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The New York Post is reporting that "When President Obama released five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan."
In fact, they were left free to engineer the takeover of Afghanistan, including Kabul on Sunday.
So-called "progressive policies" never protect freedom.
Israel is well aware of that fact and is expressing concern about America's inability to lead.
Who was the deserter the Taliban leaders were exchanged for?
Be informed, not misled.
The genesis of the events of this last week.
Soon after gaining their freedom from "Gitmo", some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there. But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the intelligence reports. It wasn't long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile.
Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent "peace talks."
Earlier this year one of them, Khairulla Khairkwa, actually sat across the table from President Biden's envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Moscow where Khairkhwa was part of the official Taliban delegation that negotiated the final terms of the US withdrawal. The retreat, and how it has been handled, cleared a path for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years.
You have likely seen the pictures of the Taliban in Afghanistan sitting in the presidential palace.
The group that was pictured, once in control of the presidential palace in Kabul, contacted the group of leaders in Qatar to come and take over as leaders.
The mastermind of the regime change is none other than former detainee Khairhwa, the Taliban mullah whom Obama-Biden released from Gitmo even though the Pentagon classified him as too dangerous to release.
A couple of months ago, Khairhwa assured the Biden administration that the Taliban would not launch a spring military offensive if Biden committed to removing all remaining American troops.
He also promised Biden he would not retaliate against any Afghans who worked with the US military or the US-backed government in Kabul.
Why would our elected officials take his word for anything? He's probably more embittered now than when he was sitting behind the cyclone fence in Gitmo.
A former Gitmo prisoner is now telling the President of the United States what to do and when to do it.
The deserter.
Khairkhwa and his fellow parolees who were immediately flown to Qatar were the only "forever prisoners" released without being cleared by the Gitmo parole board.
Following Bergdahl's release, President Obama held a bizarre Rose Garden ceremony with his parents, celebrating Bergdahl as a heroic "POW", a designation the Pentagon never gave him.
During the ceremony, Bergdahl's father praised Allah out loud as Obama said, "We're committed to winding down the war in Afghanistan and closing Gitmo."
It was later shown that Bergdahl was, in fact, a deserter, and several soldiers were seriously injured during their search and rescue missions trying to save him from danger. He was court-martialed and pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. In 2017 he was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge.
Last year, the US military's top appeals court upheld the conviction against him.
Several people on the ground in Afghanistan said the Taliban become much more precise in their attacks on American troops after Bergdahl had been their so-called "prisoner."
The New York Post suggests that "If Obama and Biden had left the five Taliban thugs to rot in Cuba, Kabul more than likely would not be back in the clutches of the Taliban right now. And maybe Americans wouldn't have sacrificed more than 2400 troops and $1 trillion in vain."
I don't personally believe any of our sons and daughters "fought in vain" in Afghanistan or elsewhere. They fought in good faith because they loved our country.
But some of our leaders give us more than a little pause as to what actually is motivating them.
Israel is concerned.
The Jerusalem Post said yesterday, "The victors in Kabul will be those who benefit from the Taliban taking power. They will also be those who benefit or cheer as the US appears humiliated."
Among the "winners," the Post lists Qatar, Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran.
"Most of these countries," the Post says, "hosted the Taliban or tacitly backed them. Others, such as Turkey, have sought to have a role in post-American Afghanistan."
Not surprisingly Iran was declining to receive refugees from Afghanistan yesterday while solidifying their position with the Taliban.
Iran's media was full of stories about how great the new Taliban leadership is going to be.
Qatar has a large US military base but has always backed religious Islamic extremists, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Taliban. This is big for Qatar.
While Qatar and Turkey benefit because of their links to Islamic groups, Iran benefits by seeing the US leave its doorstep. Iran also wants the US out of Iraq and will use the Afghan chaos to push the US to also leave Iraq.
Russia and China have both recently hosted Taliban delegations. They want to have open channels to the Taliban and consider recognizing them as the new government.
The Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan has already met with the Taliban on Tuesday.
All of these countries have their own set of interests regarding the disaster Biden has created, but all have an interest.
The Jerusalem Post concludes: "For now, the Afghanistan debacle is a major setback for the US globally in terms of image and the perception that US-backed systems tend to be as weak and temporary as the grass that greens with the spring and withers in the fall."
Takeaway
What the Jerusalem Post is saying is that this round has been won by those forces in the world for whom freedom is not a value. It also reflects the internal chaos we are seeing in our own country.
When we cannot identify who we are as a nation, how can we ever project anything more than a weakened, confused, culture?
President Reagan said, "While America's military strength is important...I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith."
"Our enemies," he said, "must be made to understand: We will never abandon our belief in God."
And that is exactly where President Biden and Vice President Harris are miserably failing.
This administration has done more to undermine the values of life and marriage and family and human sexuality than any previous administration.
They have turned our national focus away from the Christian, biblical values and principles that have been the norm since our founding.
Public education is obsessed with indoctrinating our children with false information regarding human sexuality at the youngest age of innocence, leading them to ponder whether men can be women and women, men even at preschool age.
Instead of basic educational pillars like math, writing, and reading, our kids are considering if a man can become pregnant and how to adjust if we change our sexual identity. Or how to come to grips with our unresolved, unknown systemic racism---from which there is no redemption.
How can we possibly hope for Afghanistan or anyone else to see leadership, when we don't even know, ourselves, who we are?
This administration is led by two people who claim to be devout Christians, but in fact, have already done more to undermine the Christian faith than any leaders in the history of our nation.
Individual freedom is being stolen by people in white coats, while the sanctity of life is devalued and the institution of biblical marriage trashed by people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.
The crisis is not in Afghanistan so much as it is in the hearts of people who once honestly wanted to live "under God" but elected leadership that completely rejects that view---all in the name of "secular progressivism."
Paul called it "having a form of godliness, but denying its power."
Be Prayerful.