Lessons from Afghanistan

Things are unraveling at a rapid pace for the US in Afghanistan. The Afghan army that was supposed to keep Taliban at bay has folded and given its weapons to the Taliban. As a consequence, things are becoming dangerous for US aligned people in Afghanistan, including US citizens. If not handled correctly, we might see a massacre on the hands of Taliban, video taped and paraded around on the internet for all to see. Hence, Biden has ordered a rescue mission to get all US citizens out of that country as soon as possible.

But how did the mighty US army and intelligence services misjudge the situation so spectacularly? How could they fail to see that this was the likely outcome after 20 years of war? The answer to this is that no-one dared say the truth, and everyone believed everybody else's lies. The rot and corruption in the ranks of US military and intelligence is total, and hence, no amount of surveillance or brute force has any value. The competent have been replaced by fools. An army of yes-men has rendered the mighty US virtually powerless.

This same mechanism is at work in Washington DC, where madness is on full display. The corruption and rot is so ubiquitous that no-one knows anything for sure. Everyone is lying to everybody else, and truth cannot be discerned from falsehood. Hence, decisions are made with no relation to reality.

Afghanistan proved too much of a challenge. That begs the question; how much control does Washington DC have on other matters? If they cannot tell friends from enemies in Afghanistan, how are they going to figure things out in other places? Can they figure out what's going on in their own back yard? The answer is probably no, they are as clueless in these matters as they were in Afghanistan. They may have all the latest and greatest in technology, but that's of no use if information cannot be relayed truthfully.

This is why we shouldn't be overly concerned with the apparent might of the state. It may be bristling with weapons and computing power, but none of that matters if it cannot be used rationally. Without the conviction to use these powers as intended, they pose next to no threat. As long as we don't make ourselves into big targets, they cannot do much of anything. The emperor is naked. There's nothing he can do.

The Emperor's New Clothes

By Vilhelm Pedersen (1820 - 1859) - English Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Emperor_Clothes_01.jpg ), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4038625