WAR IS HELL AND UGLY TOO

War is hell. War is ugly. Countries have armies trained to fight wars. They have material and munitions for that purpose. It seems to me that there is always a war going on somewhere in the world. 

 

We have learned some things over the years about war. The first, and most important, is that there are no ties in war. There are winners and there are losers. And the only way a war ends is when a winner and a loser have been clearly decided. Any other situation doesn't end a war, it only prolongs it. There are tribes in the Middle East of people who have been fighting each other for thousands of years with no end in sight.

 

Even religions aren't exempt. Different sects fight other sects over interpretation of tenets and beliefs. 

 

War, then, is a reality of life. 

 

America, of course, is not exempt from war. We have had to defend our way of life and our borders for generations. We also have been allied with other countries to help defend them. In many cases we have decided to help other countries establish democracy, whether they like it or not. We call it "nation building". 

 

It used to be our policy that, if we chose to get into war, to win that war. That ended in Vietnam. The liberal media was relentless. They apparently decided that we had to get out of Vietnam. So the liberal, weenie, politicians cut and ran. You remember the people hanging onto helicopters trying to get out of Saigon. That was an embarrassing time for me and many Americans. 

 

Now we have Afghanistan. To me Afghanistan has no more value than Vietnam. But they both were important enough to send troops and untold millions in treasure and arms. Twenty years later, we were still there, fighting an endless war. It has been endless because we decided rather than fight and win, we would instead try to build a nation. An obvious mistake.

 

Because of political pressure, our cowardly politicians again decided to cut and run. We didn't win, we just called it a tie. Remember though, there are no ties in war. Just winners and losers. It is pretty obvious to me and probably the rest of the world that, in this war, we are the losers.  

 

There are literally thousands of people, Americans and our supporters, left abandoned by our decision to leave. They cannot get out. The Taliban has closed all of the roads to the airport. 

 

I was recently asked how I would handle this situation. That's pretty easy. I would immediately surround the airport with our troops. I would then announce for all to hear that we will eliminate any opposition on the streets, especially Taliban check points, with whatever arms and munitions necessary. I would then keep those roads empty of Taliban until all who wanted out were out. 

 

The Taliban head goat-herder announced that August 31 was a deadline for our troops to be out of Afghanistan. He said it was a red line for them. If I were in charge, I would show him what a red line looked like, and I don't think he would like it. He seems to have forgotten he is dealing with America. We set red lines, not the other way around. I just hope Biden doesn't forget.    

 

Remember this, President Biden, we never leave any of our people behind. Everybody gets out. There is no other moral alternative. I don't give a hoot about that rat hole country. But I do care about our people. The Biden Administration made the decision to cut and run. If they leave anybody behind, impeachment proceedings must begin immediately.

 

Ron Scarbro August 23, 2021