“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” —Henry Kissinger (1968)

As many Afghans willing to risk their lives on behalf of American interests are learning, little has changed in the 53 years since Kissinger offered his assessment of … what exactly? The war in Afghanistan, often referred to by the American Left as the “good war” for no other reason than to contrast it with the “bad war” in Iraq, is merely the latest in a long line of self-inflicted tragedies brought to us by several administrations in both parties. Yet through all of them, from Vietnam to the ongoing debacle unfolding in Afghanistan, a cadre of unelected, largely unaccountable “superior” thinkers that we now refer to as the Deep State or the Swamp has retained a constant presence throughout.

One whose utterly bankrupt approach to warfare can no longer be obscured.

To this day, it remains remarkable how many American soldiers are willing to defend this nation, especially when they are expected to do so with one hand figuratively tied behind their backs — and when their well-being is of no more importance than collateral damage or cultural sensibilities. They ousted the Taliban from power in December 2001 — four months after 9/11. What followed their magnificent effort was two decades of their know-it-all superiors exploring faculty lounge concepts of nation-building, “winning hearts and minds,” and the “democratization” of people who had never known democracy in their entire history.

And every step of the way, American troops were used as cannon fodder. Perhaps nothing epitomized that reality better than a 2012 directive issued by former President Barack Obama reversing a longstanding order whereby troops were required to remove the magazines from their weapons while quartered at bases with Afghans they were training to become policemen and soldiers. It took more than 100 deaths before military brass concluded that the presence of armed Afghan trainees in the presence of unarmed American trainers gave our “trusted Afghan partners” a decided tactical advantage.

Those same trusted Afghan partners — the ones the Swamp assured us were up to the task of defending their nation when we left — allowed the Taliban to conquer Kabul in the space of a long weekend.

How could so many “experts” be so mistaken? Because they are utter frauds besotted with political correctness. Experts who demanded war must be “sanitized” to avoid “unnecessary” civilian casualties, and that Rules of Engagement must be followed to the letter, even when they gave the enemy a tactical advantage. Yet above all else, the most abhorrent concept ever devised by these experts is the one that grates the most:

From Vietnam to the present, our military philosophy degenerated into substituting “stability” for victory.

Thus, the same military that won unconditional surrender from Japan and its highly sophisticated military machine four years after Pearl Harbor was attacked was prevented from defeating a force of seventh-century goat-herders armed with AK-47 assault rifles, RPGs, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Until now. Because of the Biden administration’s grossly ill-conceived pullout, the Taliban now possess some of the most sophisticated armaments in the world. Armaments that might now be deployed against the 6,000 American troops Joe Biden has sent back to Afghanistan in the attempt to undo his wholly self-inflicted disaster.

Regardless, Biden remained defiant, insisting he did the right thing and blaming former President Donald Trump for the timing of the withdrawal. “The choice I had to make, as your president,” Biden blustered, “was either to follow through on that agreement, or go back to fighting the Taliban.”

Apparently, Biden is hoping people won’t notice that the same man who insisted he had to follow through with Trump’s plan is the one who issued a series of executive orders undoing virtually everything else Trump accomplished as president. Yet even more contemptible, he is hoping he can con the public — with an ample assist from the lapdog media — into focusing on the timing of the withdrawal rather than how it was accomplished.

Thus, as if on cue, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace asserted that “95% of the American people will agree with everything” Biden said in his speech, meaning they’ll ostensibly ignore the aforementioned weapons seizures; the betrayal of Afghans who supported America; videos of people falling out of the sky after unsuccessfully clinging to the tires of a C-17 U.S. military aircraft; the administration’s announcement that it has no plans to rescue Americans trapped outside of Kabul; or Biden’s own statement at a July 8 press conference where he proclaimed that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Will there be any accountability? Don’t bet on it — not when utter hacks like Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin remain employed despite their respective focuses on “white rage” and weeding out “extremists” from the American military. Not when U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price insists the Taliban must form “a new government that is united, inclusive, and representative — including with the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women.” Not when an utterly clueless Jen Psaki warns that the Taliban has to decide how they want to be part of “the international community.”

Can Americans even imagine the level of intellectual bankruptcy it takes to believe Sharia supremacists are amenable to diversity, inclusion, and identity politics?

Nonetheless, the mainstream media is buying Taliban propaganda, with the AP reporting that Taliban leaders are supporting amnesty for those who supported America and the presence of women in government.

Yet on the very same day, the Taliban shot and killed a woman because she wasn’t wearing a burqa.

Other reports reveal general brutality and, more specifically, girls as young as 12 being taken from their homes to be “married” and Taliban with kill lists going door to door hunting soldiers, police, government officials, and journalists.

Even more maddening? Investigative reporter Paul Sperry reveals the five Taliban commanders Obama released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl “were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent ‘peace’ talks.”

“Look at us now,” writes columnist and Army veteran Kurt Schlichter. “Look at the generals, in their stupid throwback uniforms from the Forties that are supposed to make the gender studies seminar we call the US Army think it’s the same force that broke Hitler. It’s not. A serious organization does not alternate its designation of America’s most serious threat between the weather, ‘racism,’ and other Americans who dissent from the generals’ bosses’ political priorities.”

Our military is not a serious operation, and it hasn’t been for quite some time. This writer documented a Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course (PPPT) implemented in 2012 at Camp Zama in Japan, where combat veterans were ordered to wear fake breasts and “empathy bellies,” a.k.a. “pregnancy simulators,” so they can get a better understanding of how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.

In short, America has become a wholly unserious nation led by self-aggrandizing fools. And maybe the next call for boots on the ground should instead be answered by suits on the ground — as in those willing to sacrifice American men and women on the altar of political correctness in lieu of producing the most lethal, enemy-moral-crushing fighting force on the planet.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of amoral scoundrels.