Will There be an Afghangate, Followed by Iraqgate and Syriagate in the US?
Today, after the disgraceful withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, not only in the US but all over the world, there is an active discussion of the numerous lapses in Washington’s actions and US policy in general, turning to the search for the culprits in everything.
Thus, British MPs demonstrated a fit of anger over events in Afghanistan by targeting Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, politicians who found themselves in high office as the Kabul house of cards collapsed. They were particularly concerned that a 20-year coalition experiment in “exporting Western values” to Afghanistan had collapsed chaotically, so parliamentarians instinctively sought to place the blame on their shoulders. Simon Jenkins has written a series of articles on the subject in The Guardian, one of which on August 21 explicitly states that “west’s nation-building fantasy is to blame for the mess in Afghanistan.” The author recalls Tony Blair’s Chicago speech of 22 years “lecturing the US on his doctrine of international intervention. He wanted the west to invade countries across the world not in self-defence, but to save people everywhere from oppression.” As a result, “gunboat diplomacy, initially supposed to salve the wounds of 9/11 in 2001, opened the door to fake morality and a trillion-dollar nation-building fantasy.” And, worst of all, “the US – with Britain as its lackey – committed liberal interventionism’s cardinal sin: half-heartedness,” Jenkins concludes.
Those funded by the US in the Afghan conflict have often turned against Washington. The Haqqani Network, one of the primary recipients of CIA money during the Cold War, was tasked with keeping an eye on security in Kabul. Then the Haqqani Network turned against the United States. The ISI and the CIA funded the Haqqani Network until the ISI began paying the Haqqani Network to attack the CIA, Michael Knowles noted in his op-ed on the Daily Wire channel. Washington has essentially never had any allies in Afghanistan – and the sooner US officials figure that out, the better. First, Knowles recalled, the goal was to eliminate the terrorists who destroyed the Twin Towers. Then it turned into a crusade to build a new country, spread liberal democracy, and eliminate world tyranny, so George W. Bush said. And then what are the targets? So the girls can go to school? That’s why they put Westerners in front of bullets? And who’s responsible for that?
But the war fought by four presidents over two decades, which gave Afghans a taste of democracy and women a chance to learn and have a career, has failed in almost every way. Washington ended up surrendering the country to the very same militants it deprived of power in 2001, notes The New York Times. President Biden has taken responsibility for ending the war, which could be the defining moment of his presidency, the publication stresses.
However, this admission did not answer whether anyone would be punished for mistakes made in the withdrawal even though such calls are frequently made. Recently, 87 retired generals and admirals signed an open letter urging Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley to resign their posts for “reasons of conscience.” The retirees believe that the two top military leaders did not do everything to ensure that the withdrawal “did not have disastrous consequences.”
The Washington Post reports that Republicans could take advantage of the current crisis, especially in the context of the 2022 parliamentary elections. It is noted that even several Democrats agree to discuss the resignations of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Dozens of US congressmen are demanding President Joe Biden’s resignation for pursuing policies they say don’t consider the American people’s interests. As Florida Congresswoman Kat Cammack noted on Fox News, the “era of impeachment” has arrived in the states.
Resentment over Washington’s actions was further heightened after a twin terrorist attack in Kabul on August 26 that killed more than a hundred people, including Afghan civilians, thirteen US troops, as well as twenty-eight Taliban (an organization banned in Russia) fighters. Congressmen immediately demanded the impeachment of President Joe Biden, the resignation of Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley
The fiasco in Afghanistan has left the British feeling that Joe Biden’s administration is now going down faster than the Titanic and that his presidency has become a “disaster of epic proportions.” This is the assessment made in his article for Fox News by Nile Gardiner, a former aide to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. According to Gardiner, Biden is clearly living in a “twilight zone” if he thinks US allies, from London to Warsaw, are not openly questioning the White House administration’s authority on the international stage. The article notes that no US president of our time has received a louder and more unanimous rebuke from Britain’s political leadership than Joe Biden.
After US President Joe Biden essentially surrendered to the Taliban, he should not be impeached but court-martialed for betraying his country and the US military, retired UK Colonel Richard Kemp said in a media interview.
In the short time of Joe Biden’s presidency, the US has faced “the worst military defeat in half a century” in Afghanistan, a crisis at the border, in the economy, law enforcement, and interracial relations, said conservative commentator Victor Davis Hanson. According to him, if Biden were a Republican, today’s Democratic House of Representatives would have already launched the impeachment process – and rightly so. According to Hanson, “in an adequate world,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense would have already resigned. For too long have they been telling us that climate change has become a significant threat to America, spreading the word about critical race theory and bragging about how they drive proponents of white supremacy out of their ranks. The intelligence community is no better. The legacy of figures such as John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe “has destroyed the reputation of the CIA, NSA, and FBI,” Hanson believes. They spent years investigating “collusion” with Russia, foaming at the mouth that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian “disinformation,” spying on officials and weaving “childish plots” against the president-elect instead of warning of the growing threat in Afghanistan.
As a result of the 1972 Watergate scandal in the United States, Republican President Richard Nixon voluntarily resigned in 1974, a precedent that has not been repeated to this day. Back then Nixon started giving up on his team, starting with the vice president. And it ended with the team giving up on Nixon, and he was forced to resign Now roughly the same situation is beginning to unfold. Only a Democrat is now at the helm. And the White House’s failures are not just limited to Afghanistan but also to Iraq and Syria, where scandals have also already reached a boiling point.
Only time will tell whether the American public has the strength and courage to resect the pustules of American politics through a new Afghangate, Iraqgate, and Syriagate.
