Hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend. Lord knows we could use it with hurricanes, wildfires, and harrowing endings to “forever wars” crashing into the summer’s end. As always, there are bold leaders putting principles first and those that are falling short. Here are the relevant happenings for last month:
A hasty withdrawal. The Taliban completed its capture of all 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan in August causing a last-minute effort to evacuate more than 100,000 Americans and Afghan allies by August 31st. The speedy collapse of the Afghan government reopened questions about our strategy in the War on Terror for the last 20 years, military-civilian relations, and the White House’s tactical decision-making in the face of crisis. The 13 servicemembers who fell while rescuing Americans and allies from behind Taliban lines are a stinging reminder of the human toll of America’s longest war and the bravery of those who fought in it.
Who’s to blame? The American people wanted to leave Afghanistan so badly that the Trump Administration made a deal with the Taliban to withdrawal troops in 2021, cutting the Afghan government out and releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The Biden administration followed through so closely they pulled all troops out by August 31st, leaving some 200 Americans behind. The United States has not been so focused on Afghanistan since the troop surge in 2010, but an abortion law passed in Texas quickly grabbed the headlines away by the month’s end. Ultimately it was a small group of private citizens, veterans, and companies who put principles first during this unmitigated fiasco and continue to attempt to rescue all our citizens and friends.
The great polarization continues. From the oddly constructed Texas abortion law encouraging bounty hunting to the continuing Critical Race Theory culture wars to school board mask debates, the current strategy from the mainstream GOP indicates they will continue abandoning calls to appeal to independent voters. Even as many within the party, like Senator Ron Johnson, admit privately this is a failed strategy which caused the party to lose the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time since Herbert Hoover, Republican officials remain beholden to a staunch base of primary voters. Meanwhile, faith in our institutions is plummeting while the left continues to push massive spending efforts and twitter mob executions. After the dam breaks, the folks who put principles first will still be standing at the end of the day but it might be a long wait.
The real pro-life agenda: —Get vaccinated. —Mask-up in high-spread areas. —Protect the unborn. —Abolish the death penalty. —Fix our healthcare system.Have something we should be reading? Send your recommendations for the Principles First Rollup to pfrollupeditor@gmail.com.
This month’s Principles First Rollup editor is Justin Louis Pitcock (twitter @jlouispitcock)