{"id":79378,"date":"2021-08-30T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=79378"},"modified":"2021-08-30T09:48:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T14:48:01","slug":"the-drones-of-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=79378","title":{"rendered":"The Drones Of August"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my favorite rhetorical easy hits – one I use a lot, but then it’s apposite so very very often – is “I don’t believe so and so intended <\/em>to (implement some current fiasco that so and so is involved with) – but if he did <\/em>intended it, what would he have done differently?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s snarky, but it’s appropriate so very often. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially this past couple of weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m an armchair…well, not “general”. I’m an armchair corporal. But in reading a metric poo-ton of military history, a few things seem fairly elementary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Abandoning Bagram – a highly defensible base with multiple runways and enough residual capacity to support tens of thousands of troops, to say nothing of housing thousands of refugees – in preference to running a combat evacuation out of a single runway on the edge of a hostile city? It’s a little like Churchill evacuating the Royal Navy before the Army at Dunkirk. Stupid. <\/li>
  2. Purging generals and admirals (starting under Obama) that were focused on fighting, and promoting the ones who were onboard with Big Left’s social agenda? Stupid. <\/li>
  3. Making the withdrawal contingent on zero conditions to be obeyed by the enemy? Stupid. <\/li>
  4. Taking a pass on maybe defusing the whole thing long enough to make the evacuation at least nominally orderly, to say nothing of less of a humiliation? <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Wait – what? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    OK, I’ll say it – if Joe Biden and\/or “his” administration were <\/em>trying to humiliate the United State, isolate us from our allies, make us look completely impotent and untrustworthy, what would he be doing different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Too conspiracy-minded? Just an accident, fomented by a senile man? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    had an interesting, and ultimately intensely sobering about Afghanistan with Michael Yon on Satursay. It’s the first half of this hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n