I thought your 'communications team' message was quite good, Isaac. It was truthful and accurate, as I understand it. I commend Biden for pulling out. He said he would and he did. Was it a mess, absolutely. At least Biden didn't kick the can down the road. Biden wouldn't have had to deal with this mess if W hadn't screwed up the initial invasion because he wanted to go after Saddam.
Let's spend money on our own country - on infrastructure, education, basic research, etc. Let's stop giving money to Pakistan and use that money to help resettle the Afghan refugees.
One question I have that no one seems to be talking about is whether the false confidence the government had that the Taliban wouldn’t take over quickly might be related to the devastation in the State Department we had over the course of the Trump administration, when it was bleeding career specialists and their expertise.
The Trump administration did not devastate the State Dept. It was the other way around. The Washington bureaucracy (that actually runs our country) is thoroughly entrenched. These are 20- and 30-year, career public servants who are very well educated, and competent besides, and who watch presidents come and go every four or maybe eight years. They hated Trump because he thought, wrongly, that he could run it himself. It is a good thing that we can rely on their expertise, because after running the country for Biden, as they are doing right now, they will have to run it for Harris pretty soon.
I share with you an appreciation for what these career officers do. I am less sanguine about the damage though. E.g.: "[M]ore than 100 out of some 900 senior Foreign Service officers—including the most visible high-ranking Hispanic, African American, South Asian, and female career officers—were fired, pushed out, or chose to leave the State Department during the first year of the Trump administration." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/state-departments-politicization-almost-complete/616795/
Consider the source: Laurene Powell Jobs' personal progressive rag, once (long ago) a great journal, now a bought and paid for outlet of socialist propaganda. Why does it matter whether our public servants are Hispanic, African American, South Asian and/or female? Why is that pertinent?
It is not unusual for 10% of public office holders to leave during the first year of any new administration, regardless of their race or gender. Those are the 10%--often the most visible--who recently got appointed to sinecures, not the 90% who have made it their lifelong career and who toil in the background.
I thought your 'communications team' message was quite good, Isaac. It was truthful and accurate, as I understand it. I commend Biden for pulling out. He said he would and he did. Was it a mess, absolutely. At least Biden didn't kick the can down the road. Biden wouldn't have had to deal with this mess if W hadn't screwed up the initial invasion because he wanted to go after Saddam.
Let's spend money on our own country - on infrastructure, education, basic research, etc. Let's stop giving money to Pakistan and use that money to help resettle the Afghan refugees.
One question I have that no one seems to be talking about is whether the false confidence the government had that the Taliban wouldn’t take over quickly might be related to the devastation in the State Department we had over the course of the Trump administration, when it was bleeding career specialists and their expertise.
The Trump administration did not devastate the State Dept. It was the other way around. The Washington bureaucracy (that actually runs our country) is thoroughly entrenched. These are 20- and 30-year, career public servants who are very well educated, and competent besides, and who watch presidents come and go every four or maybe eight years. They hated Trump because he thought, wrongly, that he could run it himself. It is a good thing that we can rely on their expertise, because after running the country for Biden, as they are doing right now, they will have to run it for Harris pretty soon.
I share with you an appreciation for what these career officers do. I am less sanguine about the damage though. E.g.: "[M]ore than 100 out of some 900 senior Foreign Service officers—including the most visible high-ranking Hispanic, African American, South Asian, and female career officers—were fired, pushed out, or chose to leave the State Department during the first year of the Trump administration." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/state-departments-politicization-almost-complete/616795/
Consider the source: Laurene Powell Jobs' personal progressive rag, once (long ago) a great journal, now a bought and paid for outlet of socialist propaganda. Why does it matter whether our public servants are Hispanic, African American, South Asian and/or female? Why is that pertinent?
It is not unusual for 10% of public office holders to leave during the first year of any new administration, regardless of their race or gender. Those are the 10%--often the most visible--who recently got appointed to sinecures, not the 90% who have made it their lifelong career and who toil in the background.