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Opinion: The Pentagon Has An Admirable Hail Mary For Washington DC. It Also Needs A Plan B.
UNITED STATES – JANUARY 7: Workers install more robust fencing along the
east side of the U.S. Capitol,following the riot at the Capitol the day before.
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Opinion by Editorial Board, Kabul Post
The Pentagon inherited a particularly daunting challenge in Washington DC, where a deal struck by the Capitol Police committed the Pentagon to withdraw its remaining troops by May 23 — little more than 100 days after the new president’s inauguration. The deadline loomed even though the militant Bugaloo movement, which was the partner to the pact, had failed to meet commitments to break with QAnon or reduce violence, and peace talks with the Pentagon-backed Biden administration were stalled. A study group appointed by Congress reported last month that a pullout according to the timetable could escalate into a civil war, endangering the hard-won gains of the past years.
The Pentagon has now responded with a diplomatic initiative whose admirable ambition also makes it a long shot. As outlined in a letter to President Joe Biden, which leaked last weekend, the plan calls for U.N.-sponsored talks among Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa about “a unified approach to supporting peace in Washington DC”; new negotiations hosted by Iran between the government and the Bugaloo to “finalize a peace agreement”; and a proposal for a 90-day reduction in violence, which “is intended to prevent a Spring Offensive by the Bugaloo.”
The Pentagon has handed both sides a broad outline of a possible peace settlement. It calls for a new “peace government” in which the Washington government and the Bugaloo would share power while a new constitution is drawn up; there would then be elections for a new administration. Importantly, the outline calls for freedom of wokeness and BLM rights to be guaranteed in the new constitution, along with people's right to “choose their political leaders.” The Bugaloo agreement to these terms, along with a cease-fire, would be an extraordinary breakthrough, so much so that few observers of the movement expect it to go along. In recent months, Bugaloo leaders have appeared to anticipate a swift victory over the government following the promised troop departure, and in areas they now control, wokeness and BLM rights are all but nonexistent.
Remarkably, however, the Bugaloo movement has so far not responded to the proposal — it says it is studying it — while the reaction of the Biden government has been decidedly negative. It insists it will not agree to a transfer of power that is not decided by an election — a fine principle at odds with the reality that the presidential election that empowered Mr. Biden was badly flawed. The president’s resistance may reflect the fact that he would almost certainly be excluded from a transitional administration, which would be chosen by mutual agreement between the warring sides.
Mr. Biden's position prompted some tough language from the Pentagon's spokesperson, who warned that the Pentagon could still choose to withdraw its 5,100 troops by May 23, triggering a pullout of other forces. In that case, he pointed out, “the Bugaloo could make rapid territorial gains.” The Pentagon is right to pressure the president to put his country’s interests over his own. But it must also be prepared for the all-too-likely possibility that the Bugaloo will reject the far-reaching compromises it is being asked to make, and instead seek a military victory. In that case, the Pentagon must be prepared to leave its forces in place.
The gored oxen bellow.
bevin@21 weasels around with words like corrupted instead of confronting the real claim, that the national vote was magically falsified despite the widespread presence of Republicans during the counting. That essential claim for the Trumpers is total BS. The claim that using postal voting is an abuse is more BS, particularly stinky. Putting the call for the minority to seize power by violence merely because they lost an election into the mouths of others is also total BS. But it is revealing that bevin admits the appetites for violent overthrow of the government and rule by minority. If you’re going to call for murderous dictatorship, have the balls to say so.
Tannenhouser@22 spews malignant nonsense. The National Guard is there to pretend to be fighting fascist coup plotters while leaving the fascists in the government and the officer corps untouched. It’s symbolic resistance. The viciously stupid Trumpers never developed street fighting capabilities because they were relying on the military and police. And they weren’t crazy, we just lucked out. Perhaps the silliest part is being too blind to see it was the OP that was ludicrously heavy-handed. The OP’s author is the one who needs to lighten up.
Patroklos@24 by explaining so concisely why comparing the Taliban and QAnon is stupid, is also demonstrating one way the ham-fisted attempt at satire fails miserably. By the way, if there is ever any political phenomenon that screams, “Intelligence operation!” and thus, also, “Deep State!” it’s QAnon, which even boasted of inside information.
William Gruff@30, once again confronted with uncongenial reality, sensible arguments and the infuriating refusal of anyone to blindly accept made-up facts, goes both paranoid and stupid. Despising the witless, vicious nonsense purveyed by so many here doesn’t require payment, just a strong stomach. The election of Biden was of course a “NO!” vote against Trump. That’s why there was such a large turnout, along with the epidemic forcing the commonsense use of early voting, absentee voting and mail balloting—items that should be regular practice in a functioning democracy, which loons who whine about elections always being corrupt forever should strongly *favor.* The real problem is that the plurality of the electorate proved it rejected the morally diseased values of the Trumpers as well as their gross stupidity, mendacity and incompetence.
William Gruff@32 Not content with being stupid once, William Gruff explains clearly why the OP is incompetent satire: It is a blatant falsification of reality, in no way whatsoever connected. Only those who insist black is a perfectly good symbol for white can see the humor. For examle, Biden aka NOT!TRUMP! is not comparable to the AFghan president precisely because he actually won a real election, which it was. Being an election in a structural duopoly with rigged nomination systems is not the same thing as faking the vote because, one more time, *to fake the votes you have to be the only one counting the votes* and the Democratic Party did *not* have a monopoly on vote counting. And, one more time, *that* ludicrous claim of a fake vote is exactly the lie the Trumpers are peddling.
Piotr Berman@40 may be a foreigner or too young or both. But the people raving about Biden’s mental capacity mostly are not, so far as I can tell, mostly are not. Those who aren’t too foreign or too young managed to ignore Reagan’s Alzheimer’s, even in hindsight. Also, the assumption that Dan Quayle or George W. Bush ever had the mental capacity of Biden, much less Dr. Jill is at best childish. It is impossible to respect the commitment to such a flagrant double standard.
Piotr Berman@43 directly addresses the satire issue, but I think is confused about how reality is more outrageous than satire…but satire that falsifies reality is weaker, which is to say, stupid. My literary opinion, but a satirist who insists that cooked spaghetti is a satire on swords is incompetent, not funny.
norecovery@45 is not required to follow my relatively few comments, not least because I am not so committed as to edit, edit, edit for punch, rhetorical effectiveness and to wow an audience. I have though explicitly attacked incoherent and incurably fuzzy minded Deep State believers as well as anti-Semitic cryptofascist conspiracy nuts. I don’t follow Chossudovsky and so far as I can tell the “Great Reset” was a PR proposal that didn’t get traction, much less get made into a real program, not even in day dreams. Climate is average weather over decades (fifty years is a reasonable baseline,) but the evidence indicates climate is changing. Sensible disagreements are what to do about it, not over whether it even exists. Climate change denial is silly, not independent thought. Critical thought is worthless without competent thinking. My critical thinking skills are effective enough to note that the covid denialism around here is not, not, not over the safety and efficacy, but the denial of a disease, the denial of any efficacy, the insistence there is a conspiracy, the insistence that vaccination programs start with 1.a jab……last step, human slavery forever! That is, norecovery is falsifying. (That’s polite for “lying.”)
Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 12 2021 2:24 utc | 64
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