Time to Think

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't #186

By Hank Silverberg

Much is being written and said this week about Afghanistan. There have been horror stories about the chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghanis who have worked for the United States over the last 20 years. We have lost another 13 Marines and sailors, young people who are often the best of our future. It is a bad situation.

I am irked by the blame game that is playing out with politicians in Washington and the right-wing media everywhere. So I will put this to the critics in simple terms that even the uneducated and misinformed can understand.

Kabul Airport, Aug 17
(U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Crul)

Put yourself in the Oval Office. You are President of the United States and you have inherited a 20-year-old war that has failed to bring peace to a region that never seems to have it. Your predecessor (Donald Trump) has made an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces and has freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners to return to their fold. The Taliban, now more media savvy than 20 years ago, and the Afghani government the U.S. propped up for 20 years, agreed to a cease fire so you could withdraw your troops. They had an agreement to work together once you leave. The end of America's involvement was already in motion long before you took office. They have even given you, as the new President who didn't sign this deal, an extra few months to get the withdrawal done.

What do you do?

That was the dilemma Joe Biden faced a few weeks ago. He chose to withdraw. But as soon as that started to move slowly, the Taliban launched an offensive and took over half the country. The government the U.S. had propped up collapses in a week and the Taliban now takes over the whole country.

As a result, there are not only thousands of Americans to take home, but many thousands more Afghanis who rightly feel they will be murdered if they stay. You know the Taliban, despite their public statements, have a history of murdering opponents.

Biden chose to implement the largest airlift in history, more than 120 thousand people so far. Our military, still the best in the world, does a masterful job carrying this out with the help of some civilian airlines and a few other countries, but at the cost of 13 more American lives (and hundreds of Afghani lives).

Afghanistan is a rough country. It always has been. The British couldn't rule it in the 19th Century. The Russians failed to make it a puppet state in the 20th Century. And now America has failed, too.

To put it simply, the country's population consists of many good, honest people who have been intimidated, murdered, and used as pawns by some bad guys (the Taliban), and some very bad guys (ISIS-K) who don't like each other or the United States. We were always caught in the middle with little hope of success.

We went there to get Osama Bin Laden after the 9-11 attacks in 2001, but stayed way past his death and way past our mandate to retaliate against those who attacked us.

As President, you know no matter what you do, you are going to be criticized and blamed for something that is not really your fault.

It is a no-win situation.

I will ask again: pundits and politicians and everyone else, before you criticize Biden, put yourself in his place.

If YOU were president, what would you do?

A Bigger Threat?

There may be multiple threats to the nation's food supply, and they are growing. In California, this year's drought could be as bad as the one between 2014 and 2016. In June alone, more than 2 million acres of farmland, about a quarter of California's irrigated growing area, has received less than 5 percent of its water supply. More than half of that farm land is getting no water allocation at all. Because of that, many farmers had to plow under their crops. The driest year ever was 2015 and it resulted in the loss of $1.84 billion in direct cost and 10 thousand seasonal jobs. The U. S. Drought monitor says 11 states are experiencing extreme drought conditions right now.

Extreme heat is part of the problem. Many areas

that rarely see 90 degree temperatures are getting 100 degree days on a regular basis this year.

This is critical to the nation's food supply. California produces over 400 different commodities, including two-thirds of the nation's fruit and nuts, one third of its vegetables, and one out of every five gallons of milk.

Rice, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, grapes and wheat, staples in most diets, are among 20 commodities already hit hard.

The immediate impact may be the price at the supermarket, but the long-term impact on the food chain could be much worse.

The Western Drought and the Food Supply • Paso Robles Press

The drought is being labeled as 50% environmental through climate change, 40% agricultural through poor management of water supplies, and 10% urban growth.

Hornet War!

(The enemy!)

There's danger to our food supply on another front as well, and it flies! The battle continues in Washington State where the war against the "Murder Hornet" is in its third year. The state's Agriculture Department says they have successfully eradicated their first Asian Giant Hornet's nest of 2021. There were nearly 1,500 Murder Hornets near the nest in Blaine, Washington this past Wednesday when 113 people were sent in with protective gear and vacuums to clean them out. Sixty-seven other hornets, which had escaped the hive, were scooped up in nets. This battle is extremely important because the Murder Hornets conduct massive raids on honey bee hives and destroy them in a matter of hours. Honey bees are necessary to pollinate many crops that are vital to the human food chain. If we lose the honey bee, it could be as devastating as the drought.

First murder hornet nest of 2021 eradicated in Washington state | PIX11

The search for the killer hornet is far from over. Entomologist Sven Spichiger says there are more nests out there and they must find them before they produce new queens. The Murder Hornet invasion from Asia began back in 2019, and the battle has raged ever since.

Dumbest Quote of The Week: and this time a dangerous one. It comes from Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert. He was speaking to the Texas Youth Summit on Friday night when he said this:

"I don't know if y'all saw, but a month after president Trump left office the American Journal of Medicine came out with a great article that they had discovered a regimen of medication that, when taken together early in COVID, that you may have heard of it hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, Z-Pak, azithromycin, zinc,"

Well, the FDA says Ivermectin is not a treatment for Covid-19. It's used to treat horses with parasitic worms. The article in the AJM Gohmert referred to was critically attacked by other doctors as unproven when it appeared. There have been multiple reports of people using Ivermectin and ending up with liver and kidney damage. There have also been reports of this unproven drug flying off the shelves in some parts of the country. Very dangerous. There has also never been a claim that it can prevent Covid-19.

GOP Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert Draws Applause for Praising Ivermectin as COVID Treatment (newsweek.com)

(Your suggestions and comments are welcome.)

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