So what is the real deal about Afghanistan? For some reason, the news that bends right and those that lean left have been extremely critical of President Joe Biden. So maybe we should go to someone who really knows what is going on, because the news seems to be missing the point.
A once a Marine always a Marine Lucas Kunce wrote an opinion piece in The Kansas City Star. And he had a more realistic take on the whole evacuation process:
‘What happened last week was inevitable, and anyone saying differently is still lying to you. The only way out is to level with the American people. I’ll start. With the two-sentence truth about what we are seeing in Afghanistan right now.’
A native of Jefferson City, Missouri, Kunce is running for longtime Senator Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) seat. He dug right into the heart of the Afghan situation by summing up what “politicians, elites, and D.C. military leaders” were doing, as The Washington Post described. The plainspoken Marine said that he could sum up the whole situation in two sentences:
‘What we are seeing in Afghanistan right now shouldn’t shock you. It only seems that way because. It doesn’t require a dissertation to explain what you’re seeing. Just two sentences.’
The first was:
‘For 20 years, politicians, elites, and D.C. military leaders lied to us about Afghanistan.’
Then, Kunce added the second sentence:
‘Two: What happened last week was inevitable, and anyone saying differently is still lying to you.’
The problem has been, he said, that “our institutions are steeped in systematic dishonesty.” And how does he know this? He said:
‘I know because I was there. Twice. On special operations task forces. I learned Pashto as a U.S. Marine captain and spoke to everyone I could there: everyday people, elites, allies and yes, even the Taliban.’
And here was the truth:
‘The truth is that the Afghan National Security Forces was a jobs program for Afghans, propped up by U.S. taxpayer dollars — a military jobs program populated by nonmilitary people or “paper” forces (that didn’t really exist) and a bevy of elites grabbing what they could when they could.’
But it was not just Afghanistan. These elites “also lied about Iraq:”
‘I led a team of Marines training Iraqi security forces to defend their country. When I arrived I received a “stoplight” chart on their supposed capabilities in dozens of missions and responsibilities. Green meant they were good. Yellow was needed improvement; red said they couldn’t do it at all.’
On paper, everything looked good. But it was not:
‘I was delighted to see how far along they were on paper — until I actually began working with them. I attempted to adjust the charts to reflect reality and was quickly shut down. The ratings could not go down. That was the deal. It was the kind of lie that kept the war going.’
When people ask the Marine if getting out of Afghanistan in 2021 was the right call, he responded:
‘So when people ask me if we made the right call getting out of Afghanistan in 2021, I answer truthfully: Absolutely not. The right call was getting out in 2002. 2003. Every year we didn’t get out was another year the Taliban used to refine their skills and tactics against us — the best fighting force in the world. After two decades, $2 trillion, and nearly 2,500 American lives lost, 2021 was way too late to make the right call.’
The Kunce pointed his finger to where the fault lay:
‘I can’t believe that would be a controversial proposal, but already in Washington, we see some of the same architects of these Middle Eastern disasters balking at the idea of investing a fraction of that amount to build up our own country.’
Then, the Senate candidate explained that it was not just the lies:
‘The lies about Afghanistan matter not just because of the money spent or the lives lost, but because they are representative of a systematic dishonesty that is destroying our country from the inside out.’
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
