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Dirk Schwenk (Esq) 🎵

18 Aug, 25 tweets, 5 min read

I'll take shxt framing for $500, Alex.

Can't news organizations or opinion writers EVER see what is going on? cnn.com/2021/08/17/opi…

So just looking at the top line - it's not that bad, and the picture at least highlights the Trump era capitulation meeting, and highlights the plight of the Afghan people as it should. But egads it goes down hill from there.

There's this "There's no question that much of the fault lies with President Joe Biden." FAULT FOR WHAT? Supposedly poor contingency planning and a "humiliating rush for the exits for the US."

Now you're pissing me off. To my knowledge, NOT A SINGLE AMERICAN SERVICEMEMBER has been injured or killed. Hardly any Afghan troops have been killed. I'm sure the US lost equipment, but where's the "chaos" and bad planning?

And if there was bad planning for withdrawal, that seems like a problem that goes back years. We've been talking about withdrawal since we went in. And Trump agreed to a complete withdrawal that was supposed to have been completed FOUR MONTHS AGO.

A "humiliating rush for the exits"? WE ALL KNOW WE LOST. We've known we lost since the Bush era. Staying around another couple of decades would just make us look dumber. And poorer. And make it harder for us and our allies to do things that actually need done.

The author starts to critique Trump, but just has to revert to blaming Biden - for something: "In truth, Trump and his team helped set the stage for this disaster. Again, the events of recent days were Biden's show. He cannot shift blame on Trump."

Here's where we have to be very careful in what we are talking about. The "events of recent days" have been a largely bloodless (for the US and allies at least) evacuation. But there is a "disaster" - one that did not occur in the last few days. Let's discuss that.

The Trump Disaster is this: he arranged it so that the Taliban could walk into Kabul with minimal to zero resistance. Since they did not have to fight, they also did not have to negotiate terms.

Trump and Pompeo could have used the leverage of US war power to require the Taliban to share power; to allow safe passage for women and girls and allies; to abide by humanitarian standards; to allow the US to remove all its equipment. Trump and Pompeo did none of that.

And that's only part of the Trump Disaster. It wasn't enough for Mr. Art of The Deal to throw away all US leverage. He also through away all the leverage held by the troops and police we spent 20 years and 2 Trillion training. That's the Trump Disaster.

In a world where we know that many don't read past the headline, this author arrives at the Trump Disaster 16 paragraphs in: "Trump relentlessly, cluelessly sabotaged peace talks, proclaiming his determination to pull out, and unexpectedly announcing troop reductions."

DARK DIRK PET PEEVE: Why do we give Trump credit for acting "cluelessly" when he ALWAYS does what is best for Putin? He's not clueless. He is conniving and evil and wants to hurt the US.

After Trump sabotaged the original peace talks, he entered into a different agreement with the Taliban - one that did not include the Afghan government or our allies. READ THIS PARAGRAPH

Supposedly the agreement required the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government -- but there was no need for the Taliban to negotiate - the just had to wait until May 2021. Afghani citizens knew immediately they had been sold out.

For Afghani troops, government officials and citizens, they KNEW as of February 2020 that the US was leaving and the Taliban was returning in 2021. They weren't being paid by the Afghan government, so the Taliban bought peace. AS TRUMP and POMPEO WANTED. washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…

This is the Trump Disaster. He intentionally set the table so that the Taliban could take over without hardly firing a shot; without making any concessions and without any delay. Disaster isn't really the right word - it wasn't an accident - TRUMP WANTED THE TALIBAN TO WIN.

And Trump wanted the Taliban to win because he wants Biden to look bad; he wants us to distrust our military and our intelligence services; he wants disputes with our allies. JUST LIKE PUTIN.

Back to Framing that pisses me off: "Biden didn't have to stick with Trump's agreement." Really? The Taliban controlled all Afghan troops, police, regional governments and (we now see) the Afghan president. Biden was supposed to send 30,000 troops back in to defend?

And let's do Putin's bidding and attack intelligence: "It's not only Trump who shares blame. Biden made the wrong decision, but he relied on flawed intelligence analysis." WHO THE FCK KNOWS WHAT INTELLIGENCE WAS GIVEN TO POTUS? Stop.

And sure let's stir fights between women and progressives "Even women's rights activists, anguished about what the Taliban hold has in store for the women of Afghanistan, should look at the role of progressives, who demand an end to US military involvement overseas."

How about no. "So, we will not, should not, deny that the current President failed."

There are a hundred other opinion pieces out there also full of crap. This isn't an accident, and it's not Biden abandoning Afghanis or the mission. This is a Trump/Pompeo/Putin plan of action doing exactly as intended - hurting the US. I hope they are charged with treason.