Good morning,
Hurricane Ida
Now a Category 1 storm, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a force 4 hurricane cutting power to more than a million people, including the City of New Orleans and left at least one person dead.
The White House declared the hurricane as a major disaster, as major levees collapsed and local law enforcement said more than 200 people in the town of Jean Lafitte were in imminent danger because of flood waters.
Ida came ashore exactly 16 years to the day when Katrina hit New Orleans, with officials saying hurricane defenses were much improved. As dawn breaks we will know how extensive the damage is from Ida which packed winds of 150 mph.
AFGHANISTAN
The gates of Kabul airport are now closed, and the U.S. has shut down the massive airlift that rescued 117,000 stranded Americans and their allies after the fall of the Afghan Government and the return of the Taliban August 14th.
The U.S. coalition announced “We regret to inform you that international military evacuations from Kabul airport have ended,” it said in a text message sent late Saturday night, “and we are no longer able to call anyone forward for evacuation flights.”
It was a dramatic end to America’s cut and run break from the Country, after 20 years of war. President Biden oversaw nothing less than mayhem in the last 2 weeks, and there is no doubt criticism of his Afghan foreign policy will haunt his Presidency.
The announcement the airlift was over, came on a day a U.S. drone strike destroyed an explosives-laden vehicle that the Pentagon said posed an imminent threat to Afghanistan’s main airport and a handful of rockets were fired towards Kabul airport.
President Biden met with the families of 13 soldiers killed in last weeks suicide bombing at Kabul airport but he refused to take reporters questions on Afghanistan later in the day.
This was always an impossible situation for Biden, as the White House was caught by surprise by the rapid collapse of the Afghan Government, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s decision to flee instead of standing to fight the Taliban advance.
How would a few thousand U.S. soldiers defend a sliver of territory at Kabul airport with the Taliban controlling approaches to the airport and cutting off the humanitarian corridor to those trying to flee? Not only was the Taliban a threat but ISIS sought to kill the fleeing Americans and Afghans.
As I have noted before today, the fall of the Afghan Government was set in motion by former President Trump, when he engaged the Taliban in direct talks in Doha, Qatar.
But the Biden White House vastly under estimated threats from the Taliban and others, and he could have delayed the U.S. departure and supported the Afghan Government.
At least 300 plus Americans are stranded in Kabul, and thousands Afghans now in danger for helping the U.S.
What else was left behind in the incomplete Afghan evacuation? I would say Biden betrayed U.S. values for democracy, the unfinished fight against terror, women’s rights, and a promise to stand by America’s allies which includes Afghans, who believed in the U.S. promise of a free Afghanistan, and NATO allies which felt the U.S. took unilateral decisions to leave when they would have supported staying to stop the Taliban advance.
Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban will now have a platform to destabilize Central Asia, and the U.S. invasion 20 years ago after 9/11 which made huge progress in Afghanistan now seems a wasted and regrettable effort.
Canada Election
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have under estimated the political climate in Canada, when he called a snap election in August hoping to win a majority mandate.
Not only have Covid restrictions become a central political issue, but anger over vaccines and lockdowns have dogged his campaign with some appearances having to be cancelled over security concerns, and others that have taken place were scenes of ugly heckling which seem Trump like politics in a Canada not known for right wing angry voters.
Sunday, Trudeau said he “was not going to back down” from protesters, who drowned out his announcement on climate change on a campaign stop in Cambridge, Ontario.
What’s striking are some of the scenes seem to mirror U.S. politics, and the rise of angry political division in Canada.
A photo of Justin Trudeau in a front of a hangman’s noose with the words “High Treason.” Reports of racial and misogynistic slurs being hurled at female and Black security detail members. Chants of “Lock him up,” “We’re deplorables,” air sirens, car horns, banging on dumpsters, obscenities.
There is even the peddling of conspiracy theories that falsely claim Trudeau is Fidel Castro’s son and a child trafficker.
That’s not the Canada I know and love, but the age of disinformation and online fringe wacky is upon us.
Have a good Monday everyone. And please can you share this newsletter with one other person?
Dana Lewis
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/08/29/im-not-going-to-back-down-says-justin-trudeau-amid-disturbing-heckling-from-protesters-sunday.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/asia/us-drone-strike-evacuation.html
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/hurricane-ida-updates-08-29-21/h_7f0e89b37dd81a7891cb9c2c8779da7c