Sunday, August 22

"Sir, we are unfamiliar with these flight routes, the rebel armies below have shoulder-armed surface-to-air missles...

 "We Respectfully Refuse", on behalf of our civilian pilots, stockholders and employees.

Afghanistan Updates

 It's a Mission Impossible, airlifting Afghanistan to .... where?  The flights slowed, then stopped on Friday because the Refugee Camps in Quatar were full.  Processing pens, where people need to be fed, diapers changed, women given facilities, etc.  The plane lift out is simply the first step...

To what?  Where will they go? Who are they?  How can the world mobilize the necessary resources to treat this new refugee class in pandemic times?  Winter is coming in the North Western Hemisphere.  Afghanistan is a different climate.  The answer is to airlift everyone out, honestly?

I hope Sec. Lloyd Austin (who?) has the brains and backbone to veto the above order, even if he allegedly has the power under a 1952 federal law.  This is nutsy, if I am reading correctly...

Lloyd James Austin III (born August 8, 1953) is an American retired United States Army four-star general serving as the 28th United States secretary of defense since January 22, 2021. He is the first African American to serve as the United States

Jesus Lord. We are putting on this man the responsibility of drawing private American airliners -- recently benefitting from the bailout business -- into our War on Terror fight in Afghanistan, which sounds like it is escalating by the hour?  Again, if the Taliban is even moderately armed, and there is a chance of losing on US service member life, this is not worth it.

Accelerate the timeline. Begin planning to withdraw 100percent of US and NATO troops now (tell them we are leaving, Joe).  No way can we "extend the perimeter" or "evacuate all those friends who helped us,  who desire it...".

GET OUT.   This is the stuff nightmares are made of...

How Many More Days Until We Start a Countdown to September 11?  Closer and closer it creeps...  (Benghazi, remember?)

Even if you just care about the climate, we are going to set the world on fire over there if  we can't cut our losses, accept defeat, and respect what we are leaving behind to govern as they see fit.  It's not our land, our war, our culture, our people even.  *US citizens remaining knew they were living in a warzone and chose to stay for the past 20 years.   

--------

Reality Check:

Khalida Popal, a founder and former captain of Afghanistan’s women’s national team, knows she is privileged to live with her mother and father in Denmark, a place of safety and freedom. Although threats of violence and messages of hate still reach her there, Popal will not be silent.

Yet, silence is what she urges of the soccer-playing girls and young women now under Taliban rule. Burn the jerseys you wore with such pride, she begs them. Take down your photos. Destroy all evidence that you ever played. Disappear in every way possible.