Originally published in comments at Where Is Biden? at The Other McCain.
In an honor culture, how you keep your word is how you show respect to the others involved. When the Asterisk administration used the sock-puppet to push the withdrawal back from what the Trumpet had negotiated, the Afghanis naturally saw it as disrespect whether they wanted the Taliban or not. Not just disrespect, but f***ing disrespect. And to the rest of the region, America just proved itself the Great Satan. Again. All because the Asterisk administration couldn't bear giving the Trumpet credit for anything. Disclaimer: After 9-11, I was one of those who thought American could change things by changing Afghanistan.
*shrugs* I called it wrong.
I didn't really start digging into Middle East history until late 2002 early 2003. I still had hopes when I saw all those women with the ink-stained fingers, but by 2015 I realized it was a quagmire that was never going to get better.
Worse, it diverted us. By October 2001 Americans were that close to taking the world apart and to hell with the consequences. We were angry enough to do it too, starting with Saudi Arabia, then taking out Iran and Iraq. Bushleague told us he had a plan. Truthfully, we probably would have listened to almost anybody in the office at the time. So we invaded Afghanistan that had only the remotest connections.
I usually avoid press conferences because I don't trust politicos.
But look at this. It's an example of what I call multiple flags syndrome. I first noticed it with Billy-boy, although Bushleague raised it to a new art form. And the Segregator just couldn't stop. I'm thinking it's when politicos want to convince you that the incredibly harmful thing they did is just the American Way. There seem to be more flags when they are "apologizing."
