By Mike Huckabee
April 15, 2021
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Good evening! Today's Evening Edition includes:
- Daily Bible Verse
- Nearly 20 Years Later: Time is up in Afghanistan
- Biden Fact-check
- National Emergency
- A Two-Tier Justice System
- New Podcast
- Reader Writes...
- America The Beautiful
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY
Nearly 20 Years Later: Time is up in Afghanistan
By Mike Huckabee
President Biden announced this week that he will order all US troops withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This is being greeted with mixed responses.
On the one hand, President Trump campaigned on putting a stop to “endless foreign wars,” and he had actually set an even earlier deadline of May 2021 for removing all troops from Afghanistan. Many Republican Senators criticized that decision, and give them credit for consistency, they also blasted Biden’s decision to do the same thing, calling it reckless, irresponsible, dangerous, an abdication of American leadership in the region, and “a disaster in the making” (Lindsay Graham), because it signals a retreat from a fight with terrorists that hasn’t been won yet.
On the other hand, many Americans are tired of sending our sons and daughters to risk their lives and limbs, trying to keep peace in an area where there’s never been any, and where we’ve already expended vast amounts of blood and treasure for two decades in a place that many of them don’t deem worth the cost. I’m certainly sympathetic to that view. At least Trump took off the Obama-era “rules of engagement” handcuffs that made them sitting ducks, but it was still a very dangerous mission with no clear end game.
But on the third hand (this issue is so convoluted, it has more than two hands), other critics argue that a complete pull-out risks the advances we’ve made and creates a vacuum that will quickly fill with a return of terrorism. Remember how Obama pulled all the troops out of Iraq for a 2012 election talking point, only to see the rise of ISIS and the need for far greater military intervention? I believe Joe Biden was there at the time and should remember that.
If Biden keeps that deadline, he has less than four months to make sure local officials and other allies are able to keep Afghanistan from spiraling back into its Taliban-run, terrorism-exporting past. I wish I could say I had more confidence in his competence to make that happen.
It doesn’t help that in making the announcement, he committed a massive unforced error. By announcing that the pullout would come on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he gave the Taliban and ISIS a huge propaganda win. They’ll trumpet this as America surrendering and retreating on the anniversary of the day they struck their fatal blow against us. That date is already a major flashpoint for attacks in the Middle East (did anyone seriously believe that the date of the Benghazi attack – September 11, 2012 – was a coincidence?) Choosing it as a date for our troop pullout is like sponsoring a pep rally and recruitment drive for ISIS.
Randy DeSoto at Western Journal has more on the dangerous ramifications of Biden’s badly-timed retreat.
Biden Fact-check
By Mike Huckabee
Related: In making the announcement of the troop pull-out, President Biden tried to defend his military bona fides by claiming, “I said, along with others, that we’d follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell if need be. That’s what we did, and we got him.”
Fact-check: John McCain said that (more plagiarism?), and Biden advised Obama not to launch the strike that took out Osama bin Laden.
National Emergency
By Mike Huckabee
Speaking of President Biden’s return to wise, calm, mature leadership that other nations will admire and respect, we’re now in an official “national emergency” situation with Russia and on the brink of a new “Cold War.”
A Two-Tier Justice System
By Mike Huckabee
Across America, protests and riots are rocking our cities due to fury over two police killings of suspects. Both suspects had criminal records and were resisting arrest, but that isn’t considered justification for their deaths by anyone. In one case, the officer reportedly followed his force’s guidelines for dealing with the situation, but is accused of going too far and is on trial for murder. In the other case, video shows the officer clearly made a tragic mistake by grabbing a pistol instead of a taser, but she’s already been fired, is under 24/7 protection from the mob, and just days later has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the Biden DOJ and the DC police announced that after a three-month investigation, no charges will be filed in the homicide (that’s the coroner’s ruling) of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed Air Force veteran shot at point blank range by a still-unidentified Capitol Police officer during the violent protest on January 6th. They claim that they found no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer violated any federal laws or “did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”
Again, a reminder: Ms Babbitt was unarmed and climbing through a broken window. She was not at the time attacking or threatening anyone. Yet the officer deliberately shot her.
The DOJ statement read, “Acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences to Ms. Babbitt’s family, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Department of Justice have therefore closed the investigation into this matter.” I’m sure that will give great comfort to Ms. Babbitt’s family, especially since they didn’t release any detailed findings of this investigation that led to this conclusion. In fact, her family has already hired an attorney to continue the legal battle.
Were there really extenuating circumstances that justified responding with deadly force to an unarmed protester who was merely trespassing, not attacking? Does this mean if someone climbs in through a window of our homes, we can shoot them dead with no consequences? I suspect that millions of Americans will believe this means deadly force is only okay to use against protesters if they’re Trump supporters, which will add more fuel to the fire of distrust in our justice system.
Tucker Carlson had a must-see commentary on the apparent two-tier justice system last night,
And if you’re now hopelessly baffled by what constitutes “justice,” the feds aren’t prosecuting the cop who shot Ms. Babbitt, but they did knock down the door of the citizen journalist who videotaped it and hauled him off to jail for “interfering with government business.” That's right: person who shot an unarmed protester will face no charges, but the person who shot video of the shooting will. Watch the Tucker Carlson report for full details.
To throw another curve into the mix, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back and paralyzed him when Blake resisted arrest and attempted to reenter his car (where a knife was later found) has been cleared of wrongdoing.
The police department said an independent outside investigation found that the officer acted “within the law and consistent with training” and he has been reinstated without charges. I wonder how this will affect Blake’s civil lawsuit accusing the police of malice and reckless indifference to his rights.
The police chief admitted that some “will not be pleased with the outcome,” but given the facts, the “only lawful and appropriate decision was made.” I’m sure “not be pleased” will be putting it mildly. But one thing is certain: anyone who takes to the streets to protest that Jacob Blake was denied justice but doesn’t speak up for Ashli Babbitt is a hypocrite of the worst order.
This just might be the least surprising series of shocking revelations Project Veritas has ever uncovered, but the group just released more footage showing that CNN is not a news network but a proud Democratic Party propaganda outlet.
The first video showed a CNN employee allegedly bragging to a woman whom he thought was a dating app date that CNN knowingly aired anti-Trump propaganda to get Biden elected, and he “100%” believes they were responsible for defeating Trump. The second showed him saying that they target Rep. Matt Gaetz with any dirt they can find because he’s an impediment to leftist legislation. And now, the latest release of the gift-that-keeps-on-giving shows him explaining how CNN manipulates people with fear of COVID by hyping death tolls because “it helps with ratings…Fear really drives numbers. Fear is the thing that keeps you tuned in.”
He said that’s why CNN puts that death toll counter right up front on screen and doesn’t report on COVID recovery rates because “that’s not scary.” He added, “If it bleeds, it leads.”
In that spirit, I gladly pass along this story in the hope that it will help CNN bleed more viewers.
New Podcast Episode
By Mike Huckabee
On today's TPP, Governor Huckabee talks with fellow former Governor Bobby Jindal about leadership, and why he believes the coronavirus pandemic could be a golden opportunity to transform education in America. But first, he shares a few public speaking tips for the White House Press Secretary.
A Reader Writes Back...
I really like your writing. It's refreshing to be able to read about what's going on in the world without having to dig for the truth in every sentence of every post and news article. I still can't get over how big the blinders are on so many people. May God have mercy on us.
Thanks for keeping us enlightened.
America The Beautiful
God's creation is all around us. To learn more about Olympic National Park, visit its website here.
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