Because you are a rational human being, you learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them the next time you’re faced with the same set of circumstances.
To
put it differently, if all you have is a rickety car, and you’re driving on a
road that’s full of potholes and broken glass, and if the car breaks down, you
call for a tow truck to come and pull it out of there. You have the car
repaired, and you resume the journey to your destination using a different
road. What you avoid doing is get back on the road that did not serve you well
the last time.
This
sounds so simple and logical, you’d think the story ends here, right? Wrong.
The story may sound simple to you but not to the simpletons. It may sound
logical to you but not to those driven by illogic. Not only do these people
advise that you should take the car to where you started the journey on the old
road, and try again, they want you to believe that what happened to your car on
that road, is the reason why you should repeat the journey that almost doomed
you and your car.
That’s
crazy, you must be thinking by now. And you’re asking: What kind of a stupid
story is this? Well, let me tell you this: it may be a stupid story, but it is
not all that unrealistic. Do you want to read someone tell you in his own words,
this is what America must do? If that’s a yes, read the article that came under
the title: “What Biden must do in Afghanistan,” written by Lee Scott
Lingamfelter, and published on August 24, 2021 in The Washington Times. You’ll
see the great similarities that exist between the fictional story narrated
above, and the reality of what Lingamfelter is advising.
To
get away with what he’s about to say, Lingamfelter used a well-known old trick.
That is, before he began making his point, he stunned his audience as if
injecting it with a sedative. He then proceeded to say that he knows something
neither President Biden nor the audience knows. It is that he can read the
minds of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda operatives.
Lee
Scott Limgamfelter knew what this will do to the audience. He knew that no one
will dare challenge him, and no one will second guess him because, true or
false, no one can make the same kind of claim, therefore no one will be
audacious enough to make it. He thus paved the way for himself to shoot the
crap all he wants without someone pushing back, and so he did. He told the
world and President Biden what he wants to see done in Afghanistan. The
following is a summary of his wish list:
“Mr. Biden’s plan to end this long
war was devoid of comprehensive thinking. He has consistently held
to his view that his approach to
the Afghanistan withdrawal is right. It is wrong and it requires
an immediate change of course. Here is what he should do: Declare that the
withdrawal is now conditions-based and that all timelines are no longer in
force. Order Bagram Air Base be retaken along with other strategic and tactical
facilities. Authorize the military to deploy whatever force is needed to
stabilize the situation, including airpower. Direct the Pentagon to begin
rescue operations for any US citizen stranded in Afghanistan. Demand that
the Taliban dismantle its checkpoints in Kabul within 24 hours, before the US
compels them to do so with military action. Finally, Mr. Biden should call for
an immediate NATO summit to reestablish an allied stabilization force
in Afghanistan”.
Well,
my friend, you don’t need to be a genius to see that what this does, is resume
the war that has lasted twenty years already, and has yielded nothing but a
four-wheeler that lost its wheels racing against itself on a road plagued with as
many potholes as there are holes in a Lingamfelter essay.
Still,
it cannot be said that the writer was not aware of what he was asking President
Joe Biden to do. He knew it, and the proof is that he did what charlatans
normally do to confuse the audience as to who is engaged in wishful thinking.
In fact, the signs are all here that Lee Lingamfelter has looked in the mirror,
has identified all that makes him a “forever warmonger,” and has attributed
what he saw that’s wrong with himself, to Joe Biden. Here, in condensed form, is
how that went:
“Unfortunately, Mr. Biden’s
predisposition is to pretend. He will continue to cite a litany of events, to
suggest that the situation is well in hand. He has been consistently wrong on
foreign policy issues for his entire adult life. His doleful record
remains splendidly intact. His advisors must press for a change in thinking.
Congress must act to demand a stabilization plan of action. That includes
positioning an allied coalition anti-terror force in Afghanistan for
the foreseeable future. A complete withdrawal in the face of a Taliban takeover
was never a wise strategy. Especially now with Mr. Biden’s irresponsible and
unjustified hardheadedness”.
Looking at this kind of performance makes you wish there were a genie who could blink and make all the mirrors of the world disappear for a year. This would spare us, for that length of time, the performance of all those who look in the mirror and attribute to others the dreadful things they see in themselves.