IT ain’t OVER ’til IT’S OVER

Nearly 20 years have passed since Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda executed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and W and “Dick” announced that we would invade Afghanistan as the first act in a global war against terrorism.

Folks, trust me, that war has just gotten under way…after what was perceived as a momentary pause.

Now, the US is contending with how to define its relationship with the same Islamist rulers it toppled in ’01 – again a question of vengeance or acceptance – and how to try to head off the resurgence !!!!!! of any international terrorist threat rising from Afghanistan.

ATTENTION: The terrorists have a vote…

Absent achieving circumstances which encompassed a competent, capable and willing Afghan government – and we all saw how that worked out over 20 years – this ending was ALWAYS going to be this way.

My only question at the moment: When it ALL happened??!

Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time with us holding the dirty cleaning towel!!!

RETALIATORY STRIKE 2.0

A glimpse of how future American warfare may be conducted??!

The US military carried out a retaliatory drone strike last Friday that officials said killed two ISIS-K members.

The Pentagon said a second strike yesterday, in Kabul, destroyed a vehicle and killed one to three occupants wearing suicide-bombing vests.

Our drones, reportedly, operated from a base in the United Arab Emirates, more than 1,000 miles away.

In a statement, from US Central Command, describing this second strike, “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”

Interestingly, British and French news outlets are reporting this morning that the US and some 97 other countries had “received assurances from the Taliban” that Afghans with travel documents for those respective countries would be permitted to leave Afghanistan after our troops depart.

Unless I’ve missed it, which may very well be the case, it’s hard to believe that, even despite the memory of the lengthy hostage drama at the former American embassy in Tehran, we’re clearing out of Afghanistan without retaining at least a small consular staff to ensure that Americans and others with proper documentation are ultimately able to leave the country safely.

PRECARIOUS TIMES

Rockets were fired at Kabul International airport earlier today, local time, but as many as five were intercepted by a missile defense system, highlighting the continual threat to the international rescue mission ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for American troops to pull out.

While NO group claimed immediate responsibility for today’s rocket attack, the US has repeatedly warned of imminent threats by Islamic State; the Taliban, one hopes, are still coordinating with the US military during the handover, as the final hours tick away.

As I type, the world-wide press/media is/are reporting NO initial reports of US casualties.

Taliban spokesmen are also saying there were NO reports of Afghan deaths and that the Islamist group was investigating the attack.

As the Great Hinnebusch was fond of reminding me, “We live history forward, in the chaos of onrushing events, without a clear guide. But we judge history backward, smugly armed with the knowledge of what did happen and uninterested in what might have happened.” 

This tire on the wheels of history has miles of tread left on it!!!

NOT SINCE KATRINA

Hurricane Ida has become the region’s worst storm since Katrina!

The pictures speak for themselves.

It was a Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest storm classification; it has brought pounding rain, sustained winds of 150 miles an hour and dangerous sea surges.

ALL of New Orleans lost power last night…

More than 1 million customers statewide were without power, according local authorities on the ground.

Earlier in the day, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans advised people NOT to run dishwashers or washing machines to minimize wastewater because sewage pump stations had been knocked out by power outages…

poweroutage.us.

Forecasters warn that flooding from storm surges will continue through this morning in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Heavy rainfall is possible through tomorrow morning across southeastern Louisiana, coastal Mississippi and southwestern Alabama.

More later…

“OVER-THE-HORIZON” STRIKE

It is the first known US response to Thursday’s suicide bomb attack outside the airport in Kabul that killed 13 American troops and nearly 200 Afghan civilians.

Over the last 90 minutes, we’re starting to get reports that our military carried out a drone strike on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan yesterday, NO time specific, at this point.

“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” a spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement.

The terrorist group, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the Thursday airport bombing.

Stay tuned…

JOEY’S PLAN…say what??!

It was back in April when the 47th president had just announced plans to withdraw ALL American troops from Afghanistan, when, during a classified briefing with top national security officials on Capitol Hill, one lawmaker stood up and asked a pointed question.

That question being, as was reporting, at the time, by the Washington Post, Politico and New York Times, through their respective sources, “What was the Biden administration’s plan to evacuate the thousands of Afghan nationals who aided the U.S. war effort, and expedite their visas?”

Within less than a week’s time, it was also reported Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did NOT have an answer to that specific question!

Ouch!!!

Even if just a microchip of this incident is true – which we’ll NEVER truly know – the last ten days, if NOTHING else, has proven whatever so-called plans were in place they had NOT been thought-through and communicated down line in any appropriate manner.

The failure by the Biden administration to sufficiently prepare for the avalanche of visa applications and the need to quickly evacuate those Afghan ‘friendlies’ from the country as the Taliban gobbled up steady territorial gains has become ALL too apparent as the carnage in Kabul has now revealed.

As someone who personally knows, from my experiences in Vietnam, the need to protect friendlies who played indispensable roles as translators and interpreters for American forces, and as the clock ticks away, it’s obvious there was little to NO Five Paragraph Order given to this critical aspect of our vacating Afghanistan.

Yes, as I’ve said before, this withdrawal would be/is an herculean task even with/if ALL the t’s were/are crossed.

This morning, there are mounting fears that once the final combat troops leave, those Afghans who are left behind will be tortured, killed or BOTH.

Tragically, this script is ALL too familiar.

where from here…WHAT’S NEXT?

I’ve spent a large portion of this morning watching and listening to the Pentagon briefing, then the steady-stream of “talking heads” on the cable networks.

To offer up the term ‘fluid’ does NOT begin to give justice nor perspective to the MADNESS in KABUL.

With less than four days remaining until the August 31st deadline for the US withdrawal, the window for airlifts is narrowing.

As of twenty minutes ago, yesterday’s suicide blast killed 13 service personnel, and over 140 Afghans.

The largest death toll of our troops in a decade!!!

The deadly explosion, accompanied with sniper fire, were the latest in a series of rapidly unfolding events since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover of the country that have upended that US plans/strategies as regards counter-terrorism.

Some of the major elements of what I observed from current and former counter-terrorism experts on the cable shows earlier were the following:

• Negotiations by the US for new bases in Central Asia should be under serious consideration;
• How clandestine officers can run sources “in country” without the military and diplomatic outposts that provided cover to spies for two decades?;
• Where – location-wise – would the US launch drone strikes from?

The job of our intelligence and security services, in the last 24 hours, has become much more difficult, and tenuous by a factor of 10.

ALL the old Lobsterman is going to say, at this juncture, until more specific info surrounding yesterday’s debacle is completely vetted, we should be cautious, indeed very cautious, listening to the madness of the current crop of Chicken Hawks flapping their jaws with buckets on nonsense…especially those within our corridors of power.

NOT UNEXPECTED!!!

It was only a matter of time, and circumstance…

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that two explosions took place outside Kabul’s airport today causing “U.S. and civilian casualties,” part of a complex attack that came after repeated warnings of a threat by the United States and its allies.

Two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter Kabul airport disrupting the final push of the US-led evacuation effort.

The explosion at the Abbey Gate of the airport was the result of a complex attack, Pentagon officials said.

A second blast occurred near the Baron Hotel adjacent to the airport.

British security personnel said BOTH attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

And so it begins…

STARK REALITIES CONTINUE

Yet again, the Delta variant has shifted the realities of the pandemic: COVID hospitalizations in the US passed the 100,000 mark !!! yesterday, for the first time since January.

The Department of Health and Human Services is reporting there are now 100,059 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19, the most since January 29th.

That number has almost doubled in the month of August as the Delta variant has swept through the country.

The outbreak has been particularly gruesome in the Southeast, where Alabama ran out of intensive-care unit beds last week, and Arkansas has z-e-r-o capacity for Coronavirus patients in its ICUs.

Last weekend, the seven-day average of Coronavirus deaths surpassed 1,000 for the first time since March.

And, of course, we ALL are witnessing the antics of Florida‘s governor – Mr. Know-it-ALL – Ronnie DeSantis…western civilization’s foremost authority of deworming.

227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now.

The average for new known cases reached 23,314 a day on the weekend, 30% higher than the state’s previous peak in January.

Cats, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, goats and, yup…Billy Bob and Betty, y’ALL too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“UNSPECIFIED”

As of roughly 45 minutes ago, world-wide news organizations are collectively reporting the US, British and Australian embassies in Kabul are telling Americans to avoid traveling to Kabul airport because of unspecified security threats and advised citizens at three airport admission gates to “leave immediately.”

These warnings come as NATO allies, including Turkey, Poland and Belgium, ended their evacuation flights ahead of an August 31st deadline for US troops to depart.

Turkey, which has played a significant role in airport security, also began withdrawing its military.

The Central Intelligence Agency and the US military are now said to be conducting extraction operations to evacuate Americans using helicopters and ground troops as the window begins to close for rescuing ALL people at risk in Afghanistan.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting, through their congressional sources, US troops had gone into Kabul on joint missions with other foreign allies, including Britain and France, to designated locations where they had picked up citizens from ALL those nations, US green-card holders, and Afghans who hold special visas for helping the US military.

It is unclear if the Pentagon, which has said it is coordinating with the Taliban on airport security, has had additional discussions which included extraction missions with them.

These are truly gut-wrenching times!!!