Americans didn't want to be in Afghanistan, but we did not want to be defeated.
In the wake of Biden's debacle, his administration and its defenders are offering up all kinds of excuses. The worst of these is that they "inherited" a bad deal from Trump. Not only have they done away with lots of other things, including international agreements (see Central America), that Trump negotiated, but the fact is that the negotiations with the Taliban began under Obama -- and they were far worse than anything Trump did. (Remember the Beau Bergdahl prisoner swap -- 5 Taliban generals for one deserter?) Trump, at least, dropped the MOAB before negotiating, and broke off talks when there was violence.
It's really demoralizing to think of the U.S. suffering this kind of humiliation. It places us all in danger, and our allies as well. I wondered last night whether the American moment really is over -- how much we are at risk of future attacks, and whether the freedom we have taken for granted is doomed to fade in the face of growing Chinese power and the machinations of other rival powers.
The answer, per Charles Krauthammer, is that decline is a choice. Now, it's true that there are many Americans pushing for decline -- all the wokesters, and the BLM protesters, and the Antifa kids, and the college professors, and the media types, and Hollywood. In short, the intellectuals, the culture brokers, the elite.
But there are many of us who will refuse to accept this defeat -- and who will turn our energies, instead, to building an opposition, and holding Biden, and the media that supported him, accountable for this failure. More than that, we are going to replace his odious administration with a true pro-American one. It may be a return of Trump; it may be another candidate; but it is going to happen.
The first step is the California recall. Then the midterms. Then 2024.
We are coming.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
