GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Friday, September 17, 2021

PASSING THE BUCK ON AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: SHAMEFUL AND COWARDLY.

ICHEOKU says it is a shame that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decided to blame President Donald John Trump's administration's agreement with the Taliban for botching the Afghanistan withdrawal mission. Funny enough the Secretary failed to correctly articulate the real bone of contention which was the manner in which the mission was carried out and not the mission itself. So, it does not matter who initiated the withdrawal process or who entered the agreement with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan, the withdrawal should have been carried out in a manner that meets the expectation of the world as well as the American people. 

But even if we accept, for the purposes of advancing this argument, that the hands of the Joe Biden government were constrained by the agreement, was their hands also constrained in the manner they implemented it? Did the agreement stipulate that they withdrew the military first before evacuating the civilians, both diplomatic and non diplomatic, including those Afghanis who assisted America during their 20 years sojourn there. So, what exactly was Secretary Blinken saying or trying so hard to convince American people that happened in Afghanistan, why the show they put up was below par and somewhat bothering on a humiliating mediocrity. Who does he think he was trying to make a fool of, a matter made worse because they acknowledged the withdrawal as a resoundingly spectacular success. 

Are there now two desks that there should be any confusion as on whose desk the buck stopped? Even the fact that Joe Biden had already taken full responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan was not persuasive enough for Secretary Blinken to finally come around in telling the truth about what really happened. It is purely crass incompetence; and the fact that neither him nor his counterpart in the defense department have resigned as a result, shows the one thing common with the Joe Biden administration officials and appointees. They cling to their offices as if their lives depended on them, instead of the required accountability, integrity and display of competence which public offices demand of their holders. Afghanistan was hugely botched, yet nobody has fallen on their sword. It is a terrible precedent to set that performance  no longer determines who holds public offices in America. 

They had eight months between January to August to get the withdrawal right; or in the alternative to reform, amend, vary or even outrightly cancel whatever Taliban agreement that was inherited from the Trump's administration. As is the practice everywhere, until full performance, any agreement can be changed  or completely voided; and the agreement between President Donald John Trump's administration and the Taliban was not any different nor an exception. So, why didn't Joe Biden's administration act in a manner that would have vitiated the agreement and renege on its implementation. A course which he had started on when he varied the date of full implementation from May 1st to August 31st or was  it September 1st? Why did he pass up the opportunity to dishonor the contract since it was Trump who entered into it as has been his pattern, practice and attitude to everything Trump. 

Nothing from the Trump's era has survived Joe Biden's vengeance so far; so why did the Taliban withdrawal agreement? Withdrawing from Afghanistan was a campaign promise he made and therefore he decided to fulfill it, and should own it up and stop blaming Trump for tying his hands up with the Taliban agreement. The Paris Climate accord was reversed by Trump but Biden restored it. The Iranian nuclear deal was abandoned by Trump but Biden reinstated it. Missile defense shields were placed in Saudi Arabia by Trump  but Biden have since removed them. Stay in Mexico immigration policy put in place by Trump has since been reversed by Biden. Construction of the southern border wall being implemented by Trump was equally stopped and abandoned by Biden. Ditto the Keystone XL pipeline which has been stopped by Biden.

The litany of such reversals of Trump's actions by Biden is quite long, so why did Joe Biden not also renege on the contract with the Taliban, and now making a straw man's argument through his Secretary of State that his hands were tied by it and adducing that as he reason the Afghanistan withdrawal suffered such a major humiliating snafu. The withdrawal was a good decision but those involved with seeing it through failed to meet up with what was required of the United States of America. They placed the cart before the horse by first withdrawing the military before the civilians and therefore compounded the whole exercise and made into the boondoggle it turned into. So, Mr Secretary of State should understand what the cry is about and not that American troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan or that an agreement with the Taliban precipitated it.

It was a mission acutely bungled by the people put in charge to carry it out, the Secretary of States and theSecretary of defense, and they did not put America's best foot forward in doing it. But so far, none of them has resigned or forced to fall on their sword for poorly carrying out the mission and in such a very humiliating way. Instead, Secretary Blinken is busy looking for the fall guy to pin the blame on and trying to shift the focus away from the Biden's administration and projecting it on the Trump administration. It is a contrived strategy which has failed as American people knew the facts of the withdrawal and who implemented it, rather abysmally and it wasn't the Trump administration. The Secretary also failed to understand that the crux of the matter was not the mission but how it was carried out and should be ashamed for trying to conflate and confuse the narrative. If only he has the candor to tender his resignation.

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