8-21-21 From the brilliant friend, a reincarnation of Buckminster Fuller, Ajax the Great. he is one of the smartest, if not the smartest, man I ever met – in a league with the legendary William Bond. His thinking traverses both modern politics as well as Matriarchal thought. Bravo to him a trillion times.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021
Afghanistan: A War We Lost Before The War Began
The headlines these days about Afghanistan have been quite sobering to say the least. It looks increasingly likely that this 20 year old quagmire of a war will end the same way as the Vietnam War did. “Operation Frequent Wind” certainly comes to mind, not least due to the frequent windbag politicians who got us into this inherently unwinnable mess that had literally no practical exit strategy to speak of.
Like Vietnam on crack, this is “a war we lost before the war began”, as Phil Ochs put it in his song “White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land” about that other unwinnable quagmire. Afghanistan has been called “the graveyard of empires” for a reason, after all. The moment President Bush decided to force regime change in Afghanistan, as opposed to simply going in to fight al-Qaeda and bring Bin Laden to (rough) justice for 9/11, that was a “mission creep” that created a dangerous power vacuum and basically dug our graves over there. Yes, the Taliban were and still are backwards, brutal, violent, repressive, theocratic, misogynistic, and even totalitarian, but guess what? The Taliban was never really a material threat to the USA, and the local “allies” (read: warlords) of ours that de facto replaced them in nearly all of the country outside of Kabul have thus created a chaotic anocracy, which basically translates to “pick your poison”. Eventually, Afghanistan even became fertile ground for ISIL for a time, who as we have seen is far more evil and dangerous than even the Taliban. And if and when the weak Kabul government and military finally rolls over and plays dead for the Taliban, remember: if they do it after 20 years, then no matter how long we stay, whether 10, 20, or even 100+ years, the end result would be the same regardless. At best, the USA only delayed the inevitable, at a massively unacceptable cost of blood and treasure.
Yes, in both of these wars, our troops technically won every single battle. But in the long run, as the famous quote says, “Yes, I know. It’s also irrelevant.”
So yes, the TSAP still, albeit with a heavy heart, fully supports America’s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. As a wise man once said recently, if Afghanistan falls to the Taliban after 20 years, it does not mean that we left too early, but that we left 19 years too late. It is tragic and heartbreaking indeed that it was basically all for naught, as the part about bringing al-Qaeda and Bin Laden to justice would not have required forced regime change in Afghanistan at all. Bin Laden was hiding out in Pakistan for most of the time, after all, and nearly all of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals. (That was of course memory-holed as quickly as Bin Laden’s family members were surreptitiously whisked out of the country back to their home country, Saudi Arabia.)
We have said it before, and we will say it again. There is NO (Western) military solution in Afghanistan, period. Or Iraq, or Syria, or anywhere else in the region, basically. The closest thing there is to a solution would be for us to give every *woman* an AK-47 or M-16 and tell them to take over their country and mow down anyone who stands in their way. Let Allah sort it out. Problem solved. But the powers that be over here would of course not be too keen on that idea. After all they wouldn’t want women in THIS country getting any ideas, now would they?
If and when the Taliban returns to their old tricks of brutal and misogynistic repression, then WOE to any cowardly Afghan men that fail to protect their women and children! And by rolling over for the forces of evil, they make a mockery of our troops as well.
The best way to support our troops is to bring them home alive, and stop abusing them in these unnecessary quagmires of choice that really only benefit the oligarchs. The best time to do it was 20 years ago. The second best time to do it is right now.
UPDATE: On August 15th, the capital Kabul has effectively fallen to the Taliban, and President Ghani has fled the country in fear as his own troops basically rolled over and played dead. This highly unfortunate turn of events has happened at a much faster pace than anyone had predicted. But the hypocrisy of those Republicans who blame President Biden for this sad state of affairs is quite rich considering that Biden not only followed the very same troop withdrawal plan set by Trump himself, but actually pushed back Trump’s withdrawal deadline by nearly four months. Yes, really. Like Vietnam, as the saying goes, America may have won every battle, but in the end, that’s also irrelevant.
I mean, you KNOW it’s bad when Ron Paul (and/or his son Rand Paul) comes across as the voice of reason! And whether you love him or hate him, it is clear that throughout all 20 years of this ill-fated war of (mostly) choice, while both Democrats and Republicans alike would mindlessly flip and flop around, Paul has basically been on the right side of history all along.
Getting out of Afghanistan is the ONE thing that Trump, Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Ron/Rand Paul could ALL agree on. Even if Trump denies it now.
And finally, as for America’s very clear moral obligation to the Afghan people that we would otherwise leave behind, we believe Emma Lazarus said it best: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” In other words, “refugees welcome“. The Kabul airport must be secured now to allow safe passage out of the country. Beyond that, after the current evacuations and rescue operations are complete, that is it. It’s over.
After 20 years of this infernal quagmire, C’EST FINI!
As the late, great Major General Smedley Butler famously said, “TO HELL WITH WAR!”
POSTED BY AJAX THE GREAT AT 7:17 PM
LABELS: AFGHANISTAN, WAR
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2021
And So We Learn Just How “Leaky” These Vaccines Really Are
The latest data out of the UK, where nearly all new COVID cases have been the Delta variant (albeit notably recently plummeting despite lifting restrictions), illustrate in real time just how “leaky” these vaccines really are in practice: they are, on average, as low as 17% effective against preventing infection, while 77% effective against preventing death from COVID. Granted, these data also include the less effective AstraZeneca/Oxford and J&J vaccines along with the more effective Pfizer and Moderna ones, but data from Israel (essentially the world’s largest vaccine study) in which nearly all vaccinations have been Pfizer have also been kinda disappointing as well: 16-75% protection against infection (and waning over time), 80% protection against serious illness, and 90% protection against death. And what’s true for Pfizer would also be true for Moderna as well, given how they are both essentially the same vaccine.
Compare this to the annual flu vaccines: for protection against infection, it is as high as 60% effective if a good match and as low as 10% effective if a bad match for whatever virus variants happen to be dominant at a given time, averaging 40-50%. Yet against serious illness and death, it is generally in the 80-90% range. Thus, the COVID vaccines appear to be about as “leaky” as flu shots, which were also originally claimed to be 70-90% effective when first developed. And as we clearly know, if you can still catch a virus, you can also spread it as well.
In fact, the real kicker from the latest British data is that there is really no significant difference in viral load (and thus infectiousness) between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who contract the virus, as evidenced in the fact that they had similar cycle threshold (Ct) levels in PCR testing. In other words, vaccinated people may be at least somewhat less likely to contract the virus in the first place, but when they do happen to catch it, they are likely just as contagious as if they were not vaccinated.
Let that sink in for a moment. Oops, maybe the technocrats should have thought that one through!
The implications of this data are quite stark and resounding indeed. We can thus conclude:
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These vaccines are NOT the silver bullet that so many had hoped for, and putting all of our eggs into that one basket (at the expense of early treatment and prophylaxis like Ivermectin, HCQ, and budesonide, along with various vitamins and other nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, Thiamine, Zinc, Selenium, Quercetin, Resveratrol, NAC, and the amino acid Lysine) was the very height of foolishness at best. Some would even call it mass murder for profit!
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These vaccines are NOT fit for purpose if the goal is to stop all infections, but might still be fit for purpose if the goal is to protect the vulnerable members of society from serious illness and death. And by now, they all have either 1) been vaccinated or 2) chose not to receive it, making that purpose largely academic now in nearly all rich countries, who thus now have a moral duty to freely share these now-abundant vaccines and their patents with poorer countries for all who want it, as there are of course plenty of vulnerable people there too. (As they should have done many months ago, but for corporate greed of Big Pharma.)
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These vaccines are mainly for self-protection, while any protection of the community is at best a bonus. Any argument to the contrary is essentially a specious and spurious argument.
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These vaccines do NOT prevent the evolution or dominance of new virus variants either. Anyone who still thinks so needs their head examined.
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There is ZERO benefit to public health from forcing or coercing people to get these vaccines, restriction of rights for the unvaccinated, and/or segregating the vaccinated and unvaccinated. And there is ZERO justification for such.
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If masks actually worked as source control, there would perhaps be some justification for requiring both vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike to wear them in certain high-risk indoor settings when community spread is at “substantial” or “high” levels, per the CDC.
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But since there is still really no hard evidence that surgical or cloth masks actually work meaningfully as source control at the macro level, even after a year and a half of data, that specious justification also collapses as well. They sure didn’t work in 1918, and they don’t work now. Rather, we should instead simply recommend (not require) vulnerable adults to correctly wear N95 (or greater) masks, which are now nearly as available and abundant as toothpicks, in such high-risk settings for self-protection. (See a pattern here?)
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When the proverbial fat lady finally sings, it would NOT be because of vaccines, but rather primarily from herd immunity via natural infection, along with perhaps attenuation (weakening) of the virus itself. In other words, just like every other flu or flu-like pandemic and epidemic in recorded history, essentially.
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The Great Barrington Declaration, along with its sister organization PANDA, were therefore quite right all along, by simply following the hard-won wisdom of the ages, and we were very foolish not to listen. We clearly have paid, and will still continue to pay, a very heavy price for our collective foolishness and hubris.
