Divided We Stand

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                Much as we would like to think of our country as united in a sort of national consensus, we are, remember, a union of states, not of people. The Constitution, which the states agreed to in order to form a more perfect union, states quite specifically that that all powers not assigned to the federal government were retained by the individual states. The primary advantages of joining the union were that it provided for the common defense, the conduct of foreign relations and the regulation of interstate commerce. In matters of defense and foreign relations therefore, we must speak with one voice but in domestic matters, regional differences may prevail.

                Some ways in which they often differ include procedures for the conduct of elections, the administration of public education, the administration of justice, licensing of businesses and professionals and such other domestic matters not covered by federal jurisdiction. The original states were wary of surrendering too much authority to the federal government and states to this day remain wary of federal overreach. Indeed, attempts by the party in power to extend federal control will usually meet with resistance and sometimes give rise to conspiracy theories regarding increasing government control over our lives. Divisions over slavery and states’ rights led to the Civil War, the bloodiest in our history.

                When Texas and other states enacted voting reform laws with the stated purpose of increasing public confidence in the integrity of our elections, they exercised a constitutional right. So did Congress when it proposed its own legislation arguing, albeit without convincing evidence, that the intent of the states’ legislation was to make it more difficult for minorities to vote. When Texas passed legislation tightening restrictions on abortion, women’s rights advocates and some state officials demanded that the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of the Texas legislation. The Constitution protects certain freedoms but the right to abortion is not one of them. It is silent on abortion, notwithstanding the court’s Roe v. Wade decision which may soon be revisited. Many of us may strongly disagree with the legislative actions of certain states or with parts of the Constitution they may think are outmoded but the fact remains that only the states, not the Court, have the power to change or add to the Constitution which would require the time-consuming and difficult amendment process.

                Today, we have states suing one another because they disagree with laws they enacted. The federal government is suing Texas over its abortion legislation. California has prohibited its state officials from official travel to certain states whose laws Sacramento takes issue with. Some states and cities have declared themselves sanctuary states despite the fact that the federal government has sole jurisdiction over matters of immigration and asylum. Some states have the death penalty; others don’t. Some have restrictions on abortion; others don’t. We are a nation divided, at least on domestic issues. But then we always have been. Ours is a big country with regional differences. But never in my lifetime have I witnessed such rancor and bitterness over some of the differences. It makes intelligent debate almost impossible and often degenerates into name-calling and violence.

                We need a uniter as president. There must be one out there somewhere. Donald Trump was not a uniter. He served a purpose as a populist who shook up the complacent political establishment that promised change but seldom delivered. He actually delivered on most of what he promised to do. But he was a loose cannon who won because his opponent was even more deeply flawed than he was. He was a divider and the polarization of America accelerated during his term. President Joe Biden promised to be the uniter we needed but his administration has been a train wreck thus far and shows little promise of improving.

                As Americans observed the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, former President George W. Bush stepped briefly back on the national stage to deliver a thoughtful and moving speech in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where some brave Americans caused an airliner to crash before the terrorists who highjacked it could crash it into a building and kill more Americans. Mr. Bush spoke of the resilience of Americans and their inner strength which enables them to survive the worst that life can bring. He noted that despite America’s difficulties, people across the globe risk their lives to come here. He praised the ingenuity of Americans and the role that immigrants have played throughout our history to make Americans great. “That is the America that I know,” said W. Me, too.

                George W. Bush will not likely be remembered as the greatest of presidents, but he rose to the occasion after 9/11 and gave the nation 8 years of service and effort while being blamed for everything from hurricanes to the war in Iraq, which at the time, incidentally, had widespread bilateral support. He left office with grace and dignity. Compared to those who followed him in office, I’d rather have him in the Oval Office any day.

September 23, 2021

The Continuing Cost of Incompetence

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                The troops are gone from Afghanistan and the evacuation operation is officially over. The Biden Administration is seeking credit for finally ending the longest war in our history and trying to shift public attention to fighting the Covid pandemic and to his domestic agenda including winning support for a $3.5 trillion spending blowout containing more free stuff for everyone. Our troops may be gone but the war on terrorism is by no means over and, with the Taliban in charge, Afghanistan will likely return to its practice of hosting terrorists who hate us and mean to do us harm.

                The problems, all foreseeable, arising from a poorly-planned and hastily-executed withdrawal continue. When the last U.S. aircraft left Kabul with the last American soldier in Afghanistan on board, we left behind some Americans, something we had promised not to do, and most Afghans who had aided us in the 20-year conflict and feared reprisals against them and their families at the hands of the Taliban. Not to worry, though. The efforts to evacuate them safely would continue with the cooperation of the ruling Taliban, said President Joe Biden and his top handlers. So how is that working out, thus far?

                During Labor Day weekend, at least six commercial aircraft chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to leave Afghanistan were kept from departing by Taliban officials. Included among the passengers were some Americans. A Taliban official said that some of the passengers lacked passports, visas or other required documentation. Later, Taliban officials said that aircraft containing both Americans and Afghans would not be permitted to depart. Later still, Taliban officials denied that it was preventing Americans from leaving. Finally, a Qatari aircraft with Americans and others onboard was permitted to depart Kabul’s airport and another was scheduled to follow as of this writing. One of the reasons for the delays appears to be the fact that U.S. troops had disabled and destroyed some of the airport’s flight control equipment as they departed. Qatari technicians reportedly spent several days restoring the airport’s equipment in order to permit even restricted operations.

                Taliban officials then said that they would permit U.S. citizens and others with valid passports and visas to fly out of Kabul but not from Mazar-e-Sharif to the north where other Americans were waiting. Their challenge then was to try to make it to Kabul safely along with as many Afghans who aided us as possible. Many of the Americans remaining are reported to be of Afghan descent and have family members remaining in Afghanistan who are at risk. They need more time to try to make arrangements for them.

                Refusing to permit any Americans to leave or to travel safely to designated departure locations would amount to holding them hostage, a situation that many predicted would happen with the ruling Taliban then demanding diplomatic recognition, economic aid and access to frozen financial assets as conditions of their release. The frantic scramble to get all Americans out along with as many of the Afghans at risk as possible, the loss of valuable equipment now in the hands of the Taliban and the humiliating end of our efforts in Afghanistan are but some of the continuing consequences of a series of bad decisions and poor planning but by no means the only ones that will continue to plague the Biden Administration.

                Screening those Afghans who did and will continue to make it out of ,the country in the future will present a serious challenge. The plan, apparently, is to have them screened at U.S. bases on foreign soil, primarily in Qatar, Germany and Italy, before being resettled in the U.S. or other allied countries. Included among them will be some who don’t pass screening and may represent a security threat. Some who managed to board early flights during the chaotic evacuation operation in Kabul weren’t processed at all. What will be done with those who fail screening and are deemed risks?

                Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim nation friendly to the United States, has agreed to take in some Afghans who don’t pass screening and host them for up to a year. But then what? This is at best a temporary fix. Other countries have balked at hosting Afghan evacuees even temporarily, expressing reluctance to take on what they consider to be America’s security problems.

                Immigration advocacy and religious groups and other private individuals including some members of Congress are demanding speedier actions to evacuate Afghans at risk and grant asylum but the vetting process must be thorough. Unnecessary haste, and a desire to score political points by ending America’s longest war by the 20^th anniversary of 9/11 apparently prevented thorough planning for contingencies and contributed to this fiasco in the first place. All of these problems and those that will follow might have been avoided or at least ameliorated had enough time been taken to carefully plan for the worst-case scenario with a realistic timetable and sufficient security in place to ensure safe evacuation of all Americans and those Afghans at risk who posed no risk to us.

                The new Taliban government is a hardline, all-male group including Sirajuddin Haqqanias as Minister of Interior in charge of security who is an internationally recognized terrorist. There is a multi-million-dollar reward for information leading to his arrest. The new Prime Minister, Mullah Hassan Akhun, served as Foreign Minister of the previous Islamic Emirate which hosted Osama bin Laden. Four of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl were named to the new government. They are intent on re-imposing Sharia law, probably eliminating some or all of the reforms and women’s rights established in the past twenty years. Two-thirds of Afghans are under 25 and have grown up with these western values.  Shall we now abandon them to the tender mercies of the Taliban?

 Relying on the Taliban to cooperate with us in assuring that all Americans and those Afghans who assisted us and wanted to leave could do so was another mistake in judgment on the parts of President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and those that advised them. Mr. Biden’s qualifications for office were supposed to have included extensive experience in foreign affairs. You could have fooled me. In just six months, Mr. Biden has created chaos on our southern border and in Afghanistan, damaged our international reputation and increased our security risks because of poor decision-making, judgment and planning.

September 19, 2021

Remembering 9/11

Remembering 9/11—————————-

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                Twenty years ago, I wrote my first commentary to appear in the Coronado Eagle&Journal. It was an essay entitled “Understanding the Enemy” and it began twenty years of writing commentaries for my hometown newspaper, a privilege for which I am truly grateful. That essay was written in a Vancouver, British Columbia hotel room on the weekend after the Tuesday attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon by al Qaeda terrorists based in Afghanistan who hijacked four airliners, to crash into buildings with the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible. Nearly 3,000 perished in that first attack on the American homeland since the War of 1812.

                My wife and I had just disembarked from an Alaskan cruise and had been at sea when the attack took place. We watched the awful TV images in horror. Our travelling companions were originally from New York and had friends and relatives near the site of the attack. We felt helpless, knowing that all flights were grounded and getting home quickly would be problematic. Fortunately, we had hotel reservations for the weekend in Vancouver and our Monday flight back to San Diego turned out to be one of the few not cancelled.

                In that September, 2001 essay, I tried to define who the enemy was, whom he hated, why us in particular and how we should respond. The enemy, I said, was not the Muslim world. There were plenty of devout, peace-loving Muslims, including loyal, patriotic Americans, and Muslim nations which would follow our leadership in combatting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. The terrorists, I wrote, hate us because we are the cultural, economic and military leader of the western world and symbolize capitalism with its emphasis on materialism and individual rights, including full equality for women and the liberalization of sexual behavior. Those values, they believed, constituted a culture that was corrupt, immoral and wicked, hence deserving not only their hatred, but their wrath. The U.S., as leader of the west, was therefore the “great Satan”. Our ally, Israel, whose very presence in the Middle East along with the former colonial powers who ruled there, had profaned the land and were lesser Satans. But it was America that represented to them all that is evil.

                We will not defeat them, I wrote, by diplomacy or negotiation or trying to force cultural change on them. Their cultural values derived from deeply-held religious values for which they are quite willing to die so it is a mistake to characterize suicide attacks as cowardly as our politicians and the media so often do. It was essential that Americans fully understand that this enemy will not be pacified by good deeds or nation-building. His hatred of us is based upon a twisted religious value system that features hatred of most things modern and western.

                In October, 2001 we invaded Afghanistan, defeated al Qaeda and eventually hunted down Osama bin Laden and killed him where he hid in neighboring Pakistan. Instead of declaring victory and leaving, we stayed in Afghanistan for two decades trying to convert that primitive land of tribes and warlords into a bastion of democracy and transform its culture into one embracing western values. It became the longest war in American history, if it can be called a war. But placing American troops in harm’s way in distant lands should require first that we have a realistic exit strategy that ordinary Americans can understand. I doubt that we ever had one for Afghanistan that would survive the changing policies of four U.S. administrations. We eventually drew down our military presence on the ground to 2,500, mostly advisors, technicians and logisticians. There hasn’t been a U.S. combat death there for the past year and a half. Since we have plenty of troops, bases, ships and aircraft located around the world, 2,500 troops in Afghanistan seemed like a reasonable commitment at least until we could figure out a way to get all Americans, allied troops and Afghans who helped us and perhaps some of the billions of dollars in equipment safely out of the country.   

                Instead, President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of troops in a manner acceptable to the Taliban resulting in a chaotic evacuation and the death of thirteen of our servicemembers and at least 200 Afghans. It was a humiliating end for America to a twenty-year, costly commitment with serious damage to our credibility which our enemies will be eager to test and our allies left to question. The military withdrawal now complete, it’s time for the reconning. Those whose advice led to this national embarrassment need to be held to account.

                With the Taliban celebrating the American departure as a great victory, the culture may well revert to the fundamentalist practices they practiced before we came to change things, especially regarding women. The Taliban says it is not the same as it was twenty years ago and is now more modern. Time will tell. Many of the country’s young population were born since 2001 and grew up with those western values we introduced.

                We left many Afghans who helped us behind in our haste to leave. We are honor bound to help those in danger. They, however. are not the only Afghans likely to try seek asylum in America and other western nations. There are undoubtedly some that hate us and wish us harm. All must be thoroughly vetted once they are safe which raises the question: What will we do with those who fail screening? Is the plan to send them to Guantanamo? If not, then where?

                Biden continues to defend his decision to withdraw. Withdrawing was a reasonable decision that reasonable people can agree or disagree with. The way it was handled was not and he and his advisors must be held accountable. Mr. Biden will hope that most Americans, many of whom couldn’t   locate Afghanistan on a map of the world, will soon forget it and focus on domestic priorities. But history will likely record it as another milestone in the accelerating decline of another of the world’s once-dominant powers.

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September 11, 2021