We're All to Blame For Afghanistan
Plus, a New GCV Initiative
When we started GCV, my BFF
asked one thing in return: that I stop talking so much. Wait. That’s the lovely Charity. Kate, instead, asked to launch a support group for moral injury.With the unwavering support of the team, we’re THRILLED to say we’ve made it happen. In partnership with Rebekah Edmondson and Give an Hour, we are sponsoring a year-long virtual support group for veterans and servicemembers dealing with moral injury.
Sessions are held once per month and will engage both guest speakers and open discussion. The full calendar is included in the link below.
The group will be limited to 20 participants to ensure continuity of community. Please note that in submitting your application, you are agreeing to attend nine of the 12 sessions.
The application period is now OPEN. Please send completed documents to gcv.friends@gmail.com by Wednesday, August 14.
Participation is FREE, and we offer many opportunities (including publications on the GCV+F account) to sweeten the deal.
So please: push this program out as far and wide as possible. Those struggling with moral injury deserve support, and we’re here to offer it.
Here is the link to the application.
Who’s to Blame for Afghanistan?
Four administrations share the blame for Afghanistan: two Republicans (W and Trump) and two Democrats (Obama and Biden). However, any time we write about one particular president’s abysmal performance, someone is quick to jump out from the bushes and bark that we’re being too partisan in our approach. I find this to be completely absurd, but it is also a sad indictment of our partisan times.
So let me spell this out (again) for those who think I blame W, Obama, Trump, or Biden too much.
If I had to rank who is the most to blame for our abysmal performance in Afghanistan, this is it:
Obama - he surged American forces into the ‘Stan and then simultaneously announced we would be leaving in a few years, all but ensuring that the Taliban would survive the onslaught from their sanctuary in Pakistan.
W - Obama and W are interchangeable, IMO. But, W was the only POTUS who truly wanted to win in Afghanistan. Regardless, he put far too much trust in Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and didn’t put enough weight into building an Afghan National Army.
Trump - he signed the Doha surrender agreement, which not only excluded our Afghan allies but also prevented them from conducting offensive operations. But hey, they were allowed to do “active defense” - a term that only the DoD could devise.
Biden -Yes, the NEO was an operational success, but the world saw Afghans literally falling from American planes as we left them behind. While
BidenBliknen has continued working to get some of our allies out, he’s also legitimized the Taliban by continuing the facade known as Doha 3.
Look, I understand that this is an election year. We all want our preferred candidate to win, and both Trump and Biden have made—and will continue to make—numerous mistakes in Afghanistan. Instead of playing pin the blame on the senior citizen, perhaps we should focus our attention on the role the military played in this disaster. In the end, it was the military strategy that failed miserably in Afghanistan. And until we rectify that situation, we all but ensure that more Americans will get smoked in a remote battlefield in the not-too-distant future.
Israelis
Day 2 in Zion went very well. I jogged a 6-mile route through the streets of Jerusalem, spoke with a retired IDF general, and toured the Menachem Begin museum—Zionist heaven.
While Zion is in a state of mourning, one thing hasn’t changed: Israelis are still assholes. Now, this really doesn’t bother me. In fact, I kinda dig it. And I don’t blame them much.
Nevertheless, if you’re thinking of traveling to Israel—and you absolutely should—but are banking on a warm embrace from our Israeli counterparts, then you’re going to be disappointed.
This 2018 article is gold, Jerry. Gold!
This tendency to engage in behavior that would be considered rude elsewhere extends to other aspects of Israeli life. It is not unheard of to be boarding a bus and watch ticketed passengers duck under the arms of a rider who had the temerity to slow them down by paying the driver in cash. Or to be approached by random strangers who begin asking why you immigrated, how many children you have and how much you earn.
On Israeli roads, a turn signal is not a sign of intent but of weakness.
The Israelis’ reputation as a rude, abrasive or merely boundary-less people has made its way around the world — surviving even its new incarnation as “start-up nation.” Famously, in 2015, the tech firm Intel presented its employees with a guide to working with Israelis that warned them to “expect to be cut off regularly” and that “visitors are often taken aback by the tone or loudness of the discussion.”
Read the whole thing.
Until Next Time
"In the end, it was the military strategy that failed miserably in Afghanistan."
Big Army took over. Big Army is good at many things, fighting a Guerrilla War Ain't one of them. Reminds me of Vietnam.
It's almost like the brass, from the CIC down, have no idea what they're doing!