Tangled and Twisted Talking on the Thursday Political Open Thread

[Z is for Zangie]

Good Morning! Have a terrific Thursday!

[Mike]

WSJ headline online today: Intelligence agencies failed to predict Kabul’s rapid fall in scattershot assessments of the Afghan government’s staying power, classified materials show

First off, it’s obvious that they failed to predict that. Couldn’t be more obvious. Results, compared to prior statements, show it clearly… no classified materials needed to figure that out. The question, of course, is WHY did they fail to predict it? Anyone could have seen this coming, and in fact people were writing about its inevitability for years. It was virtually a given among thinking people that signs of final US withdrawal would trigger the collapse of the US puppet government in Kabul.

So then. WHY was it missed by our intel agencies?

What happens is this: if you are not “on message”, you are perceived as not being a team player. As not being part of the solution. For merely telling it as it is, you get accused of trying to create problems and of trying to keep problems going. It occurs in corporations, when an employee says “hey we have an issue here, we need to slow down and take a serious look at this” and the employee gets transferred or demoted. It happens in society. The past many years of BLM have been this, exactly. Everything is done to undermine the activists (Kaepernick being the most obvious example), in a futile attempt to pretend that everything is fine as-is.

And so the intel agencies, particularly in the tell trump/DeSantis/Abbott what he wants to hear or we’ll get fired culture that pervaded government over the past many years, missed it. And of course the military command structure missed it for much the same reason. I can see it now:
“Major, is that Afghani brigade in tip-top shape? Equipped and trained?”
“we believe so Colonel, it’s right there in the report”
“Very good Major. I’ll pass this to the general.”

What mattered in those moments was not whether it was even psychologically possible for a brigade of Afghani Muslims to be ready to defend the US puppet government in Kabul against other Afghani Muslims. What mattered was whether they were equipped and trained. And so the major had done his job by getting reports from the captains, who got reports from the lieutenants, who got reports from the sergeants. All of whom did their best to be team players, to report successes upon successes upon successes. And buried deep in that pile of apparent success was the root of reality. There for the perusal of any with eyes to see.

But the GO TEAM! mentality makes no room for reality.
And so somehow, despite being something of a replay of Saigon 1974, a replay of the USSR’s own withdrawal from that same nation 25 years ago, the fall of Kabul was a SURPRISE to our military and our intel agencies.

Would you like some Freedom Fries with that?

[Slip Shod]

@mike - what you wrote reminded me of a song in the 70s / Don't Rock the Boat.
" so I'd like to know where, you got the notion..(repeat)
Don't rock the boat, Don't rock the boat, baby - Don't rock the boat, Don't rock the boat over..."
~
It's go along to get along. Telling it like it is will get you bashed - anybody remember George Burns and Gracie Allen ? End of the show George would say " Say goodnight Gracie "..
" Goodnight everybody " -- well say good night to your career when you buck the system

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

It's go along to get along. Telling it like it is will get you bashed - anybody remember George Burns and Gracie Allen ? End of the show George would say " Say goodnight Gracie "..
" Goodnight everybody " -- well say good night to your career when you buck the system

That isn't just an issue with the left. It's an issue with our society. You can't be part of any group today unless you are excited by all the right things, enraged by all the right things and most importantly treat anyone who disagrees like trash.

[Randi]

That isn't just an issue with the left. It's an issue with our society. You can't be part of any group today unless you are excited by all the right things, enraged by all the right things and most importantly treat anyone who disagrees like trash.

Maybe we, as a species, aren’t that far removed from our cousins the lemmings?

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

Maybe we, as a species, aren’t that far removed from our cousins the lemmings?

There is a theory out their that it is cyclical. It's called Pendulum in Motion and the idea is that every 40 years we are on an oscillating cycle between 'me' and 'we'. The we is what we are experiencing it now. An intense period of tribalism where people distrust anyone who isn't in their group and share the right ideas. Me periods are periods of total selfishness where we (social) tend to neglect others. Neither is good. The height of the current we cycle is supposed to be 2023 then we will slowly start moving back toward selfishness. I don't know if it's true or not but a quick look at history plays it out.

2023 we (can anyone deny?)
1983 me (literally the me generation)
1943 We (WWII)
1903 Me (Robber Barrons)
1863 We (Civil war Literally)
1823 Me (The Monroe Doctrine)
1783 We ( Revolutionary war/founding)

I want it to be true mostly because that will allow my son to be a young adult in a fairly balanced society.