IS IT THE WITHDRAWAL OR THE AFGHANISTAN WAR THAT SHOULD ANGER YOU?

SUNDAY MORNING JOE Tweets

"Please don't embarrass yourself by comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam"

Osama Bin Laden leads a Saudi-U.S backed Mujahideen fighters against Russian forces (1988) Russia eventually withdrew. 13 years later US Coalition began our own invasion

Our Foreign Policy Only Leads To Endless Wars Destined To Fail 

Joe Scarborough shares his view and he may be right. Some Americans are outraged by the recent tragedies taking place in Kabul as our military left and forced to return. The fall of Afghanistan in nine days came as a "surprise" to the White House. "The buck stops here" Biden tells our military, American citizens and loyal Afghans left on the tarmac. 

The White House and the Pentagon claim they did not foresee the total collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban. In a matter of hours cables from our foreign intelligence sent in July warned of just the opposite. Twenty years of war and propping up the Afghan defense proved once again this endless war was predestined to fail. 

Lessons of Vietnam Escapes Military Intelligence 

Morning Joe warns there is no comparison to fall of Saigon in 1975 when South Vietnam government and military capitulated to Hanoi. It was more than a hasty retreat as Vietnam's military exposed America's intervention on every level. The failure to fight and defend directly contradicted every word spoken by Robert McNamara and Lyndon Johnson.

Later the Pentagon Papers became public and we learned that 50,000 dead and 500,000 troops who served with a loyalty to a White House and a Defense Department for 14 years. Worse, our occupation amounted to nothing more than defending "pride" not democratic will.

A Rocky Road to Kabul and a Pitted Path to a Tarmac

The failure by our intelligence agencies to form and exercise a simple but competent transition for what they knew would come is unconscionable and there are many to blame. The question is how in hell does it happen that our military did not pay any attention, learn a lesson and totally dismiss history? Is it the outrage of the worst terrorist attack on 9/11 partly to blame? 

Looking back it seems obviously that George W. Bush and Dick Chaney rushed to target the treacherous landscape to oust  Al Qaeda from the earth. They stirred the public through hate where we witnessed record numbers of volunteers who willingly signed on to utterly destroy terrorism without full our knowledge their oath to defend freedom would be in vain. Sorry, but this rather haphazard reaction was doomed. It does have a macabre irony to Vietnam.

From that terrible day in September, 2001 the American media especially television began an educational plan for citizens. We all came to know Osama Bin Laden, his privilege, his leadership in ousting Russia from Afghanistan and his war by terror known as Al Qaeda. What few Americans knew in 2012 when the fighting was in full swing is that another hideous group was ravaging the rocky terrain, the Taliban. We witnessed in real time (like Vietnam) the Taliban ruling by strict Islamic code and biblical inhuman acts of murder. Afghan women and girls were held to outrageous standards of injustice and suffered unspeakable acts of punishment for the smallest infraction. 

At the outset our military made reportedly great strides in pushing the Taliban underground or exiled to Pakistan. A country portrayed as an ally in pursuit of American foreign policy.

Americans viewed the painstaking victories when young girls went to school for the first time. Women began to unveil independence and a genuine will to pursue activities and careers outside the home. The advances by women became part of the norm and today it is ironic that young girls and women never knew of the atrocities handed down by the Taliban.

Contradictions in Intelligence and Incomprehensive Judgment 

If we were to look back and finger a specific point in this war it can only be through a self-serving hindsight to rewrite the course of events. But, did military glimpse any path out before we became hopeless committed? As of now we do not know. However, did our intelligence dictate we hold on because they knew that a withdrawal spells doom? If they could foresee that 10,15 or 20 years ago, why do they plead a lack of intelligence in predicting the tragedy unfolding today?

Pride Prevails Over Boots on the Ground Intel

Malcolm Nance, retired CIA Intelligence, Middle East expert, and author recently tweeted that the current action plan for evacuation is credible and working to this point. He is confident that U.S. and our Allies will be successful barring any new interference by the Taliban. He pointed out that this undertaking is largest airlift since Berlin.

I have followed Nance for quite some time as a MSNBC analyst and I have no reason to doubt his assessment. But, before his tweet, a question came to mind. He spent a decade or more conducting covert operations utilizing many assets to provide intel on all the terrorist and any enemy group to America. 

Based on my own 33 years of experience working for the State of Michigan I was pressured, intimidated and discounted. Of course my knowledge is nowhere near national threats. The path I pursued was to address urgent problems touching several departments. My staff were responsible to "invent" procedures and execute emergency execution to evacuate adults from long-term care facilities i.e. nursing homes, homes for the aged and adult foster care where the residents were at risk due to abuse, staffing shortages and violations cited by licensing and regulations mandated by the State of Michigan and endangerment by events such as the covid pandemic. We relocated residents to "safe" locations. We consistently felt the pressure of Central Office Department heads in Lansing as well as those who surveyed the violations. 

What followed is that local executives distanced themselves from the process at all cost but constantly demanded updates of replacements, detailed data as to the progress. I need to point out that none of the Central Office and County executives had no experience and did not or refused to involve themselves. They placed all accountability on me as the first line manager. What became clear that the executive staff left us to our own devices. If any urgent issues arised or our process began to waiver they had myself and a limited staff to blame. Whenever they brain stormed and came up with their own protocol to interject the input only jeopardized our operation. 

The point is that my staff chose to ignore for the most part their intervention. We adopted the approach where "I prefer to take action and ask for approval later." When we triumphed over chaos we received some praise for our execution, expertise and that we exceeded all expectations to keep lives safe. These affirmations always came from Health and Medicare officials. Within the layer of bureaucratic chain of command the executives "in charge" sought to find flaws. There idiotic demands for justification of our action only complicated and endangered the orderly evacuation and replacement. 

When one assesses the scope and danger of the Afghanistan plans for withdrawal emergency does not compare. However, the planning and execution of emergency evacuation are similar. I feel confident that the boots on the ground faced the same intelligence issues. What is critical is that we went further to look at the causes and make recommendations to establish "best practice" protocols to avoid the crisis in the future. Executives summarily dismissed our organized plan to negate future crises. My take is that failure to act was due to a perceived threat to their positions because it only exposed their incompetence. 

The Lessons Going Forward

Those who hold positions of authority should put aside their pride and follow new "culture" they espoused. They pushed to empower the rank and file. This approach was abandoned. 

When the Afghanistan airlift is complete all of the intel and the solutions they come to conclude will be buried from the White House and Congress. Failures in the evacuation such as unnecessary deaths will never be released to the press and public. There is little doubt Congress will go forward conducting hearings and investigate folly and failure. The investigation will end without enacting policies to avoid in the future. It defies logic the Pentagon pursues intervention under the guise of "nation building" ignoring the lessons of History. There is a long list of countries making the same mistakes over and over. 

We supported warlords and even Al Qaeda to repel Russian occupation only to go done the same path. When our intervention began history held a warning. Alexander the Great and his armies conquered much of the known world and created an empire. When Alexander reached the mountains and surveyed the terrain of Afghanistan he realized an invasion was inconceivable. Alexander turned around and left Afghanistan for adventurists in the future.

Map of Alexander's Empire with roundabout at Afghan border. What's changed in 2300 years? Not much