What is humiliation? Here is one answer to that question: When you have the right to something, and you are prevented from having it by someone stronger than yourself, you are made to feel lesser than you deserve to be. This is humiliation.
On the other hand, if you have no right to
something, and you try to take it but are prevented from doing so by someone
stronger than yourself, you must not feel humiliated. If, however, you do feel
humiliated regardless, it proves that you have been deluded by those advising
you or by an act of self-deception.
Now this question: Has America been
humiliated by the fact that it was forced to end its occupation of Afghanistan
and evacuate it troops out of there in a hurry? Because America did not have
the right to be in Afghanistan past the time when it had avenged the 9/11
attack on the New York Twin Towers – being pushed out of Afghanistan by its
people does not constitute a humiliation.
On the other hand, whether America likes it
or not, whether it will admit it or not, the superpower has been living, and
continues to live in a state of humiliation by the fact that it is letting
itself be advised by people whose agenda is to use it like a beast of burden
and a cash cow to promote the theft of Palestine and maintain the genocide of the
Palestinian people by a crime syndicate that is so virulent, it has been hunted
down throughout space and time by all of humanity.
One of those advising America on how to
humiliate itself, is Clifford D. May. He founded an outfit and gave it the
comical name of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to do nothing but pounce
on every opportunity that appears anywhere in the world, and tell America
what’s the best way to make itself feel puny if it does not serve Israel the
way that a sex slave serves the private needs of his slave master.
May’s latest advice to America came in the
form of a column written under the title: “Taliban calls the shots as America’s
humiliation continues,” and published on August 31, 2021 in The Washington Times.
The writer’s use of the word “humiliation” in
the title, and “humiliate” in the text, and the way that he described how
America was made to evacuate Afghanistan, are his way to suggest that America should
have felt small when, in reality, it should not have because there was no
reason to feel small. The following is a compilation of the passages, presented
here in condensed form, in which the writer has falsely described how America
was made to feel small:
“‘The answer is no,’ was the response of a
Taliban spokesman to a reporter who asked if the US might be permitted
more time to evacuate. He was issuing an edict to the United States. A few days
later, the Islamic State launched an attack at the Kabul airport killing 13
American troops. The Taliban and the Islamic State have theological and
strategic differences but similar goals. That makes them more like rivals. The
American troops withdrawn from Afghanistan had not been engaged in direct
ground combat since 2015. Instead, a small, residual force was preventing
the Taliban from reconquering the country”.
Well, expecting that an extension of time
will be granted to do a job, and being told no, is not a humiliation. It
happens all the time, but for Clifford May to consider it a Taliban edict to
America, is May’s problem, not that of America or the Taliban. As to the
Islamic State launching an attack that killed American troops, this might have
been considered a humiliating slap in the face, except for the fact that the
two antagonists have been at war for some time, and war is more merciless than
it is humiliating.
As to the Taliban and the Islamic State
having theological and strategic differences but similar goals, is strictly the
business of the Taliban and the Islamic State, not of Clifford May or that of
America. As to the American troops not being engaged in combat for a while,
this was due to the fact that the troops were reduced in number, and kept
hidden from the view of the Taliban.
In addition to all this, the previous administration
was forced to negotiate the withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, having
realized that the Taliban were preparing to launch a “Tet Offensive” style
attack that would have replicated the Vietnamese “Hamburger Hill” operation in
which American troops were slaughtered without mercy. This was the attack that
paved the way for the Saigon spectacle, a veritable humiliation of America,
unlike what happened in Afghanistan.
Ignoring
these realities, is what allows Clifford May, and others like him, to spew
rivers of falsehoods and fantastic interpretations of the situation that was on
the ground. Here is one such instance:
“The modest US military presence
in Afghanistan was essential to our Afghan allies. Their forces may
not have been all that they could be, but they were fighting and shedding blood
by the tens of thousands. They were succeeding in confining
the Taliban to the country’s backwaters”.
If true, the Afghan troops would have
defended Kabul, the biggest and most important capital in the country, but they
did not. What they did instead was put down their weapons and raise the white
flag of surrender, which is what they have been doing for twenty years
throughout Afghanistan.
What Clifford May has uttered is rubbish of the kind that the Pentagon used to put out in Vietnam, and has been putting out in Afghanistan. Nobody believes it anymore.