Townhall Review | Commentaries

Every aspect of America's retreat from Afghanistan is heartbreaking, but no group has lost more than the women of Afghanistan, whose lot is now unthinkable. My heart breaks in particular for the young women who have never lived under the oppressive brutality of the Taliban. As they don burkas for the first time, they can't even imagine what horrors await them, and neither can we.

Stories of mass rapes and sexual slavery are already beginning to circulate. No doubt there are worse to come, yet American feminists are silent. The Global Feminism part of the National Organization for Women's website denounces a variety of US domestic policies. Somehow the organization is actually more focused on stoking outrage against American beauty norms than opposing the most hideous, primitive sorts of violence against women. What frivolous hypocrites.

The dark future facing Afghan women is a reminder of a stark truth. Peevish American feminists are among the most blessed portion of womankind the world has ever known.

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The flag is come down and the nation is humiliated. The American flag is no longer flying over the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan because the embassy is no more. 

In one of the most reckless and damaging actions of any American Commander in Chief, President Joe Biden withdrew American troops and military support from Afghanistan—and absolutely as predicted, the ruthless Taliban started to regain victory, with Afghan "security forces" surrendering and handing over their American-supplied weapons. 

The velocity of the Taliban victory was stunning. The photo and video evidence is heartbreaking. The lack of American planning is unthinkable. The abandonment of American partners is immoral. The collapse of the American presence is humiliating. The impact on America's standing in the world is unavoidable. The absence of adequate planning and strategy is unprecedented. The American people should be outraged. 

America's reputation in the world has suffered a major insult. And the American president, our Commander in Chief, sat at Camp David, watching a monitor alone. 

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Afghanistan has collapsed, less than a month after the US pledged support for its government and military while pulling all forces out of the country. In less than three weeks, the Taliban took advantage of the vacuum left by the irresponsible nature in which Joe Biden disengaged the US and captured every city, and now Kabul as well.

As I speak, Biden has sent 5,000 troops back into Afghanistan, not to protect our allies, but to help our diplomatic and intelligence personnel to escape the Taliban. That decision came after his administration shamefully offered the Taliban aid as a ransom to keep our embassy safe from attack – the same people who partnered with al-Qaeda, the terrorists who bombed two of our embassies in 1998 and perpetrated the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans.

This is not just a collapse of the Afghan military. It is a collapse of our entire post-9/11 security strategy. We could have remained in place at little cost to guarantee a more orderly transition. Instead, we betrayed the Afghan men and especially women who believed in us. It leaves a stain on our honor and credibility that will cost us mightily over the next few decades.

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Once again the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued an eyebrow-raising alarm: Rising seas, melting ice caps and other effects of a warming climate may be irreversible for centuries and are “unequivocally” driven by greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity, the IPCC declared Monday. It’s the usual hypothesis—and the usual recommendation: Everybody “spend lots more money.”

“Adaptation, mitigation or suffering” are the rhetorical choices offered up by climate alarmists but the reality remains that the world can only invent itself out of rising temperatures. It cannot successfully ration carbon. Nothing is going to change the demands from human beings for more comfort, health and wealth.

Is the world serious about reducing carbon emissions? Then let it embrace nuclear power as its modern, safe and efficient form. Any preacher of doom who is not open to clean nuclear energy is not dealing with reality—but simply trading in headlines.

It’s what the IPCC has done for decades.

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It’s a truism the CDC seems to have forgotten: when risks can’t be eliminated, they must be balanced.

The CDC’s newest decree is that children should wear masks in school even if they’re vaccinated. Anthony Fauci airily told radio host Hugh Hewitt the policy “hopefully” won’t have any “lasting negative impact” on children.

He ignores the all-too-relevant fact that facial expressions are vital for human connection, especially for young children, who can’t even remember a time without masks. And masking can create anxiety and depression—along with breathing problems and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.

… and all of this without any scientific evidence that children are at great risk— whether for hospitalization for Covid or for transmission of Covid

Keep this in mind: In healthy societies, adults assume risks to protect children. They don’t force children to assume risks to protect themselves.

Let’s hope our experts will finally start listening.

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When the CDC changed its guidance about masks and the coronavirus this Summer, the only casualty wasn’t the CDC’s credibility.

The biggest losers were students in kindergarten through grade three, the grades where students learn to read in order to later read to learn.  They also learn speech and social skills in those young grades, and hopefully good humor and graciousness. Masks set back each of these efforts.

The Wall Street Journal featured a column titled “The Case Against Masks for Kids” by Dr. Marty Makary a pro­fessor at the Johns Hop­kins School of Med­i­cine and Dr. Cory Meissner, chief of pe­di­atric in­fec­tious dis­eases at Tufts Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal that persuasively made the case against masking kids. On my radio show, Dr. Fauci committed to revisiting the issue. Millions of parents hope he does so quickly.

There is no science supporting masking for children, only fear. Absent that evidence, kids should go back to school with smiles that can be seen.

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We are watching an inglorious end to a storied New York political dynasty:

Andrew Cuomo has officially resigned New York’s governorship.

It should be a great day for women. When powerful left-wing politicians can be held responsible for their predatory behavior, we’ve come a long way from the Clinton years.

But as awful as Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment is, he’s actually escaping accountability for even graver wrongdoing: the deaths of some 15,000 New Yorkers in nursing homes that he forced to accept covid patients. After that, he covered up the true death toll among the elderly.

Aside from Cuomo himself, no one’s behavior’s been more shameful than that of our legacy media. Just a year ago, the press was fawning on Cuomo, praising his leadership and coining the term “Cuomosexual,” – even though, if New York were a country, it would have the worst coronavirus death rate on Earth.

Now, few are mourning Andrew Cuomo’s demise. In politics, fortune is fickle. But sometimes, it seems, there is a definite cosmic justice.

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G.K. Chesterton is reported to have said “When a man stops believing in God, he doesn’t believe in nothing; he believes in anything.”

That came to mind recently when I logged on to HBO/Max streaming service and saw there at the top of the screen an option which helps me choose which movies to watch based on my astrological sign!

HBO is as close to an atheist channel as we have—home to Bill Maher—one of America’s most aggressive atheists and the “His Dark Materials” franchise which is seen as an atheist alternative to Narnia. 

But not believing in God leaves programmers at HBO believing in anything, including the ludicrous superstition that the position of the constellations at the moment of your birth somehow magically implants into you certain permanent personality characteristics. 

So, HBO, and parent ATT and affiliate CNN—whatever else you do—spare us the condescending lectures about “science denial” while you try to cash in on silly superstitions.

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National Public Radio announced an ethics policy update. Its journalists can now participate in activities that advocate for the “freedom and dignity of human beings” both on social media and in person.

Who knew so many NPR employees were eager to oppose assisted suicide and support pro-life causes? Just kidding, of course. The article announcing the change specifically referenced Black Lives Matter protests and gay pride parades.

NPR has always leaned left. In recent years, like most of the mainstream media, it’s frequently crossed the line into outright partisanship. The bias has been so blatant that even left-leaning writers like Matt Taibbi have criticized it.

If it were an independent web site, that would be unfortunate, but none of our business. But as taxpayers, you and I pay for NPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And someone needs to explain to me why my tax dollars should subsidize a bunch of hard left activist reporters.

I’m Carol Platt Liebau.

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The CDC’s new guidance recommending masking even for vaccinated people in some areas officially jumps the shark. Their justification is that the delta variant is more transmissible than the original variant of Covid.

But here are the facts: Although the Delta variant is much more transmissible, it’s a lot less deadly. In fact, a study by Public Health England found there were no deaths from the Delta variant among vaccinated people under 50; the death rate was only .08 percent among the unvaccinated under 50.

This new masking “guidance” is as ridiculous as the CDC’s insistence that our children should wear masks back to school. For children, the pandemic’s death rate has been the same—or even less—than the seasonal flu. And for this, we’re teaching them they need to mask up and be afraid.

It’s shameful.

Politicians love crisis. It lets them seize power and hold onto it. 

Enough is enough. It’s time to be brave and take our lives back.

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