From supermarket music, to clothes, to geopolitics, sadly, the 70s are back. Soon we may see a decrepit KC and the Sunshine Band take to the stage and leisure suits make a hideous comeback.
The saddest part of it is that we are replaying the Worst Hits of the 70s eight track, evidenced by the Afghanistan bugout and the myriad resemblances between the Carter administration and the Biden administration.
We now, as opposed to a year ago, we again rely on foreign energy for our domestic needs. How 1974. We’re losing allies and wars around the world and the Kabul bugout is Saigon redux. How 1975. K.T. McFarland, long time national security pro, puts it this way on Afghanistan.
“Now, we will have to shoot our way out,” she said. “Expect China to formally recognize the Taliban government, and force other nations to do the same,” she said. “It will be an incalculable propaganda victory not just for the Taliban, but for China. China will use our Afghan Fiasco as proof that America is in permanent, inevitable decline while China is on the rise.” McFarland noted there is plenty of blame to go around, “across the board for the entire Republican and Democrat foreign policy establishment…For years they told the America people that victory in Afghan was right around the corner, all they needed was a few billion more, a few years more, a few thousand more troops,” she said. “They lied.” Bingo.
As lovely as this would be to completely lay at the feet of Joe Biden, George W. Bush shares the blame by going there with a soft stick in the first place. His nation building was doomed from the very beginning, as you can’t take a medieval theocracy and turn it into downtown main street USA just because you successfully invaded the country.
Our military is designed to do two things very well. It kills foreigners and blows stuff up. It wasn’t designed to build nations. But Dubya, in his good but gullible hayseed way, gave them that mission. It inevitably failed.
One man whose fingerprints are not on the 70s geopolitical rerun is Donald Trump. He beat the Afghan and regional Islamist terrorists to a pulp. American allies in the area were secure when he was in office. That’s why the Taliban waited until he left to make their move. To them, and soon to others, the Biden administration is a window of opportunity to attack American interests around the world. The fall of Saigon was the same for the Soviets in the 70s. Thus we swing back around to the Carter administration. Energy dependence, inflation, lost power and prestige. Here we are again. I would have preferred the return of punk and pet rocks.
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