Rod Dreher writes at The American Conservative, “The president who launched the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan had some words of advice for America yesterday:

Former President George W. Bush called on Americans Saturday to confront domestic violent extremists, comparing them to violent extremists abroad and warning that they are ‘children of the same foul spirit.’

In a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Bush said the US has seen ‘growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within.’

‘There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,’ Bush said. ‘But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.’

‘And it is our continuing duty to confront them,’ he added.

Bush’s speech at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, came eight months after violent insurrectionists breached the US Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

President Bush named US “violent extremists” as the new Al Qaeda. We who recall how this man and his administration manufactured consent for the Iraq War have a duty to speak out against this language, which the ruling class will use to demonize dissent. https://t.co/Y6ZjicWqZO

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) September 12, 2021

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FEE’s Dan Sanchez writes, “The US government exploited that ‘mandate’ to the hilt, waging a ‘Global War on Terror’ that destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands abroad and trampled the liberties of millions at home, only to finally begin to wind down twenty years later in disaster and disgrace.

But the damage encompassed even more than that.

“Oh mijo, they attacked us,” she said over the phone.

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but those three words—”they attacked us”—were clear enough to trigger an instinctual response of dread.https://t.co/qX6p6B8waR

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) September 12, 2021

The Global War on Terror set the standard for crisis response for the next twenty years. Every time the public is retraumatized by a new scare (like the financial crisis of 2008 or the COVID crisis we’re living through now), it responds by flocking in terror to the arms of the government.

Indeed, as Robert Higgs showed in his book Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, history demonstrates that it is not just war that feeds the state, but any sufficiently big and scary crisis.

That is why governments are so eager to instigate, exacerbate, and perpetuate wars and crises.”

Read the entire column.

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At this point you just have to laugh at neocon Liz Cheney

Congresswoman Liz Cheney spent the weekend blaming both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for the tragic chaos that continues to unfold in Afghanistan.

Cheney tweeted on Saturday:

The Trump/Biden calamity unfolding in Afghanistan began with the Trump administration negotiating with terrorists and pretending they were partners for peace, and is ending with American surrender as Biden abandons the country to our terrorist enemies. https://t.co/PQ1i5W6zZt

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 14, 2021

Trump “negotiating with terrorists” is obviously a shot at the former president meeting with Taliban leaders to agree to a plan for a conditions-based U.S. withdrawal. Biden, who did not attempt to meet with Taliban leaders, is now enduring the worst aftermath imaginable, post-withdrawal.

But never mind Trump or Biden. No matter who is president, the withdrawal was always going to be messy. Cheney and other like-minded “warmongering fools” knew this and it has been their strongest argument to stay forever. Cheney’s fellow forever war cheerleader, Sen. Lindsey Graham, was even calling for permanent American military bases in Afghanistan a decade ago.

There was never a good solution to ending the U.S.’s twenty year overstay in Afghanistan.

But if your last name is “Cheney,” you really should not be talking about it much, according to Twitter:

Have you not met George W. Bush or Dick Cheney?

— Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) August 15, 2021

If I were a Cheney I would sit this one out. Like, really out.

— Tzippy Shmilovitz ?‍ (@Tzipshmil) August 14, 2021

A little selective memory thing going on here?

How exactly did we get into this 20 years ago, and how did we think it would end?

— Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1) August 14, 2021

I see you’ve conveniently forgotten your dad’s huge role in how this nightmare began. Don’t worry. We haven’t.

— ForeverBlessed (@4evaBlessed23) August 14, 2021

It would never occur to Liz Cheney that if making any attempt to extract the US from a 20-year-long conflict is necessarily “calamitous,” then maybe the true “calamity” was the mission itself https://t.co/xY9pzMDtEg

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 15, 2021

I could go on, but it would almost literally mean reposting a significant percentage of Twitter over the weekend.

Given their long record of disastrous foreign policy decisions – including the current chaos in Afghanistan – Liz Cheney and the neoconservatives have forfeited their ability to have a credible opinion on American foreign policy ever again. Even if they haven’t figure this out yet.

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