Taliban’s Vengeance: U.S. Graves Built on Sand and Blood  

Indefensible of President Joe Biden to give the order that led to the death of thirteen slain Warriors and fatal fate of Afghan soldiers, men, women and children.

Great Kings, Commanders and Generals – Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, nor Sun Tzu would have commanded such an order, Afghanistan – U.S. ‘Army of Lions Led by a Sheep’

~~~

At about the age of five, climbing “my tree” had been what I saw as my life-long challenge, each time hoping to reach the top. Stretching as far as I could reach for the branch that would pull me closer, but no not today.

Walking in my neighborhood, I came across the stumps of what were once beautiful fruit trees.  Seeing its circles, I later learned these were its year rings. Saddened by what I thought was a short life I learned to value my beautiful fruit tree. Realizing that a tree’s life is not endless, I took a more heartened approach in pushing myself to reach the top.

Victory came! Reaching the top, my heart beating, I recall saying, today I reached the top at the age of six. Soon after, my parents decided to move. That’s when I learned that timing matters. As to the tree, I learned that life is short.

I was glad to climb it before it was cut down and became a stump. Learning the stump was overlooked and not disturbed, I found a perfect hiding place for my secret toys.

As a child, I caught a glimpse of life’s brutality and mendacity of men. As an adult, I learned of governments and man and his “state of nature.” It is in my nature to intelligently deal with the instabilities of life. Thus, it is in my nature to bestow no mercy upon the beasts of past and present.

“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.”  – Shakespeare

Hard to imagine the tragedy unfold? Appears liken to a hornet’s nest released by an angry bear’s claw savoring the taste of honey from beehive after so long in his imprisoned cave.

Prisoners in the thousands, captured through years of surveillance, infiltration, and torture were unleashed. Indeed, withdrawal was a bloody mess. Appears American soldiers were forced to stand down to Taliban’s chain of command! 

Americans and Western allies, positioning yourself just south of the ‘STANS’ bordering Russia, and smack in between Iran, Pakistan and neighboring China, pray tell how much Intel you got?

To be fair, Afghans reportedly had fair warning of the May 1^st 2021 deadline. Yes, but they were also assured their Afghan fighters were sufficiently trained to defend them. Instead, they appear to have been nothing more than ‘Ghost Soldiers.’

Image of Afghanistan’s president easily boarding plane to escape in a matter of seconds added insult to old and new injuries. Yet, the images of countless men, women and children running behind the US Air Force plane cannot be erased from the minds of all us around the world, especially those who call Afghanistan their country.

Joe, any idea what it must have been like? Picture it!

US Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper noted U.S. troop withdrawal date should have been extended. Mark, yes, leadership is key. We miss yours.  

President Biden, you are mistaken. Afghan men and women have the will to fight. But it is those with the “will to power” who are the Übermensch in their land that made it nearly impossible. 

And like the ‘poor little rich boy,’ U.S. got up and went home. But in his haste, forgot his ‘toys,’ leaving behind highly priced arsenal and equipment to their so called enemies. Unbelievable!

The authors Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, with knowledge of the ‘rapid U.S. troop withdrawal,’ say it best in their book’s title, Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End.

Failures appear to have taken a ‘domino effect.’ In a recent CSPAN interview, authors convey the ‘fiasco’ began with ill-advised exit timing, strategy, airport selection for departure, Taliban’s release of thousands of prisoners…

Gentlemen, though I admit I have yet to read your book, I do have a few observations:

1. Focusing on withdrawal reveals directly the lethal consequences of an ill-fated plan. Understood.
2. The opportunity presented itself to put U.S. 20 year operation into context having foremost began with the purpose for U.S. occupation.
3. If the goal was to apprehend the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack, was it not accomplished a decade later? Of course it too exposes the Pentagon failure in spite of their access to advanced weapons and surveillance.
4. How do Americans noted for their Wall Street corporate strategies of cost-effectiveness reconcile losing 3,000 citizens working in the ‘Towers of Finance,’ and return offer $25 million for the capture of the wanted man only to be taken out 10 years later by a crew of Six Seals in Pakistan? Yet U.S. continues spending trillions and sacrificing thousands still occupying two ‘terrorist’ territories – Iraq and Afghanistan – with little to show for it in the end, except the lives of thirteen more soldiers?  Soldiers taken out by those who would sacrifice dying just to take you down with them. Only to discover, their leader saw them as collateral damage.
5. The urgency in ‘abandoning ship’ and withdrawing is reminiscent of an epidemic similar to one in a Kansas fort a century ago at the start of WWI, shortly before the Influenza. Hmm, wonder if Americans will publish “The COV-19 Commission Report” J

As you can both see, no need to write ’10,000 pages’ on ‘Operation Afghanistan.’ Highlight the beginning, middle, and end:

→Master plan of attack utilized planes killing 3,000 American civilians

→Mastermind taken down

→Ill-advised exit plan led to the death of thirteen American soldiers (that we know of).

The End.

*Just be sure sources include The 9/11 Commission Report (Preface by Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, Appendixes and well-documented Chapter Notes) and the ‘Freedom of Information Act.’

Finally, to say U.S. presence in Afghanistan as in Iraq was an abject failure is an understatement. Failing miserably in their exit, their enemies’ Execution was a success. Young fearless heroic soldiers died not on the battlefield. Hell, their death was nothing short of an execution by ‘firing squad.’  

†In Memory of Fallen Soldiers, Brave Men and Women who sacrificed your life honorably serving your country, no questions asked, Rest in Peace. Sisters and Brothers, your family, friends and fellow Soldiers will never leave you behind and never forget.

~~~~~~~~~~~

History appears to run in circular motion like the rings of a tree. And like a tree, people in a community are subject to the elements. Man ultimately inherits, rightfully or not, the land and environment he creates or takes possession of, and the people he affects.

Afghanistan’s beautiful tree no longer gives fruit. It has been cut down to a stump. Yes, but it leaves the children a place to hide their secret toys. –Leticia Matlock