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🇺🇸 Two Years After The Takeover

🇺🇸 Two Years After The Takeover

Plus, a pyramid rises from the soil.

August 17, 2023

Good morning, and happy Thursday. A British powerlifter with Down Syndrome is a walking, pressing, squatting inspiration to all who watch him compete, and he’s just bagged the 5th gold medal of his career.

Plus, a large hexagonal step pyramid has been discovered in the most unlikely place: the grassy steppes of Kazakhstan.

Also, forget the SmartPhone market… the EarnPhone market sounds a lot smarter to us.

QUICK CLICKS

Maui’s Power Lines, Travis King Detained, Churches Attacked in Pakistan

US: Role of power lines scrutinized in Maui wildfires that left at least 106 people dead (CNN)

US: North Korea offers the first official confirmation that it has detained US soldier Travis King (AP)

US: Raided Kansas newspaper to have seized items returned after search warrant is withdrawn (NBC News)

US: Appeals court imposes restrictions on abortion pill, but drug will stay on the market for now (CNBC)

World: Muslim mob attacks churches in Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran (NBC News)

World: Ukraine claims it has retaken key village from Russians as counteroffensive grinds on (CBS News)

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Two Years After The Takeover

This month will mark two years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, overtaking the former Afghan government as Western troops pulled out.

Reporting from the Left: Two years on from Taliban takeover, Afghan women are being ‘erased from everything’ (CNN)

Reporting from the Right: Taliban marks 2-year anniversary of return to power in Afghanistan, hails 'great victory' (FOX News)

From The Flag: The withdrawal from Afghanistan has been largely met with disfavor. A lot of criticism has focused on the resurgence of the Taliban, the consequences for women’s rights, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Others have focused their attention on the Biden administration's inadequate handling of the situation. Here’s what both sides are saying two years later.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Mixed: Women and Children Will Suffer. It Needed to Be Done. Everyone Is To Blame.

There is concern that a second withdrawal from Afghanistan is underway, a withdrawal of humanitarian relief.
The process of leaving Afghanistan was poorly executed, but it had to be done given the amount of time, resources, and human lives lost over 2 decades.
Former President Donald Trump entered into an ill-conceived agreement with the Taliban, and President Joe Biden carried it out.

Two years on, we fear that a second withdrawal Afghanistan is under way Stephen Lockley et al., The Guardian: “Nearly 29 million Afghans are now in need of lifesaving assistance and more than 15 million face acute hunger. The effects of this fall disproportionately on women and girls, with UN experts estimating that 20 years of progress for women and girls’ rights has been erased since the Taliban takeover. … In the context of diplomatic isolation, organizations like ours have been left as the only link between most ordinary Afghans and the international community. Millions in Afghanistan have received lifesaving assistance from our organizations and partnerships in 2023 alone. We have been able to do this because of the resources made available by governments and our supporters all over the world. Yet we are gravely concerned that a second withdrawal from Afghanistan is under way: a withdrawal of the resources available to relieve this desperate situation.”

How we left Afghanistan was wrong. But leaving was right. Henry Olsen, The Washington Post: “The rapid withdrawal by the United States from Afghanistan nearly two years ago was unquestionably bungled, as a recent scathing review shows. It was nevertheless the right strategic decision, as subsequent events have painfully demonstrated. The chaotic and tragic nature of the final retreat obscures the circumstances that led to the decision to withdraw. The United States had been engaged in a war with the Taliban for roughly 20 years. The country spent nearly $838 billion on military and reconstruction efforts, yet things were at a stalemate. Washington and its Afghan and NATO allies were preventing the Taliban from gaining control of most of the nation’s cities but faced increasing pressure in the more populous countryside. This situation was still costing about $45 billion a year and the deployment of 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. military personnel.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: How Trump made one of ‘the worst diplomatic agreements’ in US history and how Biden carried it out Peter Bergen and Laura Tillman, CNN

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Biden Botched It and Hasn’t Been Held Accountable

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticized Biden, stating he should be held accountable for the deaths of 13 Americans in Kabul.
Biden’s lack of planning “had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security.”
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) accused the Biden administration of having caved to “terrorists” and taken no accountability.

Nikki Haley scorches Biden on 2-year anniversary of Afghanistan withdrawal: 'World is less safe' Lawrence Richard (FOX News): “Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor…said on Tuesday the world is ‘less safe’ than it was two years ago before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, effectively handing over control of the country to the Taliban. She also suggested President Biden should be personally held accountable for the withdrawal as 13 Americans – 11 Marines, one Army soldier and one Navy personnel – were killed during an attack on the Kabul airport in August 2021. ‘Two years after the fall of Kabul and Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the world is less safe, our enemies are emboldened, and our allies are questioning America’s commitments,’ a statement from her presidential campaign said. … She added: ‘To date, no one has taken responsibility for the botched withdrawal. No one has been fired, and no one replaced. The families of the 13 murdered service members can’t even get basic answers about what happened.’”

State Department Finally Admits In Heavily Redacted Report That Biden Botched The Afghanistan Withdrawal Jordan Boyd, The Federalist: “President Joe Biden’s State Department, which previously hesitated to criticize the White House’s Afghanistan withdrawal, released a damning report…detailing the Democrat’s failure to properly terminate decades of U.S. presence in the Middle Eastern country. For two years now, Biden repeatedly tried to dodge responsibility for the hasty and harrowing troop removal that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and stranded thousands of Americans, U.S. allies, and their families. The State Department’s unclassified review, which is less than two dozen pages long due to redactions, sheepishly confirms that President Joe Biden’s ultimate execution of the withdrawal “‘posed significant challenges for the Department.’ … To put it simply, Biden’s rushing ‘compounded the difficulties the Department faced in mitigating the loss of the military’s key enablers,’ and his lack of planning ‘had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security.’”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Rep. Waltz Pans Biden for Taking ‘Zero’ Accountability as Taliban Celebrates Two Years Since ‘Disaster’ Withdrawal Joshua Klein, Breitbart

FLAG THIS

Half of Americans Against the War

Last year, one year after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, 50% of Americans said the US made a mistake in sending troops to the country in the first place, while 46% say it did not.

This is in stark contrast to the beginning of the war, which was a direct response to the September 11 attacks, when 89% said in 2002 that it was not a mistake to send troops. (Gallup).

Looking back, do you think the United States made a mistake sending troops to fight in Afghanistan in 2001, or not?

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

Transatlantic Balloon, Salary Negotiation, Vending Machines Invasion

The Double Eagle II

On This Day in 1978: The Double Eagle II completes the first transatlantic balloon flight when it lands in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Presque Isle, Maine. The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey.

Lifehacker: Use These Phrases When Negotiating Your Salary

Good Housekeeping: How to Adopt the Japanese Approach to Accepting Life’s Challenges, “Ukeireru”

Slate: Jobs Are for Humans

Today I learned Japan has a ratio of one vending machine for every 30 people.

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