When frustration sets in, its time to admit defeat and walk away. The dictionary explains the reason. “Frustration” is the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something”. For 20 years, Afghanistan has frustrated American presidents and generals and yet they refused to admit defeat. And that was their mistake. If they had admitted defeat, they could have walked away, gained perspective, developed a winning strategy and carried on.
Of course, Biden knew withdrawal would be this ugly and this “politically-hard”. In fact, I’m betting the situation is not even close to the estimates he was given. Biden spent 8 years in this nation’s war rooms, listening to the generals, experts and academics. Biden took office knowing that none of them knew how to win or get us out.
Biden has an advantage, no president since Roosevelt has had. Joe Biden has nothing to lose. Biden is an old man and old men have already lived their lives and risen to whatever height they can. Biden is free, in a way that younger men and women cannot begin to understand. Someday, they will understand, but not yet.
The lives of old men are behind them – not in front of them. Old men are not building their lives – they are leaving them. Until you are old, you cannot possibly understand how it feels to be truly free; no longer dependent on appeasing people you disagree with, going along to get along, compromising, and negotiating in order to survive.
Old people have earned their freedom and the well-seasoned and wise ones use it well. Biden doesn’t need a second term. Biden knows how to make one term count. Biden is not sitting around, calculating what he’ll do now to earn a second term, so he can do what he wants four years from now. Biden isn’t even counting on the 2022 mid-terms.
Remember when Biden whispered "This is a big fucking deal!" in Obama’s ear during the signing of the Affordable Care Act? The country was appalled, but Biden didn’t care that the cameras picked up his words, because Biden knew that Obama had dislodged a system buried in solid rock. Biden knows how systems work, and he knows how to change them.
In the last eight months, Biden threw our most entrenched systems into chaos. These systems are now vulnerable, open and ready for change. Biden put the right people in place, gave them time to get situated, then hit the military right between the eyes – we are leaving Afghanistan, now.
The media frenzy will die down in a couple weeks, and our attention will turn to our real problem – ourselves. Afghanistan was lost the day, Bush invaded Iraq. While we were watching the 20 years of chaos we created in Afghanistan and Iraq, it was coming home to roost.
Joe Biden inherited a country in chaos. We, the American people are in chaos. We are on the brink of civil war, with no north south comfort zone to protect us. On every inch of this land there is a neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, son against son, daughter against daughter, mother against father battle being waged.
A country fighting their own civil war, cannot win another country’s civil war. A divided people cannot win the respect, trust, or obedience of a divided people. Until this country is united, once again, America will remain weak on the international stage.
at least, that is my opinion.
