER SYRIA TROOP WITHDRAWAL IN IOWA SPEECH

By Stephen Gruber-Miller 10/16/19

DAVENPORT, Ia. — President Donald Trump sold out United States allies and gave ISIS "a new lease on life" by withdrawing troops from Syria, former Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Biden, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, used a speech in Davenport to criticize the Republican president's foreign policy. Speaking in hushed tones, Biden lamented Trump's trade war with China and the president's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, while emphasizing his own foreign policy experience.

"Donald Trump, I believe — it’s not comfortable to say this about a president — but he is a complete failure as a commander in chief," Biden said. "He’s the most reckless and incompetent commander in chief we’ve ever had."

Biden saved his harshest words for Trump's decision earlier this month to remove U.S. armed forces from northern Syria. Turkey subsequently invaded the country, including territory held by the Kurds, who were U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS.

The decision to withdraw troops from Syria, Biden said, created a humanitarian crisis, forced the United States military into retreat and gave ISIS "a new lease on life."

Trump has recently stood by his decision.

"It's not our problem," the president told reporters Wednesday as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to travel to Turkey to try to negotiate a ceasefire and avoid a humanitarian crisis on the Syrian border.

The president has repeatedly framed his decision in Syria as part of his broader pledge to withdraw U.S. troops from foreign entanglements.

Biden said the conflict created a rift between the United States and Turkey — two NATO allies — that is furthering Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal "of fracturing the NATO alliance."

"Imagine how demoralizing it is to the troops, our troops, as Russia pours in, mercenaries, taking literally victory laps inside of the former U.S. camps and facilities — the very ones President Trump ordered them to abandon. And Turkey attacking the very people they fought alongside of," Biden said.

Biden also used the speech to highlight his own foreign policy experience, saying that the country needs a leader who can assure its allies "on Day One" that the United States will keep its word.

"I’m going to say something very self-serving: This is something I know a lot about. I spent a lot of time in that area, I know all these leaders, I’ve been engaged. Because that’s my job," Biden said in an improvised riff that was not part of his prepared speech.

Biden also praised the Obama administration's strategy of using a few hundred American troops to work with local fighters to fight ISIS, a strategy he said Trump was imitating until he decided to withdraw those troops this month.

"The strategy was so successful it turned out that Trump’s secret plan to defeat ISIS — you remember that — secret plan to defeat ISIS was just to keep doing what we had put in place. Until last week," he said.

Trump has faced bipartisan criticism for the withdrawal of troops, with the U.S. House voting overwhelmingly Wednesday afternoon to condemn the move.

"Republicans in Congress know how irresponsible this is," Biden said. "It’s about the only thing they’ve mustered enough backbone to criticize him on. That’s how outrageous it is — even Mitch McConnell knows he’s wrong."

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – FROM newsweek

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE DRAFTING ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT FOR BIDEN OVER AFGHANISTAN

BY ANDRE J. ELLINGTON ON 8/16/21 AT 9:35 PM EDT

Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's working on articles of impeachment as President Joe Biden faces steep criticism over his administration's Afghanistan withdrawal strategy.

On Monday, Greene appeared on Real America's Voice' War Room Pandemic with host Steve Bannon, where she revealed that her team is currently drafting articles of impeachment against Biden.

"I have my team right now working on articles of impeachment," Greene said. "Because I'm so disgusted with Joe Biden. You know I've already filed one set of articles of impeachment. But his failure as a president is unspeakable."

Greene went on to praise former President Donald Trump, saying "Trump right now is more presidential and he's not even in the White House than Joe Biden can ever be or stand up to in the past seven months."

Greene also referenced the Taliban as she spoke out in support of Americans owning assault-style rifles.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all if [the Biden administration] are paying the Taliban," the lawmaker said. "After all, they are paying them with weapons, vehicles, Blackhawk helicopters because the Afghan army is handing them over as fast as possible."

"Anytime any Democrat ever speaks to America about gun control again, and they want to talk to you about your AR-15, you tell them right now how many weapons and how many semi-automatic weapons did you hand over to terrorists in Afghanistan, to the Taliban, ISIS and possible Al-Qaeda before you ever talk to Americans about gun control," Greene added.

Trump and a slew of congressional Republican have criticized the Biden administration for their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy," Trump said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was "mishandled."

"The exit, including the frantic evacuation of Americans and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul is a shameful failure of American leadership," he added in a statement.

Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey called on Biden to resign as president.

"I cannot believe I'm saying this, it literally is time for this president to resign," Drew told Fox News host Trey Gowdy Sunday (the 15^th). "It is time for this vice president to resign. It is time for the Senate president and Speaker to resign. We need new people, even new Democrats, hopefully that are moderates."

Taliban soldiers stormed Kabul on Sunday after seizing most of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Taliban claimed that "the war is over" after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Sunday morning.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019, on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges. He was later acquitted of all charges on February 5, 2020.

The former Republican president was impeached again on January 21, 2021, on an incitement of insurrection charge following the January 6 Capitol riot.

ATTACHMENTS NINE (A) - From news.com Pakistan

CALLS TO IMPEACH BIDEN GROW

Wednesday, Aug 18, 2021

WASHINGTON: As the Taliban are negotiating a new government in Kabul after the Afghan National Defence Forces folded up amidst a lingering but disorderly US withdrawal from Afghanistan, scheduled to be completed by Aug 31, US President Joe Biden has come in for increasing criticism from international allies and domestic politicians, several of whom are calling for impeachment proceedings against the 46th president of the US.

Speaking on ‘War Room Pandemic’ podcast with host Steve Bannon, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, MTG, confirmed, “I have my team right now working on articles of impeachment. You know I’ve already filed one set of articles of impeachment. “But his failure as a president is unspeakable,” she added, reported foreign media.

Florida Senator Rick Scott has also raised the prospect of Biden’s removal after the collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Scott, who is chair of the Senate GOP campaign arm, said on Twitter: “We must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?”

The remarks about the president by prominent politicians come as the #ImpeachBiden hashtag went viral on social media and became one of the highest trends on Twitter on Monday morning. Candace Owens, one of the most prominent political spokespeople on the platform with 2.8 million followers, shared a photo comparing America’s exit by helicopter from Vietnam and from Afghanistan with the words, “Biden’s Saigon. #ImpeachBiden.”

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s ex-attorney and former mayor of New York, was quick to criticize Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on Twitter. “It’s such a bad #BidenDisaster, it may lead to an #IMPEACHBIDENNOW. Then #IMPEACHBIDENHARRIS will lead #PelosiDisaster,” Giuliani tweeted on Sunday evening to his 1.1 million followers.

Jerome Bell, a Trump-supporting Republican who is running for Congress in Virginia’s Congressional District, tweeted with a screenshot alleging that Biden lied about military intelligence on Afghanistan. Biden said in a July 8 press conference that the Afghanistan military was capable of subverting the Taliban. “Boom. #ImpeachBiden,” Jerome Bell wrote on Twitter as the Taliban stormed into the presidential palace on Sunday night and declared the war in Afghanistan to be over. Unlike the failed one-six.- DJI

Like Biden, Trump also supported the policy of withdrawing from Afghanistan. There were scenes of chaos at Kabul airport, where thousands looked to flee the country fearing retaliation by the Taliban.

The US and other Western countries were also scrambling to evacuate diplomats, embassy workers and citizens stranded in the central Asian country. The president, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top government officials are also coming under intense pressure from the media over the collapse of the Afghan government. CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Biden must feel “humiliated” watching footage from Kabul showing the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan.

Joining the group, Jack Lombardi, Republican Candidate for Congress in Illinois, said, “On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 it will be the Taliban and al-Qaeda celebrating in Kabul. This is a disgrace and America is less safe today because of Joe Biden.” Lombardi called upon the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment or for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden, who is no longer able to competently carry out his duties.

AND NINE (B)

AFGHAN SCENARIO: WE CHICKENED OUT, NOW BEING IGNORED, SAYS INDIA’S EX-GENERAL

Wednesday, Aug 18, 2021

LAHORE: As an Indian TV anchor lamented in his show that India, despite its involvement in Afghanistan's infrastructure development, was being ignored by world, a hawkish retired general said it was bound to happen because India had chickened out by refusing to send its troops there. Responding to the anchor, retired Maj Gen GD Bakhshi, known for his jingoist narrative in regional issues, burst out, “Why would somebody consult with you? Jis kee laathi os kee bhaens (might is right). Are you willing to wield the baton? Are you prepared to send troops there? When we were asked (about sending troops to Afghanistan), we broke out in a cold sweat at the thought of going to Afghanistan.”

ATTACHMENT TEN – from the Washington Times

TIME TO IMPEACH BIDEN: HE’S ACTIVELY TRYING TO DESTROY THE AMERICA WE KNOW AND LOVE

By David N. Bossie - - Wednesday, August 18, 2021

If an American president can be impeached for a phone call with Ukraine, can a president also be impeached for overseeing the incompetent, negligent, and devastating collapse of Afghanistan while he’s on vacation?

The stunning incompetence of President Joe Biden and his administration’s handling of the ill-conceived decision to lay out the welcome mat for the Taliban to sack Kabul and overthrow the Afghan government deserves an impeachment inquiry without delay. What did Mr. Biden know about the Taliban’s strength and intentions, and when did he know it?

Just a month before the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, thanks to Mr. Biden, we’re right back where we started. It’s humiliating. It’s embarrassing. And it’s a tragedy that was completely avoidable.

But it was also to be expected. This is what happens when domestic political considerations are injected into national security decision-making. This president is more concerned about appeasing his radical left-wing base than keeping Americans safe. His remarks on Monday attempting to explain away the catastrophe he created and blame President Trump like a true coward only worsened matters. Shame on Mr. Biden. Just like President Barack Obama paved the way for ISIS - his JV squad - with his politicized foreign policy decisions in Iraq, Mr. Biden is paving the way for the second coming of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. This should be of great concern to all Americans who were promised never again would terrorists have the capability to conduct another 9/11-type attack from there.

Just five weeks ago, Mr. Biden told the American people that the “likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Fast-forward to today, and we have an Afghanistan in chaos, the Taliban in charge, and Americans desperately trying to get out of the country. Was this an intelligence failure or a President determined to bow to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her socialist “squad” at all costs?

In just seven months of complete Democrat control in Washington, we have a border crisis, inflation spiking, a crime wave, mask mandate hysteria, and now the disaster in Afghanistan. Mr. Biden should muster some backbone and stand up to the radical left that’s trying to destroy the America we know and love.

Let’s remember that Mr. Biden only won the presidential election by just 42,000 votes in three states. The American people didn’t sign up for the reversal of every successful Trump policy. President Trump had a conditions-based withdrawal strategy for Afghanistan, but Mr. Biden and the Trump-deranged ideologues telling him what to do threw it all out the window out of pure hatred. This is no way to run a country.

This President has a credibility problem. Just last month, he told us that “the drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way.” Now we see a video of scores of Afghans running alongside and hanging off of U.S. Air Force planes on the runway at Kabul airport, desperately trying to flee the country, so they don’t get murdered by Taliban thugs. Many are comparing American helicopters rescuing U.S. personnel from our embassy in Saigon before it fell to North Vietnam in 1975. Still, there is no comparison - the situation in Kabul is far worse and way more dangerous.

Let’s not forget the liberal media’s role in this mess. In the time Mr. Biden’s been in office, his allies in the mainstream media legions have given him free rein and felt better asking him about his ice cream choices than life and death foreign policy issues. I’ve said it a million times already, and I’ll repeat it. Our constitutional republic cannot function properly without critical media. In the case of Mr. Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco, would the president have plowed forward with this irresponsible withdrawal if the press were asking him probing questions about his shaky strategy - or lack thereof? We’ll never know.

This cataclysmic foreign policy decision should cost Mr. Biden his domestic policy agenda as well. Senators and Representatives must feel massive pressure this month to kill Mr. Biden’s trillion-dollar socialist spending follies and his disastrous plan to let Washington takeover our election system right now before it’s too late.

Only an out-of-touch career politician would be so arrogant and drunk on power to make such a brash, politically inspired decision in the blink of an eye and brush aside the blood, sweat, treasure, and American lives that were lost over the past twenty years. What does the world think about America’s resolve now, and what on earth will this weak president do next?

Make no mistake about it: this decision was made by Mr. Biden and no one else - and we’ll be paying for it for decades. Mr. Biden is right to speak about a “crisis of confidence,” but it’s not in Afghanistan - it’s happening right here at home because of his failed leadership.

• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United, and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – From Fox

WOULD A REPUBLICAN HOUSE MAJORITY IMPEACH BIDEN IN 2023?

McCarthy tells Fox News the president would face impeachment 'if Biden takes an illegal action'

House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy says that if his party wins back the majority in the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections, House Republicans wouldn't use impeachment as a political weapon against President Biden in 2023.

The Democratic majority in the House twice impeached President Trump – first in December 2019, charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and alleging that he had solicited foreign interference to help his 2020 reelection bid. He was impeached a second time in January of this year, accused of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters aiming to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory in last November’s election.

Both times, Trump was acquitted during Senate impeachment trials.

MCCARTHY, AIMING TO WIN BACK HOUSE MAJORITY, LIKENS 2022 MIDTERMS TO ‘100 YEAR STORM’

In an interview this week with Fox News, McCarthy once again charged that "the Democrats used impeachment for political reasons." And he emphasized that Republicans "think impeachment is so serious it should only be taken" as a most severe action.

But if the longtime congressman from California becomes House speaker in 2023, would he rule out impeachment?

"If Biden takes an illegal action, we would move impeachment," McCarthy told Fox News. "But we’re not going to move impeachment for political purposes." Figleaf foxleaf

McCarthy’s comments on impeachment came in a broader exclusive interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the second and final day of his "Gold Caucus Summit," a summer retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for high-dollar GOP donors, some top Republican leaders and former Trump administration officials, and appearances by some of the National Republican Congressional Committee's most high-profile 2022 candidate recruits.

MCCARTHY WON’T SUPPORT BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE DEAL EVEN IF SEPARATED FROM DEM SPENDING BILL

His comments come as some voices on the far right are calling for the impeachment of the president over the Biden administration’s bungling of the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan after repressive Taliban forces quickly captured the capital city of Kabul following a long-planned U.S. military withdrawal from the war-torn central Asian country.

ATTACHMENTS TWELVE (A) and (B) – FROM the Washington examiner via yahoo

BANNON SAYS TRUMP SHOULD BECOME SPEAKER, LEAD BIDEN IMPEACHMENT, RESIGN, AND RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024

Wed, August 18, 2021, 9:44 PM

Steve Bannon presented a breathless timeline in which he said former President Donald Trump should become House speaker and lead an impeachment effort against President Joe Biden before resigning to run for the White House in 2024.

The former White House chief strategist discussed the unprecedented scenario during an episode of his War Room show on Wednesday while criticizing Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

After saying "people should be court-martialed" over U.S. forces abandoning Bagram Airfield, which some have opined could have been used to help with evacuations following the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country, Bannon said this issue could be "one of the big charges eventually brought" against Biden.

"This thing is going to be huge," Bannon continued. "That's why I say, hey, Donald Trump should be elected the speaker of the House after [Republicans] have the sweeping victory in November '22, at least for 100 days, take the gavel from [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, gavel him in, start the impeachment process. In 100 days, punch out and go run for president of the United States in 2024."

The speaker of the House is not required to be an elected House member, but every speaker thus far has been an elected member.

Trump said in a Fox Business interview in June that it is "highly unlikely" he would run for a House or Senate seat in 2022 but said in an interview with another commentator the idea of replacing Pelosi as speaker is "interesting.” So far, the former president has not publicly decided whether he will run again for president in 2024.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to say in a June 18 interview on Fox News Trump wanted to be speaker, which he later clarified to mean Trump wants McCarthy to become speaker.

Bannon served on Trump's 2016 campaign and in the White House for much of 2017.

He remains a vocal supporter of Trump, who issued a pardon in the final hours of his presidency to his former adviser as he faced criminal charges in an alleged “We Build the Wall” scam that raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting donors.

Trump was twice impeached by a Democratic-controlled House, once in relation to Ukraine and another to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but acquitted both times by a GOP-led Senate.

AND ATTACHMENT TWELVE (B), from newsweek

TRUMP SUGGESTS HE MAY RUN FOR HOUSE IN 2022 TO BECOME SPEAKER: 'VERY INTERESTING'

BY JASON LEMON ON 6/4/21 AT 4:49 PM EDT

Former President Donald Trump suggested he would consider running for a House seat in 2022 in a bid to become Speaker of the House and launch an impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden.

Trump commented on the idea during an interview broadcast by far-right radio host Wayne Allyn Root on Friday afternoon. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon first touted the idea of Trump running for Congress to take over as Speaker of the House back in February. Root raised the idea with Trump directly during his interview.

"Why not, instead of waiting for 2024, and I'm hoping you'll run in 2024 but why not run in 2022 for the United States Congress? A House seat in Florida. Win big. Lead us to a dramatic landslide victory. Take the House by 50 seats. And then you become the Speaker of the House, lead the impeachment of Biden and start criminal investigations against Biden. You'll wipe him out for this last two years," Root said with excitement.

"That's so—that's so interesting," Trump responded.

"Do it! You'll be a folk hero!" Root responded.

"Yeah, you know it's very interesting," Trump added. He said some have previously suggested he run for Senate as well. "But you know what, your idea might be better. It's very interesting." Right Wing Watch first reported on the remarks.

Bannon laid out the same plan in mid-February during remarks he made for Boston Republicans. "He'll come back to us. We'll have a sweeping victory in 2022, and he'll lead us in 2024," the former Trump administration official said at the time.

"We totally get rid of Nancy Pelosi, and the first act of President Trump as Speaker will be to impeach Joe Biden for his illegitimate activities of stealing the presidency," Bannon said.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Even if Trump chose to run for a House seat in 2022, he would have to win that race and Republicans would have to take control of the House of Representatives for him to have a shot at becoming speaker of the legislative chamber. Currently, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, is seen as the frontrunner to become speaker if GOP candidates successfully flip the House in the midterm elections.

Notably, Trump also suggested in a Friday statement he does plan to run for the presidency again in the future. After Facebook announced Trump will remain suspended from the social media platform until 2023, the former president released a statement saying he'd no longer have Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over for dinner at the White House.

"Next time I'm in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will all be business!" Trump said.

Trump has not formally announced plans to run again for the presidency in 2024, although he is widely believed to be seriously considering another campaign. Polling suggests that he would be a clear frontrunner, with most surveys showing a majority of GOP voters saying that they'd support him.

ATTACHMENT A – from the Don, 191015

(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 10/15/19… 27,024.80; 10/8/19… 26,164.04; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

(THE DON JONES INDEX: 10/15/19… 16,459.18; 10/8/19… 16,454.66; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for October 15, 2019 – A DATE that will LIVE in INFAMY!

December 7, 1941. Japanese force attack Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt goes on the radio… only a handful of experimental televisions in those days… and proclaims that the date will “live in infamy”.

September 11, 2001. Al Qaeda hijacks four airplanes, flying two of them into the World Trade towers. Plenty of televisions now, and plenty of television watchers were watching the towers come down. President George W. Bush did not use the “infamy” metaphor, but Don Jones knew that 9/11 would be an important date for Americans from now on.

October 8, 2019. Another day that will dwell in infamy, even if the President does not say so… in fact, Donald Trump precipitated this catastrophe wholly on his own, and even against the advice of some of his most loyal advisors. No Americans died in Syria that day, but the damage done was to the aura of the United States… the President wiping his behind on the (largely unwritten) Contract With America that has guided our foreign policy for well over a century: That Americans, in fact, keep their promises.

That they support their allies and punish their enemies.

No longer.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post posted five brief quotes upon America’s sellout of their Kurdish allies as a sort of contest to identify the speaker; one respondent gave the President his due but added that Mister Trump’s activities have been implemented and reinforced by a sycophantic gang of advisors, moneymongers and politicians, calling the Trumpsters “the most unwise, inept, incompetent diplomatic team I’ve ever seen at work in Washington.” (See Attachment Seven)

There was a foreshadowing of this abandonment of American integrity long before Wednesday’s debacle… this particular President having already casting off membership in the global community fighting climate change, having sneered at NATO while embracing Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and, just a few days ago, proposing that America shoot refugees trying to escape starvation and violence in the legs “to slow them down”.

Already facing impeachment on his numerous financial, policy and legal scofflawing, Donald Trump has now begun alienating even the staunch Republican Senate comrades under the thumb of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the threat of a howling, demented red base eager to put up even more loony-loos against backsliders in next spring and summer’s primary races. Whether it is a discovery of a tiny, but pulsing, germ of integrity at the center of their black, black hearts, or whether it reflecting the shifting polls that are beginning to imply that not only Trump but his supporters will not only be imperiled at the polls in thirteen months, but face a radically enhanced risk of impeachment, conviction and… yes… prison.

The craven dissolution of American support for the Kurds has not only resulted in the liberation of thousands of ISIS maniacs from jails in Syria’s occupied northeast, the Turkish swerve will actually pose an existential threat to the survival of not only the moral but the physical integrity of the United States. See below.

Turkey has been democracy’s problem child for thirty centuries or more; their apex reached way, way back in the Homeric epoch under the semi-mythical Trojan Empire which, in fact, was destroyed by that often-wayward cradle of liberty, Greece… with whom they fought numerous battles, before and after. (Greek-Turkish conflicts have, in fact, been a principle sore spot for NATO… also below… almost since its founding seventy years ago.)

Long, long after Homer the land, if not yet the country, experienced a second rising when the still-new Christian faith relocated its Vatican ceremonial capital from a declining, degenerate Rome to that ancient city renamed Constantinople after that Holy Roman Emperor of church and state in the fourth century AD. Straddling the Bosporus Straits between the Black Sea and Mediterranean with the eastern boundary of Europe on its west bank, the western frontier of Asia on the East, Constantinople exerted ecclesiastical and political primacy over all of the former until destroyed and conquered by upstart Islam in 1453, after centuries of Christian/Islamic conflict.

One of the many flashpoints of these conflicts were the Crusades… where a varied cast of Western, Christian warriors fought to reclaim Jerusalem, lose it and ultimately come to an agreement with the Kurdish leader Saladin, of whom Richard the Lionhearted respected as an honest and worthy adversary.

Their fortunes waxed and waned with those of its more powerful (and politically organized neighbors) prospering in their epochs of decline, subjugated when a strong government arose in Constantinople (or, later, Istanbul) or Persia or Babylon.

Ottoman Turkey (which, at its height, dominated Western Asia and Eastern Europe from the gates of Vienna and Kiev, south to Baghdad and Mecca in the East, Algiers in the West) declined through the past few centuries until the “sick man of Europe” unwisely joined the German and Austro-Hungarian empires in the losing effort of World War I. Subsequently modernizing and democratizing under Kemal Ataturk’s “New Turks”, Istanbul became a respected and thriving partner of the Western democracies until the recent ascension of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – a nationalist/imperialist and, like Trump, a paranoid who had proven himself unable to reach an accommodation with the Kurds long before the Syrian meltdown.

Matters came to a head on a week ago (10/8) when Donald Trump, according to USA Today, Trump defended the move as an attempt to fulfill a campaign promise to end U.S. involvement in wars such as in Syria.

"I campaigned on the fact that I was going to bring our soldiers home," Trump told reporters of the decision.

The White House said the announcement came after Trump talked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who believes that Kurdish forces are allied with insurgents inside Turkey, on the phone.

On Wednesday, an unimpressed Erdogan sent his troops south and began shelling and shooting civilians.

In a statement Wednesday, Trump declared, "The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea." Later, he told reporters that if Turkey "doesn't do it in as humane a way as possible," he will impose "far more than sanctions" to punish Turkey.

What does "as humane a way as possible" actually mean? asked Newsday. What is the line that Turkey must not cross? "We're going to have to define that as we go along," Trump said.

On Thursday, the halvah hit the fan. Under the headline “Turkey Attacks and Kurds die; Trump Acts Surprised”, Newsday of Long Island, NY cited an Associated Press report that, “after Donald Trump all but rolled out a welcome mat for invasion”, Turkey's military unleashed airstrikes and artillery on the Kurdish fighters in Syria who for years had made the biggest sacrifices in blood to win the U.S.-led battle against ISIS. Turkey said its ground forces were on the move and civilian casualties were reported.

The President defended his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and enable a Turkish offensive against US-backed Kurdish fighters in the region by noting the Kurds didn’t fight alongside the US in the Second World War.

Trump said he had learned from a ‘very powerful article’ apparently referencing a column by the conservative opinion writer Kurt Schlichter. (See Attachment Three) that the Kurds had not helped against the Nazis.

“We've seen how Donald Trump treats his friends,” opined the purplish Arizona Republic. “He’s extremely loyal to each and every one of them – until he decides that cutting them loose or throwing them to the wolves is to his benefit.”

Tolling off former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ex-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former national security adviser Michael Flynn. former personal attorney and "fixer," Michael Cohen, or his old pal Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile who killed himself in jail and about whom Trump once said, he “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” the A.R. also tied the albatross of his crack about the Kurds “not helphing us in Normandy” around his neck, wrapping the other end around an anchor and dropping it all into the English Channel (or, at least, the Colorado River).

"Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years, the President tweeted. “Turkey considers the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] the worst terrorists of all. Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them! We are monitoring the situation closely. Endless Wars!"

As to allegations that the Turkish invasion would result in the freeing of ten thousand maniacs from prisons in Kurdish-held territory, Trump told reporters that some of the “most dangerous” Isis prisoners had been moved, but he did not say how many or where they had been taken.

“We’re putting them in different locations where it’s secure,” he said.

Critics argued the move casts doubt about the US’s commitments to its allies, could enable an Isis resurgence and raises fears that some of the thousand Isis fighters in Kurdish detention may escape.

Angry liberals burst from their picklejars like botulism-swelled pickles.

But, this time, it wasn’t only The Squad peppering the Presidential behind with twittershot.

“President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria is having sickening and predictable consequences,” said the daughter of Dubya’s direwolf, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy).

“The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria,” declared former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, “...leaving them to die is a big mistake.”

And, wonder of wonders, some of the tough talk actually seems to have generated some tough… well, actionistic… actions! (Or, at least, proposed actions.) Nancy Pelosi said after the sanctions were unveiled that she wanted to 'overturn' the pullout of troops.

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even admitted that he was 'gravely concerned.'

So if Djonald is concerned about losing his Senate bulwark, he can at least rely on his evangelical base. Can he?

Religious freedom advocates are worried that Kurdish and Syriac Christians forming the Syrian Democratic Forces will be annihilated by Turkey, the second-biggest military power in NATO, and that ethnic cleansing of the region’s inhabitants will occur. Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan has vowed to move 2 million Syrian refugees who are Sunni Muslim and currently in Turkey into the “safe zone” and displace Syriac Christians, Yazidis and Kurds, who are the native inhabitants of northeastern Syria.

A NPR interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network about the evangelical response to President Trump's decision to pull back troops from Northern Syria highlighted the risk that the President is taking with his base; Kurds may not be Southern Baptists, but their fight with Islamist Turkey is eating into the President’s popularity

"Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's working with Democrats to impose sanctions on Turkey. (See below)

Another usually preying turned praying Graham cracker was Franklin, Billy’s boy who was among numerous evangelical leaders, the bedrock of Trump's base, who were horrified at the president's decision. "Pray for the Christians who the Kurds have been protecting. They could be annihilated," said the Rev. Franklin Graham. Televangelist Pat Robertson said Trump "is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven" by "allowing Christians and the Kurds to be massacred by the Turks."

Evangelical radio host Erick Erickson, who had a past falling-out with Trump but more recently said he'd probably support him in 2020, tweeted: "Hey @SpeakerPelosi, maybe do a vote to initiate impeachment STAT, have the committee get out articles by tonight and over to the Senate, and perhaps we'll still have time to save some of the Kurds."

The President and his diminishing roster of acolytes are fighting back... and garbing themselves in the mantle of peace and prosperity in the process.

In what the Huffington Post called a “fractured White House news conference” yesterday, Trump claimed poll numbers supporting him have jumped 17 percentage points. “That’s despite an impeachment inquiry and the uproar over his decision Sunday night to draw down U.S. troops as Kurdish allies face a Turkish incursion into Syria.

“It’s not known which poll, if any, Trump was citing.” (In fact, the only poll released since said incursion was that of the Quinnipiac people, who found that “41 percent of registered voters approve of the job President Trump is doing, while 54 percent disapprove. This compares to a negative 40 - 54 percent approval in an October 8 poll. Democrats in Congress are also negatively viewed by registered voters as only 35 percent approve of the job they are doing, while 58 percent disapprove. Republicans in Congress are viewed even more negatively as only 28 percent approve of the job they are doing, while 64 percent disapprove.

Support for impeachment increased by only one percent (46% to 45%) since October 8^th.

"The President is mired at 41 percent but no worse for the wear after another week of frenzied impeachment talk," added pollster Tim Malloy.

“Look at how much money we spend on NATO and how much countries from Europe who are a much bigger beneficiary than we are.” Trump told Business Insider.

“Donald Trump came into office promising to not start any new wars and to get us out of the old ones our feckless elite had dragged us into,” hailed TownHall’s Jeff Crouere in an article entitled “The Left Has Gone Mad” …“and now that he’s doing it in Syria the usual suspects are outraged. How dare he actually deliver on his promise not to have anymore of our precious warriors shipped home in boxes after getting killed on battlefields we can’t even pronounce, while refereeing conflicts that began long before America was a thing, in campaigns without any kind of coherent objective?

“I generally like the Kurds. I generally dislike the Turks. But they’ve been killing each other for a long time and no one has yet offered a sufficient reason why America should stick its troops in the crossfire between them.

“Moreover, we keep hearing about our “obligation” to the Kurds, but who is the genius who promised the Kurds that if Turkey attacked the United States would go to war?”

GOP Sen. Rand Paul also remains steadfast in his support for Trump’s great and unmatched foreign policy wisdom, because we can’t make decisions based on “the bloodlust of the neocons”:

“Got that?” asked the blog Twitchy.

“If we can save one American soldier from losing their life or limbs in another senseless middle eastern war, it is worthwhile,” Rand twittered. “@realDonaldTrump knows this. Yet the bloodlust of the neocons knows no bounds.”

The junior Senator from Kentucky has played a mean violin on the prospects of Mideast violence claiming one American soldier but... the Kurds aside, they’re foreigners who don’t count... what about Americans who die in the next attack by an ISIS escapee, come over here to commit mayhem.

Meghan McCain lashed out at Paul on Thursday's edition of "The View" one day before Paul is set to join the ABC program, arguing they have blood on their hands while the Kurds are "being slaughtered after standing with our troops in the Middle East for an extremely long time."

"I want you to ask him," McCain said of Paul. "There is blood on anyone’s hands, starting with him and President Trump’s, letting this happen because there are people being slaughtered after standing with our troops in the Middle East for an extremely long time fighting against terror cells.

“And we are not entering into a foreign war. These are proxies supporting us," she continued. "The whole point of having proxies is so we don’t get into another war! And I’m sorry, have we not learned the lessons of 9/11? I don’t understand it.

Trolling along the shoreline between faith and conspiratorial fantasy, Rapture Forum counseled Erdogan to take another look at scripture and history, recognizing that “the last 500 years have demonstrated that Russia has been a dangerous ally not to be trusted.

“Those of us who are students of Bible prophecy know that this has to happen for Ezekiel 38-39 to play out like it will. Just more prophecy being fulfilled and the rest of the world has no clue.

And, inevitably, Infowars has checked in with its latest conspiracy theory… “I suspect our “allies” in the region wanted those troops to be slaughtered to justify ensnaring the US into a broader war.”

This time, they got it right. The small number of Americans “advising” the Kurds has commonly been referred to as a “tripwire”, meaning that a lethal attack on them, intended or not, gives the United States moral or legal justification for… well… doing bad things to Turkey.

Call it a Trumpwire, if you will, but its removal gave the greenlight to Erdogan… neocon or paleoCrusader… to indulge in his own bloodlust.

But it isn’t only the conspiracy theorists tossing conspiracy theories this way and that… taking note of a phone call between Trump and Turkey’s president, noted nj.com we are “suddenly” pulling back U.S. troops to make way for Turkey’s planned invasion to clear the Kurds out of the border zone in Syria.

“It makes you wonder what exactly was said during that phone conversation, too. Trump is an admirer of strongmen, and has a lucrative property in Istanbul, one he’s acknowledged could affect his decision-making.”

Donald Trump has already put his presidency on the line, the Jersey Boys suggested, by acting like Tony Soprano with the leader of Ukraine. Is it possible that the American President is greenlighting the massacre of thousands... including the small, broken children now popping up on our nightly news reports... for personal profit?

“I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump told Breitbart radio during his campaign. “It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two.”

We withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from Ukraine, potentially because Trump wanted the country to dig up some dirt on his 2020 rival, the Jersey Boys recalled before insinuating that POTUS might be playing by Jersey rules. “Are we now allowing Turkey to come in and massacre the Kurds, because of his business interests?”

We don’t know, and that’s the point. We can’t even trust our own president to put America’s interests first. It’s like Trump’s telling take on Saudi Arabia, according to NPR: “They buy apartments from me,” Trump said. “They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”

Until the sudden American pullout from Syria, the case for impeachment against Djonald Unchained had taken a sharp turn with the disclosure of his dirty dealings with Ukraine’s comedian President.

White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone sent a howler of a letter to House Democrats on behalf of the president. It reads like a court order a child might draw up in red crayon: “I won’t eat my spinach because MOMMY YOU ARE SO UNFAIR.” (Los Angeles Times, 10/10, comparing Trump to “O.J. Simpson in his white Bronco, futilely fleeing from an inevitable charge of double murder.”)

Cipollone casts Trump as poor, beleaguered Josef K and his entirely self-made plight as a Kafkaesque horror. Trump’s been denied a proper trial, Cipollone contended. As you know, counselor, any impeachment inquiry is just that — an investigation that is a proper prelude to a trial in the Senate.

Once Cipollone tilted into absurdity by arguing that Trump is being denied due process (he certainly is not) and the whole administration can therefore defy subpoenas (they certainly cannot, on penalty of prison), he had nowhere to go but bolded words, scare quotes and italics. The impeachment process is unprecedented, unfair and never before in our history.

Neither has the L.A. Times been amused about Turkey. “The crude efforts to obstruct this by Trump’s men, from Cipollone to Pompeo to Atty. Gen. William Barr, look eminently civilized compared to what the president himself is doing. Though the shadiness of his interactions with Ukraine and Russia have been amply documented in transcript, text messages, a whistleblower complaint and the report issued by Robert S. Mueller III, Trump is still at it, like a down-and-out gambler groveling before dirty loan sharks.

“Among the sharks is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey... (e)ven the president’s GOP lackeys in Congress expressed horror at this unilateral amplification of the Islamic State threat and betrayal of an ally.

“In more decorous times, when it was still shocking for a politician to have, say, an affair or an off-the-books nanny, Washington PR agencies offered an elegant four-part prescription for crisis management. Tell the truth. Say you’re sorry. Cut your losses. Lick your wounds.

“It’s almost quaint to remember the quiet power of honesty, tactical prioritizing, apology and self-reflection.

“Crisis management now is just one more thing Trump has remade in his own image. He addresses a gathering storm not with the tonic of truth but with the crystal meth of lying and hysteria.”

Whilst fleeing the battlefield, our pusillanimous President did, at least, threaten the Turks with a candybox of sanctions if they committed atrocities against Kurdish civilians. They did and he didn’t – further embarrassing the patriotic masculinity of the Grand Old Party – and even provoking his former lapdog Lindsay Graham to join with Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-Md) in more, and presumably, realer talk about sanctions.

And what was Djonald’s response?

Well, the wicked wizards of Manchester UK cited a Bloomberg exposé of Trump’s pressuring his former, fired secretary of state Rex Tillerson to persuade the Justice Department to drop a case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani; Bloomberg citing three unnamed (and presumably masked) sources familiar with the 2017 meeting. They said…

Tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation of the trader, Reza Zarrab, according to the people. They said other participants in the Oval Office were shocked by the request.

Tillerson immediately repeated his objections to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly in a hallway conversation just outside the Oval Office, emphasizing that the request would be illegal. Neither episode has been previously reported, and all of the people spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the conversations.

Zarrab was being prosecuted in federal court in New York at the time on charges of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. He had hired former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Giuliani, who has said he reached out repeatedly to U.S. officials to seek a diplomatic solution for his client outside the courts.

The president’s request to Tillerson -- which included asking him to speak with Giuliani -- bears the hallmarks of Trump’s governing style, defined by his willingness to sweep aside the customary procedures and constraints of government to pursue matters outside normal channels. Tillerson’s objection came to light as Trump’s dealings with foreign leaders face intense scrutiny following the July 25 call with Ukraine’s president that has sparked an impeachment inquiry in the House.

Beyond impeachment, moreover, there are concrete measures that America can take against Turkish atrocities… admittedly under different leadership… that go far beyond the soggy sanctions presently proposed by President Trump.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail U.K. reported that Donald Trump phoned Recep Tayyip Erdogan and demanded an immediate end to Turkey's invasion of northern Syria, according to Vice President Mike Pence.

“Pence said he was being dispatched 'as quickly as possible' to negotiate a ceasefire after Erdogan's forces stormed into northern Syria, bringing claims of executions by their allies and prompting the U.S.'s former Kurdish allies to turn to Bashar al-Assad for help.

Pence said the president is 'very concerned about instability in the region' but denied that Trump had started it. saying that popular perceptions that he gave Turkey the green light to launch the invasion when he announced a troop pullout was fake news.

'The United States of America simply is not going to tolerate Turkey's invasion in Syria any further. We are calling on Turkey to stand down, end the violence and come to the negotiating table,' Pence told reporters outside the White House. He spoke just over two hours after Trump washed his hands publicly of the Kurds and invited 'Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte' to save them.

“America has its hands full with Iran and will keep on trying to reach an honorable compromise to resume some form of cooperation,” suggests Rapture Forum.

It may be that millions of Americans… perhaps billions, worldwide… will experience an involuntary rapture if a largely unreported disaster of at least the magnitude of the release of ten thousand ISIS maniacs.

The European press has reported that, over the weekend, American State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.

Those weapons, one senior official said, were now essentially Erdogan’s hostages. To fly them out of Incirlik would be to mark the de facto end of the Turkish-American alliance. To keep them there, though, is to perpetuate a nuclear vulnerability that should have been eliminated years ago.

“I think this is a first — a country with U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in it literally firing artillery at US forces,” Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies wrote last week.

For his part, Mr. Erdogan claims nuclear ambitions of his own: Only a month ago, speaking to supporters, he said he “cannot accept” rules that keep Turkey from possessing nuclear weapons of its own.

“There is no developed nation in the world that doesn’t have them,” he said. (In fact, most do not.)

The United States has 180 of these weapons, precision-guided B61-12 nuclear bombs, spread across allied bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Leaving a large number of them at Incirlik could become a deadly security risk in a nation whose artillery have already fired across the border on U.S. military units as they bugged out of Syria.

Pulling them out would signal an end to a military alliance that gives the United States a crucial staging ground for Middle East operations.

On Sunday, the UPI reported that Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that. President Donald Trump has ordered all of the country's troops to withdraw from Syria amid conflicts between Turkey and Kurdish forces,

"It's terrible. It's a terrible situation. We condemn it. We have condemned it," he said on CBS. "It's- these are justice things that we told the Turks would happen and play out. Who's conducting it, it's unclear at this point and time. There are Turkish regular forces and there are Turkish proxy forces."

For his part, POTUS said that it was "very smart" not to be involved in the conflict in Syria, adding that he was working with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other members of Congress about imposing sanctions on Turkey. Graham reportedly vomited.

The toll of refugees hit 200,000 and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the issue was “complicated” and that the Administration was considering “a multi-step process”. Graham’s partner in treason, Sen. Chris van Holland (D-Md) said the final outcome would be up to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Talking heads went on the Sunday talkshows… conservative pundit Guy Benson (TownHall) pointed out that the President did not say Erdogan faced military consequences and bid us remember how we were critical of Barak Obama for not drawing a clearer red line on Syria in the first place.

Charles Lane, a liberal, compared the small American military contingent in Northeast Syria to a trip wire… the death of, as Rand Paul said, one American soldier would justify a strike on Turkey.

For his part, the President tweeted that the U.S. military was “like a police force” and that “anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!”

By yesterday, the Pentagon was contradicting the President – saying that America had secured only two (2!) ISIS prisoners, the so-called “Beetles” responsible for decapitating numerous Westerners, including Americans.

Mnuchin upgraded his warning on sanctions to warn that we were “weighing” them.

And today, after Erdogan said he would not meet with the lowly Vice President Pence, the sanctions were unveiled. While heartbreaking images of dead and wounded children played 24/7 on the fake news media, Djonald Untethered said he would punish Turkey's incursion into Syria “by canceling a $100 billion trade agreement, hiking import tariffs on Turkish steel, and readying economic sanctions against anyone in Erdoğan's government who threatens 'peace, security, or stability' in Syria.” (Daily Mail UK) This eventually was imposed on three (1, 2, 3!) presumably guilty Turks.

The measures were limited to the Turkish defense and energy ministries and three Turkish officials, the ministers of defense, energy and interior security. They block transactions involving any assets they may have in the U.S. financial system and bar U.S. residents and businesses from dealing with them. The U.S. also raised tariffs on Turkish steel exports from 25% back to 50%, where they were in May, and suspended talks over a U.S.-Turkey trade deal.

Given the dominant role that U.S. financial institutions and the dollar play in world commerce, such measures fall far short of what the U.S. could do by targeting Turkey’s banks and their links to the global financial system. Turkey’s currency and stock market both rose Tuesday as investors breathed a sigh of relief that harsher measures were not imposed.

Timothy Ash, emerging market strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, called the sanctions “minimal” and “window dressing,” noting that the trade deal was years off in any case.

Retreating American soldiers seemed unimpressed (see Attachment Eight); one reiterating that 10/8 would “live in infamy”with Pearl Harbor and 9-11.

And… once again... from nj.com...

“This betrayal of the Kurds isn’t just a dishonorable outrage. It has real national security consequences. It undermines our ability to get other allies to fight with us, because they don’t know if we’ll turn on them.

“And it puts us in potential danger. This doesn’t mean we’re quitting Syria altogether, where we still have about 1,000 troops, and bringing Americans home, as Trump has suggested. Right now, we are simply getting out of the way of any Turkish attack.

“If Turkey crushes the Kurds, and the tens of thousands of ISIS fighters they are holding prisoner escape, they could return to being active terrorists who might attack us, particularly our troops still in Syria.

“Meanwhile, we are left to question the motivation behind Trump’s decision. Is this about the lives of Americans and Kurdish people? Or protecting a business partnership with Turkey worth millions to him?

“We shouldn’t have to wonder. Yet until Trump releases all his tax returns, and divests from his global businesses, this will always be an easy way for a foreign official to exert leverage on him – much like he’s accused of doing with Ukraine.

“Thanks to Trump’s personal history of grift, the message to our allies across the globe is clear: The blood you shed for America means nothing. Come back when you’ve got something lucrative to offer him.

As for the potentiality of impeachment: Kicking and screaming seems unlikely to sway the House Democrats who already have documentary evidence that Trump solicited political help from a foreign power. No wonder a majority of Americans, 51% according to a Fox News poll on Wednesday, now want Trump impeached and removed from office.

The question, posited the L.A. Times (10/10, above) is not whether the Democrats will be intimidated by Trump’s grandstanding, but rather how will they enforce the Constitution’s mandate to oversee a rampaging executive branch.

The real question, posited by the Don Jones Index, is whether the House will combine the Ukrainian scandal... which excites the bluestaters but fails to break through Trump’s wall of denial and disinformation... can be packaged in a Bill of Impeachment with the Syrian fiasco, which angers even staunch conservatives in the Senate, the military and voters in the red states.

There are complications involved in taking military action against Erdogan… legal complications. As a member of NATO, Turkey cannot be engaged in conflict by another member – whether America or one of those European softbodies Erdogan promised to flood with ISIS terrorists.

The solution is dog-simple. Any member of NATO may be expelled or suspended… the process for the former is time-gobbling and complicated, and it is clear that the enemies of humanity are not the Turks (certain overzealous child-butchers excepted) but their President, who was elected by a hairsbreadth… just like his patron in Washington.

So, we should call an emergency summit and propose to NATO a vote on suspending Turkey’s membership until they either withdraw from Syria or institute regime change. That accomplished, military action could be taken as needed. (It will be interesting to see how the Congressional spectrum from Bernie Sanders to Mitch McConnell deals with that!)

To be sure, there will be obstacles – even against suspension.

“Turkey does not have to fear being booted out of NATO anytime soon,” was, presumably based upon scripture, the conclusion of Rapture Forum.

“I do note that there is one treaty, duly signed and ratified by the Senate, at play here…” reported TownHall’s conservative reporter Kurt Schlicter. “That’s the NATO treaty under which we agreed to go to war to defend Turkey if attacked. If Erdogan, that thug, were more cunning he would assert Article 5 and demand NATO forces come to Turkey’s defense against the cross-border attacks by the PKK.”

(See Attachment Eleven for other perspectives on NATO)

Finally, seeing as how the Kurds have turned to the Syrian government and Russia for military assistance, further complicating the battlefield (and allowing Putin his scavenger’s pick of valuable and confidential U.S. military equipment abandoned at their bases).

The prospect of enhancing the Syrian government’s position on the battlefield and inviting Russia to get more directly involved is seen by Trump’s critics as a major mistake. But he tweeted that it shouldn’t matter.

“Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other,” he wrote. “Let them!”

Point well taken. And there is a precedent.

In 1936, the Spanish Republic called for volunteer soldiers all across the world to come to the defense of democracy and, in January, 1937, the 17th (later the 58th) battalion of the XV International Brigade, a mixed brigade of the International Brigades also known as Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Spanish: Brigada Abraham Lincoln) was organized. It was formed by a group of volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War as soldiers, technicians, medical personnel and aviators fighting for Spanish Republican forces against the forces of General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist faction. The Lincoln Brigade was the first American military force to include blacks and whites integrated on an equal basis.

They lost the war. Of the approximately 3,015 American volunteers, 681 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness.

Most were political leftists, many were Anarchists or Communists and most Americans either hated or ridiculed them. As Mo Fishman, a veteran of the battalion, recalled in 2006, "Some men were running away from bad marital or love situations, but what united all of us was that we hated fascism." Anti-fascism, more than any other single factor, is what motivated and united the volunteers of the Lincoln Battalion according to Lyden, Jacki. "Spanish Civil War Volunteers Revisit Battlegrounds" National Public Radio, October 8, 2006.

They lost the war. Of the approximately 3,015 American volunteers, 681 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness. Francisco Franco became Dictator for Life. It was not until three years later… and the infamy of December 7, 1941… that we changed our minds.

Might it happen again?

Fifteen Attachments were attached to this Lesson. Access one, some, all or none here.

ATTACHMENT B – from the Don, 191022

There was other news during the week – most of it bad (i.e. self-inflicted) for President Trump. Accordingly, we present our day-to-day…

IMPEACHMENT WATCH

WEDNESDAY Speculators speculate upon whether or not Trump actually watched the debate, or just had somebody tell him what happened. Nonetheless, he tweeted. He tweeted and he tweeted.

THURSDAY Impeacherchers summon Fiona Hill and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland to the cloakroom. Choosing not to recognized that he could hire or fire the latter, Trump called Sondland “inexperienced” (and a few more things).

Defending his daddy, Treasury Secretary Mulvaney told Don Jones that extortion for political dirt happens all the time. “Get over it!” he sneered.

FRIDAY A cease fire, or maybe just a pause, happens. Djonald calls it “a great day for civilization” but critics call it a “sellout”. “Sometimes,” POTUS smirks, “you just have to let them fight like two kids in a locker room.”

Over in Donkeytown, Squadder Ocasio-Cortez endorses the Bern and Hillary Clinton accuses candidate Tulsi Gabbard of being a Russian secret agent. Gabbard tells Hillary to join the race… the most wicked suggestion of the season and proof positive that the Hawaiian isn’t working for Putin but, rather, Satan.

SATURDAY On the invasion, Trump says: “The Kurds are very happy about that,” despite numerous interviews of refugees claiming it’s not so.

He also proposes holding the G-7 summit in his own Mar-a-Lago palace and seems puzzled when mostly everybody, even Republicans, cry “corruption”. Eventually he rescinds the offer and calls the Democrats “unfair”.

SUNDAY Trump detractors and apologists hit the talkshow circuit. “That’s what they said I said, but this is what I said,” Mulvaney said.

That moral pillar of (garlic) salt, Bob Menendez, (D-Mobland) accuses the Secretary of living in “an alternate and parallel universe” (the both!). “All roads lead to Russia and Russia always ends up winning.”

MONDAY A passing parade of snitching Trump flunkies passes through at least three House impeachment committees, dishing more dirt despite it recently being Boss’ Day. Kurds throw rotten potatoes at retreating U.S. soldiers which is unfair – the troops didn’t stab them in the back, our President did.

TODAY More snitches – the Acting Ambassador to England and the former Acting Ambassador to the EU. Acting interim chargé d'affaires Bill Taylor says he was told eight times that there was a quid pro quo in the works and that Rudy G. conjured up “a weird combination of encouraging, confusing, and ultimately alarming circumstances." See his statement here.

Trump cries “lynching” as a new, bulletproof monument to Emmett Till is erected. Even Mitt Romney is disgusted, but Lindsay Graham defends his President… and lynchings.

Pundit Gayle King says “this could be a piddle… a pivotal… day for the Syrians”. Our President uses “unpresidented” for “unprecedented”, wins “bigly” and knows “Tim Apple”. See more and more over the pond, and more. Experts advise that Russian social media hackers can be detected by their bad spelling and grammar.

Two Attachments from the Don (191022)

ATTACHMENT SIX – Adm. McRaven in NYT

OUR REPUBLIC IS UNDER ATTACK FROM THE PRESIDENT

If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office.

By William H. McRaven Oct. 17, 2019

Last week I attended two memorable events that reminded me why we care so very much about this nation and also why our future may be in peril.

The first was a change of command ceremony for a storied Army unit in which one general officer passed authority to another. The second event was an annual gala for the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) Society that recognizes past and present members of the intelligence and Special Operations community for their heroism and sacrifice to the nation. What struck me was the stark contrast between the words and deeds heralded at those events — and the words and deeds emanating from the White House.

On the parade field at Fort Bragg, N.C., where tens of thousands of soldiers have marched either preparing to go to war or returning from it, the two generals, highly decorated, impeccably dressed, cleareyed and strong of character, were humbled by the moment.

They understood the awesome responsibility that the nation had placed on their shoulders. They understood that they had an obligation to serve their soldiers and their soldiers’ families. They believed in the American values for which they had been fighting for the past three decades. They had faith that these values were worth sacrificing everything for — including, if necessary, their lives.

Having served with both officers for the past 20 years, I know that they personified all that is good and decent and honorable about the American military with genuineness of their humility, their uncompromising integrity, their willingness to sacrifice all for a worthy cause, and the pride they had in their soldiers.

Later that week, at the O.S.S. Society dinner, there were films and testimonials to the valor of the men and women who had fought in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. We also celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day, recognizing those brave Americans and allies who sacrificed so much to fight Nazism and fascism. We were reminded that the Greatest Generation went to war because it believed that we were the good guys — that wherever there was oppression, tyranny or despotism, America would be there. We would be there because freedom mattered. We would be there because the world needed us and if not us, then who?

Also that evening we recognized the incredible sacrifice of a new generation of Americans: an Army Special Forces warrant officer who had been wounded three times, the most recent injury costing him his left leg above the knee. He was still in uniform and still serving. There was an intelligence officer, who embodied the remarkable traits of those men and women who had served in the O.S.S. And a retired Marine general, whose 40 years of service demonstrated all that was honorable about the Corps and public service.

But the most poignant recognition that evening was for a young female sailor who had been killed in Syria serving alongside our allies in the fight against ISIS. Her husband, a former Army Green Beret, accepted the award on her behalf. Like so many that came before her, she had answered the nation’s call and willingly put her life in harm’s way.

For everyone who ever served in uniform, or in the intelligence community, for those diplomats who voice the nation’s principles, for the first responders, for the tellers of truth and the millions of American citizens who were raised believing in American values — you would have seen your reflection in the faces of those we honored last week.

But, beneath the outward sense of hope and duty that I witnessed at these two events, there was an underlying current of frustration, humiliation, anger and fear that echoed across the sidelines. The America that they believed in was under attack, not from without, but from within.

These men and women, of all political persuasions, have seen the assaults on our institutions: on the intelligence and law enforcement community, the State Department and the press. They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own. They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, “I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!”

Those words echoed with me throughout the week. It is easy to destroy an organization if you have no appreciation for what makes that organization great. We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. We are the most powerful nation in the world because our ideals of universal freedom and equality have been backed up by our belief that we were champions of justice, the protectors of the less fortunate.

But, if we don’t care about our values, if we don’t care about duty and honor, if we don’t help the weak and stand up against oppression and injustice — what will happen to the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?

If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don’t join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?

President Trump seems to believe that these qualities are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong. These are the virtues that have sustained this nation for the past 243 years. If we hope to continue to lead the world and inspire a new generation of young men and women to our cause, then we must embrace these values now more than ever.

And if this president doesn’t understand their importance, if this president doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better. The fate of our Republic depends upon it.

William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, is a former commander of the United States Special Operations Command and former chancellor of the University of Texas system.

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – Gen. Mattis in WashPost

‘I earned my spurs on the battlefield’: Mattis jabbed Trump. Critics say he hasn’t gone far enough.

By Katie Shepherd October 18

For the last year, former defense secretary Jim Mattis has taken heat for his reluctance to directly criticize President Trump, especially after he resigned from the position in protest last December. The celebrated Marine Corps general has consistently demurred when asked to rebuke Trump’s foreign relations or military decisions.

For one night at least, on Thursday, Mattis dropped that tendency as he saturated a comedic keynote address with direct jabs at Trump, who earlier this week called his former Cabinet official “the world’s most overrated general.”

“I’m honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,” Mattis said in his keynote speech at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York. “So, I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals.”

"I’m not just an overrated general. I’m the most overrated general," Mattis says. "I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me."

When Mattis stepped down, the former defense secretary, who sparred with Trump over military actions between 2016 and 2018, said the president deserved to have someone “whose views are better aligned” in his Cabinet. On Sunday, Mattis offered words of caution regarding Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria during an interview on “Meet the Press,” warning that the Islamic State would “resurge” without military pressure in the region.

The president did not appreciate the general airing those concerns publicly.

“You know why?” Trump told lawmakers Wednesday. “He wasn’t tough enough. I captured ISIS. Mattis said it would take two years. I captured them in one month.”

On Thursday evening, Mattis didn’t stop at responding to the president’s recent barb. He also teased Trump for dodging the draft for the Vietnam War because of the “bone spurs” that the president has said he had in both of his heels.

“I earned my spurs on the battlefield,” Mattis said. “Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor.”

Mattis also mocked the president’s love of fast food.

“I think the only person in the military that Mr. Trump doesn’t think is overrated,” the general said, “is Colonel Sanders.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment about Mattis’s remarks.

Several high-profile politicians at the dinner, a charity event known for comedic roasts, saluted Mattis’s flippant speech. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted a photo of himself chatting with the general after the event.

“While [Trump] was having another rally, it was great to catch up with General Mattis — the Meryl Streep of Generals,” he wrote.

But for other observers, Mattis’s zingers drew attention to the military officer’s reticence to substantively criticize the president.

“I know he’s speaking at a dinner meant for jokes, but this is just an absurd and undignified way for Mattis to make his first public critiques of the president,” Susan Hennessey, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and executive editor of the Lawfare blog, said in a tweet Thursday. “After indefensible silence, this will surely undercut the gravity of any future words he might have on the subject.”

Thomas M. Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, said he did not think the speech was an occasion for laughter.

“I don’t think anyone should be chuckling at Mattis’s brush off of Trump’s insult,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s his facile way of dodging the reality that he knows a lot about what happened in this White House, including what are now obviously impeachable acts directly related to his time as SECDEF.”

Critics contrasted Mattis’s jokes with an op-ed penned by retired Navy Adm. William H. McRaven in the New York Times on Thursday, which sharply rebuked the president. Titled “Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President,” the Navy officer’s piece slammed Trump for abandoning the Kurdish soldiers who fought in Syria as America’s allies. “He is wrong,” McRaven wrote.

Mattis has defended his decision to keep his personal beliefs about the Trump administration private.

“If you leave an administration, you owe some silence,” he told the Atlantic in an interview first published in August. “When you leave an administration over clear policy differences, you need to give the people who are still there as much opportunity as possible to defend the country. They still have the responsibility of protecting this great big experiment of ours.”

The general cut ties with Trump in December 2018 over disagreements about how the U.S. should treat its foreign allies and adversaries.

“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Since leaving Trump’s Cabinet, the former defense secretary has remained mostly mum on U.S. foreign and military policy. Even in his recently released memoir, “Call Sign Chaos,” the military leader refrains from discussing much of his time within the Trump administration. Mattis has hinted that one day he may speak out against Trump’s policy decisions more directly, saying he does not owe the president his silence “forever.”

Some wondered Thursday evening if his jokes were a harbinger more substantive criticisms. To laughter and applause, Mattis struck another comedic blow at the dinner, this time emphasizing his own illustrious military career.

“You do have to admit,” he said, “between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.”