Picto Diary - 29, 30, 31 August 2021 - Reflecting on Afghanistan while walking Freddie

Above: TIMDT, Freddie, and Monk. Denny's, Salina, UT. 29 August 2021

At lunch, getting enlightenment from the Monk for Target Bank board alumni do at Bar J in September.

Also, confronting reality of our transitory existence. Monk reports that half of his high school class has passed on.

Above: Chez Aunt Joyce, Richland, Washington. Mwah (sic) Mom (Gayle), cousin Sarah, cousin Cyd, and brother Dee. Circa 1955. 29 August 2021.

Image recently surfaced by cousin Sarah.

Seeing this image I wonder a lot about memory. I remember this family trip to Richland as a vague marker in my own path through time. I remember none of the specifics of that trip. I'm glad this image popped up as a reminder of what I'm sure was a fun, formative event for our family. Our daughter FeeBee's resemblance to Mom is dramatic as I look at this image. Another reminder of how immortality is real... alive through the generations.

Above: Freddie and Llamas. Ivins, UT. 30 August 2021.

Freddie: "Can we move on? I'm really not impressed with these guys."

Freddie and Mwah (sic) walked from Ivins Park through nearby neighborhoods. Freddie and I have different gaits. Freddie's walk is slower than mine. Freddie's trot is faster than my gait. Freddie, therefore, alternately walks, then trots, to maintain an even pace with me. He also has the tendency to step in front of me. When he does this, I sidle in the direction he pushes me. When I have no more room, I let him get ahead of me and then move to the other side. The routine continues throughout the walk.

It's about 8:30 AM as I capture this image. 86 degrees. Notwithstanding, we'll walk about two and a half miles before returning to the air conditioned van and, later home, where A/C is set at 70 degrees. Today it will rise to about 105 degrees around 3:00 PM.

These are not normal times to come to Ivins, due the heat. No more than a third of the homes in our subdivision had their trash out for pick-up this AM. But, we're here to monitor progress on the house... furniture deliveries, blinds installation, entertainment system set-up and so on. TIMDT is doing a great job working all the levers necessary to get the house up to 100%.

Afghanistan

As Freddie and I walk, I reflect on the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan, thus "ending" a twenty year long US military episode. Shortly following the 09 September 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks on New York City's World Trade Center in 2001, the US commenced military operations in Afghanistan to neutralize Afghan terrorist abettors, the Taliban, and eliminate foreign (Al Qaeda) Islamic terrorist strongholds used as bases from which to mount attacks, a la 9/11, on the US homeland. That task, eradicating the threat posed by the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorists, was largely accomplished by 2006. Post 2006, the US and its allies maintained a "boots on the ground" presence in Afghanistan, in part to pursue and kill terrorist mastermind, Osama bin Laden, believed to still be in the vicinity, but, also to solidify gains made. In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in a Pakistan compound.

Post killing Osama bin Laden, the US was faced with a dilemma: pick up and leave Afghanistan... mission accomplished? Or, try, on some level, to create a stronger central government and civil society in Afghanistan, with the expectation that that the strengthened Afghan government, with its US trained army, could keep terrorist operations from recurring. The US chose the second option. Under a fledgling, US backed, Afghan central government, democratic reforms were instituted. Elections were held, women emerged from behind their burkas to experience unprecedented educational freedom and opportunity, among others. Corruption was rife in this nascent, new Afghan government, but, it cannot be denied that progress in building a democratic effort was being made, buttressed by the US presence.

In 2017, President Trump, pivoting away from the "nation building" policy, declared that it was time to remove US troops from Afghanistan. Trump claimed that the nascent Afghan central government and Afghan, US trained, military was up to (or should be up to) the job of preventing the rebirth of terrorist enclaves which could threaten the United States. It would be up to the Afghans to sustain progress towards building their democracy without the back-up of on the ground US military forces. Trump set in motion a negotiation process with a resurgent Taliban to ensure an orderly US troop withdrawal. All this, despite the fact that the cost of remaining in Afghanistan had become relatively low. The Afghan nation building effort cost no more than 1% of the US military budget and a very small troop commitment.... 3000 troops.

US Afghanistan exit negotiations with the Taliban were ongoing when Joe Biden assumed the US presidency in 2021. In early August, 2021, Joe Biden, in direct alignment with Trump's intent, formally announced that the US was ready to proceed with ending US presence in Afghanistan. A date of 31 August 2021 was set by Biden as a target date for ending the American presence in Afghanistan. Parroting Trump, Biden noted that the Afghan government, supported by the Afghan army, was capable in preserving the nascent civil society which America had been nurturing over the last six or seven years.

In point of fact, post Biden's announcement of American withdrawal, the Afghan government and its army, both, precipitously collapsed. America's withdrawal was thrown into chaos as Taliban troops unexpectedly entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, two weeks prior to the planned final US exit date of 31 August 2021. Notwithstanding the unexpected circumstances on the ground, the US announced that it would proceed with its exit by 31 August 2021. Not surprisingly, the absence of a US contingency plan for a precipitous withdrawal under Taliban supervision gave rise to a series of adverse consequences that made the US look weak and ineffective. Thirteen Marines, acting as guards of the perimeter of Kabul International Airport, were killed by a suicide bomber. Billions of dollars of US military assets were abandoned, taken over by the Taliban. Bagram Air Base, a strategic asset four hundred miles away from the Chinese border was abandoned. A US Airforce airlift of US government employees and Afghan friendlies got one hundred thousand people out of Afghanistan, but, many non-US government employed Americans and Afghans who worked for the United States Government remained, in danger, and as potential hostages, after the last US soldier left the country.

Erstwhile jihadist terrorist abettors, the Taliban, are now in charge of Afghanistan with an arsenal of US weaponry worth billions of dollars. The question is this. Will the resurgent Taliban, triumphant in the wake of American withdrawal, facilitate Islamic terror abroad as did their predecessors? Or, will they work to cooperate with the US and other Western countries to reassure that they no longer represent a terrorist threat? President Biden's whole legacy now rests on Taliban future actions. To complicate matters, the Taliban could now be pre-occupied with its own civil war. Elements of the old Northern Alliance are reputedly forming to challenge the Taliban's control over Kabul. Foreign Islamic terrorist groups... ISIS-K, Al Qaeda etc. are showing signs of reconstituting their terrorist presence in Afghanistan as civil war pre-occupies the Afghans.

There are other concerns that most certainly will have a destabilizing effect on world peace that have risen in response to perceived American weakness arising from the botched Afghan exit. China is emboldened. Relationships are weakened with trusted allies, many of whom also had troop commitments in Afghanistan, who were not consulted on the US exit from Afghanistan. An invigorated Pakistan has raised the stakes on Kashmir putting US ally India back on its heels. The North Koreans are rattling sabers again.

President Biden has dug in his heels in presenting US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a necessary and successful operation. Biden likely feels that as the dust from a disorderly exit settles, the American public will support his decision to disengage from Afghanistan. Current polls show, however his approval ratings in the 45% range, down 10% from a month ago. The American public is not happy. Biden is not helped by his insouciant posture towards military sacrifice. He checked his watch five times at the Dover Airforce Base memorial service for the thirteen fallen Marines killed at Kabul International Airport. The American public may support the decision to depart from Afghanistan, but, that does not mean that they do not value the contributions that American service people have made there.

Painful as has it has been... almost 2400 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001... until Biden's botched exit, the Afghanistan mission, as set up to prevent 9/11 like terrorist attacks, had largely been successful. Since 2001, no new mass terrorist attack was launched by Islamic terrorists against the United States homeland. Rather than bemoaning America's misbegotten Afghanistan episode, Biden might have been better placed were he to celebrate the contributions of the men and women soldiers to keeping America safe.

I have been on record against American nation building adventurism in Afghanistan from the beginning. I was an advocate for initiating anti terrorist intelligence efforts and targeted special forces and air actions to confront terrorists in Afghanistan. Boots on the ground might have been necessary to accomplish this... for a time. I was, accordingly, doubtful when, after bin Laden's death, the US embarked on its Afghanistan nation building strategy. However, today, noting the progress made in building Afghan civil society with US backing, at relatively little cost, I think Biden made the wrong decision in wanting to follow through on Trump's desire to exit Afghanistan. The US retains troop commitments around the world.. South Korea, Japan, Germany, and various hot spots in the Middle East and Africa. In the face of growing regional antagonism by China, retaining Bagram Air base seems essential.

OK, so the US doesn't stay. Trump and Biden get their way. At least we can exit in orderly fashion, on our own terms... and not as a cluster...that has seriously damaged America's reputation with its allies and friends around the world, raised the specter of a resurgent Islamic terrorist threat, and emboldened America's antagonists. I fear now, due to Biden's double faux pas, exiting precipitously and exiting badly, that the broader War on Terror is only just beginning.

Short term, we must do everything possible to arrange for the exit of Americans and America's Afghan friends, now vulnerable to Taliban persecution, from Afghanistan left behind due to the botched exit operation. Longer term, we should oust current, inept, military leaders and strengthen our fighting capability to intimidate the bad actors we have emboldened by our own foreign affairs clumsiness.

Above: Freddie in the shower. Ivins, UT. 30 August 2021.

How am I gonna get Freddie outta there so I can take my shower?

We came here, this time, to oversee final blinds and entertainment systems installations. Its been hot. My routine is to take the dog out early, 6:30 AM, when temps are around 85 degrees. Freddie gets a pee and a first poop in. Its barely dawn at this time, but construction workers are all over the place, taking advantage of the cooler temperatures. Freddie and Mwah (sic) then drive about five miles to Santa Clara where I have breakfast at Bishop's. Then its an hour walk with Freddie, today around Ivins. Hot temps drive us indoors before noon.

Above: Ivins, UT. Fire in the Sky. 31 August 2021.

Addendum:

Joe -RIP -enjoyed many times together good guy and excellent Biker 😎

Thanks,
Mr. Z3,
La Quinta, CA