Hunger In Dark Places (Part One.)

Freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave, for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner 'Freedom Now', they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. ~George W. Bush

When I got home this morning, and got online, this was the first thing I saw.

There was one, perhaps badly phrased comment by somebody from CNN about members of the Taliban and their hangers-on shouting "Death to America" in front of the abandoned US embassy building in Kabul. Just one.

And there were dozens, if not hundreds of comments and posts and various hot takes by "Conservatives" about this...enough to make it a trending topic on Twitter.

Because the lady from CNN...who seems to be trying to be inconspicuous for reasons that should be obvious...wasn't freaking out enough.

Seriously?

Listen, you idiots, YOU made this trend. THEY didn't. I'm pretty sure that was the point.

If there's one thing that insurgents in general, and Jihadists in particular have to be good at, it's manipulating mass media and the internet. This is, in point of fact, why a number of major platforms have automatic and specific moderation, procedures, etc. against this type of stuff.

Outrage-based conservative media, not so much. In their haste to be seen being performatively against this bullshit, the right-wing media spread it way further than the allegedly-liberal media did. 

(Not that I would call CNN liberal, personally.)

But these idiots just kicked a major own-goal in their own meme war by boosting the fuck out of *Terrorists* because their next dopamine rush or hit of internet-fueled rage or need to deal in such was more important than, ya know, *Not* giving Jihad a platform.

And then they wonder how the fuck we lost Afghanistan?

Think about it, stop reacting based on emotion and use your brain for a second.

The fact that we didn't build up civil society or institutions or give the Afghan people something they could believe in didn't help us much. More and more and more force, more weapons, more violence is NOT how you fight an insurgent conflict. Insurgency vs. Counter-insurgency is a war of ideas, information and media as much as of direct combat, tactical doctrine and weapons. You can't just keep reacting. You have to be proactive. You have to gain control of the narrative...and repeating the other side's narrative verbatim because you think it's going to "gotcha" some reporter ain't how you do that.

And you not only have to consider your enemies and respond intelligently to whatever they might do. You have to consider your allies, the general population and those who might be on the fence as well. You have to watch your messaging so you don't #1 Alienate your allies and #2 Create more enemies.

So, naturally, here's Paul Gosar and Jack "Ensign Urine Sample" Posobiec disparaging Afghan refugees, perhaps especially those who fought on our side.

The Afghan National Army crumbled because it had been trained to operate with extensive air, information technology and logistical support in accordance with modern warfighting doctrines, and it was left unsupported in all respects. The Afghans were also dependent on the United States to police corruption, and we were not anymore. We made Afghanistan part of the world community, a major ally, a part of global civilization...and then turned our back.

What would you do?

Afghan soldiers had been trained extensively to depend on and be interoperable with allies, and those allies were gone, mostly because of the vicissitudes of politics and one unstable leader...but also because to many allied nations' civilian populations the conflict itself had not been a priority for some time...if it ever was at all.

America was not at war, the United States Marine Corps was at war. America was at the mall.

The Afghan National Army and police, unlike the Taliban, had a standardized chain of command that was subordinate to a civilian government...and both their higher-ranking officers and that civilian government were corrupt and the troops often went unpaid for many months at a time.

The Taliban, on the other hand, offered to pay them not to fight and/or let them leave if they surrendered and left behind their equipment and weapons.

A fair number of them fought anyway, at least for awhile, until their ammunition and food ran out and most of their bros took the money, surrendered and went home.

Let's be real, what would you do?!

Would you stay and fight, maybe die, maybe starve, for the sake of duty, honor and country? Or would you take the money and run and hope the hell you can get yourself and maybe your family out of the country and on a bus to Peshawar or hire a guide to trek over the mountains on foot before the hammer comes down?

And then...THEN...you find out that some racist politician in the country that claimed to support you because of democratic values and a desire to stand against Jihad and that you fought for and with wants to deny you refugee status and a safe haven because you're not a white person?!

All while some punk-ass failed naval officer who didn't even make it all the way through being trained on his rating complains that you might get to go to America at all? Or that you should be "Vetted" when you might well have got shot or worse for these fucking people already?

Tell me how you think that's going to play in a traditional, tribe and honor-based culture. Go ahead, I'll wait. 

(If you want a free sample and probably an ass whuppin' without ever leaving your immediate vicinity, walk up to a black dude, a Latino or a redneck and say something bad about his mother, see what happens. It's the same general principle.)

Let's be real, what the fuck would you do? Would you keep on going? To face Allah only knows what and an uncertain future where you might be unwelcome? Or would you turn back around and join the other side because fuck these fucking people and how they set your country up for permanent occupation for no better reason than their own profits?

Again, what would you have done?

"Conservatives" set this thing up to be a loss right from the jump, and continued making it that way and lied about it for 20 years.

And other people will pay the price, especially people who bought hard into our rhetoric about democracy and freedom and things like women's rights.

And, aside from a few decent people who are legitimately anguished by all this, the vast  majority of them have already stopped pretending to care once they figured out that their side was well known to be too deep in the decision making process and they couldn't use this mess to shank their political rivals.

Because that's all any of this crap is really about to a large majority of current right-wing people.

The Right doesn't really give a shit about the Afghan people, not on a collective basis anyway. I think a fair number of Bush 43 people gave a shit, but they were outnumbered by those who saw the Afghan people and the war in their country as nothing more than yet another way to boost their stock portfolios.

Afghan people who, right now, are in large part trying to escape their own country, especially women, girls and young boys and men who don't want to end up living lives of constant rape and slavery, young men who want more out of life than constant war and harsh religion, and most especially of all those people who believed in our promises of democracy, freedom and human rights and who know in their hearts that the Taliban will offer them no peace.

And if you don't think right now that right-wing extremists are dreaming of the day when the United States is divided and weak and they can make the government and the military roll over like the Taliban just did in Afghanistan...you have another thing coming. 

The January 6th insurrection was an attempt to cause exactly what's happening in Afghanistan right now, right here at home.

When so many of us cannot resist the temptation to live in fear, or to bully and brutalize for no good reason...how the hell can we say we will be able to stand and fight when the time comes? 

Do you really think people who live under a constant stream of cowardice and performative fear and hate aimed at satisfying dark desires and negative emotions for the sake of somebody else's profits are going to be able to switch that off and be brave and do the right things if somehow, something something Gazpacho the "right" enemy attacks us?

And who might that be, really?

My guess is if the Chinese or the Russians came calling, the defense of America would be left primarily to liberals, conservatives would either bitch out and run and hide or actively join the enemy if they think it'd "Own The Libs" and if the enemy will take them.

Ya know, half a country might be able to defend itself. But that'd still leave a lot of people out in the cold. If these idiots get their wish and turn "Culture War" into civil war and ethnic conflict...long term my money's on my side...but how many lives, how much waste will that cost? How many Americans would be killed or become refugees?

When we hunger in dark places, who will be there for us?

Remember that, and tremble, if people like Paul Gosar are representative of how we're going to conduct ourselves in these matters.

Why? Because yet again, by being assholes we set ourselves up to lose. Eventually, it will happen here if it's not stopped, and soon.

The Universe will not forget. I believe this.

Part Two.