Afghanistan flourished as a monarchy
Monarchies are endemic to the region
The way the Biden Administration chose to withdraw from Afghanistan is undoubtedly a major public policy failure, not only for the United States and the people of Afghanistan but also for the free world.
Equally lamentable is the fact that despite the long American involvement, and notwithstanding American military hardware and training, there was no Afghan institution able to show leadership and strength. Or to coordinate the slightest resistance to this band of evil and dangerous Islamic extremists reassuming their tyrannical dictatorship.
Further, the world may now be looking at the initial development of a base from which terrorism will be launched worldwide, adding Kabul to the emerging Beijing-Moscow-Tehran axis of hostile dictatorial powers.
For many years now, whenever I have talked to an Afghan immigrant and commiserated with the developments in their country, I ask whether there was ever a time when Afghanistan was at peace and great hope reigned.
Without exception, each immigrant referred to the time when King Mohammed Zahir Shah introduced democratic rule, when the country was at peace, when there was economic progress, when women were increasingly liberated, and when education was becoming more accessible. Without hesitation, many referred to this as a golden age.
This reform period began in 1963 when the King dismissed the authoritarian prime minister, his first cousin and brother-in-law, Sardar Muhammad Daoud Kahn.
But ten years later, when the King went to London for an eye operation and was recuperating in Italy, the same Daoud had his revenge, seizing power and proclaiming a one-party republic.
Daoud was killed soon after in a 1978 military coup, and what followed was a Soviet invasion, a communist puppet government, civil war, and eventually a Taliban dictatorship.
Meanwhile, under Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda engaged in attacks on various targets, including US embassies, culminating in the tragedy of 9/11.
In justifiable retaliation, an American-led international coalition ousted the Taliban regime.
When it came to a new Afghan government, a Loya Jirga or grand assembly was held in Kabul in 2002.
But the United States put all its hopes on Hamid Karzai, even though King Mohammed Zahir Shah had strong support from the Afghan delegates. According to one report, he was obliged to publicly renounce any monarchical leadership at the behest of the United States.
Hamid Karzai’s writ never went far, and he was later often referred to derisively as the “Mayor of Kabul.”
He was succeeded by Ashraf Ghani, who vacated the presidential palace as the Taliban advanced and fled the country.
In blocking the return of the King in 2002, the Bush administration rejected the best chance of unifying the country and providing for stability and progress not known in the history of Afghanistan except for his earlier reign.
Although the King was old (he passed away in 2007), as a monarch, he would have instinctively realised that one of his most important tasks would have been to ensure his succession.
What is most commendable about his son, the Crown Prince Ahmad Shah Khan, is that he has never shown any ambition for power, a good prerequisite for a constitutional monarch.
But America, with its failure to back the King and its most recent move to pull out of Afghanistan, has exposed a serious lack of strategic thinking. In fact, it has approach Afghanistan in ways similar, yet different from predecessor, Great Britain.
A benign English-speaking power and a nation under the rule of law, America never hungered for a world empire, if only because she already enjoyed an enormous landmass.
But the shadow of King George III—who lost the colonies during the War of Independence—still curiously hangs over American foreign policy.
U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was wise enough to see that Japan would be ungovernable if the monarchy were not retained after World War II. Accordingly, he refused to order the trial of the Emperor for war crimes.
However, the U.S. has tended at times to reject the concept of a monarchy when helping nations democratise.
This is despite the American constitutional model falling to authoritarianism on several occasions when exported to lands outside the unique, and liberty-loving environment of the U.S.
One example of this goes as far back as France in 1851, which, despite its flirtation with an executive presidency and the second republic, was still converted by Napoleon III into authoritarian rule until he was overthrown in 1870.
But the constitutional monarchical model of democracy, which has been exported globally, has worked well.
All the other Five Eyes partners, the inner circle of America’s allies—the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand―are constitutional monarchies with the one sovereign, Elizabeth II.
Of similar importance, the two most stable Arab countries are monarchies, led by Morocco and Jordan.
Thus it is necessary to ask if America’s bias against a monarchical system has clouded its decisions in the international environment, one that would perhaps have made a nation like Afghanistan stronger.
It is hard to imagine that under such a system, Afghanistan would have seen an unknown and completely untested Hamid Karzai elevated to power.
Nor would the retreat from Kabul be so mishandled that it became a mere surrender to the Taliban.
*************************************
Taliban Fighters Now Well-Equipped for Decades
As if it were not enough that the Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan—imposing its will and murderous tactics on innocent citizens; endangering Americans still present in the country; and complicating efforts to extract Afghans who provided important support, such as translators—it gets worse.
The Taliban has also seized tens of billions of dollars of military equipment and supplies, which were formerly under the control of Afghan security forces. More than $28 billion was spent equipping the Afghans between 2002 to 2017. Expenditures after that are harder to come by, but since deliveries were continuing until just last month, it is safe to assume that the total amount is much more.
Indeed, the Taliban captured essentially all the necessary ingredients to fully equip both an army and an air force, spanning the gamut from 600,000 rifles and machine guns; 76,000 vehicles, such as high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, armored trucks, and pickups; radios, night vision googles, and drones; and 208 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Of equal significance are the amounts of supplies it acquired in the process: millions of rounds of ammunition, spare parts, grenades, uniforms, boots, meals, fuel, and rockets—enough to sustain Taliban military efforts for years.
While some have been concerned about the Taliban’s use of the aircraft left behind, Heritage Foundation senior fellow of defense John Venable recently explained that should not be much of a worry. About 25% of Afghanistan’s air force fled to nearby countries, taken there by fleeing Afghan pilots. The fate of those aircraft is uncertain. “For the aircraft left behind,” said Venable, “lack of spare parts, contract support, and maintenance means few flyable platforms.”
For the same reasons that the Afghan air force was crippled when the Biden administration removed all the contractors who were performing maintenance for these aircraft, the Taliban will also struggle to keep even a few flying. And that assumes it has trained pilots.
Nor do we really need to worry about the capture of this equipment revealing any American military secrets. No advanced technology was captured, like F-35 jet fighters or Patriot missile systems. What the Taliban got was basic stuff—but it was better than what it had—and it got a lot of it.
There are plenty of pictures of Taliban fighters now holding the U.S. military’s latest small arms, such as the M4 carbine or the M16A4 rifle. These are far superior weapons to the AK-47s they had before, many of which dated back to the days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Also worrisome is the reported capture of 16,000 night vision googles, enabling Taliban fighters an equal ability to operate at night, canceling the normal advantage U.S. forces possess in operating during hours of darkness.
There has been some speculation that the U.S. might try to destroy at least some of the high-value equipment left behind, like the helicopters or the attack aircraft. Given, however, the timidity of the administration’s response displayed thus far to the unfolding situation, that seems unlikely. It’s not that it can’t—the U.K., for example, sent 300 elite troops into Kabul to extract its citizens while U.S. forces remain caged up at the Kabul airport.
While the Taliban and other adversaries won’t learn any secrets from the equipment, the seizure means that the Taliban is a vastly better-equipped fighting force than it was two months ago. If the U.S. or any other nation in the future seeks to conduct military operations against it, they would face modern equipment in a firefight, a prospect no soldier relishes.
There is also the distasteful prospect that the Taliban could sell or transfer some of this equipment to transnational terror groups, such as ISIS or al-Qaeda, for them to use against U.S. citizens or partner countries.
Once the Taliban started sweeping across the country, it was too late to do anything to secure this equipment. It was found in hundreds of Afghan military units, depots, and warehouses spread across Afghanistan. Indeed, the die was cast when the decision was made to precipitously remove all U.S. military forces and contract support from the Afghan army—support that previously enabled its air force and Afghan soldiers realized that no help was going to be forthcoming from Kabul.
President Joe Biden ignored human nature when he predicted it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would overrun everything. Of war, Napoleon said, “The moral is to the physical as three to one.” Meaning, even though there were supposedly more than 300,000 members of the Afghan security forces, without morale and confidence, those numbers were meaningless against a determined enemy.
When the contractors keeping Afghan planes in the air and the small but significant presence of U.S. forces were abruptly removed, it created a crisis of confidence that spread like wildfire.
Now, with this mass transfer of military equipment, the Taliban will be a more capable force for years to come. It didn’t have to happen.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/08/20/taliban-fighters-now-well-equipped-for-decades/
*************************************************Christian Seattle homeless mission turns to Supreme Court after ruling strips away employment discretion
Christian group claims it will be unable to continue if it must hire people outside its faith
While homelessness plagues the city of Seattle, one Christian group that looks to help those in need is fighting for the ability to hire those who share its faith and message.
Seattle's Union Gospel Homeless Mission declined to hire an applicant for a staff attorney position who was bisexual and in a relationship with a man – going against the mission's religious lifestyle requirements. It is now turning to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Washington Supreme Court ruled that it violated Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (WLAD). The mission says it is protected by the law's religious exemption.
"Even though Washington’s Title VII analogue expressly excludes nonprofit religious organizations from its definition of ‘employer’ and has done so since the law was passed over 50 years ago, the court held the statutory exemption unconstitutional as applied to a nonprofit that seeks to hire coreligionists – effectively rewriting the law," the mission argued in a petition to Supreme Court filed earlier this month.
The Washington Supreme Court's ruling had narrowed the applicability of the exception for religious nonprofits to a "ministerial exemption," ruling that this does not apply to attorneys. As a result, the mission would not be legally allowed to discriminate against someone for being in a homosexual relationship (the mission also prohibits employees from having premarital sex or engaging in extramarital affairs). The mission argued that it is important even for attorneys who work for it to adhere to and represent its religious message.
"Staff attorneys are the primary contact and form ongoing relationships with Mission clients, collaborating with Mission caseworkers," the petition said. "Like all employees, staff attorneys talk about their faith, often pray with clients, and tell them about Jesus. … They also participate in regular Mission worship services, prayer meetings, staff meetings (including prayer and devotionals), trainings, and other events."
Meanwhile, the mission claims that the applicant, Matthew Woods, only applied in protest after being told of the lifestyle requirement, asking the mission in his cover letter to "change" its practices. Woods said in his application that he was not active in any local church and did not, as the mission required, provide the information for a pastor.
Woods had volunteered for the mission while in law school and signed its statement of faith at the time. When he inquired about the staff attorney position, he disclosed his same-sex relationship and was told that it was a problem. Woods claims that legal work is "wholly unrelated to [the mission's] religious practices or activities" and that the mission is therefore illegally discriminating against him due to his sexual orientation.
The mission argues that requiring it to hire someone who does not share its faith hinders its exercise of religion by taking away its ability to have a consistent ideology.
"The exemption is crucial for free exercise to thrive; after all, a religious nonprofit’s purpose will be undermined if it is forced to hire those who subvert the group’s religious beliefs," it said.
Without the freedom to hire exclusively from its religion, the mission argues it would no longer be able to serve its stated purpose.
"For Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission – which is first and foremost a ‘gospel’ mission – the Washington Supreme Court’s rejection of the coreligionist doctrine is an existential threat," it said. "If the Mission cannot hire coreligionists, it must make the untenable choice of disavowing its faith or ending its evangelization of its homeless neighbors."
As of May, Seattle's homeless population was estimated at roughly 12,000 people.
The issue of religious organizations' ministerial exemption from discrimination lawsuits was at the center of two cases the Supreme Court heard last year. The decision, which covered both cases, broadened the exemption to cover not just clergy members but also other employees who serve religious functions, like teachers at religious schools.
The Supreme Court specifically did not define which jobs were covered by the exception, stating that "what an employee does" matters more than their title.
*********************************************
A New Heyday for Left-Wing Fascism in Latin America
In the 1970s, the Latin American Left played a key role in the destruction of liberal democracy, which it attacked as an instrument of bourgeois domination. In many cases the leftists were so “successful” they helped bring about right-wing military dictatorships.
Half a century later, the Latin American Left has not yet learned the advantages of liberal democracy under the rule of law. Almost everywhere, the Left practices the fascist methods it routinely denounces in others. The Biden administration needs to pay attention.
For example, in recent weeks the Nicaraguan dictatorship has jailed several presidential candidates who sought to challenge Daniel Ortega in the November elections. In Cuba, hordes of thugs have been sent out by President Miguel Díaz-Canel to crush the protests of thousands of Cubans who have been crying for “freedom” on the island.
In Venezuela, FAES, a special unit of the national police accused of torture and executions, has detained Freddy Guevara, a close associate of Juan Guaidó—whom the international community recognizes as Venezuela’s interim president—and raided the latter’s house, threatening to take him prisoner.
In Argentina, not a day goes by without the government of President Alberto Fernández throwing trumped-up accusations against former President Mauricio Macri and other critics of the current regime.
In Mexico, leftist President Andres Manuel López Obrador’s plans to tighten his grip on power, so he could carry out what he calls his “transformation project,” were thwarted by his party’s poor showing in the recent midterm elections. López Obrador’s hope was to obtain a two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies that would allow him to modify the Constitution and seek reelection. His poor performance and the resistance of many Mexicans to his plans have stood in the way.
Even in countries where leftists are not in power, the Left seems incapable of accepting liberal democracy.
In Colombia, President Iván Duque is miraculously alive after an attack on the Black Hawk helicopter in which he and other government officials were traveling. Leftist guerrillas affiliated with the so-called National Liberation Army (ELN) are suspected.
In Chile, savagely violent protests that began in October 2019 and have included the burning of subway stations have forced President Sebastián Piñera to accede to demands for a new Constitution. The objective is to end the liberal democracy and market economy that has made that country the most successful in the region. The Constituent Convention that will draft the new Constitution has 155 members, of which at least 79 are seen as far to the left of the moderate center-left coalition that has guided Chile’s success since its transition to democracy. The first aim of the leftists will be to kill a requirement that it takes a minimum two-thirds vote of Convention delegates to approve each article of the new Constitution. That way the leftists can ram through their illiberal regime.
And in Peru, my native country, the government of President Francisco Sagasti has thrown its support behind Marxist Pedro Castillo, who is preparing to take power on July 28 despite allegations of widespread voting fraud in the recent runoff election against Keiko Fujimori. Castillo has announced that on day one in office he will demand that the Peruvian Congress call a Constituent Assembly to “reform” its Constitution, even though the Constitution requires Congress itself to approve any constitutional reforms. Castillo’s aim, of course, is to install a long-term socialist regime to replace Peru’s liberal democracy.
For the most part, this heyday of left-wing fascism is occurring with the overt and hypocritical complicity of the moderate, social-democratic Left. The only exceptions are the countries where leftist fascists already control government. There, the revolutionaries are actively persecuting members of the moderate, “soft” Left who once supported them.
Elsewhere, there is nothing in Latin America today to block the revolutionary Marxists from seizing power. The liberal, democratic Left, out of opportunism or moral cowardice, has given up confronting the extreme, fascist Left.
https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13663&omhide=true
****************************************My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
*****************************************
/>
Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
No comments:
Post a Comment