20 Years after 9/11 — Are We Better Off?

Our freedoms have been steadily eroded since 9/11 to the point where we now throw people in the DC gulag for merely being in proximity to the Capitol Bldg. (proven by Big Brother cell phone tracings). We censor anything anti-government, suppress any dissenting opinion on COVID, and now want to give IRS the ability to monitor our bank accounts. Are we better off? You tell me.

I am the same age as Mr. Buchanan, and I am afraid I share his pessimistic outlook. However, I suspect that has much to do with our personal lack of future prospects and foreshortened horizons, at least as residents of this world. It is all too easy to impose our own personal futures (or lack thereof) on the future of the world in general, and conclude that neither we nor the world we live in is likely to last much longer. But I also recall that history contains many epochs that can be compared to the one now extant, in which it appeared that "the end is near," yet here we still are. The fall of the western Roman Empire surely seemed to be the end of the world to the inhabitants of Rome, and later the fall of the eastern Empire when Constantinople was overwhelmed by the Mohammedans likewise, then the so-called "Dark Ages" in Europe in which that continent was enveloped in conflict, disease and death (remember the Black Plague?), America during and after the Civil War, Europe after WW1 and WWII and let us not forget the sacking of most of central Asia and eastern Europe by the "Golden Horde" of the Khans, whose barbarity is still unmatched. Each of these periods and places in history--and I could go on ad infinitum--must have seemed like the end of the world to those living in the turmoil and tumult. Of course, it may be that we are truly in the "End of Days" prophesied in the Holy Bible, and the signs do seem propitious for that. Regardless, each of us mortals must prepare for our inevitable death and we would do well to concentrate on our eternal future and prepare accordingly while still here. "Memento mori" should be ever in our minds, despite any earthly success, pleasure and comfort we may enjoy. As the fading sign painted on the ramshackle barn alongside the highway used to say, "At the end of the road, prepare to meet thy God."

I don't think so. Terrorists Obama released from Guantanamo, for bergdahl of all people, are back in charge.

After this debacle I can’t imagine anyone wanting to join Thoroughly Modern Milly’s military, only to be maimed, betrayed and abandoned......

There has been much debate recently about what our proper role was and should have been in Afghanistan. Many tried to compare it to Vietnam. In September of 1963 Walter Cronkite interviewed President Kennedy who told him that "It's their war, they have to win it" but promising war materiel to support them. At that point in time, there were approximately 1,500 "advisors" training the South Vietnamese to fight. After the events of 11/22/63 in August of 1964 a pretexts of attacks on a intelligence surveillance boats created the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which created a 'blank check' and ultimately a force of American military of 650,000 combat troops and auxilliary persons fighting the North Vietnamese. Richard Nixon was elected after RFK was assassinated promising to "end the War" and promises of Viernamization so they were fighting instead of U.S. troops. After his resignation as a result of his misuse of power during Watergate, the Dems CUT OFF spending money on war materiel just as the forces of the South had begun to win, but with no outside support, Vietnam fell. Afghanistan was very well equipped, but the people were not ready or willing in most cases to carry on "the mission" of society WE had prepared for them, although they liked our protection so they could modernize their society and become more "western". The One Worlders in the State Department who are driven by OUTSIDE INFLUENCES that meet in anual converences try to influence things to "re-make", re-imagine" or "re-create" things. Hiltery Clinton wanted to IGNORE over 1,200 years of mooooslim culture so that women would be considered the equals men, and for them to adjust to the same kind of culture we have here-- a very foolish idea. This guiding principal is called "nation building". There is an unseen hand which tries to exert influence into the State Department to create a world where only a select FEW make all the decisions for the rest of us, and that includes many of the SUPER RICH who feel that their $$$$ should control governments and policy who are actually TYRANTS who influence the decision makers. Trump could not be bought. As a businessman, he realized that we were spending human lives and spending ourselves into oblivion when we really didn't decide the terms of an exit strategy. Another point to consider is the the U.S. cannot be the world's police. It's plainly obvious that those currently 'in charge' with the exception of Mr. Trump have allowed this to happen over a long period of time. BJ Clinton's careless and cowardly ways allowed the first Twin Towers garage attack, his lack of going take out bin Laden brought about 9/11, and Nobama had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the military to take him out, only to find that either he or JoeBamaBiteMe had allowed some corrupt adversaries the intelligence information to shoot down a helo of our seal team. When we pulled out our intelligence apparatus, gave up Bahgram AFB, and FLAT OUT LEFT people do be killed who helped us during that 20-year time, after making promises to them to get them out, shows him to be either controlled by the old Nobama team, or a crazy dictator now. It should be pointed out that those people who are heading the State Department now are the same people who were there under Hildebeest during THE OTHER 9/11 in 2012 when NoBama was in charge during the sacrificing of our Ambassador Stevens and others in Benghazi..... BiteMe's attempts to blame President Trump shows the only thing this group cares about is trying to make themselves out to be heroes instead of traitors to the nation in an unending PR stunt.

Being of advanced years myself, #2, I agree with everything you say. However, the way to “prepare to meet thy God” is to keep your boots on, fighting godlessness any way you can until that last grain of sand falls to the bottom of the hour glass. Never surrender. Never abandon those in danger of losing their souls.

FTA: "Afghanistan is a lost cause, receding anew into the darkness." After 20 years, now $8 TRILLION and 3000 US military deaths...Patrick, whose fault is that? The problem Americans have is that every war is viewed as THEIR war. In this case, the opening salvos were against AQ and its Tora Bora hideout. Then it expanded to help the brave Afghans overthrow the Taliban. And then the eggheads, politicians and knucklehead military got involved...we can "nation build" Afghanistan into a modern society, a perpetual project if ever there was one. We'll have elections, and purple fingers and the freedom-loving Afghans will never look back. We'll create a government, import a kebob shop president from the USA, dress him in some fashion forward threads, and PR the hell out of it. In the meantime we will take these fierce Afghan warriors and turn them into a Western-style army, with western hardware and training. It will be wonderful! After twenty years of propping, the government fled with countless millions in US cash. The military stacked arms and melted back into the masses. The masses, knowing the Taliban and its god-commanded government, did nothing but run to the airport demanding rescue from the evil. Yesterday we celebrated legit American heroism. Anyone point out anything the Afghans did that was heroic in the face of the Taliban? Let us also remember, we were the Afgan's allies on their home turf...they were NOT out allies. Frankly, we owed them nothing on the frenzied way out, the chaos largely created by the collapse of the farcical Afghan National Army at its hour of most need.

I hate to say this but, looking at the evil that congress is inflicting on us these days, I sometimes wonder if the country would be better off today if flight 93 had hit the capitol on 9/11. If the attacks had seriously impacted congress we wouldn’t have a bunch of wimps and communists running the place today.

The road to US defeat in Afghanistan started soon after weak sister G. W. Bush and the warmongering NEOCONS decided to invade Afghanistan, covertly making as much money as possible for the military industrial complex investor class, by using limited war strategies and very weak rules of engagement which prolonged the war, with the objective of being nice to the Islamists and eventually transforming those 7th century tribal lands into another peaceful “Vermont” style western residential country. Instead history shows that the USA should have used total war strategies and tactics designed to annihilate the Islamist enemies there who have been warring for centuries, and when that mission was accomplished should have simply departed those tribal lands and left the Afghans to their own cultures and traditions. But low and behold the USA stayed there and it was left to the Biden led leftist and socialist Democrat surrender clowns to rapidly retreat out of those tribal lands, effectively surrendering to the Taliban and handing them about 80 billion dollars worth of modern US military arms and equipment to use against those who dare to oppose radical Islamist interests. If you were alive in 1975 and have any interest you should remember that the same class of Democrat surrender clowns that controlled the Congress caused the North Vietnamese victory over South Vietnam when they refused to give South Vietnam any further military support after 58,000 American military members were killed in Vietnam fighting the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese for many years in another drawn out war where limited war strategies and tactics were used. So what eventually happened in Afghanistan and also Iraq, are nothing new for the Democrat surrender clowns to advocate and accomplish and that has been going on since the Second World War.

It was a bad strategy when our military goals didn't include wiping out every single radical "islamic scholar" preachers of hate and anti-American threats. Include in that the Saudi bankers of Wahabi islamic anti-Western hate and hit them directly at the source of their funding, wherever it is found. Open season on radical imams and others would make a whole new generation of little Osamas think twice before venturing into a life of terrorism. If they attack American interests anywhere in the world, go "Roman" on them and make them pay ten times what they think they achieved by attacking us. In Afghanistan we should have removed every young girl who wished to leave that hell-hole and allow their brothers and fathers to enjoy their endless islamic clan wars. Somewhere along the way we should have nuked the opium fields so even thorns and thistles won't grow there for 100 years.