The Taliban has formed a new government and has invited six countries to share with them the joy of making a formal announcement about the structure of the new regime. Here are the six countries: China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar. If you look more closely, you realize that you have three blocks here, a new Axis of Evil emerging in the world. You have China, that's one. Russia is two. And the other three countries are now the forces of radical Islam. We have Iran. We have Turkey, which has Islamicized and radicalized over the last couple of decades, and, of course, Pakistan. What all of this is showing us is that while we locate the disaster of Afghanistan, in Afghanistan, there are larger currents that are moving that we should not be unaware of.
Now, the Biden administration appears not only inattentive but indifferent to all of this. And it's focused on literally blocking private planes from getting out of Afghanistan. Why? In part because it's embarrassed that the private companies are able to do what apparently the US government under Biden can't do. I think it's also the case that the administration's in some weird way fortifying the Taliban – perhaps preparing to figure out ways to give them money, give them international legitimacy, recognize the Taliban. Biden himself was a little bit non-committal when asked about this recently.
But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and State Department Spokesman Ned Price have denied that the State Department is blocking the egress and the departure of these private flights. But Fox News reports that a private email sent to the organizers of one of these private rescue missions, to a guy named Eric Montalvo, makes it clear that the State Department is not going to give permission and that these private rescue missions can't even go to third countries because typically if they do, those third countries want to make sure that the US State Department has given them clearance to land in those third countries. The State Department is saying clearly that it is not going to give that clearance. So, it directs these private companies to go elsewhere, and yet it says they need to find another destination country, and it can't be the US. This is a direct email from the State Department, which then says that even if they go to a third country, it's not going to approve them to land there either.
This is what our government is up to. It's just horrific.
The media is not reporting this, by the way. They're trying to cover for the Biden administration (no surprise) so that the American people don't realize the callousness of the Biden administration toward our own citizens and our own allies.
But let's look at the larger picture here. The larger picture is that when powerful countries have disasters, even disasters very far away, they have long-term and broad reverberations.
In the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were basically winning, but they launched a reckless expedition against Sicily, not even part of the fight. The fight was between Athens and Sparta. This essentially turned out to be a complete disaster and was pivotal to Athens losing the war in the end.
Although internally rotted by this time, the Roman Empire began to do these expeditions among the Germanic peoples of the middle of Northern Europe. They suffered defeats that were quite remote from the Empire itself. Very far from Rome. And you might have thought, "Well, it's not gonna have much effect on the Roman Empire," but it did. It really signaled an overextension on the part of the Romans and was the beginning of the end for Rome.
As America goes down, other countries come up. It's a global seesaw. But it's not a seesaw that goes back and forth. Because very often, once you go down, it's really hard to come back up again. Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated, "China is our most important partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us, because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country. China is our pass to markets all over the world."
Forget about all the silliness from the Biden administration that we have a lot of leverage over the Taliban and that we're going to be using our leverage. There is no leverage. The Taliban have decided they don't care about America's "idiotic nation-building model." They want to build their own nation, and they want to build their nation their way. Preferably with the help of the Chinese in a, let's call it, transactional model.
And the Chinese are much more Machiavellian about it. They come in and say, "Listen, we'll give you money. We'll build your ports. We'll build your railways. Obviously, we have a lot to gain because we're connecting China to Pakistan through Afghanistan, so we have all kinds of strategic benefits. Some of this money will be given as loans. We're going to use the rich copper resources of Afghanistan that we know how to tap. So, we will pay ourselves back for any money we put into Afghanistan through this kind of revenue."
The Chinese are playing it a lot smarter on the international scene than the United States, at least the United States under Biden. And our allies are getting nervous.
The Epoch Times reports that Japan and Taiwan are now having security talks with each other. That's unprecedented. The Japanese have never before sat down with the Taiwanese to say, "Hey, listen, we are both in the crosshairs of China. China wants Taiwan. China wants to immobilize Japan. Maybe we need to work more closely together."
I think this is not a sign of the strength of the alliance but its weakness. Japan realizes they can't count very much on U.S. support. Taiwan realizes the same. And so the Japanese and the Taiwanese are saying, "Hey, listen, we need to do what we can to neutralize the growing power of China, not just in the neighborhood, but more broadly in the world."
