Clean-up Isle 47

Every president since Adams has complained that they were left with a mess to clean up. Usually that takes about half of their term in office. Trump of course has more that he believes needs cleaning than most, in no small part because he, and anyone who doesn’t have a self-imposed blindfold on knows that the guy behind the Resolute desk for the preceding four years was a meat puppet. Even some of Biden’s fans are starting to admit that “Naw dog, he wasn’t really in charge, he couldn’t even wipe his own ass.”

Today we’re going to look at the cleanup efforts, and how it’s going. The tip jar is here, hey If you enjoy the work, please leave a tip or become a paid subscriber, it’s how we keep the lights on. Pull up a seat, pour a drink and let’s chat about things.

Let’s start with the disaster that was Afghanistan. Look, that thing was poorly handled from the beginning. We went in without a good idea of “what does the end game look like?”

What it should have been, in all honesty, is a punitive expedition: Walk in, kill everyone that was involved with the attacks on 9/11, and everyone in the Taliban. Do it brutally, make it clear that “This is a mission to exterminate the people that helped, or hid Bin Laden. If you get in the way, you’re going to get dead. Put your head down, go prone, and stay out of our way, this will be over quickly.” Maximum brutality, shock and awe, then LEAVE. Forget being nice, forget “the global opinion” forget “incrementalism” if it moves, other than to go prone, if it has a weapon, kill it. Brutally, and with maximum force.Tell the survivors on the way out, “Fix yourselves. What you do to and with your own people is your problem. If you stick your nose in our business, that’s our problem. If it happens again, we’ll be back, and we won’t be nice this time.”

Or

If it’s just impossible to avoid the instinct that the Brahmans of Foggy Bottom have for “remaking nations to improve their citizen’s lot” then we should have first, sold the nation on the idea that we need to drag the country of Afghanistan, kicking and screaming into at least the later half of the twentieth century, then been prepared to stay their for forty or fifty years.

Yeah? You in the back? Is it really necessary to occupy a nation that long, to change their culture, you ask?

Well buckaroo, how long did we occupy Japan? Oh wait, we still have troops there. Germany? Yeah, there still are troops there too. Oh the full-fledged occupation didn’t last more than fifteen years or so, but then with Japan, they were utterly defeated, and they knew it. A couple nukes dropped on you sort of makes that thing clear. But we kept troops there in both defeated nations to make sure no one got froggy, while we slowly rebuilt their society. And we still fucked it up some, with Japan. Their culture is seriously bent, because Dougout Doug was such a freaking prude.

Now part of the reason we wanted to stay in Afghanistan, in the hopes that we could create a lasting something, was the shear weight in raw materials in those fucking mountains. Rare Earths are the new diamonds, the new gold rush. That country is full of them. But it’s just too damn dangerous to try and mine & refine, when dealing with assholes that want to bring back the twelfth century. So our industry leaders talked everyone into trying to ‘civilize’ the place.

Yeah, no one has ever been able to do that. Hell, Alexander the Great couldn’t civilize that shithole to the standards of civilization present in 340 BC. So that attempt was doomed to failure unless we were in for the LONG haul, and our mechanism of government is not built to do anything short of survival level wars for a long haul.

All of that said, how we delt with that war, and most importantly, how we bailed out of that war, was an abortion. It made the fall of Saigon look well planned out by comparison. And that’s all on Biden’s handlers. Oh they tried to claim that ‘well it’s the plan we inherited from that asshole Trump. But really, it wasn’t. There were a lot of stop points, a lot of “Taliban, if you don’t meet these goals, we don’t leave” pieces that were totally ignored. There was a truly monumental amount of good functional gear abandoned in place. And we left the best place to leave from, FIRST, instead of last. The only explanation one can come up with for stupidity that monumental was “It was planned.” Biden’s team wanted that evacuation to fail and fail badly. Why? Well, there’s been a whole lot of suggestions that Biden’s people were in the PRC’s pocket. China gained massively by our failure. By itself, that might be coincidence. But let’s look at the rest of the story:

Well, of course we have the asshole that drove all the way across the country, to shoot a couple National guardsmen in DC. Not only was he an Afghani national who we brought back, and gave asylum to with a significant lack of vetting (in spite of the fact that we were assured that all of these guys are fully vetted) but he was an Afghani trained by the CIA. Now the part that no one wants to speak of is that he’s not the only one from that unit to be locked up right now. The day before his attack, Mohammad Dawood Alokozay was arrested for going on You Tube and staking his claim to blowing up a federal building in Downtown Fort Worth TX. The Texas office of Homeland put the Habeas Grabus on his ass before he could make good on this threat, but…

So what does this do to damage the US? Directly, not much. But it further weakens us on the world stage and further divides us. All good things, as far as the PRC is concerned. Were these guys sleeper agents? I don’t know. But if they weren’t it was still damn convenient for the PRC. (Oh, late breaking news, the surviving Guardsman is responsive now. He’s not out of the woods yet, but there’s hope.)

In the “None so blind as he who will not see, department, we have Senator Chris Van Hollen of Biden’s own state of Maryland, saying that there was nothing wrong with the vetting process, “there is no evidence that any vetting system failed.” Sure, Senator, if you don’t count one Soldier fighting for his life, and another one who is being put in the ground right now. Other than that, oh and the guy that wants to blow up buildings, no, no evidence at all… And after all, Muslims shoot women and blow-up buildings all the time, so that wouldn’t be indicative that there might be a problem… (Sadly, that’s almost a reasonable argument.)

Along with that, we have the cleanup of the armed forces. For most of two decades, we’ve been selecting our senior officers based on their ability to parrot the latest shibboleths from the LGBTQUILTBAG fuckers that have zero-point-shit knowledge of how to fight and win wars.

Hell at this point I am not sure that there’s anyone left in uniform that has any knowledge of how to fight and win wars. The last one we won was Desert Storm, and that’s a long time ago now. Iraq II was at best a draw, it looked like a victory at first blush, but then we pulled out without insuring that the people we wanted gone were indeed gone, and not just hiding out in neighboring sanctuaries. Needless to say, it looks like the second choice was indeed the facts on the ground. Afghanistan was, frankly, a loss.

If Iraq II had been a punitive action, we could have gone in, found and hung Saddam instead of letting the Iraq government hang him. Yes, it makes a difference. One says “This guy pissed us off. This is what happens when you piss us off.” The other “We’re here to do the heavy lifting for one of the factions fighting to become the king turds of shit island.” In most of the world, and this goes triple for the Middle East, strength is something you prove, and show, and its all that they respect. Forbearance is weakness, it means you are subservient. It is looked on with disdain.

Hegseth is working on cleaning up the perfumed princes of the Pentagon, but based on the most recent data out of the CNO and NAVSEA, he hasn’t made it stick yet. I’ll refer you to CDR Sal’s post cdrsalamander/p/the-secnav-delivers-your-takesgiving turkey You should go read the whole thing, but the very short executive summary is that the CNO has killed the new Frigate program, before a single ship was built, promising the announcement of a new gee whiz ship class to replace the Constitution class “soon.”

Look, we have a deficit of ships to begin with right now. Of those that we have, far too many are Little Crappy Ships, that by the pentagon’s admission are NOT combat capable. We are staring at a real no-shit navy-war with the PRC, and we’re in the hole, right now.

We knew this, it’s no secret. The story that our gear is so much better as to make up for it, is true, right now, this second.

It’s also true that Sal, Gods love him, neglected to mention our queen of battle, the Submarine Service (hey, I love him, but he’s a skimmer, and sometimes misses the boat view.) That said, just because we have tech superiority right now, doesn’t mean we will in a year. Then there’s the fact that quantity has a quality all of it’s own. The Russians in WWII had inferior gear, were kept in the fight at all, only by massive transfusions of US gear.

They still slaughtered the Germans, because they could trade four to one with the Nazis and come out on top.

The Navy’s condition doesn’t fall on Biden’s shoulders alone. Everyone since Clinton, and including that rat-bastard, have had a hand in the Navy’s fall from grace. This was the Navy’s version of what happened to the Army in Nam. We got took by a bunch of snake oil hucksters, the Navy version of MacNamara’s Gee Whiz boys, who thought that the “transformational nature” of the next new thing, we’ll have a breakthrough on it any day now, is going to “Revolutionize” sea warfare, and we won’t need warships built to ‘the old ways’.

The problem is that ships, even in the good times, took three to five years to build. Now, with the hemming in of construction styles, speeds, and technology by the EPA, and the Unions, it takes more like ten years to build a ship. That means that anything we strike an arc on tomorrow will not be ready for a war for about twelve years. (two years for work ups, and certifications) We don’t HAVE twelve years. In addition we don’t have enough places building them. There’s rumors of contracts by foreign shipyards to build US hulls, in the works, but counting on that is a fools bet.

Hegseth needs to start taking heads, starting with the CNO.

We’ll come back to the Navy in a little bit, but there’s some other stuff to look at first.

For the First Time, the US FDA is admitting that COVID vaccines killed kids. Chris Bray. Another post you should read in full, but again, the executive summary is the title.

Look, it’s now an open secret that China leaked the experimental disease that got called COVID 19. The only remaining question is “was it by accident, or on purpose?” How much they had to do with the development of the vaccines is a very closely held secret. This is, however, yet another mess that Trump has to deal with. Yes, it started on his watch, barely. But the worst of the damage was done by order of President Autopen. And it’s yet another PRC tie in.

Now, the next piece is the fun and games going on with Venezuela. I confess that I really wondered why we were breaking the serious guns out to threaten Venezuela. Yes, I get that they’re smuggling various poisons into the US, and that Venezuela is a virtually failed state. So is Mexico though, and they are a lot nearer to us. So, why are we all up in arms about Venezuela? Well, I did a little digging. Venezuela is pretty much a wholly owned subsidiary of the PRC right now. They’re putting warships and aircraft from China in ports there. Yes, they’re smuggling dope, but I don’t think that’s what this is really all about. This is about making sure that China doesn’t have a base within flight distance of our shores, and a fleet sitting just over a day’s sail to our south.

And here’s the thing that really gets my attention. Suddenly we have 6 congressmen (two senators, four members of the house) filming a piece that encourages our military to question the orders of their appointed superiors, and the Commander in Chief. At the exact same time, we have a subversive NPO “Win Without War” The same guys founded to try and keep us from attacking anyone after 9/11, funding Billboards outside all the major Bases that are saying the same thing as the congressmen. Virtually verbatim. The Congressmen in question have all been linked directly or indirectly to the PRC. The NPO has also been linked to them.

All of this seems to be a drive to cause the people on the pointy end to refuse orders to attack Venezuelan targets.

Two groups that by law are required to be separate, coming up with the same idea, and the same wording, at the same time??? (In fact there had to be a lead up, because while the billboards came out the same day, it takes weeks to make a billboard and get it up… Funny that they hit at the same time, huh?) It’s fun to read the Chinese version of things, https://voiceofeast.net/2025/07/18/the-new-china-venezuela-partnership-is-challenging-u-s-hegemony/ and https://thediplomat.com/2024/07/china-a-silent-ally-protecting-venezuelas-maduro/

Here’s a fun quote from the first one “It is fair to say that Beijing offers economic and technological assistance without ideological strings or new debt burdens. This contrasts with Washington’s sanction-driven approach and reinforces China’s image as a pragmatic partner.”

The amazing thing is that they say that with a straight face. China loans money alright, with interest payments that would make “Jimmy the Bat” blush. And much like making deals with Jimmy, or any other Mafia contact, suddenly, they own you. “You didn’t make your payment, you didn’t even make the Vig, but we can let all that slide, if you’ll just give us half of the port at La Guaira to base our ships out of… Oh you’ll still owe the money, but hey, we won’t break your kneecaps.”

What it looks like it comes down to, is this, another quote from the same PRC organ, “It turns out the Caribbean is emerging as a critical arena in this broader struggle. Venezuela’s ongoing territorial dispute with Guyana over the Essequibo region has intensified, with Washington backing Georgetown through legislation like Senator Bennet’s security bill, while China lends diplomatic and economic support to Caracas.”

Now, the seditious six, as they’ve come to be known, weren’t effective by themselves, so suddenly, the Washington Post (the PRC press of choice) has “discovered” people who are claiming that Hegseth committed a war crime, ordering the attack on survivors of the first attack on a Narco speedboat. Funny thing though, when pressed, the story starts to unravel. No names, no one who was there when the order was given, no attributable evidence or statements… and this was yet another sudden development. If I were a suspicious character, I might think this was all orchestrated by Beijing… Gosh it would be convenient if we were to suddenly have a civil war, just as Beijing wants to put the grab on the first and second island chain, now wouldn’t it?

The guy who’s most screwed on this whole thing, is Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret) Senator. He seems, in his hurry to do the bidding of whoever is behind these shenanigans, and in his mess deck lawyering, to have forgotten that HE TOO is subject to the UCMJ, as a Retired Officer Subject to Recall. He was most pointed in his brags about having been a senior officer when he was making calls to have troops refuse orders. But he didn’t put that together with the Uniform Code Of Military Justice Article 94 – Mutiny or Sedition (10 U.S.C. § 894) Article 82 – Soliciting Commission of Offenses (10 U.S.C. § 882) Article 134 – General Article (10 U.S.C. § 934) or US Federal Law - 18 U.S.C. § 2387 (“Activities affecting armed forces generally” – the modern successor to the 1940 Sedition Act provisions): - 18 U.S.C. § 2383 – Rebellion or Insurrection - 18 U.S.C. § 2384 – Seditious Conspiracy and- 18 U.S.C. § 2381 – Treason …

By the way, that list is compiled by a retired Navy JAG, and current Judge for the state of TN. I’m willing to bet it will stand.

At the risk of looking like this guy

I gotta say, all of this starts to look like it has a common denominator, and a common hand behind the curtain pulling the strings.

Well, I was going to say something about the billions of dollars of welfare fraud that Minnesota has been doling out under Governor Walz’ supervision, and how it is funding terrorism, but this has already gone way long. So I’m clocking out for the day.

People, please check your sources, and consider who might gain from the hate and discontent, before you generate it. I am not saying to let the left slide, far from it. But do examine what you’re doing. A civil war plays right in to our enemies hands.

QOTD: “We need to seize their assets ... know who they are so that they will never, ever be able to get back in our country again, and deport [them] as fast as possible.” —Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Somalis faking autism for handouts

Yours in Service,

William Lehman