The horrifying explosion at the Kabul airport on 8/26/21 took the lives of 13 American servicemen and hundreds of Afghan citizens. Those of us living in the United States of America are viewing the evacuation of Afghanistan more like an abandonment. However, the politicians advising the president have publicly stated that they’re not worried at all, because “people don’t vote on foreign policy.” When several Afghanistan men fell to their death from an airplane while trying to escape, Biden shrugged and said , “that happened yesterday.” They’re betting that voters care more about the size of their 40lKs than the misguided evacuation of Afghanistan as we exit the war. But you have to wonder. Will Americans really forget?

Will Americans Really Forget? The tragedy of 8/26 at the Kabul airport shouldn't have happened.

Will American’s Really Forget? On election day, will they remember 8/26/21?

The president’s advisors are comparing the Afghan withdrawal to the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. However the two events cannot be compared.

According to Wikipedia ” the capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the Republic of Vietnam. A few Americans chose not to be evacuated. United States ground combat units had left South Vietnam more than two years prior to the fall of Saigon and were not available to assist with either the defense of Saigon or the evacuation. The evacuation was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and the institution of new rules by the communists contributed to a decline in the city’s population.^”

There was no Operation Frequent Wind when Biden announced we were withdrawing from the Afghanistan War by August 31. In fact, he turned over the names of Americans and Afghan helpers to the Taliban, actually believing that would insure the safety of those fleeing the country. It’s hard to believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would be so gullible. Much less the President of the United States and his Generals.

Biden has threatened : “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” But how is he going to do that without continuing the war in Afghanistan? They launched a drone strike Friday night against some Isis stronghold, but it seems like a tepid move than doesn’t compensate for the horrific loss of life at the Kabul airport.

What will happen in the next election? Consumer sentiment has dropped to its lowest point since 2011. Will Americans really forget the administration’s bungled evacuation plan when exiting the Afghan War? Will we care more about the size of our bank accounts, than the tragedy of August 26? Are we really that materialistic and shallow? It remains to be seen.

In my home town, I’m acquainted with a diverse group of people. Because of our respective careers , my husband and I know folks from every race, religion, and socio-economic background. If I were to sit down with some of them and ask, “what is our foreign policy?” I don’t think anyone would give me the same answer.

Some professors, politicians, and military could probably voice a well informed opinion. But even in this college town, those people are few and far between.

When FDR signed a declarration of war against Japan, everyone understood USA foreign policy — Everyone in the USA understood our foreign policy when FDR declared war against Japan in 1941..

When I was a child, the USA foreign policy was pretty clear. We were fighting Germany and Japan. The Germans hated the Jews, and the Japanese hated us. If we didn’t enter the war, they would take over our country , kill our priests, and make us do horrible things to our fellow human beings.

A few years after WWII ended in 1945, almost every young man I knew was drafted and sent to Korea. Again, we had a pretty clear foreign policy: Fighting communism.

Then we entered the long, agonizing war in Vietnam. Our sons, brothers, husbands and fathers were drafted to continue the fight against Marxist communism. Most of us protested. However, the politicians convinced us that if our guys didn’t fight and die in Southeast Asia, we’d soon be ruled by the communists. We lost that war, but saved our democracy.

The State department says their foreign policy goals are to preserve national security, promote world peace, promote democratic values, work with our allies to solve international problems. and further cooperative foreign trade,

But how is the average American supposed to figure out what the United States is up to all over the world? The cold war is supposedly over, but we’re impeaching a president because he held up aid to a corrupt Ukraine in their fight against Russia. Does that make sense? If that’s what we’re doing, it looks like the cold war is really a hot war.

Supposedly, we’re not at war with anyone in the Middle East. But if you were alive on 9/11, it felt pretty much like Pearl Harbor to those of us who were around both times. We actually were at war after 9/11, but it was never declared.

If you were alive during the Pearl Harbor attack, 9/11 seemed like we were at war again — No one questioned our foreign policy when FDR declared war against Japan

We’ve been sending our troops all over the Middle East for years, even though we don’t need their oil any more We’ve got all the oil we need right here in the good old USA . Also, we have wind farms and other forms of cleaner energy. But the politicians give us the same old excuse they did about communism. They tell us we’re fighting terrorism there so we don’t have to fight it here.

Why are we trying to maintain toxic relationships with countries who hate us? Any therapist would tell us that’s crazy. Our foreign policy is incoherent to the average person who goes to work every day, worries about paying their mortgage, and educating their children.

People cared more about our foreign policy when men were being drafted against their will. Now that the US military is an all volunteer service, no one feels as strongly as they once did. And more importantly, our foreign policy doesn’t influence their vote nearly as much as the cost of health care, prescription drugs, and the unemployment rate.

What is our foreign policy? Does anyone really know?

Tag: Vietnam

WILL AMERICANS REALLY FORGET?

WHAT IS OUR FOREIGN POLICY?

The State department says their foreign policy goals are to preserve national security, promote world peace, promote democratic values, work with our allies to solve international problems. and further cooperative foreign trade,

Supposedly, we’re not at war with anyone in the Middle East. But if you were alive on 9/11, it felt pretty much like Pearl Harbor to those of us who were around both times. We actually were at war after 9/11, but it was never declared.