Thousands of dead Americans, tens of thousands of dead Afghans, $2 trillion down the toilet, a Taliban victory that leaves America’s international reputation in shambles. This disaster didn’t happen by itself. Political and military leaders, aided and abetted by the news media, are responsible and should be held accountable. Voters let themselves be led by the nose, and they should take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror because what they did and didn’t do caused many people to die.

Antiwar heroes deserve recognition and respect for telling us not to go into Afghanistan, and after we did, telling us to get out despite being marginalized and ridiculed. They were lonely. Despite widespread reports of casualties among Afghan civilians and the glaring fact that the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11, 88% of Americans — Democrats and Republicans alike — supported former President George W. Bush’s war three weeks after U.S. bombs began raining down on Kabul, Afghanistan.

Let’s celebrate the good guys.

During the fall of 2001, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched against the war in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and other U.S. cities. The marchers were too few and too peaceful to move the needle. But the judgment of history is now final: the tiny minority who opposed invading Afghanistan were morally upright and correctly skeptical about the outcome. If you know any of these true American heroes, thank them for their service and buy them a drink.

While nationalist nimrods drove around with their cars idiotically festooned by American flags, intelligent ethical individuals spoke out for what was right. “Under the (U.N.) charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the (U.N.) Security Council approves,” said Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild. “Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men —15 from Saudi Arabia — did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the U.S. or another U.N. member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The U.S. war in Afghanistan is illegal.”

All 98 senators present, including Bernie Sanders, voted to bomb the hell out of Afghanistan and install the puppet regime whose corruption led to the Taliban takeover. In the House of Representatives, the vote was 420 to 1. There was only one sane, only one correct voice in opposition in the entire Congress: Rep. Barbara Lee of California. “As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, as we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore,” she implored.

“For her lone stance,” Glenn Greenwald wrote in 2016, “Lee was deluged with rancid insults and death threats to the point where she needed around-the-clock bodyguards. She was vilified as ‘anti-American’ by numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal. The Washington Times editorialized on September 18 that ‘Ms. Lee is a long-practicing supporter of America’s enemies — from Fidel Castro on down’ and that ‘while most of the left-wing Democrats spent the week praising President Bush and trying to sound as moderate as possible, Barbara Lee continued to sail under her true colors.’ Since then, she has been repeatedly rejected in her bids to join the House Democratic leadership, typically losing to candidates close to Wall Street and in support of militarism.” Two years later, pro-war Democrats denied her yet another post, as chairperson of their House caucus, to punish her for voting against the Afghan war.

Every congressman and senator who voted for this stupid Afghanistan war is a fool who should resign at once.

Americans who supported this stupid Afghanistan war should refrain from voting ever again.

Media outlets that editorialized in favor of this stupid Afghanistan war deserve to go out of business.

American history has been defined by war, mostly illegally and unjustified on the part of the United States government. That history will continue unless we recognize, elevate and employ the voices of people who speak out against stupid wars before they start.

Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of a new graphic novel about a journalist gone bad, “The Stringer,” now available to order. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.

Thursday’s horrific bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan were many things. They were shocking and they were infuriating. They were preventable and they were embarrassing. And make no mistake, they were entirely the fault of our pathetic Commander-in-Chief: President Joseph R. Biden. But Thursday’s bloodbath was also illustrative. As we approach two significant anniversaries in the coming months, the carnage we saw this week exemplifies the ongoing erosion of America’s resolve, credibility, and collective courage. In just 80 years, the United States, which was once a fearsome foe, is now a complete laughingstock.

Two weeks from today we will commemorate the 20^th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in which approximately 3,000 Americans were murdered by a cowardly group of religious fanatics. Less than three months later will be the 80^th Anniversary of the equally cowardly attack at Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, in which approximately 2,400 Americans were slaughtered. In both cases, America’s initial reaction was swift and monumentally forceful. But in less than twenty years since 9/11, and less than 80 years since Pearl Harbor, we’ve gone from what Tom Brokaw dubbed “The Greatest Generation” to what can only be described as “The Softest Generation.”null

In the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor and FDR’s “a day that will live in infamy” speech, America dug in its heels and hunkered down. America was pissed off. That generation sent millions of men to fight the imperialist Japanese and the socialist/fascist Nazis and Italians. During the course of World War II, over 50 million young men registered for Selective Service, aka The Draft. Basic food staples such as meat and cheese were rationed, as was gasoline and other commodities. Women who had previously made up a small portion of our workforce, put on work boots and gloves by the millions, reporting to factories to build ships, planes, and tanks, giving birth to the image of “Rosie the Riveter.”

Over 400,000 Americans were killed during WW2, including the thousands who died on D-Day in one of the most breathtaking examples of valor and determination in human history. And very few Americans from the Greatest Generation complained – about the rationing, or the inconveniences, or the draft, or the massive amounts of casualties we endured. As a result, in less than four years after Pearl Harbor, the tyrannical regimes of Hideki Tojo, Adolph Hitler, and Benito Mussolini weren’t just defeated, they were obliterated.

Fast-forward sixty years to September 2001. Usama Bin Laden and his psychopaths in Al Qaeda were successful in terrorizing us, due in large part to the assistance and enabling by the Taliban and other combatants who torment us once again. Thousands died that day, and images of the World Trade Center and Pentagon shook us to our cores. But we reacted with fortitude. President George W. Bush promised that “the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon.” And hear us they did.

Americans rallied around our troops as we cheered them on. The American flag flew from countless cars and pickup trucks and hung from highway overpasses across the country. President Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan, and by the end of 2002, the Taliban and Al Qaeda were largely defeated. A decade later, Usama Bin Laden himself was finally held accountable for his crimes as heroic Navy Seals took him down in a remarkable nighttime raid at the direction of President Barack Obama, and all of us -left, right, and center – cheered the decision and its result.

Now, look where we find ourselves. Prior to Thursday, America hadn’t had a combat death in Afghanistan since February 2020. For over eighteen months, and since prior to the word “COVID” becoming a household name, we hadn’t lost a single American servicemember. We were spending approximately $40 billion annually to fund operations there, which is chump change for our freewheeling friends on the left, and only 1% of total federal spending.

But President Biden decided to pull out all our troops anyway and did so with a majority of Americans fundamentally supporting the idea. Yes, Biden royally screwed up the implementation of the withdrawal, leading to the most glaring problem of dead civilians and American service members, but the worst aspects of Biden’s decision are undoubtedly still to come. Withdrawing our troops was a disastrous decision from the get-go. Biden’s debacle has created a power vacuum in a region that has previously proven capable of killing Americans in our homeland, and that void is already being filled by China, Russia, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and terrorist newcomers.

Those who had initially applauded Joe Biden’s decision to pull our troops frequently cited the need to get our sons and daughters out of an “Endless War.” But was it really an endless war if no one was being harmed? Was it even a war at all? And if we call a situation with no blood having been shed for over a year and a half a “war,” what in the hell do we call what happens in Chicago every weekend?

America has gone weak. Polling data shows that not only did a majority of Americans support the idea of withdrawing from Afghanistan, but they also support the initiative even it means a resurgence of Al Qaeda. We are not the same country that crushed the Axis powers in World War II. We are not even the same country that blew the roof off football stadiums twenty years ago as we sang the national anthem. We can’t even stomach the idea of having troops stationed unmolested in a country that was used as an operation’s base to kill 3,000 fellow Americans not even twenty years ago.

We’re now a country that’s more concerned with not offending people by using incorrect pronouns than we are with protecting our own way of life.

We’re a country that shrugs our shoulders over the idea of people pouring illegally over our borders, preferring instead to seek being perceived as enlightened and compassionate by morons in Europe and elsewhere.

We’re a country that nods along with millionaire entertainers and athletes badmouthing our country’s founding and its ‘unfair’ economic system as they sport thousands of dollars of jewelry and designer clothes.

We’re a country that embraces man-buns, idiotic gender ideology, and government authoritarianism in the name of public health, and we’re happy to admit it. In a word: we’re pathetic.

For those who died at the hands of the America-hating terrorists on Thursday, may you Rest in Peace; please pray for us. For those American service members who continue to put themselves in harm’s way to protect us, Godspeed to you all, and may God protect and watch over you. And for those of you who are part of the problem here at home, for those suffering from white guilt, and the anthem-kneelers, and the Antifa soy boys… snap out of it! You’re living in the greatest country the world has ever seen. Grow a pair and start acting like it.

God Bless America.

PF Whalen

P.F. Whalen is a conservative blogger at TheBlueStateConservative.com.  His work has appeared in multiple publications, including Human Events, the Western Journal, and American Thinker. Follow him on Parler @PFWhalen.