Author: Blazingcatfur

On Nov. 4, 1979, militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. It was hell for the captured Americans, and Jimmy Carter’s inability to extricate them helped doom him to a one-term presidency.

The way things are shaping up in Kabul, that national humiliation is being recreated on a far, far bigger scale — it is no hyperbole to say that it is starting to look like America’s worst hostage crisis.

That may be the right call.

Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul’s airport road to freedom

As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.

Since the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital’s airport has become the only way out of the country for many.

But the militants have said they don’t want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road – shown in yellow, below – the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.

Our country has undergone a radical change in the 21st century. It has not been a change for the better. We have focused more on arguing among ourselves while the “barbarians are at the gates,” so to speak. If we learn no other lesson from the Afghanistan debacle, it is that our military and intelligence agencies need to refocus their priorities. If we fail to do so, situations such as Afghanistan might become much more common.

The West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the country’s subsequent fall to the Taliban, has brought the number of refugees the UK should take back to the forefront of the political conversation. It is eerily familiar: many of the same ideas were being advanced by many of the same people in 2015 at the height of the Syria crisis.

Earlier this year, Ayaan Hirsi Ali did an interview with UnHerd in which she predicted exactly this, and warned about not making the same mistakes again.

While Sleepy-Time Joe recuperates from the hard work of not getting lost on the White House lawn (Camp David is so peaceful this time of year), the vultures are circling.

The America which flexed its muscles under Reagan and Trump is now prostrate.

The Taliban, Mexican cartels, OPEC, city savages – the sky is full of carrion birds. Signs of weakness always bring them out. With Biden, America might as well be wearing a kick-me sign on its back.

Biden’s pullout from Afghanistan has been the worst managed event in American history.  With Saigon as an example, the administration knew exactly how bad it would be.  There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on now, but, at bottom, people are wondering if the unconditional Taliban takeover, including the trapped Americans, is a deliberate policy.  On Tucker Carlson’s Wednesday show, Lara Logan said, “Yes, it is.  This was what the government wanted.”