More on Afghanistan

The following was a “comment” in response to Heather Cox Richardson’s latest newsletter (8/18/21).

It was written by Linda Mitchell, “a Professor of medieval history, feminist, ally and supporter of causes of right, equity, and justice.”

She addresses several issues that personally, I had not considered — primarily because, as a rule, I pay minimal attention to happenings in other countries until they become, as Afghanistan has done, “newsworthy.”

In any case, from what I’ve read so far in various news and “opinion” sources, I found Linda’s outlook spot-on.

1. The US military establishment lied and lied and lied when they talked about the combat readiness of the Afghan army. They have done so for 20 years. They even admitted that they lied a number of times when pressed. Their motive in lying was to present the military trainers as competent, when they were not. If this sounds familiar to those of us who lived through the Vietnam era, well, there you go.

2. There is not a single US administration that behaved proactively in Afghanistan. There has not been a single congressional “class” that has behaved proactively in Afghanistan. Plenty of academics–from historians to economists, to anthropologists, to sociologists–have been saying over the last 40 years that the West’s way of dealing with Afghanistan was going to fail and was wrongheaded from the start. But the last 20 years has also seen the dumbing down of the federal government, the glorification of ignorance and prejudice and jingoistic idiocy. So the people who actually had a clue were ignored or vilified. QED.

3. If the people of Afghanistan had cared about the pro-Western cultural institutions that western money propped up in their country–education and rights for women, a government elected through a democratic and transparent process, an economy based on capitalism–they would have embraced this idea beyond the few elites and the dedicated female teachers of girls and women. But they did not. Because Afghanistan is not a country. It is a delegation of provinces with intimate and historical ties to traditions we dismissed and ignored. We did not make them care about women and girls. THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT WOMEN AND GIRLS. The hollering going on now about “how do we save the women and girls” is laughable because the people who should have been asking those questions are the ones who embraced TFG’s jingoistic and autocratic foreign policy, who are determined to police women’s bodies and criminalize women’s bodily autonomy in the USA, who claim religious exceptionalism, who say NOTHING about the abuse of women and girls in their favorite countries, like Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda came from. They are our Taliban: they just wear suits and talk about the “rights of the unborn,” and claim that their militant death-cult brand of Christianity is the “true” one. And they are winning here in the USA: take a look at the judicial decision to ban certain abortions in TX.

3. We had the chance to do the ONE THING that would have broken the economic back of the Taliban: stop the growing of opium poppies and the opium trade–the market for which is THE WEST–and replace it with well-constructed, carefully planned alternatives that the people in the south and west of the country (where poppies are grown) could manage THEMSELVES. We did not consult with the people whose lives were at risk if they did not grow opium. We did not ask them what THEY wanted to do, what THEY wanted to grow. We just went in and behaved like the boorish mo****f***ers we are and claimed to know better. We did not.

4. Why are all media outlets losing their s*** trying to blame SOMEONE for this horror show? Because they think it will help their ratings. Because as institutions the commercial media are all idiots and ignoramuses, led by suits who like their corporate bonuses no matter their political stripes. Because the last person in the room is the one they blame. Why don’t they instead do something useful, like re-animate the pages from the RNC website that praised TFG’s “brilliant and groundbreaking deal” with the Taliban? Which they scrubbed as soon as the debacle occurred.

I could go on but I won’t. Sorry for my rant of the day. I admit that I don’t understand why anyone is surprised by any of this.

As always, your reactions/opinions/disagreements are welcome — so long as you don’t go off-topic or become insulting of others’ viewpoints.

A Look at “American Values”

The following post was written by an individual whose writings I have shared in the past. In this instance, I decided not to just “reblog” since only a portion of his thoughts would be shown here — and this time I wanted to be sure visitors read the entire post. 

The writer has chosen to remain anonymous and goes by the handle of “Ends and Beginnings.” Regular readers may remember him — or may even be a subscriber to his blog themselves.

In any case, I look forward to your reactions and comments related to his perspective on the Afghanistan situation.  

The vast majority of the western world has learned its history and formed its opinions of the Middle East from a book of fables, the Bible and Hollywood movies. You see, Charlton Heston really isn’t Moses and Elizabeth Taylor isn’t Cleopatra. And the illustrations in our picture Bibles growing-up as kids of Arab men, looking more white than brown, with long beards, flowing robes, and living in silk tents with camels in the desert isn’t the whole story.

We, Anglo-Christians, manufactured this history because of Jesus and for the last 100 years or so Americans have tried to mold a region and a people into a vision that we created, a vision that is false and a fantasy. Towns, cities, community, and commerce have been a reality of the Middle East long before the idea of an America was even a dream. We, the Western world, treated the Middle East like they are some backwoods, bum fucks, living in the hills of the Smoky Mountains. That without us, our smarts, our religion, our democracy, they would just be eating sand and herding goats. Obviously, the Middle East, for the most part, has progressed a little beyond that, check out the skyline of Dubai for instance, but Americans simply can’t let go of those images or the need to be thanked for bringing them into the 21^st Century.      

I am not a Middle East expert, but I have spent a considerable amount of time reading about the history and the conflicts, particularly the American conflicts. What I have concluded is this, our “issues” in the Middle East can be boiled down to two matters, oil, and Israel. Everything else is ignorance and noise on our part.

The oil rush in the Middle East began in the early 1920’s and 30’s thanks to Henry Ford. The United States and Great Britain staked claims, literally this is your country, and this is ours, bringing workers, technology and greed to a world that had happily existed without our intrusions, our values, and our religious beliefs for centuries. As Americans are known to do, we raped and pillaged the resources paying pennies on the dollars to sultans, kings and tribal leaders making them wealthy while the everyday common Omar and his family got nothing. Unfortunately, mister common Omar became a problem and continues to be a problem even today.

Israel became a point of conflict in the 1940’s and 50’s when the Christian world decided they were going to take it upon themselves and enforce God’s edict to Abraham that “Unto thy seed have I given this land”. The problem with this “transaction” was and continues to be that Abraham’s “Seed” includes both the Jews and the Muslims and to a lesser extent the Christians, but that tidbit of history didn’t fit in the Judeo-Christian narrative then or today.    

What we, Americans, have done is support the Jews supposed rights to Israel and eliminated and erased any rights the Muslims have or had all in the name of Jesus. The Evangelical thinking is, and continues to be without a nation of Israel how or where will Jesus return?

We have spent 20 years and billions of dollars in Afghanistan defending what? According to Lindsey Graham 9/11. He contends that the blood we have shed and the dollars we have expended are to avenge and prevent another 9/11 from occurring. I think if we all dug a little deeper into the reelection bank accounts of war hawks like Graham, we would find out why endless, unwinnable wars are so important to them. Campaign contributions from the manufactures of guns, tanks, and bombers.

Graham has never had a solution nor offered a way out of the war in Afghanistan, but doesn’t he sound righteous on Fox News throwing everyone else under the bus? To date, 2,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and over 20,000 have been injured. For what, so we can Americanize the Afghan people? Introduce them to Jesus, McDonalds, and Walmart?

It is well past the time that we quit forcing our values, or politics and our religion down the throats of others. 9/11 happened because mister Omar wanted to get our attention. He wanted us to know that he has had enough of our continued support and bloody defense of Israel and that the Persian Gulf War was not our war to fight. It is high time we acknowledge his concerns.  

Afghanistan

I know some of you have strong opinions about the recent actions in Afghanistan initiated by Biden, the current POTUS. Some see the action as beneficial in the long run. Others? Not so much.

For myself, I tend to agree with Heather Cox Richardson’s perspective on the issue as she has laid out in her most recent newsletter. I particularly liked the pointed questions she asks related to “America’s interest to fight a ground war.”

As noted in various news reports, the U.S. withdrawal has allowed the Taliban to aggressively move back into Afghanistan — and this has caused some to express concerns about the Afghanistan women and how they are going to lose the independence they gained during the U.S. presence.  However, IMO, Heather addresses this issue rather well towards the end of her newsletter when she writes about the ”fate of Afghanistan’s women and girls.” 

While I know many of you are subscribers and have probably already read Heather’s commentary, for those who are not familiar with her writings, I urge you to take a few moments and click on the link.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts and opinions. All I ask is “stay on topic” and “be nice.” 🙂

P.S. I thought her last paragraph was a Zinger (!) — and a perfect way to end her commentary.

Re: Covid Deniers

Will Rogers said it best:

“When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.”

The Cost of COVID-19

In my last post, I urged people to wear masks to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (especially the Delta variant). What I failed to mention to those who resist masks (and/or vaccinations) is the COST of the virus.

Several reports have indicated that the recent Delta variant doubles the risk of hospital admission.

And in case you’re unaware …. hospital stays involve beaucoup bucks.

In fact, according to my online research, hospitalization costs for COVID-19 patients from 21-40, without insurance, averaged about $68,261. For people from 41-60, this increased to $78,569. Fortunately for the folks who have Medicare, the costs are considerably less, but since many depend primarily on Social Security, their finances suffer as well.

Yes, many people have insurance through their employers and that will definitely help with medical costs. BUT … there are also scores of people who are currently unemployed because of the virus and thus are bereft of any insurance.

As I indicated in one of my previous posts, I recently had a brief (3 days) hospital stay (not COVID-related). My hospital-only costs were around $26,000. OTHER costs (the procedure itself, various doctors involved, lab tests, etc.) brought the total up to around $35,000. Fortunately, with Medicare, this amount was significantly reduced and thankfully, I had some savings.

 Now consider that the average hospital stay for COVID-19 for all ages is 22.4 days — just over three weeks. (I will leave it to each reader to calculate cost.)

So go ahead. Leave off your mask! Reject the vaccine!

Just be sure you have the finances available when your declared independence comes back to haunt you.

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Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay