The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Biden Turns His Back on America

Posted on | August 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Biden Turns His Back on America

So it was announced that Our Alleged President would give a press conference at noon. But noon came and went, and then they said 2:30, which also came and went and then, finally, about 5 p.m., Biden comes out and reads a 15-minute scripted statement, before turning his back and walking out while Peter Doocy of Fox News shouted, “Do you guarantee every American will be out before the troops leave?”

No response. The transcript of Our Alleged President’s remarks is not online yet, but he began by talking about “Build Back Better” (i.e., the bloated $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill that’s not actually about infrastructure), as if business as usual on Capitol Hill is what really matters and not the thousands of Americans currently trapped in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But no mean tweets.

That’s what really matters, isn’t it? Just say whatever, screw up our national security, let the border descend into chaos, crank up some hyperinflation and the people who voted for you won’t ever care, just as long as you’re Not Donald Trump. The only policy that matters is . . .

Get vaccinated! Wear a mask! And don’t be Donald Trump.




 

Category: Joe Biden

In The Mailbox: 08.23.21

Posted on | August 23, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.23.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Red Pilled Jew: Hungry Wolves & Darkened Campfires
357 Magnum: What A Democrat President Has Lost CNN
EBL: The Miniaturist, also, Proud Boys Vs. Antifa In Portland
Twitchy: LA Times Columnist Catches Tidal Wave Of Criticism For Using Patronizing Term “Latinx”
Louder With Crowder: JP Sears Attempts To Explain Biden’s Embarrassing ABC Interview
Vox Popoli: A League of Boomers, also, Why The Hospitals Are “Full”
LifeNews: Woman Refused Lifesaving Treatment Because She Declined The Jab
Gab News: Yet Another Failed Hit Piece On Gab

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Do The Americans Even Realize They Just Lost A War?
American Conservative: Who’s To Blame For Afghanistan?
American Greatness: The Rotten Edifice Revealed, also, The Drossy Touch Of Joe Biden
American Power: They’re Liars & Hypocrites, But You Knew That Already
American Thinker: Stand By For The Real Insurrection – By The Democrats, also, None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Two Judoka From Cuban National Team Defect In Madrid, also, Milking The “Diaspora” Is Critical To Tyranny’s Survival In Cuba
BattleSwarm: The Woke Zone, also, One Rule For Them, Another For You
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Russia Launches Another 34 OneWeb Satellites
Cafe Hayek: On Science, Scientism, & Classical Liberal Individualism, also, Dystopia Down Under
CDR Salamander: All Roads Lead To Kabul, On Midrats
Da Tech Guy: Don Surber Notes The “What”, Glenn Reynolds Provides The “Why”, also, What Do The White House Staff & The Media Know About Biden’s Cognitive Decline?
Don Surber: AP Has Critic Censored, They Seem To Want Joe To Go, and Afghanistan Learned The Lesson Of Vietnam
First Street Journal: The Kentucky Supremes Slap Down Gov. Beshear, also, Paul Krugman Is Angry Because You Didn’t Take Your Medicine
The Geller Report: Court Rules AZ Senate Must Release Election Audit Records, also, DOJ Shuts Down Investigation Of Capitol Police Cold-Blooded Murder Of Ashli Babbitt
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Leaks In The Memory Hole, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Why The Night House Won’t Keep You Up At Night As Promised, also, Did Stephen Colbert Just Have His Worst Week…Ever?
The Lid: SecDef Austin Should Be Impeached, also, Taliban Rejects Possibility Of 8/31 Deadline Extension
Legal Insurrection: “Mamas, Don’t Let Your (Male) Babies Grow Up & Attend A Woke Liberal Arts College”, also, Update On Teachers Union V. RI Mom Nicole Solas – Union Withdraws Motion For TRO
Nebraska Energy Observer: Piccadilly Lilly & Leadership, also, The Hollow Men
Outkick: Player Feels The Wrath Of Saban – “This Is Not A Democracy”, also, Patagonia Latest Company To Wander Into The Woke/Broke Waters
Power Line: Afghanistan As Foreign Policy Disaster, also, Anti-Trump “Republican” NatSec Officials  – From Laughably Wrong To Tragically Wrong
Shark Tank: Eskamani Catches Bipartisan heat Over Mask Double Standard
Shot In The Dark: The World Is Discovering…, also, Towards Solutions
This Ain’t Hell: Troops Report Being Required To Wear Armbands Indicating Jab Status, also, Did The 82nd Airborne’s CG Tell The SAS To Stop Making The U.S. Look Bad?
Transterrestrial Musings: Still Think Joe Isn’t Too Old? also, Thanks, Facebook?
Victory Girls: Taliban Commandos Mock Iwo Jima Photo, also, Capitol Police Decide Their Officer’s Murder Of Ashli Babbitt Was Lawful
Volokh Conspiracy: If The VP Becomes President, What Happens To Her Tie-Breaking Vote In The Senate?
Weasel Zippers: Blinken Calls Leaving Americans To Find Their Own Way To Kabul Airport “The Best Way To Do This”,  also, After Promising Orderly Withdrawal, Biden Says Chaos Was Inevitable
The Federalist: The Only Way Back To Deterrence – Firing Biden’s Entire National Security Team, also, Former NS Adviser O’Brien – Everybody In DC Knows This Is Biden’s Disaster
Mark Steyn: Canadian Connections, Meltdown Of A Superpower, and Written On The Wind/The Tarnished Angels

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Sunday: One From The Vaults

Posted on | August 23, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: One From The Vaults

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Those of you who play video games are probably familiar with the Fallout franchise, which is set in a postapocalyptic North America three centuries after a Sino-American nuclear war has devastated the planet. Most of the survivors are descendants of people who rode out the war and its aftermath in shelters built by Vault-Tec, and naturally called “Vaults”. Here’s Manchester (UK) bodypainter Em from r/cosplaygirls done up to look like a sexy Vault Dweller.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Pretty cute rendition of a Vault-dwelling gal, right down to the Nuka-Cola and the 50s hairstyle.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1449, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Here To Help Friday, and the 350th Saturday Gingermageddon!

EBL: Georgia’s Cradle Of Wine, Tiffany Wilder, Guess Who Undun, The Cocktail Slippers, The Wine Show Review, and Aryana Sayeed Bache.

A View From The Beach: Kady Cay, Winegrad: Bay is in Crisis, Fish Pic Friday – Helloitslloutdoors, Transportation Thursday, Wednesday Wetness – Waterfalls, Tattoo Tuesday, Chessie Goes Dark, Motoring into Monday and Palm Sunday

Brian Noggle: Heavy metal belly dancer Diana Bastet.

Thanks to everyone for the luscious links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Welcome To Planet Motherf***er

Posted on | August 22, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Welcome To Planet Motherf***er

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
Afghanistan and Chicago
The Political Hat
Nebraska Energy Observer
Never Yet Melted
357 Magnum
EBL

 

Complete Disaster in Afghanistan Doesn’t Interrupt Senile Joe Biden’s Vacation
First Street Journal
Dark Brightness
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Death Goddess On The Beach
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Gaslighting Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster
Dark Brightness
How Deep Is The Rabbit Hole
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Sweet Jane
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.14.21 (Saturday Night Special Edition)
357 Magnum

Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster
357 Magnum
EBL

‘Mostly Peaceful’ Stabbing: Antifa Attacks Demonstration Against Vaccine Mandate
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Where Is Biden? UPDATED: The Big Lie of ‘Fighting Indefinitely’ in Afghanistan
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.16.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.17.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.18.21
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

Even With Friendly Media, ‘Sundown Joe’ Continues Embarrassing Himself
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.19.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

John McCain Was … Right?
A View From The Beach
EBL

Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Except for Rubbing Your Enemies’ Faces in Their Shameful and Irreparable Failure
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.20.21
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending August 20:

  1.  357 Magnum (15)
  2.  EBL (14)
  3.  A View From the Beach (10)
  4.  Proof Positive (7)

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: FMJRA Award

‘Gosh, I Wonder Why Hunter Biden Is Such a Hopeless Basket Case of Failure?’

Posted on | August 21, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Gosh, I Wonder Why Hunter Biden Is Such a Hopeless Basket Case of Failure?’

Said no one, ever.

At least not after the past week, during which President Basket Case has demonstrated once and for all what a hopeless failure he is.

To understand Joe Biden, you’ve got to begin by realize how significant it is that he’s a Northeastern Irish-Catholic Democrat who grew up in a time and place where such people exercised a decisive influence in American political life. Biden was 17 years old when JFK was elected president, and the Kennedy clan — that big sprawling Irish-Catholic family, JFK’s father being a wealthy banker who married into the most powerful political family in Boston — was the kind of dynastic situation that today’s elderly Democrats idealized in their youth.

Joe Biden hoped to make Delaware the basis of his dynastic fiefdom, and having his son Beau elected attorney general of the state at age 37 was a step in that direction, but then Beau got cancer and died, which left Hunter as the Biden dynasty’s lone hope, such as it was.

Hunter Biden is to Beau what Ted Kennedy was to JFK, but Teddy lived in a pre-Internet age when sexually predatory Democrats with substance abuse problems could rely on their buddies in their press corps to ignore their drunken lechery. Hunter goes from scandal to scandal, a perpetual source of family shame, and it’s all over the Internet where anybody can look it up. And we see that the acorn doesn’t fall too far from the oak.

So far as I know, Joe Biden never had a substance abuse problem, but he has long been notorious for his dishonesty problem. The fact that his first presidential campaign ended with a plagiarism scandal is a huge clue as to what’s fundamentally wrong with Joe, namely that his entire life he’s been a copycat, trying to mimic the success of others, so that he has become a poor-quality imitation — a wannabe Kennedy who morphed into a wannabe Clinton and is now a wannabe Obama.

There is nothing authentic about Joe Biden. His entire life is a cheap ersatz copy, the political equivalent of a fake Gucci bag. And what kind of heir do we expect such a dynasty of phoniness to spawn?

Thoughts of dynastic succession are in the forefront of my mind today because we’re preparing to take our youngest daughter off to college. Being a father of six (and now a grandfather of five), I understand how people can be judged by the quality of their offspring. Parents have to worry that their kids will screw up and ruin the family’s reputation.

So far, at least, none of my kids have turned into coke addicts or gotten any Arkansas strippers pregnant. This is a rather low threshold for parenting success, I suppose, but it’s one that the President of the United States couldn’t manage to clear. Of course, we expect better things of our children, and it would be nice if our youngest child were to graduate summa cum laude, like her older sister did, but far be it from me to leverage sibling rivalry in such a cruel and unfair manner.

No, the important thing is, avoid scandal. We are not demanding, over-involved “helicopter parents,” trying to micromanage our children’s lives. We encourage our children to become independent and self-sufficient, capable of managing their own lives. And also, to avoid trouble.

There’s a lot of trouble you’ve got to warn kids against nowadays, like, “Hey, son, don’t be sending pictures of your penis to girls.”

Every time I see headlines about one of these psycho killer rampages — “Ohio ‘Incel’ Arrested For Allegedly Plotting Sorority Mass Shooting” — I send my kids text messages: “Mass murder is not cool.” You’d think it wouldn’t be necessary to tell kids things like that, but apparently some kids need that warning, and so I want to err on the side of caution, like when I tell them, “Hey, kids, heroin is a bad drug.”

Last year, 93,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, so however silly it may seem to warn you kids against heroin — like, doesn’t everybody on the planet already know heroin is bad? — you have to warn them anyway.

NO DATING APPS!

How many people have to get murdered by someone they met on Tinder before people will listen to my warnings against dating apps? So that’s something I’ve warned my kids about, and I’m a lot less concerned about whether my daughter graduates summa cum laude than I am in making sure she avoids serial killers on dating apps. As bad as it would be for my daughter to get killed by a Tinder psychopath, just think how badly that would look for me, OK? It would be very embarrassing.

Think of how many times Hunter Biden has embarrassed his father, but now the father is embarrassing his son. So I think I’m going to make a deal with my kids: “If you’ll promise to stay away from addictive drugs, I promise not to surrender any countries to Islamic terrorists.”

Seems fair enough, doesn’t it?

Parenting is like football. You got to focus on the basics.




 

Category: Joe Biden

In The Mailbox: 08.20.21

Posted on | August 21, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.20.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Just got back from Vegas an hour ago, unloaded the car and hooked up the laptop. Hope to have this done by midnight, but we’ll see how it goes. Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts, thanks. 

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Sometimes I wish my copy of Windows had Commissar Clippy.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Red Pilled Jew: Slip-Sliding Toward Hell With A Good Conscience
357 Magnum: Smoked Goblin? Aisle Five
EBL: Tiffany Wilder
Twitchy: Chief Of Staff Ron Klain Mansplains What’s Happening In Kabul To Clarissa Ward…Who Is In Kabul
Louder With Crowder: Biden Hopes You’ll Forget His Afghan Blunder By August 31. Seriously, That’s His Strategy.
Vox Popoli: The ADL Attempts To Revise History, also, A Severe Shortage
According To Hoyt: Everything Is Stupid, also, The Work Of Our Hands
Monster Hunter Nation: Writerdojo Is Live! also, Monster Hunter Bloodlines Now Available For Preorder From Audible

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Beware The False Flag
American Conservative: The Left’s Campaign For Socialized Housing
American Greatness: France Deploying Special Forces To Get French Civilians Out Of Afghanistan, also, UK Parliament Holds Biden In Contempt
American Power: Kamala Harris Goes To Ground, also, Afghanistan – What Went Wrong?
American Thinker: The Afghanistan Debacle Is Exactly What The Left Wanted, also, How Big Is The Angry Majority?
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Here To Help Friday
Babalu Blog: Treasury Department Gently Slaps Three More Top Cuban Oppressors With Meaningless Sanctions
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For August 20
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, also, Top Engineers & Managers Fleeing Blue Origin
Cafe Hayek: Satire…Or Truth? also, Proving Ian Fillmore Prescient
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: More Quick Afghanistan Thoughts Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Taliban Is Just Like The Democrats, also, Taliban May Take Down Biden
First Street Journal: When It Comes To Vaccine Mandates, Workers Have The Power! also, Resistance Is Not Futile
The Geller Report: FBI Finally Admits “Scant Evidence” The 1/6 Capitol Attack Was Coordinated, also, Russia & Saudis Snub Biden, Refuse To Increase Oil Production
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Another Tough Decision, and I’m Not Making This Up You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Is Facebook Killing The Babylon Bee? also, Why The Protege Is One Of The Year’s Best Surprises
The Lid: Three Most Damning Things Left Our Of The Biden-Stephanopoulos Interview Broadcast
Legal Insurrection: June Memo Shows Biden Promised G7 Leaders Security In Kabul After Withdrawal, also, Teachers Union & School District Appear To be Colluding Against RI Mom Nicole Solas In Lawsuit
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saigon, Baghdad, Kabul – The String Continues
Outkick: Race-Baiters In Media Cost Mike Richards His Job, also, ACC, Pac-12, & Big Ten Finalizing Alliance Agreement
Power Line: The FBI Just Made The Left’s 1/6 Narrative Go Poof, also, The Straight Story On Afghanistan
Shark Tank: Demings’ Plan To “Get Rid” Of Marco Rubio Falls Flat
Shot In The Dark: Downfall, also, The Next Time
This Ain’t Hell: John McCain Warned That Blinken Would Be Dangerous To America, also, Okie Mom Rescues Afghan Girl Students
Transterrestrial Musings: This Is Worse Than Saigon, also, To Declassify
Victory Girls: Biden Press Conference Was A Trainwreck
Volokh Conspiracy: As Eviction Moratorium Returns To SCOTUS, Landlords Use Biden’s Words Against Him
Weasel Zippers: National Security Adviser Admits Administration Doesn’t Know How Many Americans Are In Afghanistan, also, American Trapped In Afghanistan Contradicts Biden
The Federalist: Colorado School Board Bans Critical Race Theory After Black Dad’s Fiery Speech, also, Country Star Travis Tritt Rails Against Vax Mandates, Calls For “Unified Front Against Them” 
Mark Steyn: We Have Met The Enemy Part XVII, also, Who Are These Guys Working For?

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Linkagery

Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Except for Rubbing Your Enemies’ Faces in Their Shameful and Irreparable Failure

Posted on | August 21, 2021 | Comments Off on Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Except for Rubbing Your Enemies’ Faces in Their Shameful and Irreparable Failure

Good news, bad news: The good news is, all Trump’s enemies now look like utter fools. The bad news is, it’s because Biden has wrecked American foreign policy and doomed thousands to death by the Taliban.

Ace of Spades is doing a happy dance on Allahpundit’s face and, as much as Allah deserves this disgrace, it’s hard to be too happy about it.

Winning an argument is good. Seeing your antagonists exposed as fools is also good. But is victory so sweet, if won at such cost? An absolute catastrophe is now unfolding in Afghanistan because the guy that all the Smart People™ told us would Restore Our Precious Norms has turned out to be a blundering dimwit. And as much as we enjoy this vindication — “We told you so, you damned fools!” — it does not alleviate the horror of watching America’s reputation go up in a cloud of smoke.

Nevertheless, we must endeavor to persevere.

Multiple reporters call BS on Biden for saying
Americans are able to get to the Kabul airport

That’s the headline on Allahpundit’s post, pointing out that even the Democratic Party operatives with bylines — at outlets like CNN, ABC and Politico — are contradicting Biden’s claims. This is the same Biden who, all the Smart People™ assured us, would restore America’s reputation by bringing decades of foreign policy wisdom to the job. And he’s fucked it up like a retarded third-grader playing with explosives.

Allahpundit laments that Biden “either doesn’t know what’s happening on the ground or he’s deliberately lying to Americans about it,” but this ignores a third possibility, that Biden’s brain has melted down to the point where he’s just repeating whatever his handlers have told him to say, without any comprehension of the actual substance.

Sundown Joe is lost in a mental fog, so that it never occurred to him, while looking over the plans for Afghanistan, to ask, “Wait a minute — we’re going to shut down Bagram Airbase before we’ve finished evacuating our personnel and allies? What the heck is this malarkey?”

Biden Assured Allies in June
U.S. Would Ensure Kabul’s Stability

That’s the headline on a Bloomberg News about how our European allies find themselves cast in the role of Flounder in an Animal House remake, when Otter tells him, “You fucked up. You trusted us.” Instapundit has a note from a friend informing him that many young Europeans now stranded in Afghanistan are the offspring of the elite — “trust funders,” we’d call them — whose frantic parents are burning up the phone lines demanding that their governments rescue their kids in Kabul.

Imagine the pampered 20-something daughter of a French or Belgian bigwig, with her degree in international relations, doing some kind of NGO work for women’s rights in Afghanistan and then, quite suddenly, the Taliban swoop down out of the hills, and she’s forced into hiding while a horde of bearded machine-gun-wielding fanatics take over whatever provincial hamlet she was working in.

Oh, daddy’s money won’t help her much in that predicament, and there are literally thousands of these young NGO workers now trapped in Afghanistan, a situation that seems quite likely to replicate the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, except on a much larger scale. How many hundreds of Americans are going to be held hostage in Afghanistan? How many Brits, Canadians, Dutch, Germans, etc.? Quite a few, almost certainly. And like Instapundit’s friend says, these people tend to come from the elite strata of society. The children of the working class and lower middle class don’t generally go into non-profit humanitarian work overseas.

Sure, it’s possible to grin at the plight of these posh do-gooders, if you have a dark sense of humor and a chip on your working-class shoulder. Your kid can’t afford to attend a $70,000-a-year school like Georgetown or Harvard, just to go off to Afghanistan and work for an NGO, so maybe you feel just the tiniest bit of schadenfreude toward the life-or-death peril now facing those kids whose daddies could afford to bankroll their Exciting Opportunity to Help Poor Brown People.

You know you shouldn’t feel pleasure about this — rich kids hiding from roving bands of goat-fucking savages somewhere near Kandahar — but humanitarian sympathy is a sort of luxury, a status commodity that the lower classes can’t afford. One of my kids spent a few months in Afghanistan, working for a human-rights organization you may have heard of, the 82nd Airborne, but that’s a different kind of work, which attracts a different type of personnel than these NGO types now set to star in a remake of that 1970s classic, “America Held Hostage.”

The temptation toward dark sarcasm is overwhelming, quite the way Ace is tempted to make America’s humiliation in Afghanistan an excuse to do a happy dance all over Allahpundit’s smug neocon face. We must strive to resist this temptation, however. Our gloating is unseemly, at a time when we need to be praying to God that, by some kind of miracle, our nation can survive until January 20, 2025. Tough years ahead, folks.




 

™

Category: Joe Biden

John McCain Was … Right?

Posted on | August 20, 2021 | Comments Off on John McCain Was … Right?

Everybody who knows me knows I was not a fan of the distant relative I called “Crazy Cousin John.” The whole point of naming this blog “The Other McCain” was to ensure nobody confused me with the Arizona senator, whose advocacy of amnesty for illegal aliens I abhorred.

So it was interesting to see my late kinsman “go viral” this week:

A recently resurfaced video showing late Senator John McCain warning colleagues of an “unqualified” and “dangerous” Antony Blinken, who served as deputy national security advisor under President Barack Obama at the time, specifically blasting Blinken’s desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
The nearly two-minute clip, which comprises excerpts from December 2014, depicts McCain approaching the Senate floor to oppose Blinken’s nomination as deputy secretary of state.
“Madam President, I rise to discuss my opposition to the pending vote concerning Mr. Anthony ‘Tony’ Blinken, who is not only unqualified, but, in fact, in my view, one of the worst selections of a very bad lot that this president has chosen,” McCain began.
“I hope that many of my colleagues will understand that not often do I come to the floor to oppose a nomination of the president of the United States because I believe that elections have consequences,” he continued.
McCain is also seen slamming Blinken, deeming the then-deputy national security advisor a danger to the United States.
“In this case, this individual has actually been dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving it,” he said.
McCain also noted Blinken’s role in “conceptualizing and furthering” a failed foreign policy.
“U.S. foreign policy is in shambles,” he said. “It’s at best a strategic, and at worst, anti-strategic.”
Quoting Blinken himself, McCain then described his concerns that the then-Obama official would push for a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, leading to a “replay” of war-scarred Iraq:

“I’ll move on to Afghanistan. Mr. Blinken said, ‘We’ve been very clear, we’ve been consistent. The war will be concluded by the end of 2014. We have a timetable and that timetable will not change.’ This is why I’m so worried about him being in the position that he’s in because if they stick to that timetable, I am telling my colleagues that we will see the replay of Iraq all over again. We must leave a stabilizing force behind of a few thousand troops or we will see again what we saw in Iraq.”

Seven years after McCain’s opposition to Blinken’s nomination, the latter serves as Secretary of State, with many claiming the events from this week proved the necessity of McCain’s warning.

OK, so you may be among those conservatives who don’t like the idea of the U.S. playing global policeman, with our troops deployed hither and yon to prop up weak “allies,” but we’ve still got 36,000 troops in Germany, some 30 years after the end of the Cold War, and I don’t think it would have been too much to leave 3,000 or so in Afghanistan.

Keep in mind what Senator McCain was referencing in Iraq, namely that the U.S. pullout had given rise to ISIS which, in the wake of the 2011 “Arab Spring,” was setting up its caliphate in Syria. However much we may deplore the “imperialism” of the United States trying to impose its will in Mesopotamia and the Levant by force of arms, pragmatism is a better guide than ideological abstractions. The crazy zig-zagging of our foreign policy, from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden, must leave our allies dismayed and our enemies emboldened.




 

™

Category: Foreigners, John McCain, Military
« go back — keep looking »