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Our Defeat In Afghanistan Is Only The Beginning

As the post-9/11 chapter closes, a new one begins, marked above all by the end of American deterrence and the eclipse of American power.

Our total defeat and ignominious, disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, after 20 years of war and nation-building, closes a chapter on post-9/11 America — and opens another.

What comes next is to some extent uncertain, but you don’t need to be a grand strategist to see the broad outlines of what is already taking shape.

First and most obvious, Afghanistan will revert to being a terrorist haven. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, by its very nature, will not keep to itself, the erstwhile assurances of Taliban officials notwithstanding. Every committed jihadist on earth who can get to Afghanistan is headed that way now or making plans to do so.

Our military leaders have already admitted as much. Two weeks ago, well before the suicide bombing attacks that took the lives of 13 American soldiers and scores of Afghans, the Pentagon told U.S. senators that the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover means terrorist groups will reconstitute in Afghanistan more quickly than was previously estimated.

On an August 15 phone call with top Biden officials and senators from both parties, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said the previous assessment, back in June, was that there was a “medium” risk that terrorist groups would form in Afghanistan within two years of the U.S. withdrawal. Asked if he believed that timeline would have to be moved up in light of recent events, Milley reportedly responded, “Yes.”

In practical terms, this means in the years to come we’re almost certainly going to see a resurgence of Islamist terrorism worldwide, and likely another attack on American soil. Why? Because for al-Qaeda, and for jihadists the world over, the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan is a vindication of 9/11, a strategic victory. After 20 hard years, they won and we lost.

Osama bin Laden predicted something like this would happen. Not long after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, bin Laden issued a “letter to the American people,” in which he declared that, like the Soviet invasion of an earlier generation, the Americans would eventually leave in defeat:

If the Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace. If the Americans do not respond, then their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall, and economic bankruptcy.

Bin Laden and those who planned 9/11 recognized the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan for the strategic error it has proven to be. All of them understood the collapse of the Soviet Union as a direct consequence of the USSR’s failed invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and credited the mujahadeen with the collapse of the communist superpower. It might take time, they thought, but the same would happen to the United States should it be foolish and arrogant enough to invade and occupy the country. And we were.

For all that, a Soviet-style collapse of the U.S. won’t happen. But our humiliation in Afghanistan will have global reverberations. The military power of the United States was the last institution of public life Americans really trusted, and it was the foundation of other nations’ trust in us — or fear of us.

Our adversaries will react accordingly. China, above all, will understand our defeat in Afghanistan as the end of American deterrence and a chance to press its irredentist agenda in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Moscow and Tehran will come to similar conclusions, as will Pyongyang.

Indeed, over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea has resumed operation of its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, which had been inactive since December 2018. The operation of the reactor has apparently coincided with signs that North Korea has also begun to separate plutonium from spent fuel previously removed from the reactor.

For our allies, the end of American deterrence will likely prompt a strategic recalibration. Why would Taiwan, which this week issued a dire warning that China’s armed forces could “paralyze” Taiwan’s defenses, put its faith in an alliance with the United States? Why would Ukraine or Poland?

As we learn more in the coming weeks and months about the fecklessness and deceit of the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal — including Biden’s appalling conversation with then-President Ashraf Ghani, urging him to “project a different picture” of the fight against the Taliban, “whether it is true or not” — every nation in the world will take note of what our promises are worth.

Some of these developments will take decades to mature, but others will move rapidly. By the end of Biden’s term, assuming he’s able to see it through, we might well long for the days when all we had to worry about was our humiliation in Afghanistan. We’ll certainly come to see the events of the past few weeks in a stark new light: as the beginning of a dark chapter in world history, marked above all by the eclipse of American power and influence in an increasingly dangerous world.

President Trump Releases New Ad Slamming, Exposing Biden Regime, Failures In Afghanistan

President Donald Trump has released a new advertisement about Joe Biden and the Afghanistan Disaster.

President Donald Trump has released a new advertisement exposing the Biden regime’s mishandling of the Afghanistan disaster.

As America reels from Joe Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, President Donald Trump has released a new advertisement exposing the failures of the Biden regime over the sad situation that they caused in the Middle East. “A heartbreaking loss for the United States and it’s great Military. We must have hostages released and our Military equipment returned, NOW!” President Trump said in a statement.

The video shows how wrong Biden was about Afghanistan not becoming a “terrorist base” by revealing news reports now describing the region as “Disneyland for terrorists.”

The heartbreaking chaos in Afghanistan is on full display in the new video released by President Trump. The video shows children crying, crowds of panicked Afghan citizens, Taliban militants, with “IT’S A FAILURE” flashing on the screen.

Biden however, recently said that the debacle was an “extraordinary success” despite effectively handing over billions of dollars worth of US military equipment to the Taliban, the abandonment of thousands of American citizens and military dogs, the deaths of 13 US service members, and the diminishing of American global standing, as National File previously reported.

President Trump, widely critical of how the Afghanistan War came to its end, issued a warning to the American people that the disaster could lead to a 9/11-style attack on American soil in the future.

President Donald Trump made an appearance on One America News Network for a sit down interview with Real America host Dan Ball to discuss the state of America when he was in office compared to how things are now under Joe Biden. The two discussed Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster, Biden’s Border Crisis, and the possibility of another 9/11-style attack occurring on US soil in the near to distant future.

House to vote on bill guaranteeing abortion access in response to Texas law

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House will vote on legislation to guarantee access to abortion upon its return to Washington later this month after the Supreme Court refused to block a restrictive Texas law that bans most abortions.

Late Wednesday night, the court issued a 5-4 ruling denying an emergency request from abortion providers to block the Texas law, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent. 

Pelosi said that after the House returns to session on Sept. 20, the chamber will vote on a bill from Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) to statutorily protect a person’s ability to seek an abortion and for health care providers to provide abortion services. She called the Texas law “a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health” and a “catastrophe.” 

“This ban necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade,” Pelosi said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits states from banning abortion before a fetus reaches the point of viability, which typically is around 24 weeks of pregnancy.  

“Upon our return, the House will bring up Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America,” Pelosi said.   

But given that Senate Republicans would likely filibuster any House-passed bill to guarantee abortion access, the legislation faces steep hurdles to becoming law despite narrow Democratic majorities in both chambers and a like-minded president.

Across the Capitol, the Senate companion bill to Chu’s legislation has the support of 48 Democrats. Two Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Bob Casey (Pa.) have not signed on as co-sponsors.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called for abolishing the filibuster so that legislation to enshrine Roe v. Wade can pass in the Senate with a simple majority and for expanding the Supreme Court. 

“We have seen what the Republicans will do in ultra-conservative state legislatures across the country to quash the constitutional rights of Americans, and this ruling needs to be an urgent call to action for my Senate Democratic colleagues,” Markey said. 

The Texas law, which took effect Wednesday, prohibits abortions after the presence of a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks of pregnancy. But abortion groups estimate that about 85 to 90 percent of women who seek an abortion in Texas are at least six weeks pregnant.

The new law also has a provision that allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs or aids an abortion in violation of the statute, and provides at least $10,000 for each successful suit. 

“SB8 unleashes one of the most disturbing, unprecedented and far-reaching assaults on health care providers – and on anyone who helps a woman, in any way, access an abortion – by creating a vigilante bounty system that will have a chilling effect on the provision of any reproductive health care services. This provision is a cynical, backdoor attempt by partisan lawmakers to evade the Constitution and the law to destroy not only a woman’s right to health care but potentially any right or protection that partisan lawmakers target,” Pelosi said.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority argued that the abortion providers who challenged the Texas law did not make a persuasive case for judicial intervention, but said that they had raised “serious questions” about its constitutionality. 

Another major abortion case set to come before the Supreme Court could also jeopardize the standing of Roe v. Wade. The court is expected to review a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks in its next term.

California’s State Pension Invests Millions in Chinese State-Owned Companies

CalPERS has $490 million tied up in companies funding Belt and Road

California’s state pension invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese state-owned enterprises linked to the People’s Liberation Army, according to records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) had more than $3 billion invested in Chinese companies, including 14 state-controlled enterprises blacklisted by the Trump administration, as of June 2020. Many of these companies are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project Beijing is using to expand its geopolitical and military influence.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.), who recently praised a Chinese-owned media company for its “journalistic integrity,” has not commented on CalPERS’s Chinese investments. It is a notable silence from the embattled governor, who has called on CalPERS, the country’s largest public pension system, to divest from tobacco companies and companies linked to the Turkish government. Newsom faces a recall election on Sept. 14.

CalPERS had more than $450 million invested in 14 Chinese companies the Trump administration put on an investment blacklist last year because of their ties to the Chinese military. President Donald Trump’s executive order, which the Biden administration has continued, prohibited Americans from investing in companies that aid the Chinese military.

It is unclear whether CalPERS has complied with the executive order by divesting in the blacklisted companies. The pension fund declined the Free Beacon‘s requests for comment. CalPERS had more than $490 million invested in seven Chinese state-owned enterprises that, while not on the U.S. blacklist, are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, according to its 2020 investment report. CalPERS invested in some of the Chinese companies as early as 2016, records show.

Two companies in the CalPERS portfolio—China Merchants Port and CITIC—control ports in Sri Lanka and Myanmar that the People’s Liberation Army has used for military exercises. CalPERS had $3.7 million invested in China Merchants Port and $110 million in CITIC as of June 2020.

CalPERS, which has more than $400 billion in assets under management, also had $5 million invested in China State Construction Co., which has built roads and bridges in Asia, Africa, and the United States as part of Belt and Road. China State Construction is one of the firms on the Trump administration investment blacklist.

CalPERS had another $6 million invested in China Communications Construction Company, a state-owned company that U.S. officials have said is building military installations in the South China Sea in violation of agreements that China has with its neighbors. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo singled out China Communications Construction last year as one of the “weapons” Beijing uses to impose an expansionist agenda.

The pension fund has hundreds of millions of dollars more invested in some of China’s largest lenders, including $185 million invested in China Construction Bank. China Construction has invested $405 billion in 176 Belt and Road projects. China Merchants Bank and Bank of China, two other state-owned enterprises in the CalPERS portfolio, are invested heavily in Belt and Road projects.

CalPERS has come under scrutiny from state and national lawmakers over its investments in Chinese companies. The fund’s critics say the investments not only aid the Chinese Communist Party but also create financial risk for the state’s pensioners because of the lack of transparency into the operations of Chinese firms.

“CalPERS would do well on its own to reconsider some of its billions of dollars of investments in China just for the fact that immediate international turmoil produces large uncertainties for California retirees,” said Lance Christensen, the chief operating officer at the California Policy Center, a conservative think tank.

Some investment managers are reportedly reconsidering investments in China because of the government’s crackdown on tech companies and other for-profit companies. Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges lost $400 billion in value in July amid a series of regulatory crackdowns orchestrated by the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CalPERS’s former head under Newsom, Ben Meng, is an American citizen of Chinese origin. Prior to leading CalPERs, he worked in China as the deputy chief investment officer of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange. In that role, he oversaw $3 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves.

During Meng’s time at CalPERS, Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) criticized Meng’s membership in China’s Thousand Talents Program, which the nation uses for espionage. Banks wrote to Newsom suggesting the governor fire Meng, a power Newsom does not technically have.

“Governor Newsom, if it were up to me, I would fire Mr. Meng immediately,” Banks wrote in a February 2020 letter. Banks took specific issue with Chinese companies like Hikvision, for example, that are used by China to further its detention of Uyghurs. CalPERS responded by calling Banks’s letter a “politically opportunistic attempt to force us to divest, undermining our ability to perform our fiduciary duty to provide retirement security to California’s public employees.”

Last year, Banks and Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) called on Newsom and CalPERS to divest from Chinese state-owned companies. CalPERS rejected the requests, saying that its portfolio largely mirrors investments in the MSCI and FTSE stock indices. MSCI has said it is divesting from the 14 companies on the federal blacklist, but it is not clear whether CalPERS plans to follow MSCI’s lead.

While Newsom does not directly control CalPERs, he has actively used his bully pulpit as a statewide elected official to force the agency’s investment decisions in the past. In 2019, he signed an executive order directing CalPERS and other state pension funds to invest in green energy companies in order to fight climate change.

In 2016, then-Lt. Gov. Newsom urged CalPERS not to reverse a decision to prohibit investment in tobacco companies. He said CalPERS would be “investing in death” if it allowed investments in Big Tobacco. CalPERS voted later that year to expand its prohibition on tobacco investments.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2018, Newsom called on CalPERS to divest from Turkish companies because of the regime’s refusal to recognize the mass murder of Armenians in 1915.

“It is wrong of us as a state … to invest in Turkish businesses. It’s time for divestment at the [University of California] and CalPERS,” Newsom said at a rally outside the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles.

Newsom has not made a similar demand of CalPERS regarding China, even though both the Trump and Biden administrations have said that the government is carrying out genocide against Muslims in Western China.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom is quick to leverage his position on issues like climate change by outlawing gas-powered cars or other similar mandates, but slow to speak out on government investments in China, where their environmental and labor record is abysmal,” said Christensen, the official at the California Policy Center.

Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

WHO Tracks New Coronavirus Variant That Could Be Resistant To Vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring a new coronavirus variant that could potentially evade vaccine immunity.

The B.1.621 variant, also called Mu, was first reported in Colombia in January 2021. It has now been detected in 39 countries and was added to the WHO coronavirus watchlist on Monday.

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the WHO said in its weekly bulletin. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

Almost 2,000 cases of the Mu variant have been reported in the U.S., according to outbreak.info. South Dakota and Nebraska are the only states that haven’t had any infections.

“At the moment, it looks like there’s genuine cause for concern in USA, Central America, and South America, but as we saw with Delta, a potent variant can traverse the globe in the blink of an eye,” Danny Altmann, an immunology expert at Imperial College London, told the Telegraph.

The WHO did not say whether the Mu variant is deadlier or more easily transmissible than others.

Death Toll From Hurricane Ida Rises to 22, New York Recovers From Rains, Floods

The number of victims of the devastating effects of Ida hitting the US states of New York and New Jersey on Thursday has reached 22, media reported on Thursday.

At least 8 people died in floodwaters in New York City, including a 2-year-old boy, while another 14 people were found dead in the state of New Jersey, the report said.

In Passaic, New Jersey, one body was recovered from a vehicle that went underwater near the Passaic River, according to the town’s mayor cited by the report.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency on Wednesday night followed by a travel ban issued overnight urging all non-emergency vehicles to stay off-roads on Thursday. Ida, now reduced to cyclone level, hit New York City on Wednesday and inundated some areas with rain, including the subway, causing suspension of train services on some lines.

The hurricane came ashore in south Louisiana on Sunday as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of up to 150 miles per hour and caused what Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards called a catastrophic collapse of the state’s electric power grid. Ida weakened into a tropical storm as it made its way northeast.

Gen. Milley Floats Cooperation with Ruthless Taliban: ‘In War, You Do What You Must’

The country’s top military leaders on Wednesday said they would not rule out future partnerships with the Taliban.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that collaboration with the Taliban, who were the enemy during the 20-year Afghan war, was “possible” to battle the Islamic State Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, according to a transcript of a media briefing.

The group claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 attack that killed 13 U.S. service members at Kabul airport.

More than 2,400 Americans died in the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted at the briefing that operational coordination between U.S. forces and ruthless Taliban fighters that took place while the United States was evacuating people from Kabul was not necessarily a harbinger of a future partnership.

“Well, first of all, let me applaud the initiative of our commanders on — on the ground who would stop at nothing to accomplish the mission that they were — they were provided of evacuating as many American citizens, third-country nationals and [Special Immigrant Visa] applicants as possible. We were focused on — we were working with the Taliban on a very narrow set of issues, and it was just that — to get as many people out as we possibly could,” he said.

“And so I would not lead to — I would not make any leaps of logic to, you know, a broader — to broader issues,” he said.

“I would just say that, again, I’m immensely proud of — of what — what our troops have done to this point, and it’s hard to predict where this will go in the future with respect to the Taliban,” he said.

Milley said, in essence, that circumstances often dictate who is an ally. As The New York Times noted, that left open the idea that future cooperation is possible.

“We don’t know what the future of the Taliban is, but I can tell you from personal experience that this is a ruthless group from the past, and whether or not they change remains to be seen,” Milley said, according to the transcript.

“And as far as our dealings with them at that airfield or in the past year or so, in war, you do what you must in order to reduce risk to mission and force, not what you necessarily want to do,” he said.

From the diplomatic side, Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland would not rule anything out.

“Our relationship with the Taliban will be guided by what they do not by what they say,” Nuland said, according to CNBC.

“Now that said, there are some urgent questions, like the humanitarian condition of the people of Afghanistan. So we are looking at those kinds of things,” she said.

“But we have made no decisions about any of the rest of it, and we certainly won’t unless and until we see the kinds of behavior expected,” Nuland said.

On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States’ relationship with Afghanistan has been reset, according to The Hill.

“A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun. It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy,” Blinken said. “The military mission is over, a new diplomatic mission has begun.”

“Going forward, any engagement with the Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only, our vital national interests,” Blinken said. “Every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban-led government says, but what it does to live up to its commitments.”

“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is, any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned,” he said.

30+ California Children Remain Stranded in Afghanistan

More than 30 California children likely remain stranded in Afghanistan, days after President Joe Biden evacuated U.S. forces from the country while abandoning billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban terrorists.

According to California school board officials in three districts, which confirmed the U.S. legal status of the children to the Associated Press (AP), 30 children “have been forgotten by the U.S. government.”

The AP reported the children remain stranded due to Biden pulling U.S. forces from the country before the children could make their way through the Taliban terrorists’ check points enroute to the extraction point at the airport.

San Juan Union School District in Sacramento identified “27 students from 19 families” that remain stranded. Another school district inside Sacramento told the AP they had three trapped children in hiding.

Union School District spokeswoman Raj Rai told the AP she believes “some of these families may be in transit out of Afghanistan, as we have not been able to reach many of them in the last few days.”

Sacramento City Unified School District spokeswomen added, “The only word I can say is heartbreaking,” and “sincerely” hopes “for their speedy and safe return back to the U.S. and back to our school communities.”

Breitbart News reported Wednesday some 29 California students were “reportedly stranded in Afghanistan at the hands of President Joe Biden’s administration — five more than initially reported on Tuesday.”

“We can confirm that we currently have 29 students, from 19 families, in Afghanistan,” Rai affirmed, ensuring her readiness to “support these students and families in whatever way” she can.

It is unknown how many Americans are still stranded in Afghanistan. U.S. officials estimate nearly 200 may remain, though other reports indicate the number could be thousands. An original White House report indicated about 11,000 had been in the country right before its collapse.

However, Biden told the world Tuesday he had left ten percent of Americans in Afghanistan stranded but then explained the number was only between 100 to 200.

“Now, we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with some intention to leave. Most of those who remain are dual citizens, longtime residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” Biden said.

FBI gun background check system passes 400 million

For the first time since it started in 1998, the FBI’s gun background check program passed 400 million last month when another 2.7 million were conducted.

The number has been on a fast rise since the 2020 presidential election followed by growing safety concerns due to COVID-19 and city riots.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, said it has been used 400,540,500 times since the first was done in November 1998. The NICS was created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which was authored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1993.

It was named after former President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary James Brady was shot, like Reagan, in an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981.

For its first few years, the system recorded gun sales and other background checks in the hundreds of thousands per month. By this year, it was hitting records, the highest coming in March at 4.7 million.

The last two years have seen historic numbers, and gun sales have largely paralleled that.

Just this week, the system recorded its second-highest tally for August in history, at 2.7 million. 

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“This indicates that there is a continued strong and steady demand from Americans choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said Mark Oliva, spokesman for the industry’s trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

He said another record-breaking year of gun sales is within “striking distance,” and he credited the public’s desire to get a firearm as President Joe Biden is threatening to block them.

“The continued demand for lawful firearm ownership is notable because it comes at a time when the Biden administration is pushing to achieve their radical gun control agenda,” Oliva said. “Americans are choosing a different path. Americans acted upon their God-given right to keep and bear arms over 1.3 million times in August. That sends a clear signal that Americans are choosing their gun rights over the Biden administration’s gun control,” he added.

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