This Week in Utopia: Afghanistan.
06 April 2019 [link youtube]
The Afghan government was not invited to negotiations between the United States and the Taliban in the last few weeks: these talks would have secured the conditions for the United States to evacuate its troops without admitting outright defeat. The Taliban, who are already occupying a significant portion of the country through outright military force, left the negotiating table to pursue that "outright defeat" aforementioned —or, at least, to wait for Donald Trump to lose patience and bring the American Army home. There's a great deal of talk about "learning the lessons of history", and vague allusions to the Vietnam War… but those are lessons most would rather not learn. Very few seem to be willing to face up to the extent to which the war is already over, the Afghan democracy is doomed, and the Americans (with the one trillion dollar budget) have lost.
Here's the link to the article mentioned toward the end of the video:
https://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.com/2016/05/1954-1979-wars-in-china-cambodia-vietnam.html
Here's the link to my "serious politics only" channel, Active Research & Informed Opinion: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3fLeOekX2yBegj9-XwDhA/videos
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Youtube Automatic Transcription
and I'm gonna be honest you I've read
the whole document it's not stupid Donald Trump's strategy in 2017 was not stupid it is just impossible stupid and impossible are two separate things fully twenty years ago in the year 2000 who ruled Afghanistan the correct answer is of course the Taliban now suppose that were to ask you just one year from now in the far-off distant future of 2020 who will rule Afghanistan increasingly newspapers are reporting that the correct answer will be the Taliban and for some of us after more than 1 trillion u.s. dollars in military expenditure over 18 years of constant warfare that may be a very difficult answer to accept now to really tell this story I've got to go back to the beginning and I don't mean the year 2001 and I don't mean the 1970s no no no no let's go all the way back to August 21st 2017 August 21st 2017 was the day the Donald Trump announced on his own website oh yes and let's not forget Twitter quote our troops will fight to win from now on victory will have a clear definition attacking our enemies obliterating Isis crushing al-qaeda preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks someday after an effective military effort perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan we are not nation-building again period we are killing terrorists close quote and notice here the way CNN put a headline on that Trump declares US will win it states will quote unquote win in Afghanistan but gives 50 so the level of cynicism that had set in but here 2017 in importance now it's not really so much that this strategy declares that the United States will win it's really sort of addressed to a hypothetical parallel universe in which the United States already had one if you think about the wording there it's possible that you know after an effective military effort possibly they'll let in elements of the Taliban to rule let's just take a quick look at a map here according to most sources the Taliban now occupies more territory in Afghanistan then they'd have at any point since the year 2004 a few sources go further and claim that the Taliban actually controls more territory within Afghanistan now than they did in the year 2001 I don't know how reliable that is um the Taliban aren't just winning the Taliban have one full stop period and that's what this map shows so it's not the case that engaging in negotiations today Donald Trump is negotiating from a position of power he is negotiating over the evacuation of United States troops after they have been defeated and most of trumps strategy and actually even most of the expert opinion in the press and we're gonna see is instead addressed to this very peculiar parallel universe it's just a brief look Lancer of these headlines know that you shallow guys but gives you a sense these are um these are massacres and victories that the Taliban accomplished during the negotiations with Donald Trump in just the last couple of weeks American soldiers killed during Afghan operation that's one way to describe it this took place March 22nd as the u.s. holds talks with Taliban to end the war Taliban having just won they're continuing to score more victories oh yes and they're not just battlefield victories they're not just combat victories this headline from March 23rd is in effect a terrorist attack carried out by the Taliban against Afghan people at the farmer's Day event in Helmand province so that also was going on unchecked March 30th explosion comma Taliban attacks killed dozens across Afghanistan at least 25 Afghan security security forces killed in separate attacks also terrorist attack killing the students their Afghan vice president narrowly escapes Taliban attack March 31st these stories are you bigger in scale Taliban and circles government compound kills dozens they killed 32 soldiers and policemen within 48 hours in that assault as I recall I guess and this other attack you get to see on the map here where they're distributed geographically March 17th Afghan troops killed and captured 22 dead more than a hundred flee so again let's just look at the map and let's consider the geopolitical context the military reality of the context that Donald Trump is negotiating from so look guys things things have changed things have changed the policy statement made by Donald Trump back way back in August of 2017 that set out a strategy and I'm gonna be honest to you I've read the whole document it's not stupid Donald Trump's strategy in 2017 was not stupid it is just impossible stupid and impossible are two separate things 2017 plan in some was one fewer troops two more victory three leave without nation-building four kill all the terrorists and five paradoxically compromised with the Taliban it's just just quote unquote make a deal the strangest thing about that last claim it's wildly incompatible with the idea of leaving the country though nation-building it's incompatible with killing all the terrorists who are the terrorists if not thala ban um it's really built on this very strange assumption that the Taliban could be partly in power I think nobody really wants to face up to the fact that the Taliban have been playing a game for the last 18 years that was all or nothing win or lose live or die they've been playing by those stakes they've gotten real used to it and the United States is not in a position to offer them a power-sharing arrangement or just a few seats in parliament or minority party status and elections they've won the Taliban have already occupied the country they're already in control they're weighing their scoring new victories even during the negotiations they understand that the United States wants certain conditions before they evacuate but they also understand that one way or another the United States will evacuate and when that happens there is no possibility of the Taliban being partly in power and there is no possibility whatsoever of the Taliban allowing elections neither the elections of their competitors nor do they wish to be elected themselves I went over the reports of what was said in the Trump negotiations shall we call them the Trump Taliban negotiations what else am I gonna call it um I did not see any mention of of Elections whatsoever there were some promises that the United States was asking the Taliban to make I did not see elections even being on the table now it's obviously we don't have a complete transcript it's possible that the elections are raised and it's possible that the Taliban just laughed out loud in their faces I don't know because let me tell you something you might have missed it it has not been very long since what's the budgets in Afghanistan they didn't get a whole lot of press coverage but let me just still this up on screen real quick here yeah they had elections and the Taliban made bold declarations like this one Taliban announced quote these elections have no Islamic or Afghan essence they are just a foreign plot to prolong the occupation they said further it was the duty of every Afghan and every Muslim to oppose them so do you imagine that the trial Taliban negotiations will fundamentally change the situation and the other thing is look obviously I'm morally opposed to Taliban and I morally support democracy voting freedom of speech these kind of things but on a purely Machiavellian analytical level does anyone think the Taliban are incorrect think the Taliban statement that these elections are on Islamic and are an attempt to subvert their traditional Islamic Taliban style of government attempt to get rid of Sharia law and traditional Muslim rule does anyone think does anyone disagree does anyone really think that the American orchestrated elections are not a foreign plot to prolong the u.s. military occupation that's exactly what they are and guess what the Taliban have other methods of taking over the government and in effect the Taliban's election promise is there will be no more elections that is a very profound commitment the Taliban have made so the other thing I gotta say is some of you might be shocked that I said Donald Trump's 2017 strategy which is nail abandoning that's what we're making this video he's abandoned in that strategy in these in these elections I said that it was not stupid it was merely impossible here's what stupid looks like and this guy is an expert I'm Ed charai if I may attempt to pronounce his name he concludes this long analysis I read it all so you don't have to with finally the biggest mistake of retreating superpowers is to not define a desired end State President Trump should say that he envisions a multiparty democracy one in which the Taliban is simply won a party peacefully contending for power with others oh you figured it out the United States never thought of that they never thought that they could just end the war by reassuring the Taliban that they could have elections and the Taliban could lose Oh nobody ever proposed this at the peace negotiations Oh we're living in a parallel universe where the Taliban are a tiny powerless faction who think the best they could do is get five seats and then what's the problem it is that the parallel universe you're living in it's it's completely out of touch with reality ludicrous insane but these are the types of people who are foreign policy experts these are the types of people who are going around saying that they know so much more than Donald Trump that this former reality TV star and game show host he can't possibly deal with the complexity we are 18 years deep and it seems like the very basic concept that the Taliban are against elections that their desire their objective is not to be a minority party in a House of Commons with free and fair pluralistic democracy in debate not really the talibans vision of the future so this is the world we live in and I think you guys know Western interest in and concern about the Taliban hit a peak and maybe 2002 and it's it's been on the wane ever since I really cannot remember any coverage of the elections that at least started in 2018 in Afghanistan in some ways they were they were still going on I still be wrapped up in 2019 I think it would be fair to say that they have been ignored ignored in principle and ignored in their their cosmos so guys I try not to do this to you too much I try not to tug at your heartstrings this is a straight political analysis channel but this is the other more emotional side of things that I don't see in the in the Western press and it of course it shows what a joke and I win sincere our commitment to to feminism is here's an Indian newspaper of the Hindu Mariam Yousef an Afghan medical professional sure their concerns with this writer quote I do fear about the Taliban coming back to power in Afghanistan having already lived through and escaped that hell once before close quote she said during the Taliban years Joseph had watched her elderly mother being lashed publicly by the group's morality police for not covering her face quote my mother was a very religious lady who prayed five times a day and yet they beat humiliated and abused her for not being faithful we left a few months after that incident close quote she recalled adding that there was a genuine fear among many women that they might once again be forced to leave the country agreeing with Miss Hamidi Ms Joseph added that she does for see a stronger resistance from Afghans were the Taliban to return quote the thing that makes me optimistic is that the whole country is more aware and connected people know about their basic rights women and youth know about the rights they deserve and are willing to fight for me it's tragic the optimism the false hope is tragic guess what Obama was elected on hope one trillion US dollars 18 years of warfare from what's regarded as the world's most professional and effective military coup your will whole story you're willing to fight for it oh really the US Marine Corps was willing to fight for it and they lost it's touching it's genuinely touching to imagine that the women of Afghanistan who value the right to vote are now gonna stand up and fight for it against the Taliban US Marine Corps lost US Marine Corps is packing up and going home you don't stand a chance the best you can do is run and anyone who looks at a map will tell you it's not real easy to say where it is you can run to the consequences of these foreign policy choices are deadly serious and the other one we haven't touched on this channel much yes of what what's gonna happen to the Kurds once now that Trump is packing up and ending u.s. foreign policy support for four independent Kurdistan however you want to however you want to put it these things have a real price in blood I can think of a lot of ways the United States to spend one trillion dollars a little bit a lot of ways them to even spend a $1 in Afghanistan to have better this but nobody asked me and you know you know who they asked you know you know under the George W Bush presidency you know who was in the room who who is in the brains trust who was doing the brain storms there who was standing there in front of the whiteboard it wasn't saying well I could think of about three options here and two of them were the atom bomb so I closed this quotation even if the Taliban comes to power it will face a lot of resistance it will not be easy for it to control Afghans we will see but the loss of the female right to vote is only one side of the story there's also the loss of everyone's right to vote because the Taliban do not tolerate elections at all levels of the press including fairly elite political analysis I see two different types of spin being put on the story and I think they're mostly just pandering to the audience trying to make this into a feel-good story instead of a feel bad story I think we can all agree this video you've just sat through is unbearably grim wouldn't it be nice if someone could put a spin on it I don't know some kind of happy ending but there was really no happy I need to be found one type of spin is this suggestion that what's happening now in Afghanistan is a perfect parallel to what happened at the end of the Vietnam War and I think this is an attempt to make the audience feel good about themselves because this has been bandied about as a sort of truism since September 11th 2001 that if America invaded Afghanistan it would just be like Vietnam all over again so a lot of people get to sit back and feel sort of proud of themselves and say oh I told you so I've been saying it since 2001 it would just be like Vietnam all over again and the worst aspect of that attitude of all in my opinion is that it revealed the extent to which Americans are not merely kidding themselves about what's happening today in Afghanistan but also the extent to which they're they're still lying to themselves about how and why the Vietnam War and it when it did what happened militarily and geopolitically at the end of the Vietnam War I've written a long article about this I know that nobody is gonna click on the link below this video to go and read that article but let me tell you something there's a real sense in which the Vietnam War didn't end the Vietnam War simply turned into the Cambodian war what had been a struggle of the CIA against the Vietnamese became instead a struggle of the CIA the Chinese and Pol Pot the Cambodians all working together against the Vietnamese so there's a very real sense in which the Vietnam War didn't end it simply carried on through other means through a bizarre foreign policy some people called the strategic triangle and that is the policy that Nixon was so proud of himself about he always seems strangely proud about this plan he devised with the Chinese and the Vietnam War and still in 2019 people are strangely in a state of denial about it and then there's this this is the more subtle and disgraceful form of self-deception the people in the mainstream press seem to be indulging in and it's scary to me to think the people who really have an education in political science and maybe people in the halls of power are engaging in this kind of self-deception too so second paragraph on screen here quote for the Taliban an agreement on the withdrawal of American troops would guarantee something of a victory something of a victory something of a victory he says in their military struggle after eighteen years of fighting they would have forced American troops to leave close quote stop stop stop what do you mean something of a victory how is it possible that in 2019 with the stakes so high with this being a question of life and death not just for the abstract principle of democracy but for anyone who's SEC secular free thinking modern minded people in Afghanistan thirty five million people and we're gonna sit around and kill yourself what do you mean something of a victory this is it this is the end this is the defeat of the American side this is the victory of the Taliban as it says here in the first sentence the Taliban are in a position where they don't even need to negotiate they can wait for the clock to run down because they know with or without a treaty with or without an agreement they've already won the war and it seems that nobody was really prepared for the scenario what if the United States loses and leaves and so we're still at this first step of asking this question what happens next what happens now not when the Taliban have had something of a victory when they have against all odds against a one trillion dollar military budget when they have in fact won people like to disrespect my truth but the fact is that you know my name is I don't know
the whole document it's not stupid Donald Trump's strategy in 2017 was not stupid it is just impossible stupid and impossible are two separate things fully twenty years ago in the year 2000 who ruled Afghanistan the correct answer is of course the Taliban now suppose that were to ask you just one year from now in the far-off distant future of 2020 who will rule Afghanistan increasingly newspapers are reporting that the correct answer will be the Taliban and for some of us after more than 1 trillion u.s. dollars in military expenditure over 18 years of constant warfare that may be a very difficult answer to accept now to really tell this story I've got to go back to the beginning and I don't mean the year 2001 and I don't mean the 1970s no no no no let's go all the way back to August 21st 2017 August 21st 2017 was the day the Donald Trump announced on his own website oh yes and let's not forget Twitter quote our troops will fight to win from now on victory will have a clear definition attacking our enemies obliterating Isis crushing al-qaeda preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks someday after an effective military effort perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan we are not nation-building again period we are killing terrorists close quote and notice here the way CNN put a headline on that Trump declares US will win it states will quote unquote win in Afghanistan but gives 50 so the level of cynicism that had set in but here 2017 in importance now it's not really so much that this strategy declares that the United States will win it's really sort of addressed to a hypothetical parallel universe in which the United States already had one if you think about the wording there it's possible that you know after an effective military effort possibly they'll let in elements of the Taliban to rule let's just take a quick look at a map here according to most sources the Taliban now occupies more territory in Afghanistan then they'd have at any point since the year 2004 a few sources go further and claim that the Taliban actually controls more territory within Afghanistan now than they did in the year 2001 I don't know how reliable that is um the Taliban aren't just winning the Taliban have one full stop period and that's what this map shows so it's not the case that engaging in negotiations today Donald Trump is negotiating from a position of power he is negotiating over the evacuation of United States troops after they have been defeated and most of trumps strategy and actually even most of the expert opinion in the press and we're gonna see is instead addressed to this very peculiar parallel universe it's just a brief look Lancer of these headlines know that you shallow guys but gives you a sense these are um these are massacres and victories that the Taliban accomplished during the negotiations with Donald Trump in just the last couple of weeks American soldiers killed during Afghan operation that's one way to describe it this took place March 22nd as the u.s. holds talks with Taliban to end the war Taliban having just won they're continuing to score more victories oh yes and they're not just battlefield victories they're not just combat victories this headline from March 23rd is in effect a terrorist attack carried out by the Taliban against Afghan people at the farmer's Day event in Helmand province so that also was going on unchecked March 30th explosion comma Taliban attacks killed dozens across Afghanistan at least 25 Afghan security security forces killed in separate attacks also terrorist attack killing the students their Afghan vice president narrowly escapes Taliban attack March 31st these stories are you bigger in scale Taliban and circles government compound kills dozens they killed 32 soldiers and policemen within 48 hours in that assault as I recall I guess and this other attack you get to see on the map here where they're distributed geographically March 17th Afghan troops killed and captured 22 dead more than a hundred flee so again let's just look at the map and let's consider the geopolitical context the military reality of the context that Donald Trump is negotiating from so look guys things things have changed things have changed the policy statement made by Donald Trump back way back in August of 2017 that set out a strategy and I'm gonna be honest to you I've read the whole document it's not stupid Donald Trump's strategy in 2017 was not stupid it is just impossible stupid and impossible are two separate things 2017 plan in some was one fewer troops two more victory three leave without nation-building four kill all the terrorists and five paradoxically compromised with the Taliban it's just just quote unquote make a deal the strangest thing about that last claim it's wildly incompatible with the idea of leaving the country though nation-building it's incompatible with killing all the terrorists who are the terrorists if not thala ban um it's really built on this very strange assumption that the Taliban could be partly in power I think nobody really wants to face up to the fact that the Taliban have been playing a game for the last 18 years that was all or nothing win or lose live or die they've been playing by those stakes they've gotten real used to it and the United States is not in a position to offer them a power-sharing arrangement or just a few seats in parliament or minority party status and elections they've won the Taliban have already occupied the country they're already in control they're weighing their scoring new victories even during the negotiations they understand that the United States wants certain conditions before they evacuate but they also understand that one way or another the United States will evacuate and when that happens there is no possibility of the Taliban being partly in power and there is no possibility whatsoever of the Taliban allowing elections neither the elections of their competitors nor do they wish to be elected themselves I went over the reports of what was said in the Trump negotiations shall we call them the Trump Taliban negotiations what else am I gonna call it um I did not see any mention of of Elections whatsoever there were some promises that the United States was asking the Taliban to make I did not see elections even being on the table now it's obviously we don't have a complete transcript it's possible that the elections are raised and it's possible that the Taliban just laughed out loud in their faces I don't know because let me tell you something you might have missed it it has not been very long since what's the budgets in Afghanistan they didn't get a whole lot of press coverage but let me just still this up on screen real quick here yeah they had elections and the Taliban made bold declarations like this one Taliban announced quote these elections have no Islamic or Afghan essence they are just a foreign plot to prolong the occupation they said further it was the duty of every Afghan and every Muslim to oppose them so do you imagine that the trial Taliban negotiations will fundamentally change the situation and the other thing is look obviously I'm morally opposed to Taliban and I morally support democracy voting freedom of speech these kind of things but on a purely Machiavellian analytical level does anyone think the Taliban are incorrect think the Taliban statement that these elections are on Islamic and are an attempt to subvert their traditional Islamic Taliban style of government attempt to get rid of Sharia law and traditional Muslim rule does anyone think does anyone disagree does anyone really think that the American orchestrated elections are not a foreign plot to prolong the u.s. military occupation that's exactly what they are and guess what the Taliban have other methods of taking over the government and in effect the Taliban's election promise is there will be no more elections that is a very profound commitment the Taliban have made so the other thing I gotta say is some of you might be shocked that I said Donald Trump's 2017 strategy which is nail abandoning that's what we're making this video he's abandoned in that strategy in these in these elections I said that it was not stupid it was merely impossible here's what stupid looks like and this guy is an expert I'm Ed charai if I may attempt to pronounce his name he concludes this long analysis I read it all so you don't have to with finally the biggest mistake of retreating superpowers is to not define a desired end State President Trump should say that he envisions a multiparty democracy one in which the Taliban is simply won a party peacefully contending for power with others oh you figured it out the United States never thought of that they never thought that they could just end the war by reassuring the Taliban that they could have elections and the Taliban could lose Oh nobody ever proposed this at the peace negotiations Oh we're living in a parallel universe where the Taliban are a tiny powerless faction who think the best they could do is get five seats and then what's the problem it is that the parallel universe you're living in it's it's completely out of touch with reality ludicrous insane but these are the types of people who are foreign policy experts these are the types of people who are going around saying that they know so much more than Donald Trump that this former reality TV star and game show host he can't possibly deal with the complexity we are 18 years deep and it seems like the very basic concept that the Taliban are against elections that their desire their objective is not to be a minority party in a House of Commons with free and fair pluralistic democracy in debate not really the talibans vision of the future so this is the world we live in and I think you guys know Western interest in and concern about the Taliban hit a peak and maybe 2002 and it's it's been on the wane ever since I really cannot remember any coverage of the elections that at least started in 2018 in Afghanistan in some ways they were they were still going on I still be wrapped up in 2019 I think it would be fair to say that they have been ignored ignored in principle and ignored in their their cosmos so guys I try not to do this to you too much I try not to tug at your heartstrings this is a straight political analysis channel but this is the other more emotional side of things that I don't see in the in the Western press and it of course it shows what a joke and I win sincere our commitment to to feminism is here's an Indian newspaper of the Hindu Mariam Yousef an Afghan medical professional sure their concerns with this writer quote I do fear about the Taliban coming back to power in Afghanistan having already lived through and escaped that hell once before close quote she said during the Taliban years Joseph had watched her elderly mother being lashed publicly by the group's morality police for not covering her face quote my mother was a very religious lady who prayed five times a day and yet they beat humiliated and abused her for not being faithful we left a few months after that incident close quote she recalled adding that there was a genuine fear among many women that they might once again be forced to leave the country agreeing with Miss Hamidi Ms Joseph added that she does for see a stronger resistance from Afghans were the Taliban to return quote the thing that makes me optimistic is that the whole country is more aware and connected people know about their basic rights women and youth know about the rights they deserve and are willing to fight for me it's tragic the optimism the false hope is tragic guess what Obama was elected on hope one trillion US dollars 18 years of warfare from what's regarded as the world's most professional and effective military coup your will whole story you're willing to fight for it oh really the US Marine Corps was willing to fight for it and they lost it's touching it's genuinely touching to imagine that the women of Afghanistan who value the right to vote are now gonna stand up and fight for it against the Taliban US Marine Corps lost US Marine Corps is packing up and going home you don't stand a chance the best you can do is run and anyone who looks at a map will tell you it's not real easy to say where it is you can run to the consequences of these foreign policy choices are deadly serious and the other one we haven't touched on this channel much yes of what what's gonna happen to the Kurds once now that Trump is packing up and ending u.s. foreign policy support for four independent Kurdistan however you want to however you want to put it these things have a real price in blood I can think of a lot of ways the United States to spend one trillion dollars a little bit a lot of ways them to even spend a $1 in Afghanistan to have better this but nobody asked me and you know you know who they asked you know you know under the George W Bush presidency you know who was in the room who who is in the brains trust who was doing the brain storms there who was standing there in front of the whiteboard it wasn't saying well I could think of about three options here and two of them were the atom bomb so I closed this quotation even if the Taliban comes to power it will face a lot of resistance it will not be easy for it to control Afghans we will see but the loss of the female right to vote is only one side of the story there's also the loss of everyone's right to vote because the Taliban do not tolerate elections at all levels of the press including fairly elite political analysis I see two different types of spin being put on the story and I think they're mostly just pandering to the audience trying to make this into a feel-good story instead of a feel bad story I think we can all agree this video you've just sat through is unbearably grim wouldn't it be nice if someone could put a spin on it I don't know some kind of happy ending but there was really no happy I need to be found one type of spin is this suggestion that what's happening now in Afghanistan is a perfect parallel to what happened at the end of the Vietnam War and I think this is an attempt to make the audience feel good about themselves because this has been bandied about as a sort of truism since September 11th 2001 that if America invaded Afghanistan it would just be like Vietnam all over again so a lot of people get to sit back and feel sort of proud of themselves and say oh I told you so I've been saying it since 2001 it would just be like Vietnam all over again and the worst aspect of that attitude of all in my opinion is that it revealed the extent to which Americans are not merely kidding themselves about what's happening today in Afghanistan but also the extent to which they're they're still lying to themselves about how and why the Vietnam War and it when it did what happened militarily and geopolitically at the end of the Vietnam War I've written a long article about this I know that nobody is gonna click on the link below this video to go and read that article but let me tell you something there's a real sense in which the Vietnam War didn't end the Vietnam War simply turned into the Cambodian war what had been a struggle of the CIA against the Vietnamese became instead a struggle of the CIA the Chinese and Pol Pot the Cambodians all working together against the Vietnamese so there's a very real sense in which the Vietnam War didn't end it simply carried on through other means through a bizarre foreign policy some people called the strategic triangle and that is the policy that Nixon was so proud of himself about he always seems strangely proud about this plan he devised with the Chinese and the Vietnam War and still in 2019 people are strangely in a state of denial about it and then there's this this is the more subtle and disgraceful form of self-deception the people in the mainstream press seem to be indulging in and it's scary to me to think the people who really have an education in political science and maybe people in the halls of power are engaging in this kind of self-deception too so second paragraph on screen here quote for the Taliban an agreement on the withdrawal of American troops would guarantee something of a victory something of a victory something of a victory he says in their military struggle after eighteen years of fighting they would have forced American troops to leave close quote stop stop stop what do you mean something of a victory how is it possible that in 2019 with the stakes so high with this being a question of life and death not just for the abstract principle of democracy but for anyone who's SEC secular free thinking modern minded people in Afghanistan thirty five million people and we're gonna sit around and kill yourself what do you mean something of a victory this is it this is the end this is the defeat of the American side this is the victory of the Taliban as it says here in the first sentence the Taliban are in a position where they don't even need to negotiate they can wait for the clock to run down because they know with or without a treaty with or without an agreement they've already won the war and it seems that nobody was really prepared for the scenario what if the United States loses and leaves and so we're still at this first step of asking this question what happens next what happens now not when the Taliban have had something of a victory when they have against all odds against a one trillion dollar military budget when they have in fact won people like to disrespect my truth but the fact is that you know my name is I don't know