For some reason, both Trump and Biden were obsessed with pulling US forces out of Afghanistan after 20 years. We are fighting a multi-hundred-year conflict with fundamentalist Islam, but 20 years was ENOUGH for these two feckless American Presidents. A couple of thousand American personnel were in a safe place, with zero casualties in the previous year, yet both Presidents had spilkes to “get our boys home.” So, we allowed tens of millions of people to be sent back to the Middle Ages and are once again allowing a refuge for our most bitter terrorist enemies. What was so urgent?
I am a finance professional who has observed all manner of “short-term-isms” in my career. From public company management teams managing for the next quarter instead of the next generation, to hedge fund managers managing for the next investor letter, instead of the next big trend, we see some of the smartest people mesmerized by the short term.
The enemies of liberty, at home or abroad, share a common trait. They play the Long Game. Their devotion to their cause is so intense, yet they remain completely patient, allowing the defenders of freedom to essentially punch ourselves out before they come in to deliver their next blow.
In December of 2008, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article entitled “Green is the New Color of Lobbying”. Bit by bit, for the last 14 years, despite all of their projections proving inaccurate, the environmentalists have still managed to alter the culture with respect to how we view the environment. We willingly take a number of expensive and ineffective actions as a society. Remember how wildly extreme the Green New Deal sounded a couple of years ago? The same Green New Deal that we adopted under Biden and that has harmed US National Security profoundly without making a dent in improving the world’s environment.
Whether we are talking about the Greens or the Woke Left, Al-Qaeda or Isis, China or Iran, all of the adversaries of freedom are in it for the long haul. They measure success by the decade, not the minute, and that’s why they win.
The true liberals (people who are tolerant of a diversity of opinion and defenders of liberty) of the US are going to have to get off their butts and figure out a way to counteract the 24/7 work of the well-funded enemies of freedom. It is literally impossible for parents to counteract the insanity that has crept into education at all levels. No parent can read every assigned book, look at notes on lectures and then refute on a point-by-point basis the ridiculous arguments that are being drilled into our kids. We need to fund independent groups to provide oversight for K-12 education, to constantly push for openness and diversity of thought in higher education, to fight the social media monopolies in the courts and protect freedom of speech. The other side is funded, organized and patient.
As for the United States - we have allowed the Russians, playing their beautiful Long Game, to divide us by stirring the pot in social media. No, Hunter Biden’s laptop was not Russian disinformation, but there is an awful lot out there that is. Imagine their glee at the Russia Collusion investigation that they encouraged nearly ripped our country apart. Now we hear reports that the Russians have been supporting green energy organizations, again brilliantly undermining us.
The Iranians have withstood withering sanctions that have crippled their economy and isolated them in historic fashion, yet they stand at the precipice of a spectacular victory as the US caves in to them….and why, exactly? Spilkes? Because there is no “deal’ in place? Just as in Afghanistan some kind of misplaced need to “do something”, is leading us to a colossal error.
Putin has been coveting the former Soviet Republics for decades. China has consumed Hong Kong after decades of patient engagement with the West, making a series of promises they knew we would not hold them accountable to keep. Taiwan is next. After 80 years of waiting, the window will open, and China will go through it.
How do we re-orient ourselves, step back and see the Long Game that our adversaries understand and are playing? If we don’t, we know how the story ends.