The War in Afghanistan: Who Benefited? Who Didn't?

Here's something you likely won't hear from the corporate media. Although we spent 20 years in Afghanistan, we left it largely the same way we found it---backwards, corrupt, and in the hands of the Taliban. So, who benefited and who didn't?

We were told that the ones responsible for 9/11 were in Afghanistan, and the Taliban run government was aiding and abiding them. Well, that was true...to a point. U.S. and Western intelligence identified Osama bin Laden as the mastermind, which was likely. This son of a wealthy and well connected Saudi family had previously "declared war" on the United States, although no one seemed to notice or care.

Al Qaeda launched several attacks on U.S. and Western targets, mostly in Africa and low security targets in Europe such as a disco in Berlin which was frequented by American servicemen and women. When that failed to adequately get our attention, he changed tactics. This time he focused on a high profile target in the United States---the Twin Towers

Bin Laden recruited 15 fellow Saudis, 2 from the UAR, and one each from Lebanon and Egypt for the mission, and sent them off into the belly of "the Great Satan" where our overconfidence became their best weapon. It's also where 2,996 innocent people going about their daily business people died. In their place, a blind and deaf patriotism was born along with about a dozen conspiracy theories (by the way, that just because it's called a "conspiracy theory" doesn't mean it isn't true).

Saved from a failing presidency, George "Dubya" Bush went from an approval rating low somewhere in the subterranean sewers of Washington DC to calls for another face to be added to Mt. Rushmore. In all the vengeful anger and patriotic fever of the moment, we allowed the so-called "Patriot Act" to take hold; a document about as "patriotic" as the Enabling Act of 1933 following the Reichstag Fire (and just as spontaneous too).

Over the next 20 years the United States and its aid dependent allies delivered Hell from above and below. An estimated 243,000 Afghani and Pakistanis died as death was delivered with UPS efficiency from above and below. 70,000 men, women and children died as a direct result. The bad guys lost at least 53,000, but that's only a guess. Apparently "holy warriors" don't keep statistics, or at least make them public.

On the other side, U.S. and coalition forces lost at least 70,600 with about 22,773 wounded. 2,356 of these were America's future. God only knows how many bear scars you can't see.  Of the 70,600 total, 65,596 were part of the Afghan Security Forces, with an additional 16,500 wounded.

By comparisons, Russia lost over 15,000 of its sons and daughters during the course of its 10 year war in Afghanistan with thousands more wounded. Russian military personnel managed to kill an estimated 90,000 Mujahedeen fighters which were heavily supported by the U.S., (it's said this was partly in revenge for Soviet support of the NVA and Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Knowing the NeoCons, it probably was).

At the same time, over one million Afghan civilians were killed, not including those killed in the subsequent civil war which followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 though the takeover by the Taliban in 1996.

Not to be outdone by the Western "crusaders", the Taliban is believed to have destroyed approximately $500 million dollars worth if infrastructure affecting 13 million people in 116 districts. It left 92% of population "food insecure" and some 3 million children facing severe malnutrition. Take that infidels! 

Just since our withdrawal in May 2021, some 400+ has been murdered by the Taliban (is it still "murder" if the Taliban claims it was acting on orders from God? Guess to the dead or their families it doesn't really matter does it?). Of course, there's always the billions in U.S. military equipment left behind which suddenly made the Taliban the fifth largest military in the world. Who should the Taliban thank for that little "gift"?

Ironically, despite the majority of Americans demanding an end to war in Afghanistan (54%) by 2021, nearly half---46%--- now believe the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban's new and improved "We-Say-So" government represents a threat to U.S. national security.  Ah the fickle masses!

Meanwhile, women are being regulated back to their pre-infidel invasion third class status as school for women and girls is cancelled and women are fired from their jobs. Those who own businesses face closure. Those who speak out risk public beatings, acid thrown in their faces, or stoning to death. If only the Taliban could reach the same level of  Iran's enlightenment (sarcasm intended).

What about the American People? Aside for the deaths and injuries whose cost are beyond measure, most don't realize that our 20 year long fiasco in Afghanistan and Iraq was paid for solely on credit. Can you guess who is picking up the tab? 

Best estimates put the damage to U.S. taxpayers at around $2.2 trillion dollars (or $300 million per day). With interest, some estimates put the cost at $6.2 trillion dollars by 2050 (good luck with that Millennials and Gen Z). You might be interested to know that during the Korean War, President Harry Truman temporarily raised the top end tax rate on the rich to 92%. During Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson raised it to 77%. So what did ole "Dubya" do? President George Bush lowered the tax rate on America's richest to 8%.

So, who benefited from the 20 years we spent in Afghanistan? Well, it's hard to say. The Afghani people certainly didn't. They suffered mightily under the Soviet invasion and its nine year occupation. They suffered under the Taliban's occupation.

America's invasion and occupation was almost as bad, except there was a measure of gender equality while we were there.  Women and girls could go to school. They could work, own property, and do other things females get to do in the modern world; you know, like they were ordinary people and stuff

In addition, women and other Afghanis could also freely vote, although the Taliban and other Islamic extremists did their best to try and prevent it. Nevertheless, there was a measure of democratic freedom which is rare in the Middle East.  Unfortunately after we left (or rather, as we left), democracy came to quick end and the 10th Century returned in all its ugliness as the Taliban picked up where it left off.

The American People didn't really benefit. Sure, we were given a target to vent our anger on following the cowardly attacks of 9/11. But along the way, we were betrayed by some of our regional "allies" (I'm talking about Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency and its Prime Minister, Imran Khan) and various tribal chiefs (most had to be bribed to show any measure of loyalty).

We could have had bin Laden and many more of his key commanders much sooner had those in Imran Khan's government not help finance, arm, train, hide, and provide intelligence to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which would have saved a lot of innocent lives on all sides. It's a shame how some individuals put their greed for personal power and wealth before the wellbeing of their own people. But, at the same time it exposes their moral weakness for all the world to see.

While extracting our revenge, we failed to notice the underhandedness happening here at home. Sure, we came together as a people. We closed ranks. We hung out flags.We cheered at the playing of our national anthem. Patriotism was back in vogue again. We hadn't been this united since December 8, 1941, the day after another cowardly attack which caught us with our pants down and our cockiness up.

Perhaps it was this unity which concerned certain individuals and groups. After all, a united America was something they didn't want. They had spent lots of time, effort, and money to keep Americans divided. After all, divided, frustrated, and confused was how to control us. United and we were suddenly dangerous. United and we just might focus our manufactured anger away from each other and on those who sought to destroy our Republic and turn it into a neo-fascist corporatocracy.

So, without even completely reading it, a document that had been drafted primarily by corporate lobbyists was rushed through Congress and passed. It was given a euphemistically optimistic sounding name of "the Patriot Act" as if questioning what it was or what was in it was somehow unpatriotic.  A few lone voices in the political wilderness tried to warn us but were quickly silenced. The surveillance state was born.

The "Patriot Act" effectively declared a never-ending war based on a loosely defined term--- "terrorism" where rights for individuals cease to exist under the pretext of national security. Gone too were all the usual checks and balances we've come to expect such as accountability, limits on search and seizure or judicial oversight.

The enemy was now whoever the State said it was. Those arrested under "FISA" can essentially disappear. Under "FISA" you have the right to absolutely nothing whatsoever. It combined all the elements of McCarthyism's "Red Scare" with aspects of the KGB's early morning knocks on the doors and George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984". 

Obviously, the American People didn't benefit, so again, who did?  Wall Street benefited. The Pentagon spent $14 trillion dollars, with roughly half that going to defense contractors (according to one report, since 2001, payments made to defense contractors have risen 164%). The majority of money spent went to just five corporations---Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, and Boeing, but other companies such as General Electric and Halburton made out alright too.  

Thanks to our new "surveillance state", spy agencies saw their budgets balloon, particularly the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Security Agency (NSA), as well as the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Agency (NRC), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), along with the various intelligence arms of the various U.S. military branches. Naturally, off the book budgets, the so-called "black budgets", likely were increased. Much of this was used to fund various covert research/development and operations carried out by "independent" contractors. 

Meanwhile, Congress and other government officials benefited. Defense contractors reportedly spent over $2.5 billion dollars over the past 20 years and employed over 700 lobbyists. On average, members of Congress had three lobbyists each just from Defense industry. We the People had none. This is the "free speech" Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks about when defending Citizens United.

So, if you want to know who benefited from our 20 year venture in Afghanistan and Iraq, now you know. It wasn't the Afghani People or the American People. The ones who benefited from the war which claimed tens of thousands killed or wounded, and billions of dollars in destruction were defense contractors and their de facto "employees" in Congress. This is just one relatively small example of the power and control Wall Street has over government. 

 

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Timeline: Major attacks by al Qaeda

Hijackers in the September 11 attacks

Taliban Destroyed, Damaged Infrastructure in 116 Districts:IARCS

A year later, a look back at public opinion about the U.S.military exit from Afghanistan

The cost of the Afghanistan war, in lives and dollars

CFR: Pakistan's Support For the Taliban: What To Know

ACLU: Surveillance under the USA/Patriot Act

Watson Institute: Costs of War

 

The Fall of Afghanistan and the Fall of Empires

At 7:37 pm, Major General Christopher Donahue, the commanding  general of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Ft. Bragg North Carolina, became the last U.S. serviceman to leave Afghanistan as he boarded a C-17 in Kabul for home.  Within minutes of taking off, all around and in Kabul, guns shots could be heard as the Taliban celebrated their perceived victory over the American and allied armies. The infidels had been defeated. The "Great Satan" and his agents had been vanquished.

It's been said that every great empire which has invaded Afghanistan has not just been defeated, but collapses soon after. Examples which have often been cited include: Alexander the Great's, the Mongols, the British, the Soviets, and now, perhaps the Americans.  Well, maybe. Genghis Khan did it. So did Tamerlane, and the Persians, Turks, and others. So, it's true that empires have fallen after invading Afghanistan, but not necessarily because of Afghanistan. It's not the foregone conclusion that some think.

Nevertheless, for a great many people, there was just something about the last military flight out of Afghanistan in the darkness of Kabul which smacked of sneaking out; as if we were ashamed of what we accomplished or failed to accomplish. A thief in the night.  Our withdrawal was seen by the world as unorganized and chaotic. Not what you would expect from a superpower.

There are already stories of hundreds of Americans being left behind; stuck and surrounding by a Taliban looking for some "after occupation" revenge, and yet the last flights out of Kabul were all Afghan nationals. Of course, we can't forget the vast amount of military hardware left abandoned by the Afghan army; so much so that the Taliban now has a larger air fleet than Australia (albeit much of it in disrepair). Still, it now has tanks, Humvees, heavy trucks, artillery, drones, transports, night vision goggles, and everything else you would want for that despot on your Christmas shopping list.

Flashback to February 15, 1989, and Soviet General Boris V. Gromov, who walked behind a long column of tanks, and trucks carrying everything from soldiers to equipment, crossed the so-called "Friendship Bridge" over the Amu Dayra River, separating Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The orderly withdrawal of Soviet troops, done in the light of day and with a bit of Russian military pomp, brought to an end a disastrous ten year war and a failed pro-Soviet government. 

Years later, the retired General Gromov confirmed that there were no Russians  remaining in Afghanistan, and added that Soviet Union was "done" with Afghanistan. Soviet troops destroyed or took with them nearly everything they could, leaving little to nothing for the mujahideen, which at the time included a embryonic Taliban and Al Qaeda.  So, what happened to us?

Our withdrawal and evacuation is being called by many as an example of a defeated military. The Chinese are using it to intimidate Taiwan and bully other nations. They claim that it shows that America can't be trusted to defend their friends or keep their word.  They are subtly urging nations to reconsider their allegiance to America and the Western Powers; suggesting that they move closer to the Chinese orbit.

When the Soviet troops began their pullout of Afghanistan in 1988, the American Pentagon and State Department used the occasion to call Afghanistan the USSR's "Vietnam". Now, Russia is reminding us and the world of its irony. The Soviet's attempted and failed to install a puppet government just as we did, and both imploded for pretty much the same reasons---tribalism, incompetence, and good ole corruption.

In 1994, the Taliban seized control of government and began imposing it radical version of Islam (curricular 950 AD). Now, 20 years after we invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban in our hunt for Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leadership, they're back with  it's Taliban 2.0 and it promises to be even more retro! Besides, thanks to the Afghan army and an inept government, it now has state of art military hardware.

I guess what's important is that we're finally out (except for the 100 or so Americans left behind) and President Biden got some great photo-ops, except for those where he is looking at his watch as the caskets of dead U.S. servicemen and women go by (at one point, he looked like he was starting to wonder off. I guess it must have been past his nap time). I don't think we want to include any of the audio where family members of the fallen let Biden know what they thought of him and his clusterf*ck of an evacuation which unnecessarily cost even more American lives. 

Afghanistan was not another Vietnam. We didn't "sneak" out. We accomplished our stated objective. We took out Osama bin Laden and the leadership of Al Qaeda. We have a great deal to be proud of when it comes to the men and women who went there and did their job. We asked much of them and they delivered. But, like Vietnam, it became a political war, and by that, I mean it was about multi-million dollar contracts and prolonging a war for the purpose of greater profits.

Wars are rarely ever fought for the sake of freedom any more. They are fought for profit.  They stimulate dragging economies and artificially inflate sagging prices.  Wars help corporations gain access to markets or expand control over resources and assets. They also exist to reduce "excess" populations and artificially lower unemployment numbers which doesn't include those in uniform. 

Terms like "democracy", "equality", "justice", and even "freedom" are used to stir up the population, but it's pure propaganda. They're all lies. It may sound cynical, but wars are now a built-in part of domestic and foreign economic policy. That's why there's always at least one brewing somewhere.

There is, however, one curious connection between Vietnam and Afghanistan I'd like to mention. Flashback if you will to that terrible day in September 2001. Flight 77, leaving out of Washington-Dulles International Airport is hijacked by five Saudi hijackers with connections to Al Qaeda. Shortly after departing, the hijackers took control of the American Airlines Boeing 723 and redirected the doomed airliner to the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.

Working at the Pentagon that day, in Veteran Affairs, was 69 year Max Bielke. Max, who was the deputy chief of the Retirement Services Division, was called a quiet and introspective guy. He was a big guy of German heritage, who grew up near Alexandria, Minnesota on a small farm. Max really cared about veterans and was instrumental in getting TRICARE passed by Congress, thanks to his hard work, attention to detail, and willingness to testify before nearly endless committees.

At the time of impact at 9:37, Max was hard at work in the west wing of Pentagon, doing what he loved the most, working on a new veterans program, alongside Lieutenant General Timothy Maude and retired Lieutenant Colonel Gary Smith. Max, Tim, and Gary were three of the 125 fatalities on the ground, along with 64 aboard Flight 77 who died that day at the Pentagon. There was something else about Max. Something special. He was, as expected, retired military. To be specific, he was a retired Master Sergeant from the Army, but that's not what made Max all that special.

You see, Max Bielke was the last official soldier to leave Vietnam.  He entered the history books on March 29, 1973, when he boarded a C-130  leaving Saigon for (as they say in the military) "anywhere but the hell here". The truth was, he was finally headed home just like General Donahue was 48 years later. When you're in the military, there's no other place you want to be. It's worth noting that just before he boarded the C-130, a North Vietnamese colonel gave him a rattan table mat with a pagoda weaved into it (a pagoda is a Buddhist symbol for success and luck). 

The Russians call our involvement and subsequent departure in Afghanistan an "irony" reminiscent of a second Vietnam, and perhaps it is. However, what I find to be more of an irony is the fact that the last soldier to leave Vietnam, who spent the rest of his life trying to help fellow veterans, should be a victim of a terrorist hijacking which triggered our involvement in another war; this one in Afghanistan. So, perhaps Vietnam and Afghanistan may have more in common than not.  

 

Photo shows the last US soldier leaving Afghanistan. He is acommander at Ft. Bragg

An Iconic Bridge Sees U.S. Allies Flee Afghanistan As TheSoviets Did

30 Year Anniversary Of Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan

Why Is Afghanistan the 'graveyard of Empires'?

Remembering the Pentagon Victims

Remembering The Lost

 

 

 

Afghanistan: The End or the Beginning? Lessons Learned

We've watched hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghanis break through the gates at the Kabul airport trying to cram their way onto a U.S. C-17 Globemaster; each flight capable of leaving out with 800 souls bound for who knows where, or some other aircraft. We've seen dozens trying to find ways to cling onto the sides of the planes as they roll down the runaway, picking up speed while dozens run alongside.

Most of those cling on to whatever they can grab a hold of before falling off harmlessly except for a few bruises and scraps.  There have some videos showing a few hapless individuals managing to hold on until they losing their grip and fall hundreds of feet to the ground below.

A few try to scramble into the landing gear bay, perhaps not aware that the automatic hydraulic door will instantly crush them like a tin can or trapped and left dandling outside of the bay doors, only to be ripped apart by the wind generated by the four huge Pratt and Whitney engines which can reach cruising speeds of over 500 miles per hour. Not a sight anyone wants to see.  

Anyone who manages to crawl inside gets only a brief, momentary reprieve. As the plane gains altitude, the temperature drops to below freezing and oxygen levels drops to precipitous lows causing blackouts. Their odds of surviving are somewhere between slim and none. Perhaps these desperate souls were unaware of what their actions would result in, but then perhaps they were willing to take that chance to leave an Afghanistan now in the hands of the Taliban.

No doubt there will be those who'll vocally criticize the U.S. Air Force, or Army or Marines, or whomever for not properly clearing the runway or providing better security at the gates. However, those people have no grasp of the force a desperate crowd can be. Very little can be done in times of utter fear and panic.

President Trump had assured the Afghan Government of a gradual and orderly pullout to be completed by September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of Al Qaeda's cowardly attack on the United States which  resulted in the deaths of 2,977 innocent people. Say what you want about the American government, but the people have a strong sense of right and wrong. 9/11 clearly was the latter.

Joe Biden's accelerated evacuation appears more and more to the world to be less a withdrawal than a surrender, calling up images and comparisons to the Fall of South Vietnam and Saigon complete with helicopters landing on rooftops evacuating U.S. personnel.  It couldn't have been scripted any better.

We invaded Afghanistan in 2001 for the sole purpose of capturing or killing the "mastermind" of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, and the command structure of Al Qaeda.  The Taliban, a relatively small sect of ultra conservative Muslims, held an ruthless iron grip over Afghanistan, promised to turn over Bin Laden and his cohorts, provided we provided "proof" of guilt (by "proof" they meant releasing sensitive intelligence information and possibly sources). Our response was invasion.

We spent the next twenty years chasing the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the thousands of fighters from all over the Middle East bent on a "martyr's death".  We chased them from cities to villages; from neighborhood to alleys, and eventually into the mountains and caves. We annihilated the Taliban and Al Qaeda with electronic ease. We picked off their leadership the way a well aimed flyswatter picks off an unaware fly, except those behind the "flyswatters" were hundreds of miles away in air conditioned buildings sipping a Starbucks.  

After ten years of hunting, a $25 million dollar bounty, and coming tenuously close, the most wanted man on the planet---Osama bin Laden---slipped from noose to loose again and again, thanks  it would seem, to our so-called friends, the Pakistani military, the Afghan military, and members of the Afghan tribal leaders.  

Ultimately, it was through the relentless and dedicated work of our various alphabet intelligence agencies, not to mention others in the region with much better intelligence sources than ours that our quarry was found.

 It turns out that bin Laden was living a rather boring existence within a high walled compound  just down the street from the Pakistan's version of "West Point" and close to a police station in Abbottabad. How convenient, especially coming from a "friendly" government who claimed no knowledge of Osama's whereabouts. It's not like the compound didn't stand out or that neither the police or Pakistan military didn't know who their neighbors were.

Aside from a few bodyguards, his wives and children, not to mention porno videos, there wasn't much going on at the bin Laden abode aside from the occasional messenger bringing updates (and probably more porn videos). It seems the bin Laden had worn out his usefulness to the holy cause except for the random propaganda piece.

Finally deep into the night of May 2, 2011, thanks to years of patience, The U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six introduced bin Laden to a new type of laser tag game called "Where's Allah?". Despite hiding behind one of his wives, he lost, while President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others watched "live" in shock, disbelief, and awe.  Several members of  the same SEAL team members were killed in an ambush barely three months later in what many called an act of sabotage and betrayal.

It should have ended for us then and there. We had met our stated objective. The Taliban was destroyed. Al Qaeda was in shambles. Most of the surviving "martyrs" wannabes either decided to seek another line of work or moved off to Syria where another war was accepting recruits to fill their ranks...and body bags.  Gotta love a job where there's always an opportunity for advancement.

Nevertheless, we stayed. After ten years of "helping" to build a "Pro-Western" Afghani government (wink wink), not to mention rebuilding the infrastructure, complete with cell phone towers and internet, which we had previously bombed into the Pre-Stone Age (the Soviets had bombed them into the Stone Age a few decades earlier---1979 to 1989), as well as the Afghani military and police force. As an aside, the USSR collapsed just over ten years later, in 1991. Just saying.  

Now, here we are, twenty years from the time we first set foot in Afghanistan, which we euphemistically called "Operation Enduring Freedom",  and ten years beyond our stated objectives, we're leaving. By the way, it was our longest war ever...thus far. We've gone through four presidents---George W Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden (or whoever is running his administration).

 Over 100,000 Afghanis have been displaced. Just over 71,000 Afghani civilians---men, women, and children---died as a direct cause of the war. In the cities, life mostly returned to normal while out in the countryside, hundreds, if not more, were killed by tribal leaders on both sides who remain uncounted.  

Poverty also returned, but then poverty has always been a part of the history of Afghanistan, thanks to wars, backward religious zealots, and the ever present corruption. However, for the dispossessed---the women of Afghanistan---there was hope. Schools were built and women and girls were encouraged to attend. No more fear of public beatings, acid thrown in their faces, mutilation, or even murder.

Women could get jobs, go out by themselves, live on their own, and even openly date. They could go to beauty parlors and get their hair and nails done without worry of attack. They could shed the black skin of anonymity known as the burka. The invasion of 2001 had catapulted the women and girls of Afghanistan from the 10th Century to the 21st Century.  That's now likely all gone, along with most, if not all the trappings of the West. 

Despite his promises, Biden's ill-conceived and ill-prepared "evacuation" of Afghanistan has turned into a farce.  Biden stated publicly that the American and Allied trained and equipped Afghan military and police could easily hold off and even repel the Taliban, who began emerging from their holes like cockroaches in the dark as soon as they heard of our planned withdrawal from then President Trump, but Biden's actions was like a God-send (or I guess I should say a "Allah-send").

Province after province fell like Poland in 1939, and the capital, Kabul? It had capitulated in nine days. As for the Pro-Western President, Ashraf Ghani, he was last seen almost a week ago (as of this writing) headed for the airport and his private presidential plane followed with a convoy of limos and SUVs with ("allegedly") $169 million in cash and other valuables. 

I'm sure he plans on using all of the money (which mostly came from U.S. taxpayers) to fight the Taliban and return to power. Yeah, right. If history is any guide, I'm sure he's now top on the Christmas card list of several Swiss, Cayman, and Singapore bankers. Typically the loot goes first, closely followed by the despot and his henchmen.  However, Afghans by the hundreds are protesting in the streets despite the crackdowns and the Taliban's old nemesis, the Northern Alliance, is once again on the move.

Meanwhile, the Taliban is now the owner of not just a intact capital, but a largely modernized country (sans any bad Western influences which will be duly destroyed). But wait! There's even more ladies and gentlemen!  There are also the new owners of millions, if not billions of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment and spare parts.

 Everything from drones, surface to air missiles, heavy artillery, and tanks, to Humvees, the impressive "Buffalo", which is multi-wheeled mine protected and ambush resistant vehicle, not to mention thousands of machine guns, assault rifles, small arms, Kevlar vests, communications equipment, and other state of the art toys for big girls and boys who like to play rough (not including infrastructure like bases, roads, housing, or medicine and medical equipment). But the biggest prize of all is the intact air force. Yes, I said "air force".

They had acquired enough aircraft to make them the tenth largest air force on the planet; about 211 or so in all. It includes Blackhawks, general utility helicopters, approximately 33 militarized Cessna A-29 attack planes, possibly four C-130 heavy transports, and they got it all for free thanks to the Afghan military and you--the American taxpayer.  Oh, and they appear to now have several Soviet era Mi-17 attack and general utility helicopters. Now, only if they could find someone who could teach them how to fly these birds. Chow Mein anyone?

So, that's how wars seem to come to end these days. Not with unconditional surrender of a vanquished foe amid cheering crowds, streaming headlines, and sense of national unity and accomplishment. Instead, it's partisan finger pointing and talking heads talking over each other. I doubt today's America could unite enough defeat a Germany or Japan again. Perhaps Taiwan should heed China's warnings.

But you and I will remember our own, all 770,000 men and women who went there. We will  morn our dead, the 2,312 killed, along with the 20,666 men and women who were wounded and the thousands who will forever carry the memory of the war with them, and the thousands who will fight their own private war perhaps for a lifetime too, and those who will surrender to suicide. 

The thing about wars is that they're never clean and neat affairs. The ones who start them are never the ones who pay the cost; certainly not the ultimate cost. Our twenty year war cost you and I about $2.26 trillion dollars. That isn't a typo. The war itself cost around $887 billion dollars, while the rest has gone for medical care, disability payments, and associated costs. 

Meanwhile, companies like McDonald-Douglas made a profit of over $40 billion. Boeing made a tidy $20.8 billion dollars. General Dynamics, maker of various tactical, ordnances, and other cool hardware,  earned an even cooler $19.2 billion.

L3 Communications (the predecessor of Lockheed's Loral Corporation and Harris Corporation), which is involved with high tech communications, surveillance, as well as was command and control systems like those used by drones, and with customers like the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and the intelligence community in general, spied themselves a declassified $9 billion. Lastly, everybody's favorite "spy-in-the-sky" and Edward Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, snuck in with just over $4 billion. 

Those are just a few of the some 20 "big dollar" defense contractors and co-owners of Congress (blue and red alike). It also doesn't include all the banksters, financial underwriters, or suppliers of concrete, MREs, boots, and so forth which make war so profitable for everyone except those who have to go fight it. But, then again, I hear there's a new one starting up again in Syria or Lebanon, and there's always Iran. I'm sure there's a outbound seat available on the next flight.

 

The Afghan War, by the numbers

The Taliban has access to U.S. military aircraft. Now whathappens?

Russian Embassy: Afghan leader fled with cars full of cash

 

Brown University/Watson Institute: Costs of War

 

 

  

Cuba's March For Reform and Freedom

What's happening in Cuba? Why are there now thousands protesting after decades of Communist rule? The answer is not quite as simple as it would seem. First, many of those protesting are citing Cuba's dire economic situation. Cuba has long suffered from food shortages, going back to the U.S. blockage of the early 1960's, which was partially alleviated by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries.

Since the fall of the USSR in the early 1990's, Cuba's ability to import food, commercial replacement parts, and medical supplies has been put to the test, which brings us to the two main reasons behind the protests. Aside from food and other commercial necessities, Cuba has been unable to get ample doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. Cuba has already seen infection rates dramatically increase, with some areas reporting as many as 6000 confirmed cases, and it's getting worse.

Just a few years ago, protests like these were unheard of. President Fidel Castro not only maintained a strong grip on the Cuban people via his police and security forces, but also through sheer force of personality. As bad as things were for Cubans, they loved Fidel. Since his death in 2016, Cuba hasn't been able to produce anyone as popular or charismatic as their  "El Caballo".  

Briefly, Fidel's younger brother, Raul, governed the country. While he was generally well liked, he lacked the Fidel's dynamic  personality. To offset this, Raul loosen the government's grip with the announcement of his 300 political and economic reforms, which included limited privatization of businesses, reduced government spending, term limits and better relationships with other nations, especially the United States.

Primarily for health reasons, Raul turned the reins of power over to Miguel Diaz-Canel and stepped down as President in 2018  (he "officially" retired from government in April 2021). Diaz-Canel is also First Secretary of Cuban Communist Party, which is the island nation's sole political party. Unfortunately, Diaz-Canel, age 61, has proven to be fairly unpopular with most Cubans, who consider him to be a puppet of the Castro family and "old guard" politicians; unable to adapt.

Since assuming sole control of government, the economy has shrunk by 11.6%, partly as a result of COVID and the ongoing US trade restrictions which were reimposed President Trump after briefly being normalized following Fidel's death by President Obama and Raul Castro in 2014. Nevertheless, Cuba is still able to purchase food , medicine, and certain humanitarian goods from the U.S. .

Unfortunately, however, for Cuba, while the U.S. had temporarily lifted travel restrictions under President Obama's administration, President Trump reversed many of restrictions, including the ability to send or bring in currency and other items from the States, which has severely impacted the Cuban economy.

Cuba is heavily depended on tourism to bring in badly needed dollars. Tourism accounts for nearly $3 billion dollars to the Cuban economy. However, tourism isn't enough. There exists an unofficial or underground economy of cash sent back by Cubans living at large (particularly Florida), which are typically sent via wire transfer, travel agency courier, or brought in person.

The principal conduit, Western Union, has reported that each month, approximately 240,000 "unique" wire transfers are sent to Cuba for an estimated $2.88 million dollars annually. In addition, approximately $200,000 is carried onboard each flight to the island nation by paid "mules". Best guesses put the total amount entering the country by these "mules" to be around $2.44 million dollars annually. 

Trump's reimposed sanctions resulted in the closing of 407 wire transfer locations like Western Union and its Cuban partner, Fincimex. It's worth noting that the highest concentration of Cubans in Florida are in the Miami-Dade area. Historically, the Cuban community has voted Republican. However, in this past presidential election, it went Democrat; no doubt to protest Trump's restrictions.

In terms of imports, Cuba imports food items (mostly processed),chemicals, machinery and other heavy equipment chiefly from countries like China, which makes up nearly a quarter of Cuba's imports, Spain at 14%, followed by Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and United States with about 5% each.

Cuba is also an exporter of mainly agricultural products such as coffee, sugar, tobacco, citric and fish, along with nickel and petroleum, which makes  the economy heavily susceptible to fluctuations in commodity markets as well as to changing climatic conditions. Cuba also exports medical supplies, including test kits, vaccines, and various drugs (especially for the treatment of diabetes).

Other factors have also affected Cuba and it's economy. Venezuela's economic and political implosion has severely shook the Cuban economy. The Latin American country is Cuba's top trading partner and accounts for 17.8% of Cuba's exports. Spain, whose economy shrank 11% in 2020, accounts for about 12% of Cuba's exports, while Russia, once Cuba's chief trade partner, makes up just under 8%, followed by a troubled Lebanon, whose economy shrank 19.2% in 2020, and Germany, both represent just over 4% each.

So, with the Cuban economy once again struggling, the fear of COVID spreading, and the failure of the Cuban government to open up the country economically and politically as promised, the people have taken to the streets; which is a dangerous at any time.  The result has been attempts at shutting down the internet in order to help contain the situation while restricting information about the protests from getting out. This move was attempted by Egypt in January of 2011 during the Arab Spring and failed.

Cuba's Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, claimed that the U.S. was trying to encourage more protests by sending "bots" to every Cuban phone with messages urging them to join the protestors. Meanwhile, Cuba's President, Diaz-Canel, has called for government supporters (what he termed as his "revolutionaries") to take to the streets with counter protests.

State controlled media outlets have been running near around the clock "analysis" of the situation (from a decidedly government perspective) while police in riot gear and military personnel have been called out to impose order and make arrests. In the interim, Russia has urged President Biden not to interfere with what it regards as Cuba's internal security matter. Other countries, including China and Iran, have also taken a keen interest in what's happening.

Many analysts, mostly outside the US, believe that if the U.S. Government (notably the CIA) wasn't behind the protests, it certainly was fanning the flames. The U.S. Government has for decades tried to undermine the Castro regime ever since it deposed Batista in 1959, a widely recognized puppet of the U.S. State Department and a pawn of corporate interests, not to mention the American mafia.

Following the ouster of Batista, and the nationalization of several corporations, the U.S. Government, backed by the Kennedy Administration and CIA, attempted an invasion of Cuba (Bay of Pigs) in April 1961 which failed miserably. Later, came the infamous confrontation between Cuba, the USSR, and the US, which, in October of 1963, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.  Afterwards, the Kennedy Administration enacted an embargo which remains essentially in place, along with CIA sponsored attempts to assassinate Castro and/or topple his government up until his death in 2016.

As an aside, the United States previously invaded Cuba in 1898 during the Spanish-American War after the USS Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor (it was later determined to have been likely a spontaneous fire in its coal bunker and not sabotage as was alleged at the time). The Maine had been sent there during Cuba's War of Independence to protect American economic interests. It was said at the time that while Spain may control Cuba's politics, America control its economy.

So, what are we to expect? Will the situation in Cuba lead to a "Latin American Spring"? There are many who blame forces within the U.S. Government for destabilizing the self-proclaimed  "socialist" Venezuelan economy, which also may have inadvertently affected surrounding countries, and  resulted in the mass influx of immigrants fleeing north to the US-Mexican border. 

However dire the situation in Venezuela, it appears their government is still hanging on...so far. We also can't (or shouldn't) forget that the U.S. Government has overthrown several duly elected governments in Latin America (notably Columbia, Argentina, Paraguay, Mexico, Chile, among others) that we disapproved of and installed brutal rightwing military juntas, resulting in the deaths, torture, and imprisonment of millions, not to mention the "disappearance" of thousands.

We have also invaded countries in Latin America over a dozen times, so it's easy to understand why Cuba and others are a less than convinced of our sincerity despite President Biden insists claims that our support is solely for the Cuban People. It's worth nothing that as of 2018, just 47% of Latin Americans had a positive view of the U.S. (Mexico, by the way, was the lowest, with only 30%).

It would be cynical to say that the United States acts strictly in terms of protecting or enhancing its de facto "empire". However, it would be naive to say that political and economic self-interest in this era of an Oligarchic Corporatocracy, which America has become, aren't a decisive factor.

If oil and gas weren't at stake, would we have launched the First Gulf War to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait? Unlikely.  Aside for revenging the cowardly 9/11 attack and desire to take out Osama bin Laden and the leadership of Al Qaeda, would we have remained in Afghanistan for 20 years if it wasn't for its oil, gas and minerals?

Remember, bin Laden was killed in 2011 and we're just now leaving a worse off Afghanistan, some ten years later, with the likelihood that the Taliban will once again reclaim the country. The same can be asked of Iraq and its oil, not to mention our near psychotic fixation on toppling the Iranian Government or occupying Syria, which has been a long time Russian ally in the region. 

I'm sure that there is a humanitarian element to our public (and perhaps covert) foreign policy. We don't want to see people starving or in need of housing or medicine. That's why America has always acted anywhere in the world every time a natural or manmade disaster occurs, yet thanks to a near 60 year old embargo, we have it just 90 miles off our southern coast. Of course, America has always promoted "freedom" and "democracy", even if that's in short supply here at home.

If deeds speak louder than words, then surely our past history must speak volumes. The Cuban People deserve better than what they've had since 1960. Then again, they deserve better than what they had under the likes of Batista too. If President Biden is sincere, then we should do what we can to support the Cuban People. However, the mantra in Washington has always been "never let a good crisis go to waste".  But nevertheless, whatever the situation, we must do what we can to allow the people of Cuba to decide their own destiny, whether we agree with it or not.

 

Direct contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product in Cuba

 

Western Union Data For Transfers To Cuba...

Fewer People In Latin America See the U.S. Favorably UnderTrump

Cuba exports medicines to dozens of countries. It would likethe U.S. to be one of them

Russia, China, Iran Warn U.S. Must Not Intervene in Cuba

America's Withdrawal From Afghanistan: Revenge's End or Justice Served?

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced that starting on May 1st---"May Day"---U.S. troops will begin the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.  The withdrawal of our approximately 2,500 troops is to officially end on September 11th, which marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and our involvement in Afghanistan.

Biden said in his speech that the U.S. "closely consulted" the pending exodus from Afghanistan with our allies in the region and most especially with Afghan's President, Ashrif Ghani. That's a polite way of saying "everyone grab what you can, we're out of here" and to President Ghani, it was a heads-up that he was on his own. It's time for him, his family, and cronies to start making arrangements to live elsewhere (which, as usual, also means to start opening a lot of foreign bank accounts).

America has been militarily engaged in Afghanistan longer than in any other place.  Our involvement in Europe and the Pacific during WWII was just three years.  In Korea, it was about three years too. The Vietnam War lasted 19 years. Then there were all the small "police actions" such as Granada, Panama, and so on. Those lasted anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

Our presence in Afghanistan began in 2001, following the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, not to mention the downing of Flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field; the result of passengers and crew who took matters into their own hands rather than to allow themselves to be sacrificed by a few terrorists.

At the time, then President George W Bush promised the nation and the world that we would hunt down those who planned and helped carry out the cowardly attacks. It took time, and despite some duplicity by a supposed ally (Pakistan), we were ultimately able to track down Osama bin Laden, the (by then) nominal head of Al Qaeda, who was living in a windowless three story mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan just 1400 yards from Pakistani Military Academy (their version of West Point).

It took the U.S. Military and its allies ten years to corner bin Laden and just 40 minutes to dispatch bin Laden to whatever Hell awaited him thanks to the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six (officially known as "Task Force Blue" or NSW-DEVGRP, which is short for Naval Special Warfare Development Group). Along the way, before and since, the top leadership of Al Qaeda and its various hydra-like splinter groups have met the same fate.

Of course, we suffered too. Many members of the same Navy SEAL Team were ambushed in Afghanistan's Tangi Valley and killed a short 90 days later in what some intelligence experts believe was a setup by informers.  The attack killed 30 U.S. troops, including 15 members of SEAL Team Six, along with eight Afghanis.  

In total, we've lost 2,312 military personnel since 2001. 20,066 have been wounded. From a historical perspective, those are low numbers. We lost over 2,501 in just one day--- June 6, 1944--- during our landing on the Normandy beaches in France. From 2001 until 2009, we had approximately 20,000 soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. After that, the numbers rose to 100,000 due to the increased enemy activity. Compare that to just under 600,000 troops in Vietnam at its peak in 1968.

On the other side of the bloody coin, almost 40,000 Afghan civilians have been killed since 2001. As for the Taliban, the exact number of dead or wounded can't be determined with any accuracy, but it's estimated to be between 67,000 and 72,000 killed and well over 100,000 wounded.

In terms of financial cost, against the price tag is hard to pin down due to overlapping accounting between allies, not to mention the use of quasi-private "contract security" forces (aka mercenary troops which are typically paid and supplied under the table by the CIA).  Nevertheless, best estimates put the cost of the war at right about one trillion dollars.

Of this one trillion or so dollars, about $88 billion has gone to rebuild the Afghani military and security forces. $36 billion has gone for governance costs as well as infrastructure and humanitarian aid.  There has been tens of millions more spent on "unreported" costs such as buying the loyalty of tribal and village leaders, funding poppy production, supplying of weaponry to various anti-Taliban militia, and so forth.   Of course, none of this includes the "reassignment" of U.S. military and non-military equipment over to non-government forces.

So, after 20 years, four presidents, and one trillion dollars, what have we gotten out of it? War is one of those endeavors which has plagued Mankind forever. Despite the belief of men like General George Patton, there is no glory in war. No one really ever wins except the arms dealers, industrialists, and the undertakers. Nevertheless, evil must be stopped wherever it's encountered.

We went into Afghanistan in 2001 for the sole purpose of getting those responsible for 9/11. Intelligence agencies identified Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda as being behind the attack. At the time, the Taliban, a strongly repressive Islamic government, controlled Afghanistan, and were allegedly protecting both bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

We were told that the Taliban leadership refused to hand over bin Laden or any members of Al Qaeda. The truth, as we found out years later, was a little different. It seems they wanted hard proof that bin Laden was directly responsible. Perhaps it was just a matter of semantics, but nevertheless it provided the excuse to invade in what was called euphemistically "Operation Enduring Freedom". As a result, we found ourselves (not for the first time) facing two determined enemies.

Ultimately, we deposed the Taliban from power and installed a more cooperative "pro-Western" government (albeit, not exactly one known for not being easily corruptible). But, as the expression goes, "they may be sons of bitches, but they're our sons of bitches".  And, of course, we not only decimated the Taliban, we accomplished our professed objective of "bringing Osama to justice" (ie: kill) and nearly eradicated  Al Qaeda.

The cost to America and its allies was considered by those calling the shots as minimal, and it even came with an acceptable casualty rate. Not only was Osama removed, a pro-Western government was installed, and billions were made all around. We also gained accessed to Afghan's natural resources, which includes gold, copper, ore, chromium, lithium, as well as natural gas and oil.

As an aside, the attack on 9/11, also allowed the passage of the Patriot Act, which restricted various freedoms under the auspices of "national security" (many people have equated the Patriot Act with Hitler's 1933 Enabling Act), laying the groundwork for today's surveillance state.  A pleasant bonus for those who would become our ruling Oligarchy.

However, we must still address the additional ten years after the elimination of bin Laden. Were they worth it? After all, bin Laden and his top leadership were the primary objective weren't they? Could we have done it differently? Perhaps simply used our intelligence agencies and special forces to do a quick and dirty "find and seek" operation? After he was taken out, there really wasn't any reason to be in Afghanistan after that except for the fact that there was still a lot of money to be made.

Personally, I think we could have spent that one trillion dollars on other things like education, rebuilding our badly decaying infrastructure, care for seniors and veterans, shelter for the homeless and so forth. I agree with President Eisenhower, who once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed". 

Even though we lost "only" 2,312 soldiers and suffered 20,066 wounded or injured, that's 2,312 mothers and fathers who lost a child, not to mention the loss of a brother, sister, spouse, or a child who lost a mother or father of their own. And those 20,066 wounded or injured represent a life disrupted; some permanently (and I speak as a disabled veteran).

Of course, none of this includes those who will forever suffer from the "silent wounds" of what they experienced.   I also don't want to forget or minimized the 40,000 Afghani civilian lives lost or the hundreds of thousands wounded, injured or maimed; caught up a conflict not of their making. 

As for the Taliban, they were remove from power while a Western puppet regime was put in its place. Perhaps that's not so bad if the Afghani people benefited, but they haven't, at least not in any long lasting way. The government of President Ashrif Ghani isn't long for this world. As soon as the U.S. and allied troops leave, the militant Islamists will be back in power, just as they were when the Soviets were forced out in 1989, leaving then President Karmel swinging in the breeze (he was replaced in 1986 by Mohammad Najibullah, who was murdered by the Taliban in 1996).

As an aside, it's worth noting that the Soviets spent over $800 million dollars during their involvement in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989, with a loss of 26,000 personnel (Afghanistan was the called "Soviet Russia's Vietnam"). Their Afghani allies lost 18,000 with an unknown number of insurgent dead and wounded. The Afghani people, as always, suffered the most with approximately 562,000 to 2 million dead and about 3 million wounded.

The reason I mention this is because as far as the Taliban and the remnant of Al Qaeda are concerned, they withstood the full onslaught of two of the most powerful nations on the planet and their allies; they defeated the USSR and the USA. Al Qaeda, though devastated, remains functionally intact. In fact, since 2001, dozens of similar radical Islamic terrorists groups like ISIS/ISIL, Boko Haram, and Abu Sayyuf have sprung throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  

Women and young girls in Afghanistan can expect to return to a third class status with little or no educational opportunities, freedom of expression, child brides, sexual and political repression. It's a place where everyone has few freedoms or rights. Anyone who speaks out or resists is brutally punished. Such was rule under the Taliban in the past and will be again in the future.  

As Alexander the Great learned over two thousand years ago, Afghanistan is not a country that's either easily conquered or controlled. Afghanistan will continue being Afghanistan as it has done for thousands of years, regardless of which empire currently dominates the rest of the world.

The Taliban will likely soon be back in charge while America's attention turns elsewhere. The only question is whether they will be more conciliatory in their dealings with the West or will they align themselves with a hostile Iran, which itself has become much closer to the China orbit.

 

White House Fact Sheet: Normandy Landings

Biden Announces Full U.S. Troop  Withdrawal From Afghanistan by Sept. 11

As U.S. troops prepare to pull out, a look at the war inAfghanistan by the numbers

Karma: It Can Be A Bitch You Know (Especially in Politics)

You know, they say that Karma is bitch, which I have often seen proven true. There's also a saying by the great Chinese military and political strategist, Sun Tzu, which say that "if you wait by a river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by". Perhaps is this no better applied than in the world of politics. Not long ago, many pundits were predicting about the decline and fall of the Republican Party. The Reagan Revolution had come and gone. George H.W. Bush had liberated Exxon and BP...uh...I mean Kuwait.. from the evil clutches of our regional Iranian counterweight...I mean that ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile our national economy was sputtering, and right on queue came an unknown governor from Hope Arkansas, William Jefferson Clinton, better known to all simply as "Bill" and his "barely concealed" Machiavellian wife, Hillary. Well, those eight years proved to be a lot of fun didn't they? The economy bounced backed; there were some pretty positive initiatives passed, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Violence Against Women Act and Megan's Law, along with a few goofs like NAFTA and expanding NATO into Eastern Europe.

We got ourselves involved in a few civil wars, such as Mogadishu and in former Yugoslavia, and his failure to kill and/or capture Osama bin Laden at Kandahar when he had the chance. Of course, we can't forget the impeachment hearings and his lying to Congress (which apparently hinged on what the definition of "is" is). However, most people simply didn't care. They felt that was between Bill, Hillary, and his "victim-of-the-month". After all, the economy was doing great and that was all that mattered. By the time Clinton left office, the Democratic Party was doing pretty well, while the GOP was busy trying to redefine itself and remain relevant after their 1994 "Contract With America" turned out to be more of a "Contract On America" and blew up in the collective faces.

So, then came George "Dubya" Bush, aka "Shrub". I think what most people liked about Shrub...err...George was his laidback easygoing attitude. It seems everyone had an uncle like George locked away somewhere. He proved that anyone with a "D+" grade point average; who was unsuccessful as a businessman, a poor military record, a recovering alcoholic, but had lots of family money and connections could still become president, thus proving the "American Dream" was still alive.

Then again, it could be that voters just couldn't stand elitist Al Gore. Here was a man who just couldn't connect with the American People. He was "insider royalty". He was so elitist that his attempts to fit in with ordinary American's was comical. Then came the presidential debates and Gore's attempts to bully or intimidate Bush (which Bush just laughed off, along with the rest of America on national television).

Now, here was a guy born in the Heart of America, Washington DC (if you're the Tin Man); the son of wealthy and powerful Senator, Albert "Al" Gore Sr, who represented the flyover state of Tennessee. The future VP attended Harvard and Vanderbilt, and volunteered to go to Vietnam as an ordinary private, where he served with the 20th Engineer Brigade as a journalist. He would go on to serve in Congress from 1977 to 1993, when he was selected to run as Clinton's choice of VP. Regardless, Gore just couldn't connect with the American People.

Much to the surprise of the Democrats, who were still riding the Clinton high, "Dubya" won the election. As first, he seen as something of a joke: the proverbial class clown who somehow managed to steal the prom queen from the school jock. Even many Republicans started to shake their heads in embarrassed wonderment. Thankfully, there was some old hands of his dad (and the Establishment) to steer his Ship of State along the dangerous narrows; individuals like VP Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, AG John Ashcroft, Reich Secur...uh...I mean...Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. There Elaine Chao, the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell, who headed up the Department of Labor, as well as two excellent Secretaries of State, Former General Colin Powell and later, Condoleezza "Condi" Rice.

Nevertheless, it was one event which sealed Bush's presidential legacy more than any other, and that was September 11, 2001; better known simply as "9/11". It was the one event which has come to symbolize the early 21st Century. It was the day where America was deliberately attacked by an enemy most Americans didn't even know existed, from a country that some would have trouble finding on a map, and by a group the majority of Americans had never heard of...Al Qaeda.

However, there were some who had heard of its leader....Osama bin Laden; the same bin Laden whom Bill Clinton's Administration failed to kill years earlier (and the same individual whom the CIA picked out as potential leader decades before), after Russia invaded Afghanistan during the final months of the Carter Administrations and the beginning of Reagan's (under "Operation Cyclone", the CIA provided military aid, intelligence reports, training, and logistics to Afghani rebels known as the "Mujahideen", of which bin Laden was one).

This cowardly attack has often compared to the Japanese sneak attack on December 7, 1941 on Pearl Harbor, of course led to US and some allied troops to put boots on the ground in Afghanistan, and indirectly, led to the US and some Coalition troops to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein; apparently his usefulness had run out, and then again, maybe he knew too many secrets. The excuse this time was "weapons of mass destruction" or "WMDs", which we were repeatedly assured not only existed, but that Saddam was about to unleash on the world! Of course, as we were to learn later, they didn't exist. However, for Saddam and his cronies, he didn't matter. Only the perception that he did mattered. The outcome was a foregone conclusion...he and most of his ministers were executed.

Since then, efforts to rebuild both Afghanistan and Iraq have proved to be much more difficult than originally predicted and has led to a quagmire which we're still dealing with today. Meanwhile, "Dubya" exited the stage with the public's opinion of his administration pretty low (he has the unique distinction of having both the highest and lowest approval ratings, 51% and 25% respectively). At this juncture, the Democrats were feeling a bit more confident about the prospects for the upcoming presidential and Congressional elections. What nobody expected was a political "nobody" coming to the forefront...Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama was unique in several ways. First, he was bi-racial---black on his father's side and white on his mother's. Second, there wasn't much know about his formative years for sure. There were (and remain) many questions over his place of birth; his education in Indonesia and apparently Muslim upbringing; his education in Hawaii, as well as family and personal friends with far Left or Communist sympathies, including former 60's radical and member of the Weathermen, Bill Ayers. Barack Obama was pretty much an unknown at college, despite his claims to contrary. While he claimed to be a law professor, he was in fact actually an adjunct instructor who taught just a handful of courses. In terms of having any real political experience, he was a neighborhood organizer for ACORN. He ultimately managed to fill an empty seat in the Illinois Senate and amassed no memorable record (voting mostly "here" or "present"). He was later, in 2005, that he was elected to fill an empty US Senate seat. It was as "Junior" Senator, with no national or even regional name recognition, that he decided to run for president (a highly unusual and risky political move).

What made the move that much more risky was that he would face the odds on favorite, Senator Hillary Clinton (she had changed her residency to New York to run for Bobby Kennedy's old seat, thus creating a link between the Clinton's and the Kennedy's (Bill Clinton met JFK as young man and has remained a lifelong admirer). Ultimately, Clinton lost in a highly contested campaign to the Junior Senator. Obama would go on to face Senior Senator John McCain, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, former POW, and a highly distinguished Naval pilot who came from a long line of Naval officers.

John McCain, who first rose to national prominence while he was a prisoner of war, held in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton". He later became a US Senator in 1987, after having served as member of the House of Representatives. McCain quickly earned a reputation for being outspoken and frequently disagreed with GOP party bosses. He was seen by many as a moderate or a more "traditional" conservative. Given McCain's reputation and name recognition, it was presumed that he would easily beat the Illinois upstart. However, that wasn't to be the case.

Barack Obama used his youth, bi-racial status, and charismatic speaking ability to attract the emerging Millennials, who are the largest voting demographic, while McCain's appealed mainly to the aging Babyboomers. There was also a notable difference between the two campaigns. McCain's campaign conformed primarily to the more tradition format (with the novelty of selecting an unknown for VP, non-conformist Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, to attract the more conservative elements of the GOP. Ironically, Palin would prove to be more popular among Tea Parties and some other conservatives than McCain). Obama's campaign was based more on the use of social media, including his use of the internet to raise money. In the end, McCain was outspent 4 to 1, and Obama won with 53% of the vote compared to McCain's 46%. Obama's first term, however, did light a spark under the Democrats, though the numbers were pretty much average with his accomplishments (except golf outings. There Obama wins hands down with 113). Immediately after becoming president, Obama was also roundly booed by public opinion for being "awarded" the "Nobel Peace Prize", an honor he didn't earn, and as a result, tarnished the award for all future recipients. However, it would be his second term which would become most noteworthy. First though, he had to defeat the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts.

Rome had its Crassus. The Democratic Party has its Al Gore. The Republicans have Mitt Romney. Romney, like Al Gore, comes from a prominent political family. Both of his parents, George and Lenore were very active in politics (his mother even ran for office), while his father went to work for the Nixon Administration as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and then, later, as Governor of Michigan. In addition to coming from a established political family, they were also Mormon. Mitt also made a fortune while working for Bain Capital (and ultimately as CEO) through leveraged buyouts. His net worth is estimated to be $250 million (his wife, the daughter of heavy construction equipment co-founder Jared Industries, Edward and Lois Davies, is worth some $50 million).

Like McCain, Mitt Romney just didn't connect with ordinary Americans. He had no real understanding of their issues, and certainly didn't share their working class values. He came across as arrogant and pandering. When the dust settled, Obama had won his second term with just over 51% compared to Romney's 47.21%. What hurt Obama in this election was the lower return of Millennials, who, while strongly disapproving of Romney, were disappointed in Obama's first term performance.

Obama's second term proved to be controversial, from de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants (and a questionable lawsuit against Arizona for enforcing federal immigration laws), to the illegal sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels, the "Obamacare" healthcare law (which was unconstitutionally altered by the Supreme Court. In addition, prior promises by Obama, such as keeping healthcare providers, existing insurance, all turned out to be false). Perhaps worse of all, was the lies surrounding the Benghazi attack and the murders of Ambassador Stevens and three former special forces/CIA operatives amid illegal arms shipments to Syria and the same terrorists were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq (except in Syria, where we suddenly called them "freedom fighters", since they opposed Russia's longtime regional ally). But, what difference did that matter?

The situation in the Middle East failed to improve as did his attempts at expanding gun control to ban "assault" weapons. IRS official Lois Lerner testified that conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status had been targeted by the IRS. Obama also pressed for a land invasion of Syria which was met with absolute rejection by the American People. Obama's Secretary of the Veteran Affairs, Eric Shenski, was forced to resign over charges of mistreatment, misreporting, and prolonged delays resulting in appointment backlogs and preventable veteran deaths. On the plus, Navy SEALs did find and kill Osama Bin Laden, despite delay's by the Obama Administration.

Obama, like Clinton's NAFTA, signed TransPacific Partnership, again selling out unions. We also had "Citizens United" upheld, which gave corporations the same rights as humans, except when it came to political contributions, where they were permitted near unlimited "free speech" (as donations were euphemistically called), while it remained limited for ordinary flesh and blood types. Without question, Obama's second term didn't live up to expectations, by Obama, his administration, or the American People. His approval rating for his second term only averaged 47.9% while the public's confidence in government slumped to a mere 30%.

So, there you have it. All the "static" about Trump's success or failures so soon into his first term is just that...static. Each political party has its ups and down. The big difference in Trump's case, is the open season by the corporate managed media. Trump was the "unexpected" candidate; he was the anti-establishment candidate that didn't come with strings attached. The media and political establishment----both corporate owned parties, the "K" Street lobbyists, the "princesses and snowflakes", and all those with dirty hands---already had Hillary crowned and enthroned. They were wrong. The public knew her record and they rejected it. Perhaps...just perhaps...Americans have finally had enough. We can only hope.



Obama's first term: By the number


Republicans for Obama


Obama's second term: A timeline


Americans Losing Confidence in All Branches of Government