Now, Mr. President, With Respect, Cut the Crap and Get Out of Afghanistan

"Mr. President you are surrounded by advisors who are morons, liars, money-grubbers, mineral-chasers, war-lovers, and democracy crusaders, as well as generals who cannot tell the difference between winning and losing"

Michael Scheuer is the former chief of CIA’s Bin Laden Issue Station who gave Clinton multiple chances to assassinate the latter.

Mr. President: For those of your supporters who genuinely believe in the non-interventionist segment of an America First policy, there could be no better news than your sacking of John Bolton. He and his like – Crystal, Boot, Romney, and the rest of the Neocons and disloyal Israel-Firsters – are hip-deep in the blood and limbs of U.S. military personnel who became casualties in multiple unnecessary wars, none of which had anything to do with protecting American liberties and freedom. Indeed, the presidents who orchestrated and prolonged the wars constricted both, and also waged war against the Bill of Rights. On booting Bolton, Mr. President, well done.

Now for Afghanistan. Sir, for a guy like me, from Buffalo, New York, it is an odd but true fact that I have spent most of the past four decades working, from one angle or another, on wars in Afghanistan. I cannot say that I loved this work all the time – the best of times were when we helped drive the Red Army out of Afghanistan – but it has been pretty consistently fascinating. Moreover, it is the easiest to understand and solve foreign-policy problem that has ever confronted the United States.

Mr. President you must accept that, on the Afghan issue, you are surrounded by civilian advisors who are morons, liars, money-grubbers, mineral-chasers, war-lovers, and democracy crusaders, as well as generals who cannot tell the difference between winning and losing. The latter, I suppose, is to be expected as no U.S. general has participated in a winning war since September, 1945. Fortunately, none of the unnecessary wars they have lost even remotely put American freedom or liberty at risk, except from domestic enemies. Taking advice from any of this lot, is like taking advice on particle physics from Ilhan Omar.

Now, Sir, when you were elected you were presented with a lost war. Obama, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld had presided over – and even directed — numerous half-ass military campaigns that were shrugged off by the Afghan Taleban and its allies, no matter what their casualties. The Afghan leaders knew that the U.S. military was not there to win. They do have ears, you know, and they heard all U.S. generals publicly proclaim, ad nauseam, something like “There is no military solution to the Afghan conflict.” These be-starred knuckleheads might as well have said publicly that the Taleban had won, game, set, and match.

The Taleban’s leaders also knew the U.S. did not intend to win in Afghanistan because they had watched Bill Clinton refuse to even attempt one of the ten chances CIA gave him to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. Always recall, Mr. President, there would have been no Afghan War or Iraq War if Clinton had removed bin Laden from the scene in 1998 or 1999.

You are fighting, Mr. President, an enemy in the Taleban, as well as the other Islamist Afghan insurgent groups, a foe that is far tougher, much more patient, more zero-sum minded, stupendously less casualty-adverse, and more religiously devout than any of your advisors, civil or military. The current crop of Afghan Islamist insurgents and their predecessors, taken together, have chalked up nearly 40 continuous years on the battlefield since the Soviet invasion occurred in December 1979. The score after four decades shows the Afghans have knocked off two superpowers – the USSR and the hodge-podge of U.S.-NATO forces. This, after having knocked off the British superpower in the 19th century. Can you, Sir, name another country that has defeated three superpowers?

What you need to know about Afghanistan, namely, the determinative role its history plays in the Afghans’ thinking and actions, and what that means for the United States, is limited, easy to understand, and is encompassed in the three points that follow. They were clear, true, and utterly reliable long  before the CIA deployed to country in the fall 2001 to wait for the eventual arrival of the U.S. military. Though I tend to believe it is true about most countries, Afghanistan is truly the land where the outcome of all events in which foreigners are involved are readily predictable – that is, history repeats itself, Afghans win, foreigners lose — and there are none of the “unintended consequences” that the Bush and Obama teams that gave you this lost war loved to prate about. And so, the points:

-First, the Afghans will wage war against any Afghan or foreigner who tries to install and maintain a strong and effective central government in Kabul. This thoroughly tribalized country is preeminently one of regions and peace is maintained by letting those regions look inward and rule themselves. An Afghan central government is durable as long as it is quiescent and content ruling Kabul. Our attempt to build a strong central government was and is promoting armed resistance to it. This was known, and ignored, by those who sent the U.S. military there to create a central government that would govern all of Afghanistan.

–Second, the Afghans – meaning many more people than just Taleban members and other militant Afghan Islamists – do not like foreigners. While they deal politely with foreigners who are visiting the country, especially if they have money to spend or are bringing financial aid, the Afghans, historically, have zero tolerance for foreigners who invade and occupy their country. Alexander the Great and his army, the military might and resolve of the 19th century British Empire, the modern and merciless Soviet Red Army, and now the rudderless activities – is it war-fighting, democracy building, or feminism? – of the U.S.-NATO force all have been greeted by a non-ending defensive war fought by the Afghans with religious zeal and the single-minded goal of evicting the foreign invaders. The Afghans endured and eventually succeeded in forcing foreigners to evacuate on all previous occasions, and, in those cases, they did so against enemies who were far more ruthless and bloody minded than the current effeminate and diddling occupiers.

–Third, there is no point worrying about what will happen to the Afghans who worked for the U.S.-NATO civil and military organizations, nor about those Afghans who have filled government posts during the occupation. Most of them already have stuffed their pockets with stolen U.S. taxpayer money and will leave the country to save their lives. Those who cannot leave probably will be killed, as an Afghan who supports foreigners against Afghan Muslims is not only defined as traitor, but also as a heretic for helping non-Muslim foreigners to kill Afghan Muslims. The truth about the recent breakdown of “peace talks” with the Taleban is that they were a hoax from start to finish. The Taleban eventually would have made some kind of deal if the U.S. agreed to completely withdraw. If that occurred, they would have abided by its provisions until the last U.S. Marine left the country, and then would have turned mercilessly on those who supported the occupation or fought alongside the foreign occupiers. If your advisers had been worth their salt, they would have told you that the peace talks were a charade that, at best, would have let U.S. civilian and military personnel depart Afghanistan in a manner somewhat more dignified than the manner in which they fled Hanoi.

Move on Afghanistan quickly, Mr. President, the entire country – except for generals, gun-makers, and disloyal U.S. citizens – will warmly welcome fulfillment of part of the campaign promise in which you pledged to bring our soldier-children home. Then, Iraq next.

And one final point, Sir. I have suggested previously in this space that you might benefit from reviewing the history of General George Marshall’s forced retirement of many dozens of U.S. general officers just before the start of World War II. He knew many of these officers, and knew they were not up to the challenge posed by what appeared to be an approaching world war. Mr. President, the ranks of your general officers are filled with losers; indeed, you have no serving general officer who has ever been on a winning side in a war. But you are also blessed with even more junior officers who have substantial combat experience and who, almost certainly, are disgusted by generals who have no intention of winning the wars into which they send men and women to die or be maimed. Perhaps General Marshall’s action deserves a second performance, soon.

Source: Non-Intervention

24 Comments
  1. JustPassingThrough says

    Who’s going to mind the poppy fields for the cia?
    M.S. is just repeating what has been known before the beginning of the hostilities.
    It is the cia that created the jihad against the Russians. True??
    The Russians, Alex the Great and some lesser lights are on record as saying Afghanistan is a swamp. (But the murikans don’t read history. They make history. LMAO)
    So thanks for the anal-ysis M.S. but it’s B.S.

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      The CIA doesn’t need to mind the poppy fields. That is very easy for the natives to do, given that the CIA pays them more for the poppy crop than anyone else has ever paid them for any crop.

  2. thomas malthaus says

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/taliban-negotiators-arrive-in-moscow-days-after-trump-declares-peace-talks-dead

    If this meeting did take place in Moscow, I’ll be surprised if peace negotiations with Washington were atop the list.

    The Russians probably assume a neocon will replace John Bolton and that President Trump is even more hesitant to withdraw troops.

    I suggest an arms pact was discussed and completed. We’ll probably see a Taliban operations escalation that pales to what the MSM has reported of late.

  3. John C Carleton says

    If the rope chewers at the Pentagon had learned some military history, they would have learned Afghanistan is called the Grave Yard of Empires, for a very historic reason.

    But West Point and Annapolis now teach treason, political correctness, butt kissing, being able to say yes-sir while chewing rope.

    Trump has to ask the RothsRats permission to take a whiz in the Oval Office urinal.

  4. CHUCKMAN says

    There are some truths here, including, of course, the main point about the urgent need to just get out of Afghanistan.

    But they are often poorly stated and, importantly, as I will explain, mixed and blurred with a lot of other matters. The author’s language, too, loses credibility and can distort meaning, although a remarkable number of Americans seem to believe otherwise, that such language reinforces truth.

    Overall, the language is indicative of much of what the author has to say – again, getting beyond the one essential point about the need to leave Afghanistan – so much of it really being not much more than bellowing from a disillusioned imperial acolyte.

    Exclamation points from the gut. But I have never been a reader or a writer who admires the use of exclamation points.

    I do think attitudes in the use of language reflect what an essentially violent country America is, both abroad and at home. And that’s why others often cannot understand it, and why it cannot understand them.

    After all, this author, by his own admission, spent many years of his life working towards a pointless goal in Afghanistan. It took him an awfully long time to realize anything about what he was doing (in an undoubtedly well-paying job). Such is the strength of preconceptions and religious mumbo-jumbo prejudices like “God Bless America” Patriotism.

    It’s actually quite hard to understand America’s establishment on the subject of Afghanistan.

    After all, America, especially in its rural areas, is packed with gun-toting, get-out-of-my-face types who hate most government and authority.

    Well, that’s what the Taliban represent in their poor, hardscrabble country.

    That’s all they’ve ever represented.

    They are not concerned about the bureaucrats living in Kabul unless the bureaucrats interfere with them, as they have been doing incessantly under American prompting.

    And they certainly aren’t concerned about the world at large, about geo-political matters, except to the extent, again, that any of it impinges on their society and way of life. Certainly, an invasion and occupation of 18 years would tend to do that.

    If anyone should be able to understand the Taliban, Americans should.

    But they don’t or they refuse to do so.

    The entire war was a waste over misunderstanding and America’s emotional need for vengeance after 9/11. Americans never even bothered to understand 9/11, to investigate it, to get at its causes, and to identify its authors accurately. They just demanded vengeance and the satisfaction of seeing lots of things get blown up.

    No one understands 9/11 to this day, but the chaotic war in Afghanistan heads towards twenty years of destruction and waste.

    The war never had a legitimate cause. And the truth is that all of America’s reactions, viewed from a distance, represent a kind of massive chaotic black comedy or primitive ritualistic cleansing ceremony.

    The Taliban never were terrorists in the sense that we understand the word. Yes, they are rude, backward, mountain-men types who don’t hesitate to use violence against enemies, but that is not what we mean when we use the word “terrorist.”

    The Taliban had given bin Laden, a devout Muslim and a genuine hero in the fight against Soviet occupation, a refuge away from the Saudi Arabia establishment that hated him, an establishment totally in bed with America.

    George Bush’s oil operations were assisted by Saudi Princes. Bush was actually never astute enough to start or run a serious business on his own, and the Saudis were always looking for ways to flatter and influence Americans from big-name families. Just as they gave rare gifts and donated to the Clintons.

    That’s all. So, you start and maintain an 18-year war over that?

    Just insanity, believing your own propaganda about the Taliban.

    Truly, America has been the most inept imperial power since WWII, fighting many meaningless wars and achieving very little, except profits for the defense industry and relatively well-paid jobs for many young Americans who might otherwise have swept floors or been unemployed.

    The final irony of it all is America’s adopting for its Israeli-inspired Neocon wars, wars designed only to attempt remaking much of the Middle East to the liking of America and Israel, the very methods of terror.

    In Syria, in Libya, and elsewhere, young CIA recruits are supported in behaving like mythical jihadi types when all they really are is old-fashioned mercenaries without uniforms. They never battle against what genuine jihadis would battle against, which would be Israel and the corrupt Saudi Princes and American influence.

    No, they fight, with terrorist methods, governments which have done a fairly decent job for the bulk of their people, governments such as those of Gadhafi or Assad, but who remain independent-minded and do not toe the American imperial policy line.

    That position, not toing the line, is simply not allowed. Better to kill a couple of million people, create tens of millions of refugees, and destroy whole societies, which is literally what America has done in the Middle East in cooperation with Israel. Always while bellowing about terrorists and tyrants.

    1. Roger A Evans says

      A very great thing !!!

    2. jandr0 says

      [After all, America, especially in its rural areas, is packed with gun-toting, get-out-of-my-face types who hate most government and authority.]

      You portray yourself in your comment as such a fair, reasonable, objective person.

      Except of course for your strawman quoted above.

    3. slobotnavich says

      Well spake indeed.

  5. Ron Liebermann says

    A few years ago, I met a soldier who was being sent to Afghanistan. He said that his mission was to teach Afghani men how to farm. But he wasn’t a farmer. Then, a couple, of years later, I met a soldier who just came back from Afghanistan. I asked him what he thought of the people there; he answered that he didn’t know, because while he was there he never left the base.

    I do agree that Afghanistan is a problem, but the Military isn’t trying to solve it. Instead, that country is being used as a cash cow; so the soldiers will have somewhere to go. It’s a fabricated mission. The real problem in Afghanistan is population growth; which can’t be solved with troops.

  6. slobotnavich says

    It’s not for nothing that Afghanistan is knows as “The Graveyard of Empires.” Everybody who’s ever gone in there seeking conquest, from the Russians, the British, and then we Americans, has left bloodied, bruised, and disillusioned, though likely a bit wiser. The Afghans live for murder, mayhem, and rapine – these activities are their national sport and they’re quite good at it. In that sense they’re much like the people of Vietnam, another tough and warlike little nation which finally ran us out and later gave the Chinese a pretty good thumping during that little border dispute of a few years ago. In sum it’s good policy to avoid getting involved in other nations’ family squabbles.

  7. CliftonTheAmerican says

    Sorry, Chuckman. I was in Afghanistan and, more to the point, the Agency for 27 years. I worked with the author. This article is spot on, every point. I spell Taleban, Taliban and we left Saigon, not Hanoi, but otherwise he is 100 percent right. You don’t like exclamation points! Jesus take me home! The author is entirely right to use them when writing on this subject. One of the most informed persons in the intelligence community on the issue, he is filled with disgust, as we all should be (I don’t like authors who DO NOT use exclamation points when appropriate, such as, “Hillary Clinton was almost elected president!”). Afghanistan as a U.S. military operation is a pointless, bloddy handjob. It is a welfare program for former military and “intelligence” employees who refuse to find real work; they are richly paid for their contractor “work”. Chuckman is apparently totally unware of who the author of the article is. I suggest that he do some research. Chuckman says it took the author a long time to figure out the whole Afghan thing was a waste. Wrong. He knew it from the first day, as many of us did, but he was a loyal Agency employee until he couldn’t take the Clinton/Bush/Obama leadership of the outfit any more and quit. Chuckman compares justifiably disgruntled anti-government Americans with tribal Afghans. Yeah, Chuckman. Either you never met a real Afghan or you are the least perceptive person on earth. “Nobody understands 9/11”. That shows that Chuckman is totally out of the loop. People like Mike (and me) understand the central truth about 9/11 perfectly and you had better believe Trump and the intelligence community know exactly who was really pulliing the strings (it was not an Arab holed up in a cave or the Saudis). Trump needs to make a decision and the only right one is, Outta here!

  8. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

    The only reason why the US needs Afghanistan is for the opium crop that the CIA buys up and hauls to Columbia to make opioids from for importation into the US. This is a major source of the CIA’s black revenues, without which they would be unable to operate their black projects. If the anti-opioid campaigns get up to speed, they’ll have to address the CIA’s involvement in the illicit opioid trade.
    Pat Tillman should have been awarded a Purple Heart and a Medal of Freedom posthumously.

    1. Keith Liberty says

      Absolutely correct. This (Opium) is the cash cow that is kept off the books from Congress. It is Iran Contra on steroids.

      1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

        The only major hitch they’ve had in the program is when they moved their drop from Mena to Waco and set up next to a highly observant neighbor who was keeping close records of their activities until the FBI got there to destroy them and their records.

  9. Roger A Evans says

    Very good article. The US needs to get out from all those places in the Middle East.
    I posted this on Facebook and they shut me down for 3 days. “US needs to remove ALL ISLAMIC people. There was a 1952 US law not to allow Islamics in. In the early 1990s it was dropped, sad! Need to get all the US military back to the US and load up ALL the 3.5 million Islam/Muslims back where they came from !!!!!” Now I just send it to the message thing on FB to individuals.

  10. hmk says

    The taliban are as bad and evil as communists who ruthlessly impose their ideology on their victims. They want to keep women from working or being educated and basically keep their victims suspended in time in the stone age. Afghanistan was evolving into a more modernized westernized country before it was contaminated with islamic radical extremists. Perhaps the biggest blunder the US made was not contributing to build a more democratic govt in Afghanistan after the Russians pulled out. We left w/o any further help. I am not sure what the best course forward is at this point. If an uncorrupt and just govt was in place and the taliban ruthlessly decimated the country may have a chance to provide a good environment for their citizens to prosper. This would require our help a little longer and perhaps a time line/end game plan should be drawn up to see if the country can survive without this evil force ruthlessly imposing their archaic ideology on their helpless victims,

    1. bilal ahmad says

      Are you criminals who invaded Afghanistan less evil than the ones you accuse, what business is it of you gay perverts how they live or what they do with their lives and women, no wonder you pig eating savages get defeated and kia kicked out of wherever you go, As for Afghanistan; not only will it kick you out but in the process ruin you forever.

      1. hmk says

        The taliban is as gay and corrupt as anyone else. Your a fool to believe otherwise. Check out the old movie “kite runner:. The sooner they are eliminated the better. Perhaps it would have been best to leave the Russians to ruthlessly kill the extremists when they invaded instead of trying to push back with the help of Osama bin Laden as we did. In retrospect probably the biggest mistake.

        1. bilal ahmad says

          not only are you a fool but also a mental retard, that is why its useless to discuss anything with you gay uneducated trash people, go to school learn some history and stop seeing porn in which your mother acts….lol….here is some truth for you idiot. An article by a CIA man who was on Osama bin Ladin case for over 10 years

          Now, Mr. President, With Respect, Cut the Crap and Get Out of Afghanistan

          Michael Scheuer

          You are fighting, Mr. President, an enemy in the Taleban, as well as the other Islamist Afghan insurgent groups, a foe that is far tougher, much more patient, more zero-sum minded, stupendously less casualty-adverse, and more religiously devout than any of your advisors, civil or military. The current crop of Afghan Islamist insurgents and their predecessors, taken together, have chalked up nearly 40 continuous years on the battlefield since the Soviet invasion occurred in December 1979. The score after four decades shows the Afghans have knocked off two superpowers – the USSR and the hodge-podge of U.S.-NATO forces. This, after having knocked off the British superpower in the 19th century. Can you, Sir, name another country that has defeated three superpowers

          now suck on that you gay shit.

          1. hmk says

            Thanks for making my point about islamic extremism. You people are poisoning the world and making the world hate even moderate islam. Again thank you for making my point about how unintelligent and belligerent you people are. My theory is this is a result of centuries of inbreeding. Kind of like high strung dogs that you can’t control because of the inbreeding.

            1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

              Thanks for resorting to ad hominem so we can all see where you are coming from.

  11. paulthecabdriver says

    The USA will not leave Afghanistan until what happened in Vietnam happens there: The rebellion of the soldiers. The last straw in Vietnam was when the soldiers simply refused to go on patrols any more. If this happens in Afghanistan, withdrawal will be very swift. If it doesn’t we can expect US forces to remain there indefinitely.

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      Treason is defined in the Constitution at Article 3, Section 3, as consisting “only in levying War against (the United States), or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
      All members of the American military take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; (and to) bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
      When the military is committed to foreign actions without a declaration of war by Congress, as required by Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution, that is a violation of the Constitution, arguably the action of domestic enemies.
      When a member of the military participates in an unconstitutional foreign military deployment, s/he violates both the Constitution and his/her oath to “support and defend” it, giving “aid and comfort” to it’s “domestic enemies,” committing treason by the definition given by the Constitution.

  12. Keith Liberty says

    Tulsi Gabbard is one of those who has no love lost for the loser generals and civilians who have mis-led soldiers in a win-less war crime war since 2001….as they return home to commit suicide, murder and fight depression/PTSD for life. All for what?

    The Military Industrial Complex and the Deep State jackals are using their Mockingbird Media puppets to lynch Gabbard from any election chance as they did Ron Paul.

    Thank you Mr. Scheuer for once again shining light into darkness…

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