The recent Congressional omnibus bill meant to establish the national budget going forward had budgeting for resupply of the Israeli Iron Dome System intercepting missiles maliciously removed. Israel exchanged the targeting software and other engineering developments used by Iron Dome Systems for America manufacturing and supplying of Iron Dome System intercepting missiles for Israel. The weapon systems, communication-control equipment, associated military equipment and thousands of rounds of ammunition left in Afghanistan by retreating American military to provide the governing body, the Taliban, an effective military, supersedes what Congress provides for sale to Israel annually, or even a decade’s worth, including the above referenced Iron Dome System missiles. We stress these missiles for the Iron Dome System is precisely because this defensive system intercepts approximately ninety percent of incoming rockets and missiles determined to strike in or near developed regions while allowing those striking open country to strike these predominantly empty regions. Israel requires assistance in manufacture of these missiles and has worked with Raytheon for the manufacture at a level difficult to produce in Israel. Each missile costs approximately fifty to one-hundred thousand shekels each but are worth every shekel as they save something far more precious, people’s lives. Further, we figure it is simply a matter of time before President Biden and the Congress refuse all aid to Israel in order to fully arm and provide for their new Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Iron Dome Launch
Iron Dome Launch
Israel is considering recalling our ambassador from the United States in protest much as France, the longest standing American ally since the Revolution against the British Crown, has already done. We will most likely settle for a tersely worded note to someone, who will ignore it, at the State Department, enough done. From our experience, many Israelis believe that Israel needs not just the backing and protection provided by the United States, especially in the Security Counsel with one glaring exception, but is also dependent on United States military aid. The fortunate news is Israel thrives and is better served by providing completely for all production of our military needs. Our auricle, replete with graphs, provides a strong argument for Israel pursuing such a policy of all military equipment being homemade with intended alacrity. This would have an adverse effect on the American arms industries, both through the competition for sales and the loss of revenue as Israel must spend her aid on American made arms. Iron Dome missile resupply is not allowed as part of those sales should Congressional Democrats get their way. Israel manufacture of her own weapons in a measured procession is preferable to the United States cutting the aid forcing Israel to go cold turkey.
Writing about the United States withdrawal, more resembling dismal surrender, from the twenty-year-war in Afghanistan is going to be difficult as a United States Army veteran, as a human being viewing great suffering, and as a citizen of one of the nations potentially placed into danger of increasing terrorism. Almost every single update reveals new information about who knew what and when, who ordered such a large amount of top-line military equipment to be surrendered to the Taliban and other acts of incompetent malfeasance. Even listing each and every failure over the last six-weeks, if not six-months, is next to impossible as they are legion. Still, there are the few errors which are so far beyond the pale that they stick out head and shoulders above the rest, and we will examine a few errors and ramifications of the Biden pullout from Afghanistan.
Probably the greatest of tactical military blunders is the surrendering of Bagram Air Base which led directly to the liberation of Parwan Detention Facility and the thousands of terrorists and America’s enemies detained therein. The release of these ‘people of interest’ into a population where they can melt away only to form-up and plot attacks on the Western World, Israel and especially opposing Arab and Islamic nations not following the Taliban version of strict Shariah should be a concern for everyone. Also, about the surrender of Bagram Air Base also muted any ability for immediate responses to any situation using air power. This was probably the second largest reason for the apparent chaos around Kabul International Airport and its single runway. Bagram Air Base, by comparison, has a pair of longer runways and is located centered in open area making defense far superior to the situation in central Kabul. Lastly, the majority of plans provided to President Biden included retaining the Bagram Air Base in order to retain deterrence against the reforming of the terror groups including but not limited to ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban and project real power for any future situations including terrorist plots to attack the American mainland.
Hamid Karzai International Airport Last Call in Afghanistan
We have read about how military advantage after advantage surrendered away by President Biden gave the appearance that the obvious ineptness was intentional. The Taliban rapidly and steadily took control of regions including numerous major cities and regional capitals. Refusing to retain control of Kabul, the American plan was to hold only the airport and surrender control over who reached Kabul International Airport to the Taliban. This led directly to the catastrophic terror bombing at one of the gates killing thirteen American service heroes and nearly two-hundred Afghanis including numerous children while injuring numbers beyond those reported by the media. As far as many could ascertain, the sole overarching motivation pressing decisions made during the withdrawal appeared to be which is the fastest means to get all military forces back to the Embassy and Kabul International Airport, subsequently only the airport after losing the Embassy. These plans were the reason there was no pushback to the Taliban advance and performed with such urgency that a vacuum was left in the wake of the withdrawal allowing for the collapse of all Afghani forces who were being denied the necessary air cover and support they depended upon.
The most egregious malfeasance was leaving United States citizens, and to a slightly less extent our Afghan allies and translators, behind on the ground and behind Taliban enemy lines. There should have been numerous escort squads of United States Rangers allowed to go out into the Taliban controlled regions in order to bring every last American out who desired to leave Afghanistan. Please do not believe the mistruths and propaganda which claims that only one or two-hundred Americans remaining in Afghanistan under total Taliban and other terror groups rule as the math does not balance. We were initially informed that ten to fifteen thousand American citizens remained in Afghanistan desiring to be taken home as promised by American Military Code. Only orders from the Commander in Chief, General of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense or Central Command in the Pentagon would allow for such actions. Now the United States Military, one of if not the finest in the world, has to wear the stain of leaving Americans behind to the tender mercies of the Taliban, et al. The only pertinent item affecting us directly is the placing of ourselves and all Israelis in greater danger of renewed and rejuvenated terror attacks from Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Sinai Peninsula, Syria, Jordan or from the Mediterranean Sea. Further, the weaponry, including combat vehicles, C17’s, Blackhawk Helicopters, machine guns, armored vehicles, night vision scopes, sniper rifles and unbelievable amounts of other material and supporting materials as all of Bagram Air Base was left completely intact will be used against the free world. There are and were so many egregious blunders committed during the withdrawal and ensuing vetting of thousands of Afghanis who had received no clearance or even background checks, that it pains us to even think about the entirety of the Afghanistan disaster, let alone writing about them. Thus, we will allow the news, for the time being, to try and ignore Afghanistan as if it occurred years ago.
President Biden has displayed a near complete disconnect from the actual events and situations facing American citizens, as well as those Afghanis who aided American and Allied operations during the two decades of the Afghan operations. President Biden has spoken of rescue operations as going smoothly and being expedited with every resource available. Unfortunately for all involved, having an invested interest or even the slightest curiosity about the ongoing and changing situation in Afghanistan; the Administration spokespersons have displayed near complete ignorance of the actual situation on the ground replacing reality with their own so very optimistic and beautified fairytale of how their presumed perfect plan is working. Reality is nothing is being accomplished with any real urgency and those trapped outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul have no means for reaching withing a mile of the airport before being intercepted by Taliban demanding to see their passport. Anybody showing an American, British, French, German passport or an Afghani with a valid visa will have their paperwork destroyed, their group detained, tortured and eventually executed. President Biden has repeatedly thanked and praised the Taliban for their assistance facilitating the aid in the removal of western, specifically American, citizens and their Afghan allies to the airport catching flights to safety.
Taliban Take Over Afghan Presidential Palace
Let us look at the reality vacant from President Biden and his Administration, the grim reality now and going forward. The immediate situation is an airport where pandemonium rages as distressed, panicked, desperate, frightened, frantic Afghanis are caught between the walls defending the airport and the layers of Taliban checkpoints immediately behind them keeping them pressed tight leading to numerous deaths daily. President Biden promised the Taliban that all United States military and civilian personnel will be removed from Afghanistan by the end of August. Well, August 31, 2021 is merely less than one week away and there are no signs of a coordinated plan to reach and escort every, or any, American citizens to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and onto a flight to safety. Numerous private religious and humanitarian organizations have reported the near complete lack of assistance, providing they even take your call, by the United States State Department who are unable to provide any path back to civilization. All appearances point to the Biden Administration efforts, or lack thereof, to achieve the results they have declared as their target date of August 31 for the removal of all American personnel and their families, as well as all the Afghanis who worked closely being essential for operations in Afghanistan, out of the country and relocating them somewhere they will have safety.
So, what happens on dawn September 1, 2021, to any Americans still hunkered down spread around all of Afghanistan? The Taliban and allied terror organizations, such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Caliphate, will proceed in a house to house, apartment to apartment, room to room search for remaining Americans. These extremely unfortunate individuals, presumable as many as twenty thousand American citizens and uncountable Afghanis who are even suspect of assisting the Americans and especially the women of Afghanistan who had become accustomed to the freedoms provided their nation for the past two decades, will be facing, at best, being held as hostages; at worst, tortured to death by the most inhumane means or immediately being shot to death, beheaded or stoned to death as dictated by the Taliban interpretation of Sharia from the Quran. President Biden has stated that the August 31 deadline may require an adjustment into September but the Taliban is insisting the United States honor their August 31 promise to be completely out of Afghanistan. We fear that President Biden will order the last troops left at the airport board what will be the last plane out for Americans sometime that afternoon, we predict that final departure will take place between 14:00 hours and 15:30 hours leaving significantly more than ten thousand Americans remaining trapped behind enemy lines.
America has been embarrassed on the world stage and will be unable to regain lost trust until all new leadership comes to Washington. The earliest this can come to fruition is January 21, 2025 when possibly a new President will be sworn into office. Until we see such a change in leadership, America will not be trusted by allies and fully trusted by America’s enemies not to impede or even protest loudly any action by them no matter how absolutely grotesque the reports of these degradations, executions and sham trials where confessions are gained by torture. The one saving grace is that Americans and the American fighting men, women and others, especially the K-9 corps; have not lost their reputation as amongst, if not, the finest fighting force on the planet. The American military leadership, the nine-hundred-plus Generals and Admirals, are the military disgrace who have completely undercut the enlisted fighting forces, not even allowing soldiers to volunteer and go outside the wire and bring home Americans frozen with fear while hunkering down anywhere but in their homes to the airport to a flight to freedom, as the Taliban has gained all pertinent information of those known to be in Afghanistan including cell phone numbers and home addresses. We full heartedly fear President Biden and his inept ship of fools will ignore the predicament they are causing in Afghanistan and the cost will be far too many Americans in addition to the Afghanis who were promised they would be taken out as part of any American withdrawal. We wish this was actually a withdrawal as that would include structures and means for bringing everybody, Afghani and American, out and to places of safety. Instead, we have a boondoggle where no organized system exists nor is there a means for vetting people at the airport and the people pressing the gates crush to death near to a dozen people each day. The pulling back of all American forces to the Hamad Karzai International Airport under the cover of darkness in the midst of the night without warning or informing anybody including the commanders of other forces nationwide was a complete betrayal of trust. Be prepared for hundreds upon hundreds of Western workers rounded up by the Taliban for public humiliation to empower further the supremacy of the Taliban over the United States. Scenes reminiscent of the tortures of captured soldiers during the Syrian civil war will probably return with Americans, Afghanis and potentially Europeans will be the victims of the most heinous torturers on earth. All the horrors will probably be held-off while hundreds and hundreds, possibly thousands, will be held to be tortured and then executed cruelly on September 11, 2021; their way of celebrating the highpoint of Islamic terrorism, 9/11/2001, the date of the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and another unknown target as the airplane was brought down by its America passengers preventing further terror against the Capital of America: financial, military and civilian governance. This may well be saddest anniversary of the horrors of 9/11 and the loss of almost three-thousand Americans and other countries’ citizens’ lives as it may well be filled with news alerts of ever-increasing cruelty and evil as Western civilians may well be treated most unkindly resulting inevitability in their deaths being smeared across television screens around the world. May our fears never be realized and those innocents trying to escape Afghanistan and Taliban rule by their stringent interpretation of Sharia find safe passage preferably by America and her allies. Should this become obviously a failed policy and no rescue is forthcoming, we advise these refugees to make efforts to cross out of Afghanistan and into Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Tajikistan while avoiding Taliban and supporting countries such as Pakistan and Iran specifically.
Beyond the Cusp 