By Mike Huckabee
August 29, 2021
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Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff! These are the top stories that ran this week on our website.
Today's newsletter includes:
- Bible Verse of the Day - Galatians 6:9
- Setting The Conditions Of Failure, By Ken Allard
- "Surrenderer-in-Chief" Biden caves to Taliban orders
- America The Beautiful
- Ted Cruz Saved American Democracy From The Democrats
- Four Implications of the Afghan Debacle, By Ken Allard
- This is what a President who's not fit to lead looks like
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:9
Setting The Conditions Of Failure
By Ken Allard
Note: Col. Ken Allard, USA (Ret.) is a former Cold War intelligence officer, West Point faculty member and Dean of the National War College. He also served for ten years as an on-air military analyst for NBC News.
My heart aches for the 12 Marines and one Navy corpsman killed yesterday in Kabul. Even more for their 13 families awaiting that life-changing visit from serving officers in dress uniforms; bringing the official notification that their loved one gave his life carrying out a noble but badly flawed mission. But there is something especially tragic about Marines engaged in a mercy mission, pitilessly targeted by suicide bombers committing war crimes under the guise of religious obligation.
General Jim Mattis is most closely identified with the slogan, “No better friend, no worse enemy” to describe the marine’s warrior ethos. An alite force of naval infantry, marines deploy on the toughest missions: to seize an island, to assault a beach-head - or to rectify an impossible situation created by a singularly inept president. Sadly, that was the situation in which these hapless marines found themselves: guarding the over-crowded cul-de-sac where the truly desperate scrambled madly for escape. Making these uncertainties infinitely worse was that baseline security was supposedly provided by the Taliban, our sworn enemies since 9-11.
How had it come to this? From the commander-in-chief on down through the entire chain-of-command, effective performance depends on many factors but this above all: Has this admiral or general, commander or colonel set the conditions that will ensure the deployed forces have their greatest chance of success? That unforgiving calculus begins at the service academies, continues through the staff colleges and identifies the elites who attend the war colleges and ultimately fill command billets. Regardless of service, these flag officers have learned to construct forces best geared to prevail in their missions, balancing its components on air, land and sea. An equally important question: What forces will flow to the theater of operations and in which order? And when Murphy’s Law always kicks in, what will you do about it?
Unfortunately, we live in an age of rampant military illiteracy where less than half of one percent of all Americans ever serve in uniform. Military history is an unknown subject in most colleges and may permanently disqualify you from applying for journalism school. Joe Biden embodies that legacy of ignorance, made even worse by his 50 years of service as a legislator. Compromising values is a routine legislative strategy where the most fundamental differences are routinely split down the middle. With that training, Biden always sounds like a pandering poseur when he threatens to use military force. Like yesterday, when according to The Federalist, he swore, “Those who carried out this attack and anyone who wishes America harm know this, we will not forgive…We will not forget. We will hunt you down to make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.” Think our enemies believed him, that their sandals trembled at the fearsome prospect of having annoyed the ferocious Joe Biden? Nope, I don’t either.
The munchkins surrounding him went out of their way to assure Americans that now is not the time for recriminations, that our entire focus must be on de-constructing the artful trap which Biden willfully engineered. While Kabul suffers agonies, Washington endlessly dissembles. To hear Biden tell it, they deliberately bypassed the Bagram air base - one of the biggest in the region - because Kabul’s sole airstrip was closer and more convenient. Seriously, fellas? That they reversed the natural order of operations, removing the bulk of American combat power while leaving the teeming multitudes for last? In what war college do they teach that concept? Even worse: The Daily Wire reported on Wednesday that the US is leaving behind for Taliban use some 70,000 vehicles, 600,000 vehicles and 208 aircraft. The article by Joseph Curl quoted one authority, “We built them a pretty amazing war chest and now all of it is in the hands of the Taliban.” Bottom Line: Biden set the conditions for failure, not success.
His presidential ineptitude may have its greatest effect when our enemies test our open southern border, now stripped of all its defenses. When they do, remember that the 2020 electoral defeat of Donald Trump will cast an even larger shadow in American history than the looming towers of 9-11.
** The original version of this column has been updated by the author.
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"Surrenderer-in-Chief" Biden caves to Taliban orders
By Mike Huckabee
As the Taliban zeroed in on Kabul, Afghanistan, in one of the most distressing examples of American military failure in our lifetimes, it was interesting to find out what the Department of Homeland Security is really concerned about.
It appears they’re worried about you and me.
On Saturday, conservative writer/news editor Jack Posobiec tweeted a screen shot of an NBC graphic that showed the DHS’s list of “Potential Terror Threats” in a “national terrorism alert” in advance of “the 9/11 20th anniversary.” Funny, this list of terror threats didn’t mention the Taliban or any other militant Islamists. Here’s what it listed as tip-offs that someone might pose a terrorist threat:
1. OPPOSITION TO COVID MEASURES
2. CLAIMS OF ELECTION FRAUD, BELIEF TRUMP CAN BE REINSTATED
3. 9/11 ANNIVERSARY AND RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS
The DHS is warning of the danger posed by “grievance-based groups.” As reported in BREITBART NEWS, an ABC news bulletin said that DHS’s National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin, issued on Friday, warned of threats from common domestic terrorists --- individuals engaged in grievance-based violence, “including grievances over public health safety measures and perceived government restrictions.”
Wait a minute. “PERCEIVED” government restrictions? There have been some very real restrictions on personal behavior, but you’d better not chafe at them, even just a little bit. or the government might "perceive" you as a threat.
Let’s take a look at just the first two of these bullet points. (NOTE: I'm prefacing the following analysis with a strong sarcasm alert.) First, “opposition to covid measures.” I assume this would include any such measures that the government chooses to impose or even talks about imposing, including lockdowns, restrictions on the size of gatherings, “vaccine passports,” and face masks. In Philadelphia, starting September 1, the city government will be requiring unvaccinated employees to wear TWO masks, a cloth one OVER a surgical one. I am not kidding. (I guess they should just be glad they aren’t getting fired; must be a contractual thing or you could safely bet they would be.) And new employees will have to show proof of being fully vaccinated as a condition of their employment. I assume that policy applies whether or not they’ve already had covid.
Here’s the report in the WASHINGTON EXAMINER. The city also announced that all Philadelphia health care workers and all university students, staff and faculty must be vaccinated by October 15.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/philadelphia-all-employees-vaccinated-two-masks
If you have a problem with such requirements, you just might be a POTENTIAL TERROR THREAT.
On Friday, flag-waving protesters showed up at the Washington State Capitol building for a protest against Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee’s forced vaccine mandate for local healthcare systems. Similar protests occurred in Kentucky and Tennessee, over both vaccine and mask mandates. “We want to have our own right and have our own decision...to wear a mask or not,” said one woman in Tennessee.
Well, I just don’t know about this lady --- she sounds pretty dangerous to me. And they were waving American flags, like those "insurrectionists" at the DC Capitol Building, so they must be hotheads. It’s a good thing Homeland Security is monitoring people like this woman who dare to question official mandates instead of just quietly falling into line.
And if you agree with her, you just might be a POTENTIAL TERROR THREAT.
Let’s move on to the second indication of potential threat: “claims of election fraud, belief Trump can be reinstated.” The HHS sees danger signs in “conspiracy theories on perceived election fraud.” (There’s that pesky word “PERCEIVED” again.)
Well, apparently “the MyPillow Guy,” Mike Lindell, is on HHS’s terror watch list. Don’t you feel safer knowing the Department of Homeland Security is keeping their eye on him, and people like him? I wonder if he gets subjected to enhanced security measures at the airport or perhaps is on the no-fly list. Come to think of it, he has his own plane. That might be the only way he can get around.
Recall that we were one of the few news/opinion sites that gave Lindell the time of day; we covered all three days of his conference as objectively as possible and kept an open mind about the evidence he presented. And there IS a lot of evidence suggestive of fraud. Though we never for one minute thought that Trump could be reinstalled as President –- the Constitution doesn’t provide for that –- we know there was fraud. Heck, there probably has been some amount of fraud in every big election since the Flintstones voted on stone tablets. This time, though, with all the mail-in balloting and rule changes (let alone any problems with the electronic voting), there was a lot. Did it change the outcome? We can’t say for sure, but as observant and thinking human beings we do have our doubts about how it turned out.
Uh-oh...we just might be a POTENTIAL TERROR THREAT!
As startling as it was to see this graphic, the Homeland Security's focus on those of its own citizens who dislike unproven and punishing covid restrictions and have doubts about the 2020 election is not new. In a DHS advisory about Domestic Violent Extremists (DVE’s) posted in January –- on the heels of the January 6 debacle at the Capitol Building –- they singled out “anger over COVID-19 restrictions” and “the 2020 election results” as motivating issues.
https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-january-27-2021
Ned Ryun, founder and CEO of American Majority, called this new DHS bulletin “a read-between-the-lines threat” on Tucker Carlson’s Monday show. He saw it as “targeting Americans for ‘wrongthink.’” He observed that “the elite deeply resent us questioning their narrative.” He personally has questions about the obstacles being placed in the way of election audits, for example, and also about the real covid mortality rates for younger people who don’t have a serious co-morbidity. Should he be considered a potential threat just for asking the questions? When you’re trying to make half the country be defined as domestic terrorists, he said, it “does not end well." They would understand this, "if they would actually study history, instead of gender studies...”
Uh-oh; he’s probably on the watch list, too. Rest assured that even at a time when Biden’s total debacle of a Presidency makes us weaker and more vulnerable to terrorist attacks --- REAL terrorist attacks --- the Department of Homeland Security is keeping us safe from the MyPillow Guy and plain-spoken conservatives like Ned Ryun. And you, and me. And about half the country, for one thing or another.
LEAVE ME A COMMENT HERE, I READ THEM>>>
America The Beautiful
God's creation is all around us. To learn more about Mamoth Cave National Park, visit its website here.
Ted Cruz Saved American Democracy From The Democrats
By Mike Huckabee
We should all give a big thanks to Sen. Ted Cruz for being awake and alert at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and saving American democracy.
After 15 mind-numbing hours of amendment votes on the Democrats’ $3.2 TRILLION spending orgy bill, Senate “Majority” Leader Chuck Schumer attempted to sneak the “For The People” Act (aka, the “Legalize Vote Fraud” Act) into the mix, in hopes that sleep-deprived Republicans wouldn’t notice and would fail to object, thereby approving it by unanimous consent. But Cruz rose and objected repeatedly, stopping Schumer in his tracks.
Cruz called the bill a “federal takeover of elections” and a “massive power grab by Democrats” that would do the opposite of its title by ensuring that the people can’t vote politicians out of office. He elaborated that it would “strike down virtually every reasonable voter integrity law in the country, including voter ID laws supported by the overwhelming majority of this country, including prohibitions on ballot harvesting, again widely supported by people in this country. It would mandate that felons be allowed to vote, and it would automatically register millions of illegal aliens to vote. It would profoundly undermine democracy in this country…”
Yes, but “for the people!”
The defeated Schumer hilariously grumbled, “Let there be no mistake about what is going on here. We have reached a point in this chamber where Republicans appear to oppose any measure — any measure, no matter how common sense — to protect voting rights and strengthen our democracy.”
That’s funny, because if you replaced the word “Republicans” with “Democrats,” that would be a perfect description of what Democrats are trying to do all over the nation to block common sense election integrity measures and to destroy them completely with the “Legalize Vote Fraud” Act.
Four Implications of the Afghan Debacle
By Ken Allard
Colonel Ken Allard (US Army Ret.) is a former draftee who became a Cold War intelligence officer, West Point faculty member and Dean of the National War College. For ten years, he was an on-air military analyst for the networks of NBC News.
Any American soldier assigned to the Afghanistan hell-hole knows far more than me. But my study of that country began seriously in fall, 1979 as a Harvard grad student preparing to join the West Point faculty. Despite being an Army intelligence officer, my unclassified sources included Dr. Louis Dupree, a former WWII paratrooper with an encyclopedic knowledge of Afghanistan and its deeply conflicted history. My term paper submitted in early December, 1979 to Dean Graham Allison and Ambassador Joe Nye predicted 3 things: that the Russians would invade; that they would do so with all available force; but that their efforts would ultimately be unsuccessful to convert the "Graveyard of Empires" into a Soviet satrap. At the end of my military career in Bosnia, I served in Bosnia alongside a Soviet major general who, as a young Spetsnaz captain, personally led the special forces squad that assassinated the reigning strong-man in Kabul. I tell you that to underline several points you may not hear elsewhere.
Immediate Implications: Her op-ed in today’s Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/17/condoleezza-rice-afghans-didnt-choose-taliban/ shows why former SECSTATE Condoleezza Rice has such a formidable reputation as a diplomatic historian and practitioner. Arguing that “It didn’t have to be this way,” she instantly de-bunked President Joseph Biden’s calumny that the Afghans had somehow chosen the Taliban. Instead, “they fought and died alongside us, helping us degrade al-Qaeda...In the end, the Afghans couldn’t hold the country without our airpower and our support. It is not surprising that Afghan security forces lost the will to fight, when the Taliban warned that the United States was deserting them and that those who resisted would see their families killed.” The most obvious implications of reversing 20 hard-fought years of progress: Taiwan, Ukraine, the Persian Gulf and our non-existent southern border. Simply take a quick glance across the globe and isolate those pressure points where US interests don't match available forces - from our hard-pressed ground forces to our over-matched Border Patrol. Do you seriously imagine that our adversaries will not test those limits in search of more low-hanging fruit? Similarly, few Americans seem to grasp the intrinsic linkage between those external threats and our internal security, already under attack from hostile criminal-political syndicates (e.g., Mexican drug cartels, BLM, Antifa.) Fewer still will recall that 10 years ago Oklahoma authorities warned that that the cartels were becoming a bigger threat to the state than tornadoes.
Deceptive Metaphors: Today there are many incautious parallels drawn between Kabul and Saigon. Officers of my generation vividly recall that the Saigon withdrawal - for all its drawbacks - was far better organized than Kabul. Wherever they happen, strategic withdrawals in the face of an armed adversary are always tough and dangerous operations. The American Army first began learning those difficult lessons under George Washington, who didn’t so much beat the British as to (narrowly) avoid being defeated by them. Ever since, Murphy’s Law has been as omni-present in American ranks as camp followers. The better metaphor may be to Dunkirk (without the English Channel) or - even more ominously - to the 1885 Siege of Khartoum. To those readers who may not recall the Charlton Heston movie, things ended badly for the British and especially for Heston’s character, General Charles Gordon. In outlook, ferocity and ideological single-mindedness, there are eerie similarities between the armies of the Mahdi and those of the Taliban. Listening yesterday to Jenn Psaki and Jake Sullivan’s ignominious presentation to the White House press corps, it was appalling to think that such mendacious, naive and utterly un-serious people were anywhere close to the halls of power. The question not posed by the fawning press munchkins: Were the same officials who planned the Kabul operation also involved with defending our southern border?
Immediate Political Consequences: National security as a political issue is much like oxygen: un-noticed and inconsequential until suddenly it seems threatened. But when those threats materialize, they immediately transform lesser political questions. Right now, that specter most benefits former SECSTATE Mike Pompeo and Ambassador Nikki Haley. Ambassador Hailey is the former South Carolina governor who overcame ethnic and gender profiling to become a compelling, highly articulate leader as Donald Trump’s Ambassador to the UN. But the big winner after Kabul may be Mike Pompeo. He calmly personifies traditional American values: e.g., Eagle Scout, West Point graduate, business leader, Congressman, CIA Director, SECSTATE, and born-again Christian). That stunning resume gives him an immediate appeal for a Republican establishment that badly needs a super-star who can help re-build Republican credibility.
Macro-Changes to Start Thinking About: We can anticipate that our enemies will do their utmost to test us, ideally while the Biden White House still resembles deer-caught-in-the -headlights. The short list certainly includes the seizure of Taiwan and the increasing likelihood of another 911. I live in San Antonio, where we grimly chuckle over the latest (and fastest-growing) Border Patrol category of illegals: OTM, meaning "Other Than Mexican." The considerably more sobering reality: If our enemies fail to take advantage of our open borders, then it contradicts everything we know about their relentless character and their endlessly adaptive tactics. If you are familiar with the Sicario movie series, then you may have already glimpsed the future. The American people need to demand an end to the PC-heavy, Woke soft-headedness that has already begun to compromise our military. To cite but one current example: Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on May 4, BG Daniel Hokanson (Chief of the National Guard Bureau) asserted that "Among my most pressing concerns are premium-free health care for every Guardsman...." Seriously, General? Aren't those the very same forces primarily responsible for our homeland defense, either in coping with disaster or deterring an enemy attack? And yet you're primarily concerned with their health care?
Fasten your seat-belts, folks, we may be in for a bumpy ride!
This is what a President who's not fit to lead looks like
By Mike Huckabee
Our prediction that President Biden would come out in his late-day press briefing on Thursday and blame everyone but himself turned out to be, sadly, correct.
If you didn’t see it, imagine at the podium the weakest, most feeble, most pathetic excuse for a Commander-in-Chief you can dredge out of the recesses of your mind, and then somehow dial it back even weaker. The real thing was worse than that.
Think I’m exaggerating? The British news organization DAILY MAIL was merciless.
Yes, Biden did blame Trump, again: “I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that’s happened of late. But [editorial note: there’s always a “but”] here’s the deal: You know –- I wish that one day, you say these things –- you know as well as I do that [the] former President made a deal with the Taliban that we would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1. In return, the commitment was made, and that was a year before.”
Biden keeps going back to that, when it’s clear to all of us watching that he didn’t have to follow that timetable at all. HE’S our Commander-in-Chief; it's not the head of the Taliban. WE’RE the superpower, not them. WE say when we leave. And President Trump certainly would not have conformed to some arbitrary deadline it if it meant leaving Americans and friends behind. Until now, I’ve always tried to conduct myself with enough class to avoid telling the President of the United States to shut his yap, but Biden is making that extremely difficult for me now.
Here’s the carefully-considered plan President Trump had for leaving Afghanistan that Biden scrapped, simply because it was a remnant of Trump’s administration. Kash Patel, Trump’s chief of staff at the Pentagon, wrote about it for the NEW YORK POST last week, and WESTERN JOURNAL summarizes it here. Highly recommended reading.
Biden acknowledged during Thursday’s briefing that Americans would be left behind after August 31. Jen Psaki said later that we would “need to coordinate with the Taliban to get those people to the airport and out of the airport.” That's like "coordinating" with an alligator to help you cross the river.
Katie Pavlich has a good commentary on how Biden & Co. are talking about getting those Americans out who are still there after the deadline.
Actually, Biden didn’t blame Trump for EVERYTHING. He blamed his generals for the (incredibly stupid) decision to leave Bagram Air Base before the evacuation. The generals gave him bad advice, so what could he do?
Perhaps most shockingly of all (and I would think criminal), Biden didn’t deny reports that the Taliban were given a helpful list of Americans stranded in the region. To, uh, help them get to the airport? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Clearly, Joe Biden is not fit to lead. The problem is, those around him don’t seem fit to lead, either, and somebody has to. That vacuum of leadership at the top might be the main thing keeping Biden in the Oval Office right now. Last night on Shannon Bream’s FOX NEWS show, Democrat strategist Kevin Walling, when confronted by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s call for Biden’s resignation, said that “this President absolutely has the will to lead,” pointing out that “this weighs heavily on the President’s heart” because he had a son who served in combat. He “has the will to finish this mission out in the next five days.”
Ah, so Biden is still planning to wrap this up in five days? Apparently so.
Walling continued: “Any calls for any kind of resignation or impeachment of him or his team, really, uh, are a distraction from this core mission that he is set to accomplish, uh, in these next couple of days. No one in the wake of 9/11 called for George W. Bush...to resign. This is just party politics, when we need to focus on the mission, supporting the troops on the ground, paying tribute to those lives lost, and supporting this effort in the waning days in Afghanistan.”
Well, if anyone knows about party politics, it’s a Democrat strategist. Okay, Mr. Walling, let’s all focus on the mission now that it’s been botched, support the troops now that they face new and unnecessary dangers, pay tribute to the lives that Biden needlessly put in harm’s way and got killed, and support this effort to dig out of the deep quicksand we’re in, thanks to our feeble-brained Commander-in-Chief.
Also, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in our President when he reveals he’s been “instructed” to call on reporters from a list his helpful aides have given him. Not kidding.
You might be able to tell that I and my research team have completely had it with the “leadership” of this administration –- on many fronts, not just this one –- and we have plenty of company. Thanks to Joe Biden and the people who put him in office, America has lost lives, experienced humiliation around the world, shocked and dismayed our allies, seriously risked our own national security, and now faces critical decisions on how to move forward from this.
Starting off our round-up is Spencer Brown, writing for TOWNHALL, who said, “[Biden’s] failure to successfully or safely bring the United States out of Afghanistan is squarely the fault of President Biden.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/08/26/biden-remarks-on-kabul-attacks-n2594821
Paula Bolyard at PJ MEDIA said he “stumbled badly...sounding more defeated and confused than resolute.” The quotes she included really show how incoherent he was at times. She noted the bizarre way in which he linked the loss of his son Beau (who did serve in Iraq but who died of brain cancer) to this situation. It WAS strange.
“Sadly,” she wrote, “we have a Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t seem fully able to grasp the gravity of the situation and the enormity of the disaster he’s wrought.”
Nick Arama at RedState.com was unsparing in his description of this slow-motion train derailment.
Earlier in the afternoon, before Biden’s briefing, he had this excellent assessment.
Donald Trump, Jr.’s, tweet after the briefing shows what the world is seeing right now: profound weakness.
Finally, I might have saved the best for last. Stephen Kruiser at PJ MEDIA says it all with his headline: “America is now actually the mess Dems pretended it was under Trump.” He tells us that he started writing it a few weeks ago as just a general commentary, before the evacuation of Afghanistan went bad. This new horror took his original point to the tenth power.
You know, there aren’t many ideas from California that I give a thumbs-up, too, but in this situation, there’s one I dearly wish we could adopt (but we can’t): “recall election.” Do it over and get it right this time!
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