For years we have tuned into PBS on Fridays just to watch and listen to the Brooks & Shields world and political commentary. Then, Mark Shields retired ,his place was taken by Capeheart, who I liked...except for last week when he blasted Biden on the Afghanistan Crisis..and yet contradicted himself and admitted this week that; "So, the withdrawal hasn't gone very well. But withdrawing from a war that you weren't winning, that you lost, to expect it to go well, I think, is to be overly idealistic. "
Two nights ago, we tuned in again and this just about broke my heart. I never guessed that David Brooks was a neocon hawk, but now I know. Fortunately, before anyone could shoot themselves in the foot again,the subjects of GOP racism, the January 6th riot and voting rights were next, although not in great detail.
Full video on PBS link:
~ From PBS:
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Amna Nawaz:
David what a week. What a week. We saw all the highs, heroic efforts, over 100,000 people evacuated, the deadly attacks punctuating this week in Kabul. The president has to deliver remarks to the American public after the loss of 13 service members' lives.
What do you make of how he is handling this moment in his presidency?
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David Brooks:
I think very poorly.
I thought the decision to leave was a mistake. I thought we had achieved some level of stability, and we could manage the problem. And I think we just invited the downfall.
And the sad thing to me is, one of the good things that has happened in the Middle East over the last several years is that people have taken a look at the Taliban, and they hate it. A survey of 11 countries, Muslim countries, only 13 percent of positive views about the Taliban.
In country after country, people are sickening of religious theocracy, because they just find it doesn't work. And that's in Iran. That's across the region. And so, at a time when liberal democracy is beginning to have a little momentum, and theocracy is taking some blows, we now have a period where we're seen to be brutally abandoning Muslims, not living up to our allies, betraying our — the people who helped us.
And we're doing it in the most shambolic way. And so I think a lot of people take a look at this week, and, certainly, a lot of the people I have been reading think it's — this is what national decline looks like."
~~~~~
What would Mark Shields have said and why am I a forever fan of his? Here are a couple of clues:
1. Mark Shields Column: Try To Remember - 01/10/2020
2. Shields: Afghanistan and Iraq: When Will We ever Learn? - Nov.25, 2020
~~~~~
Even Mitt Romney is getting into the act. Regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal:
"Leaving Americans behind and leaving our Afghan friends behind who've worked with us would put upon us and will put upon us a moral stain," the Utah Republican told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" when asked if US troops should remain in the country following Tuesday's withdrawal deadline to ensure that all US citizens, legal permanent residents and Afghan allies are evacuated."This did not have to happen. It was preventable," added Romney. "We didn't have to be in this rush-rush circumstance with terrorists breathing down our neck. But it's really the responsibility of the prior administration and this administration that has caused this crisis to be upon us."The question remains how would Mitt have handed it differently?" He does not say, and according to the same article:"National security adviser Jake Sullivan told Tapper in a separate interview Sunday on "State of the Union" that the administration is committed to "safe passage" of Americans and Afghans who helped the US government after the withdrawal deadline, saying, "After August 31st, we believe that we have substantial leverage to hold the Taliban to its commitments to allow safe passage for American citizens, legal permanent residents and the Afghan allies who have travel documentation to come to the United States."~~~~~But of course, the biggest and most foul criticisms of Joe Biden are coming from the loudmouthed liar Trump - and you have to read the comments on this one, terrific:
Comments on the link after the report:~ From the Washington Post:"Former president Donald Trump — about two weeks before the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 — downplayed the threat Osama bin Laden posed to the United States, falsely claiming the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, which carried out the terrorist attacks, had just “one hit.” He also said his administration killed “bigger” terrorists.
As the United States grapples with its withdrawal from Afghanistan, where it launched a near-20-year war in response to the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, Trump appeared on a conservative radio talk show hosted by Hugh Hewitt. The call took place the same day 13 U.S. troops were killed in bombings at the Kabul airport. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the Afghanistan and Pakistan arm of the Islamic State, has taken credit for the attack.
Trump boasted about a 2019 raid that took out the terrorist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, along with a 2020 airstrike that killed prominent Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani. Both leaders, Trump told Hewitt on Thursday, were “bigger by many, many times” than bin Laden.
“Osama bin Laden had one hit, and it was a bad one, in New York City, the World Trade Center,” Trump said. “But these other two guys were monsters. They were monsters.”
In actuality, bin Laden, considered by counterterrorism experts to be among the most dangerous terrorists in history, was responsible for more than one attack on Americans.
“Virtually every counterterrorism expert in the Western world would consider Osama bin Laden one of the most dangerous terrorists, whose actions went far beyond 9/11,” said Thomas Warrick, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank.
The Obama administration found and killed bin Laden in 2011. Warrick, who served as deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy at the Department of Homeland Security under both Barack Obama and Trump, said Trump’s comments were “completely incorrect.” Trump, Warrick added, was trying to “justify his actions and … diminish the accomplishments of President Obama.”
Baghdadi was killed in a risky October 2019 military raid in northwest Syria when he detonated a suicide belt. Trump later boasted that Baghdadi died like a “dog.” The terrorist group remains active.
In January 2020, the Trump administration ordered an airstrike that killed Soleimani outside an airport in Baghdad — a move that dramatically escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. Soleimani led Iran’s Quds Force, which backed militias in Iraq fighting U.S. troops. The group also took part in a plot to kill a Saudi diplomat at a Washington restaurant.
Since the Taliban rapidly overtook Afghanistan this month, prompting a fraught evacuation process for U.S. citizens and allies, Trump has sent out several statements bashing President Biden’s handling of the withdrawal. On Hewitt’s show, Trump called the evacuation “the most embarrassing moment for our military and for our country.”
Trump also appeared Thursday night on Fox News and told host Sean Hannity that the Kabul airport attacks “would not have happened if I was your president.”
~~~~~
So, let's do a little fact checkin'...
1. ~ From Fact Check.org:
Even David Brooks made this statement, and we have been reading and hearing it from the far right GOP for over a week:
Instagram Post Wrong On U.S. Casualties In Afghanistan
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