Lisa Benson for August 17, 2021

Last year, the RNC put up a page on their site boasting about how Trump mad peace with the Taliban. The page has disappeared.

This never would have happened if Donald Trump was in charge

There are an appalling number of people in many nations who support that direction. And a scary-big percent of them are all about their own pinched-in little nasty “faith”. Makes me sick.

First time we’ve seen Lisa in favor of the progressive direction.

Hard to believe such a champion of Women’s Rights could be capable of such a war crime against Women. Well it is a country that can’t vote for him here. Makes more sense that way.

If you think there was any progress being made in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, you are sadly mistaken. Even after thousands of American lives and trillions of America’s resources. Resources that would have been better spent here.

So, Loony Lisa, what do you do about a country that doesn’t want progress and is unwilling to fight for it themselves?

The United States (The great Satan) Can’t Handle Crises. https://youtu.be/9q1Zver84Q4

Biden: “Afghanistan was never about nation-building”. Now is the time for Congress and the Biden Administration to work together and find a way to rebuild America. https://rebuildusa.org/

I thought that this was a clever cartoon using the club-wielding caveman pulling a woman by the hair trope with Afghanistan’s map outline symbolising the plight of Afghan women at the hands of the Taliban. But it ultimately fails because of the racial tropes, the cartoonish Saracen stylised scimitar and a turban that looks more Sikh than what the Afghans typically wear. Afghans use the Pulwar scimitar (yeah, yeah, of course, I looked it up). Had it been more accurate on the Afghan characterisation, we would have accepted the cartoonish caveman trope alongside the Taliban as being a repressive and regressive culture. Here it just seems little more than a bigoted attempt.

and for our first in a list of horrifying actions: “all girls 12 yrs and up, line up to met your new husbands” a bunch of dirty animal rapists..freedom fighters…

Robert Gates quote, “I think Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

When the USA announced it’s withdrawal, I did not see any other country line up and offer to step into that role.

Sadly, much as we did some good for a short time in Afghanistan, it’s government has always been fairly loosely knit. Which has a lot to do with why it unraveled so quickly.

Just wish they had worked harder to evacuate everyone that needed to be evacuated before pulling out the troops.

Could be, but Afghanistan didn’t put up much of a fight.

Like the South Vietnames, the Afghans failed us. It’s overdue time to cut losses. This time learn from the mistake, and don’t let the military-industrial complex find another reason for more welfare.

Pinocchio Joe’s legacy.

Oooooo… now show nationalistic and evangelical Republicans dragging the USA in the same misdirection!

As if there would have EVER been any other result.. we could have spent 100 years there, and as soon as we left, this would STILL have happened. Afghanistan isn’t called “The Graveyard of Empires” for nothing.

Nice artwork in today’s cartoon Leese.

Bush made a deal with Iraq to remove troops. Obama honored the deal and Republicans dissed him on it. Trump made a deal to get out of Afghanistan and Biden honored it. Now Republicans are dissing him because Afghanistan is such a great asset to somebody, certainly not US!!

There aren’t many people on either side of the political spectrum that are so opposed to withdrawing. It’s how badly it’s been done that is the issue. Before bozo biden and his cast of incompetents took charge, we had drawn down the US troops to around 2500 or so. That tiny presence along with air support was enough to keep taliban thugs at bay. They were told during negotiations that if they advanced on Afghani territory and did their usual taliban stuff, we would bomb the living hell out of their strongholds, send more drones than they could count, directed at their bases, homes, camps and kill them, their families and their beloved sheep (I may have made up that last one) and the taliban knew that was not an idle threat. They saw it happen to their evil brothers of the Caliphate (the ones Obama said are 3rd string). A withdrawal would have been done without a simultaneous takeover by the taliban. There would not have been a Saigon-like evacuation, which Blinken said wouldn’t happen. Weapons could and should have been removed, Afghani people who would likely be killed by the taliban after we left could have been removed. But because of the awful execution of the exit by biden, et al, the taliban now has more weapons than they ever could have dreamed of, including a small air force. And biden and some others are blaming trump, GWB, GHB, republicans in general (going back to the 19th century), the Afghani military, and, I’m not making this up…white supremacists. Biden’s ineptness will now allow us all to enjoy watching the taliban scum celebrate 9/11 in what was once the US Embassy in Kabul.

It’s as clear as can be – the taliban has no fear of the spineless biden and incompetent blinken.

In the 20 years of US presence in Afghanistan, exactly what progress had been made?

Afghanistan does not consider itself a nation. The only thing you are loyal to is one of 14 tribes and your religion.

Progress.. is how you define it. Obviously, not every nation believes in the “American” version.

As much as I hate what is happening in Afghanistan and the Taliban regime, I find Bensons’ caricature of the man’s physical features portrayed here offensive and racist in the extreme. It reminds me of the horrible caricatures of Japanese people during WWII. It is not clever nor insightful, merely vicious. I am probably on my own here, but a better more intelligent artist would not stoop to such a bigoted agenda.

Though Lisa’s view might be the true one, the jury might still be out on just how today’s Taliban will rule the Afghan people. She does have the odds in her favor, but I’m thinking that nothing remains exactly the same and change could take place.

Since when was Lisa a fan of progress???

We went into Afghanistan under a Republican President (George W. Bush) and started the cease fire and withdrawal under another Republican President (Donald Trump) 20 years later. The Afghani forces fell like that proverbial house of cards, largely because the Afghani government failed to pay them, and Biden ends up shouldering the hostility of the fall.

Yes, I know I’m double-dipping here. But when Reagan and Bush 1 were President, we actually supported the Taliban because they were fighting the Soviets who were in Afghanistan then but ultimately skedaddled. Around the time the USSR was being given the big kiss-off by Gorbachev (and later Yeltsin). Of course Vladimir Putin ultimately moved in and turned Russia into a corrupt kleptocracy, but that’s another story.

Lisa, I’ve got a Great idea! Why don’t you move to Afghanistan and be a Taliban political cartoonist? Gosh…I’d love to see your warm welcome…

In 2001 Taliban took charge and nearly eliminated opium production. Are they going to try that again?

Back to the 600s when Islam exploded out of Saudi Arabia.

Spot on

Lisa got this one right!

Biden’s plan for troop removal also disappeared!

That’s what happens when your president has no backbone