The Washington Post published what is being described as the Pentagon Papers for the Afghanistan War.The Trump Admin did not fight its release, and I hope this is because they see the boon to having these released. Nixon did not see the advantage releasing the Pentagon Papers would give him since the details damned the prior two administrations and fought the release of the Pentagon papers. These documents confirm everything you feared and more about Afghanistan.

The sums of money involved are beyond belief. Afghanistan was a small and crummy nation with a small force assigned to it for years yet the appropriations were huge. They were keeping vehicle engines running 24/7. The logistics involved seem like a stretch for how few troops we had there for years. For roughly seven years, America had fewer than 25,000 troops in country. America had to find ways to spend money. For the amount of money they spent, they could have just written blank checks to individual Afghanis and come out better.

There is not just the waste involved, but the idealism that blinded the decision making by our trusty US State Department, CIA and DoD. One detail explains that instead of listening to Afghanis about where to drill water wells, we would decide where to drill them and even would drill them between tribes to foster communication. This is a foreign nation, yet the US State Dept still believes the pollyanna “we can all get along once we mingle” idea from Disney movies. This does not even work in America, like it was going to work in the graveyard of empires.

We are all amateurs, but some of us have followed along with whatever media content is released about Afghanistan. A favorite of mine is the documentary Restrepo. One of the most interesting scenes was when the American officer, rotated in for his temporary assignment, was asking Afghani elders at a communal sitdown to ‘wipe the slate clean’ (with accompanying hand motion) when the Afghanis are holding grudges against neighbors over infractions generations back. America did not commit to being simply a killing machine and moving on, yet when it chose to be an occupying force to partner with some natives, it failed to think in their terms.

These Afghanistan documents reveal a war with no purpose, a war with no clear cut metrics to determine progress and a war full of officers looking for promotions and contractors looking for money. Afghanistan is a means to those interests’ end. There is no reason to be in Afghanistan except maybe pose a problem for Russia and China in central Asia. We should bring the boys home, pull out our equipment, let the new government know that if we detect terrorist camps we will drone them to dust and before we finally leave, burn every poppy field.

On to the links…

The Afghanistan Report – As cited above, we need to get out as soon as possible.

Afghan report commentary – This thread is why Twitter is a great service at times. This user goes through the Afghan report and points out the absurd details to American involvement. Someone who looks good in this report, General Flynn.

On America’s Cultural Revolution – Heather MacDonald has one of the realest sentences about SJWs and the Tumblr turned Democrat operator crowd, “The diversity cult is destroying the very foundations of our civilization“. This is creeping its way through our laws, regulations and private bureacracy because the mechanism is still in place and power needs it.

Asian Fertility Choices – There is something interesting whenever you enter Latin America and see who they cast in their television shows, who Brazilian lesbians choose for sperm donors and now, who single, wealthy Chinese women choose for sperm donors. The preference is for as white as phenotypically a donor as possible. These women do also reveal that those careerist, leftover or yellow pearl types have a universal problem of misreading their value in the dating and mating market. How in a nation with millions of surplus men can these women not find a husband?

Boomer Economics – This is an essay on what exactly makes the Boomers’ economic situation so peculiar. This is a long essay but worth it whether you hate or defend the Boomers.