My ten thoughts:
1. When the President said there would be retribution upon ISIS.....he's basically saying that we will do some retribution, then they do some retribution, and we get back into the regular terror business.
2. This Q-and-A episode with the President last evening....didn't really give you any confidence. He looks like he's been up for twenty-four hours straight, and there's just not much confidence that comes via these sessions.
3. Will President Biden show up at Dover AFB as the cargo plane brings the Marines 'home'? I doubt it.....it'll likely be the Secretary of Defense at best. I don't even think the VP will show.
4. Where do you go after Friday? If you were with the Pentagon or CIA....anything requiring a Presidential 'OK' will trigger a meeting and it's a 50-50 chance if the President can select the better of choices. If he says he needs 24 hours to make a decision....is he really making it himself, or does have some oddball character giving him advice (like Hunter, or his wife)?
5. If I were the DNC and looking ahead.....2022 mid-terms really look like crap. You can't use the President for campaign episodes to help anyone much.
6. Will the Taliban end up having to treat the ISIS folks like Hitler treated the Brownshirts? There's a point where contracted-soldiers aren't that much value to your organization.
7. If you were Macron of France and just sat there for an hour or two....thinking about what just happened in the past ten days.....could you rely upon anything that President Biden said? You'd probably write a memo to the various ministers of France and just say 'do as little as business with the US as possible'..
8. The pressure to use the 25th Amendment to remove President Biden? I would imagine Pelosi has twenty phone-chats per day with people, who want the situation drawn out and used (rather quickly). But within this chatter.....the idea of who becomes VP....probably gets brought up as people realize Harris has to select someone, and the Senate has to approve that person (hint, it won't be a Senator selected).
9. The same people who goofed up on Afghanistan.....also manage a thousand other issues, and it ought to make you sit and ponder.....what else are they getting wrong?
10. All this worthless assessments from May, June and July? Well....you could have gotten better information from a bunch of 5th-grade kids in Kabul.
