Afghanistan – Don Boys https://donboys.cstnews.com Common Sense for Today Sun, 05 Mar 2023 04:46:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.29 Did Putin Throw Biden a Political Lifeline or an Anchor? https://donboys.cstnews.com/did-putin-throw-biden-a-political-lifeline-or-an-anchor https://donboys.cstnews.com/did-putin-throw-biden-a-political-lifeline-or-an-anchor#respond Wed, 09 Mar 2022 15:45:43 +0000 http://donboys.cstnews.com/?p=3042  

When Russian Communist Dictator Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he may have thrown Joe Biden a political lifeline. Or maybe an iron anchor. Biden’s approval ratings were in the basement, inflation steadily climbed, the southern border was overrun by illegal aliens, and desperate Democrats announced their retirement like rats jumping from a sinking ship. You know, to spend more time with the family.

Those Democrats had visions of a massive defeat in 2022 and 2024. Maybe they were premature now that we have a war in Europe. The old political adage is you don’t change politicians in the middle of a war—especially a possible world war. However, the U.S. is far from Europe, but that’s another issue.

If Biden is smart, the U.S. will stay out of another European war. We can support Ukraine and pressure others to do so, but let Europeans do most of the spending and all the fighting. After all, isn’t that the reason for the United Nations? If not, then what? No one elected America to be the protector, provider, and parent of the world.

It would be especially unwise for us to fight a war with foreign commies supported by U.S.  parlor pinks, fellow travelers, and media moguls. This will be Biden’s theme song during the next two years: Trust me to stand up to tyrants and lead us safely to peace in our time.

Communism is a political and economic philosophy (some would also say a religion) that calls for a classless society in which everyone shares everything equally. However, as history has proved, equally doesn’t mean equal. Communist leaders, as cunning killers controlling the economy, lived a life of luxury compared to the hoi polloi in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Communism failed in every instance.

When the Soviet Union fell on December 25, 1991, many American pundits spoke of the “death of communism” in the old Soviet Union and their new “freedom.” But the death of Communism was greatly exaggerated.

The Soviet Union’s economic, political, and internal difficulties had festered for decades, and death was inevitable. The Soviet Union was dying on the vine, but they drove their tanks and newest weapons through Red Square in the Kremlin on May 1 of each year even though they couldn’t afford the gas to run them. Furthermore, Russia doesn’t have a Costco or Sam’s. And from the videos of the Ukraine invasion, it seems some of the soldiers may be too young to have a driver’s license.

However, full speed ahead, after all, war turns boys into men. No, war turns live boys into dead boys.

By February 1989, the Soviets had fled from Afghanistan like an aging philanderer jumping from a second-floor bedroom window ahead of an angry, armed, advancing husband. The failed Soviet occupation (1979 to 1989) to shore up the pro-Soviet regime was an incredible drain on the Soviet war budget.

The Soviets installed their puppet, Mohammad Najibullah, in Kabul and promised future aid against the radical Mujahadeen (“those who engage in jihad”) whom the U.S. continued to support in the civil war between radical Muslim warlords. Two major groups, the Taliban and Mujahideen, gained acceptance having originated when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and forcibly occupied it for ten years.

Soviet aid stopped in January 1992, consequently, the Afghan air force could not purchase fuel for their planes. The U.S. and Pakistan supplied the Muslim warlords with economic and military weapons, one of the reasons a third-world county managed to chase the mighty Soviet Union out of the nation in disgrace.

When the Taliban took control of Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1994, people soon realized that the Taliban were not benign rulers since they brutally punished those who did not follow Sharia laws.

The Taliban had been in power and governing Kabul, Afghanistan since 1996 when the U.S. in 2001 declared war on the nation. Two months after the U.S. dropped its first bombs on Afghanistan, the Taliban was defeated and forced to flee Kabul on December 6, 2001.

The Soviets had promised “absolutely all of the military infrastructure would be handed over to the DRA armed forces” when the Soviets withdrew their troops. While the Soviet departure from Afghanistan was shameful, it was not tragic, as was the U.S. departure under Biden. That hasty and badly planned departure caused a civil war and an emerging Islamist movement. The Taliban was shockingly successful in their swift success to consolidate power so soon after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

With the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed regime was toppled. Following that attack, Al Qaeda and the Taliban consolidated forces and seized most major cities, including the capital, Kabul.  The Taliban, Al-Qaida, Mujahadeen, and other Muslim sects are all led by Muslim fanatics but have many similarities and many Islamic differences.

Unlike the Russians, we left thousands of Americans and American friends to the mercy of the followers of Allah when we left Afghanistan in August 2021. Our departure precipitated a civil war among various Muslim groups. The Taliban retook Afghanistan’s capital almost twenty years after they were driven from Kabul by U.S. troops in 2001. When American troops moved out, Allah moved in and is still there as you read this article.

After spending $2 trillion of taxpayers’ money and nearly 2,000 dead Americans, the U.S. left Afghanistan (the graveyard of empires) where they found it—with the Taliban in control.

The Soviets kept their agreement (!) and left the promised war equipment in the hands of their Muslim friends. When the U.S. disgracefully left the same country, numerous weapons and vehicles were left for our enemy’s use.

While the Soviet departure from Afghanistan was a surprise in 1988, the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, shocked and thrilled freedom lovers everywhere. The ugly but effective wall separated communist East Berlin from democratic West Berlin for almost 30 years. Finally, all free people rejoiced as East Germans climbed over the rubble into free West Berlin. President Ronald Reagan’s robust demand for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 to “tear down this wall” was successful in less than two years.

Gorbachev was the final leader of the Soviet Union as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. Surprisingly, he slowly leaned away from Marxism-Leninism toward “social democracy.” The world was further surprised, shocked, even stunned when Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, saying, “We’re now living in a new world.”

Wow, what a Christmas present to the world, especially people in Russia and the now-former Soviet republics.

The Soviet Union fell but Communism is alive and well. Even leading American politicians have a longtime love affair with Socialism/Communism. Furthermore, Americans are being led to their slaughter by self-serving leaders who pretend to be interested in their welfare when their commitment is to a New World Order.

Biden’s buddy in Moscow, by his invasion of Ukraine, has given careless voters a reason to think Biden should stay in office to lead in our war effort. But it’s not our war effort. And for sure, Biden is not a qualified leader—in war or peace. He is old and ill, and a compassionate nation will return him to the backwaters of Delaware.

Whatever happens in Ukraine, all Democrats and RINOs should be retired permanently. If not, we will live in the land of Bevis and Butthead, not Washington and Jefferson.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support his work with a donation.)

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Trump is Right: It’s Time to Bring U.S. Troops Home! https://donboys.cstnews.com/trump-is-right-its-time-to-bring-u-s-troops-home https://donboys.cstnews.com/trump-is-right-its-time-to-bring-u-s-troops-home#respond Sun, 30 Dec 2018 22:00:18 +0000 http://donboys.cstnews.com/?p=2261 American troops are coming home from the Middle East and it’s about time. In December, President Trump promised to pull troops from Syria, and Afghanistan appears to be next. Almost half a million troops are still stationed in over 150 nations at an enormous cost to America taxpayers. A few of those troops are Marines defending our embassies in very dangerous locations. However, only a few U.S. troops meet the criterion of doing what is best for the U.S. They provide protection and revenue to nations that often resist U.S. efforts in the United Nations. Not too smart, especially if there is no actual benefit to the U.S. by having troops in foreign nations.

We have 300 troops in Norway, 250 in Ukraine, and 3,500 in Poland. A reasonable person asks, “Why are they there?” The Globalists tell us it is because of Russian aggression that everyone recognizes as a continuing and constant threat. But what can a few hundred U. S. soldiers do that Poles and Ukrainians cannot do for themselves? Obviously, their major role is to train, advise, and assist the natives, but how much training is required? Can they not train the locals who can then train others, permitting the Americans to return home?

Critics will scream, “Isolationism” but minding our own business is exactly what our Founding Fathers advised us to do. They wanted us to put America first! We should get involved with other nations only when our best interests demand it.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford told Pentagon reporters that the U.S. military has approximately 6,000 troops across 53 out of 54 countries in Africa. Why? How does that benefit us? Why can’t African nations handle their own affairs and if a nation needs help, there are more than 50 other nations on the continent to come to their aid. Who decided that America was the one to call? When was it decided? And upon what basis were we chosen?

About 70,000 U.S. troops are assigned to Pacific Command, with about 42,000 in Central Command, about 35,000 in European Command and about 10,000 assigned to Africa Command. These conventional forces are augmented by about 8,000 Special Operations Command troops stationed in over 80 countries on any given day according to the August 3, 2017 edition of Business Insider. In addition to those troops stationed on permanent bases, there are always thousands of sailors serving on warships deployed worldwide.

Many patriots will disagree with pulling troops out of Syria, mainly because of the possibility of the vacuum being filled by terrorist groups. There is also fear that the Kurds will be slaughtered for their support of U.S. policy and people. Our experiences in the Middle East prove that it is easier to send in troops than to bring them home—think, more than seventeen years in Afghanistan. We are spending 50 billion dollars per year in Afghanistan. That would build a very elaborate Wall along our southern border.

What is often forgotten is that President Assad was elected president of Syria in the nation’s first multi-candidate election in almost 50 years. Sure, he is a butcher but he has been tolerant of Christians and that’s better than lopping off their heads. If he is so undesirable, let the Syrians produce regime change.

A reasonable argument can be made for U.S. troops if a nation requests U.S. support but we have no right to go where we are not wanted. A small, struggling nation has as much sovereignty as the U.S., England, or France. Moreover, the U.S. is not morally or legally obligated to get involved in every beer room brawl, internationally speaking. We should only get involved in other nations if it is in our best interests to do so. Of course, in times of natural disaster, it is only humane to provide temporary support to suffering people. Nation building and regime change should not be options for our politicians. No one has built a legitimate case for the U.S. to be the policeman of the world.

Regime change happens one of three ways. The first way is when a nation simply fails as is happening in Venezuela before the world’s eyes. After years of dictatorship the violence, corruption, hyperinflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods has driven about 15% of Venezuelans to eat food waste discarded by commercial establishments. Another nation (maybe Cuba) will step in and prop up the government until it is sufficiently able to handle its own affairs.

Another case of change happens following a revolution as in the case of America (1776), Mexico (1910), Russian (1917), Cuba (1960), etc. Or the third kind of change could be a quick, surgical coup d’état that has made African nations infamous.

To our shame, the U.S. has been deeply involved in coups and attempted coups in Cuba when Kennedy tried to kill Castro and in South Vietnam approved the coup of Ngo Dinh Diem. Nixon sicced the CIA on Allende in Chile to topple him. Carter’s CIA engineered a coup in Iran that returned the Shah to power (who soon died of cancer) resulting in bringing to power the Muslim fanatic—the Ayatollah Khomeini. Reagan secretly and illegally supplied funds to anti-communists in Nicaragua and H. W. Bush was involved in removing Noriega from power in Panama. Clinton sent 13 cruise missiles into a Sudan aspirin factory to detract attention from his grand jury testimony (three days earlier) about his “inappropriate relationship” with a White House intern. George W. Bush attacked Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein, charging him with developing weapons of mass destruction. Obama was involved in the removal of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

As is obvious, Democrat and Republican Presidents have exceeded their authority to effect regime change and they got away with it because the desired changes were usually what the Globalists wanted.

However, the U.S. has no business participating in, let alone organizing, financing, and leading such an enterprise. Regime change sounds better than overthrow of a nation, but there is no difference. If a nation wants or needs changing, the local citizens should be the ones who do it. When the U.S. has been involved, our CIA usually does the dirty work. And while all decent people might like the result, the means to achieve a change is often unsavory, unlawful, and untoward. We were thrilled that Saddam Hussein was removed in Iraq but America’s involvement was tawdry. Our efforts at regime change in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan have not been successful and are we obligated to continue in that effort forever?

One does not have to be a political genius to realize that Middle East nations have no record of democracy. They are dictatorships, monarchies, and theocracies—all the opposite of freedom. All Muslim nations must look to the Koran for dealing with nation building. It is a fool’s journey when we expect to force freedom on people who have no concept of what it means as they look to a fanatic preacher down at the mosque for guidance in all things.

Nor has anyone built the case for the U.S. as the lender of first resort in times of national financial crises. The paramount question is what is best for America.

After all, don’t all Americans want to make America great again? Moreover, bringing half a million troops home and staying out of every foreign brawl would pay down much of our massive national debt.

When President Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. Troops, he crawled out on a limb and handed his enemies a saw. I hope he survives and stands for his convictions because the men who have moved the world have been men that the world could not move.

By bringing our troops home, Trump will make big progress in making America Great Again.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

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