Follow-Ups

 On Monday, I spoke here of the former military and foreign affairs advisers who are saying that President Biden's decision to withdraw from the two-decade conflict in Aghanistan was ill-conceived at best and disastrous at worst. I described it as "asking the guy who set the fire to criticize the firefighters who are failing to put it out."

Well, it just continues in the aftermath of yesterday's tragic attack--not by the Taliban, let me remind you--at the Kabul airport. Leading the charge was H.R. McMaster,  President Trump's former National Security Advisor and a former commander in virtually all of our "anti-terrorist" campaigns in the Middle East and central Asia. He actually argued that, even with the withdrawal, the US should have maintained control of Bagram Air Force Base, in perpetuity. This strikes me as setting up the central Asia version of Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba: an island of US forces surrounded by...and under siege by...the enemy, where the only way out is by air, and the enemy have the clear capability to take down any plane taking off or landing.

That any military "expert" could support such a plan strikes me as ludicrous.

Then, on Wednesday, I explained why I have given up on any thoughts of being on a school board, because of the rancor being expressed at local meetings over COVID regulations. As an example of that rancor, I offer the following report on a school board meeting earlier this week:

Mask protests in Garnet Valley resulted in police being called to the August School Board meeting on Tuesday evening.

A group of 30-40 parents protesting the district’s mask plans for the fall appeared in person at the meeting which was held both in-person and on the meeting app Zoom.

One resident, who identified herself as Leah Hoopes of Glen Mills, took the microphone in the boardroom and read her comments to the residents in the audience.

Hoopes said what she called “scientistism” is being used when it fits the board’s narrative and she questioned the changing recommendations about masking during the pandemic. She said families had done what they were asked to do over the past 18 months but the continued masking requirements are in her opinion not about safety, just liability and compliance.

“This has become psychological warfare on developing children,” said Hoopes. “Fact. masks don’t work. My son’s civil liberties, my parental discretion, are not suspended because of a virus.”

Delaware County Daily Times, Thursday, August 26