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August
23
2021

The Afghan Adventure and Other Lies From America’s Elite
Bill Bonner

The Afghan army wasn’t real. The Afghan Civil Authority was never real. They never collected taxes. There were no courts outside of police robbing people. None of it ever existed… it was just a big jobs program funded by American money, and the moment it looked like the money would go away, everyone went home.

– Former U.S. soldier Graham Platner, interviewed by The Jerusalem Post

POITOU, FRANCE – What a jolly, schadenfreudian week.

The American elite have had their noses rubbed in their most precious delusions and pretensions.

They spent $2.2 trillion, equal to $55,000 for every person in the nation, building a modern, democratic Afghanistan (and coincidentally, enriching themselves).

And now, instead of receiving polite “thank you” notes, they are chased from the country in appalling scenes of disorganization and incompetence.

And this was not just the “military-industrial complex” that president Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against.

If this was a “ship of fools,” the universities, think-tanks, media, liberals, conservatives… Republicans as well as Democrats… do-gooders and world improvers – all were in the first-class cabins.

They imagined that they were bringing the indisputable virtues of the American way of life – with its unlimited fake-dollar spending, Prozac, and transgender bathrooms – to the ancient lands south of the Hindu Kush.

And it was all a fraud, marked by lies and deceit over 20 years.

Meanwhile, the rest of the nation begins to wonder. If the elite could be so wrong for so long about that…

What else are they wrong about? And when will the next appalling collapse occur?

Infallible Dr. Fauci

But today, we give up on earnest analysis and turn to reckless sarcasm.

If only the infallible Dr. Anthony Fauci had directed the withdrawal, rather than the Pentagon’s maladroit crisis managers.

Yes… Dr. Fauci is someone we can trust. A man of science and facts.

He’s a public servant you can trust to give you the low-down… to tell it to you straight. Except, of course, when he’s lying.

In December 2020, he famously admitted that he fibbed about herd immunity. The New York Times reported at the time:

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,” he said. “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

Earlier, he admitted to a “noble” lie – telling the public it didn’t need to wear face masks in March 2020 because (he claimed later) he was afraid the face masks would disappear from the shelves, leaving health professionals without them.

Emails from Fauci allegedly show that while telling the public that face masks didn’t matter, privately, he was telling others to put them on.

And the only hard evidence we have (comparative death rates) suggests (nothing can be proven) that mask mandates didn’t make much difference anyway.

Kaboom and Kabul

So, is the COVID-19 response – the shutdowns, masks, vaccines – America’s next Afghanistan?

Or how about the whole “green” agenda? Are the experts wrong about global warming? Are the elite telling “noble” lies to bend the public in its direction?

We don’t know. Our beat is money.

What we do know is that America’s economic elite are at least as malign… and at least as dumb… as its warmongers. And like those responsible for Afghanistan, they are wrong about almost everything…

The fake stimulus… the fake money… the fake interest rates… the fake growth and fake Wall Street stock prices… the fake 2% inflation target – the whole fake shebang, in other words.

And when their errors and lies are finally revealed… it will be a far more disgraceful and painful mess than the debacle in Afghanistan.

In the stock market alone, the loss is likely to be nearly 10 times the loss in the Afghan adventure. The loss to the economy – in the coming scenes of crash and inflation – will be many times that amount.

And if the chaos leads to a political/social breakdown, as often happens when the public realizes it has been betrayed… well… prepare for Kaboom… and Kabul!

Antediluvian Beasts

Yes, Afghanistan is now in the hands of brutish, religious fanatics, well-supplied with U.S. arms and materiel.

This week, we saw the photos… a whole bunch of gun-toting, night-shirt-wearing ruffians in the Presidential Palace in Kabul… and not a one with a face mask!

Unbelievable… don’t they know they might be spreading the dreaded disease?

And there are other shocking photos, too – of them driving all over the countryside in their Toyota trucks… and filling the air with CO2.

Don’t they know about global warming? Don’t they know that they need to switch to electric vehicles?

But wait… there’s more… yes, a revelation so outrageous… so barbaric… we can hardly believe it.

Sit down, Dear Reader. Are you ready for this?

The Taliban are NOT feminists! They think there are two types of human – men and women – and that they are meant to play different roles.

Heaven forfend… What kind of antediluvian beasts are these? Do they have tails? Do they walk upright?

Stern Warning

The Biden Administration has surrendered to them. But at least one member of Congress is holding onto her gun. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a stern warning:

The Taliban must know that the world is watching its actions. We are deeply concerned about reports regarding the Taliban’s brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls.

As we strive to assist women, we must recognize that their voices are important, and all must listen to them for solutions, respectful of their culture. There is bipartisan support to assist the women and girls of Afghanistan.

One of the successes of U.S.-NATO cooperation in Afghanistan was the progress made by women and girls. We must all continue to work together to ensure that is not eroded.

So, you see… It was worth it after all. Progress was made. (Ms. Pelosi neglected to say that approximately 25,000 girls and women were killed in the war, by our estimates.)

And now… watch out, you Talibanos. If one of you so much as lays a hand on a bare shoulder… or pinches a single derrière…

Well… you’ll have the U.S. Army to reckon with!

Regards,

Bill

 

 

Bill Bonner is the founder and president of Agora Publishing, one of the world's most successful consumer newsletter publishing companies, and the author of the free daily e-mail The Daily Reckoning. Bill's passion for international travel and big ideas are reflected in the company he's successfully built. In 1979, he began publishing International Living and Hulbert's Financial Digest. Since then, Agora has grown to include dozens of newsletters focusing on finance, health and travel. Since the early '90s Bill has vigorously expanded from Agora's home base in Baltimore, opening offices in London, Paris, Bonn, Waterford, Ireland and Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

 

 

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