On Thursday, August 26th, just one week ago, the world saw a terrorist attack carried out that killed 13 of our brave U.S. soldiers and over 170 Afghan civilians. This atrocity was conducted by an obscure group, with a confusing name, in a complicated decades old war. The group is ISIS-K.
Throughout the rest of this article, I will refer to them as IS-K. ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (al-Sham). This group is not in Iraq or Syria, they are in Khorasan, which is what the K stands for. So calling the group ISIS-K is a bit misleading. Khorasan is a term to describe the ancient region that comprised parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
You might be thinking to yourself, didn’t we defeat ISIS in 2019? And kill their leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi in October of 2019, so who are these people? Well, that’s where ISIS affiliates come into play. In June 2014, ISIS was sweeping across Iraq, capturing the city of Mosul (and many others), and declaring a caliphate and establishing an Islamic State. Terrorist factions, mostly former al-Qaeda groups, were inspired by ISIS’s efforts and flocked to their campaign, pledging allegiance to their ideals and leader. When all was said and done, the appeal of the Islamic State had awarded them more than three dozen affiliates.
Once becoming an official ISIS affiliate, they could receive funding and support from the core group in Iraq and Syria. While ISIS had spread to other parts of the world, including Egypt, the Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa, and Libya; Afghanistan was one of its more successful franchises. Being so far from Syria, they were often able to act pretty autonomously.
They’ve been around since November 2014 when they split from the TPP, which is the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (which is quite different from the Taliban in Afghanistan). Disgruntled TPP commanders were frustrated with some of TPP’s actions, and along with a few al-Qaeda members, and some Afghan Taliban members, they formed the current IS-K. In early 2015 they were officially accepted as an official ISIS branch by then ISIS leader Abu Bakar al-Baghadadi. They had strongholds in mainly the eastern portion of Afghanistan. Their leader even went to Iraq to study Baghadadi’s model, and implemented it upon his return to Afghanistan.
You might ask yourself, what is IS-K’s goal? Their goal is to establish a caliphate in Central and South Asia. Similar to the one that ISIS was able to establish in Iraq and Syria. They would then implement strict conservative Sharia Law, governing the region. Their recent moves and attacks to cause unrest are all in an effort to carve out some territory where it can begin re-establishing their caliphate. They see a unstable Afghanistan, as Iraq and Syria were in the early to mid-2010’s (and still are) as a prime location to implement this plan.
A surprising revelation to many, that while the Taliban and IS-K are both ruthless organizations, they are sworn enemies. Even to the point that when the Taliban signed a peace deal with the U.S. in February 2020, shortly thereafter IS-K released a statement declaring a long slow war against the Taliban. Why are the two extremist groups operating in the same country such bitter enemies?
It has to do with ideological and strategical core differences between the two groups. Ideologically, they follow a slightly different brand of Islam, that we won’t take a deep dive into in this article, from the Taliban. The Taliban’s brand of Sunni Islam came out of India, while ISIS’s came out of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Strategically, they also see the Taliban as an apostate group, for working with the U.S., Pakistani, and Afghanistan governments. They label the Taliban as “filthy nationalists”, because they are only concerned with obtaining power inside Afghanistan and not fighting for a global Islamic caliphate. The peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban have given IS-K even more ammunition to paint them in this light. Additionally, IS-K seems to be more popular with youth, and the Taliban more popular with older generations, even those who fought against the Soviets in the 1980’s.
ISIS and al-Qaeda also have their differences. In-fighting and competition between terrorist groups throughout history has led to splits. This is true for al-Qaeda, where splits led to the eventual creation of ISIS, and splits within the Pakistani Taliban which led to the creation of IS-K. Al-Qaeda and ISIS have had years worth of competition, causing destruction in weak and failing states. Both are extremely dangerous organizations, but they differ in how they believe an Islamic State should be implemented, by what means, and on what timeline. Al-Qaeda did not agree with the senseless killing of women, children and their fellow Muslims the way ISIS does. They see that as a way to erode support. And they want a slower approach to declaring a caliphate, winning hearts and minds along the way. Not quickly taking it by force the way ISIS conducts themselves.
As far as number of fighters, IS-K had most likely in the 500-1,000 range, but the Taliban has freed 1,000’s of ISIS fighters when they’ve emptied prisons in their quick province by province take over of the country. Now they estimate to have north of 4,000 fighters. But that won’t be the final tally. Experts have already seen ISIS affiliates announcements that they are sending foreign fighters from other countries into Afghanistan.
You will see IS-K grow in number due to others flocking to their country to join their cause. And IS-K themselves have stormed prisons in eastern Afghanistan, freeing hundreds of their fighters. Improvements in mobilization and communication have led to the blending of international forces from individuals from many nations and ethnicities. Locals tend to join these extremists groups for better wages, more services, or alternative to their current political landscape. Foreign fighters tend to join because they are extremely passionate about the ideological vision of the group.
IS-K tactics are extremely brutal. They are on the low rung at the moment behind the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They must make noise and display big attacks to stay relevant in their eyes. This will help to keep fighters, and attract new ones. Part of IS-K’s M.O. is that they thrive on high-casualty attacks. While the Taliban would typically try to concentrate their attacks against military, security, government, or political forces, IS-K tries to cause terror by inflicting harm on the highest number of civilians as possible. If they can attack groups of Shia Muslims, that is even better in their opinion, attacking a Muslim group who they differ with ideological. One such example was an attack in May 2020 in a Shia neighborhood of Kabul, against a maternity hospital. The attack killed numerous mothers and newborn babies. They will even target funerals, because the tend to attract a high number of civilians. By April of this year, they had claimed responsibility for 77 attacks in Afghanistan in just the first four months of 2021.
Some have claimed that IS-K is a new group, that has just materialized from this current situation. But the U.S. has even fought with IS-K for years. Most notably when President Trump’s use of the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) against an IS-K stronghold in 2017. U.S. forces killed their founder in a U.S. airstrike in 2016. We killed their second leader in a special forces raid in 2017, their third leader in a U.S. airstrike in July of 2017, their fourth leader in an airstrike in 2018, and their fifth and sixth leaders have been arrested. So we have been fighting their forces for some time now.
While we may be out of the country, the threat of more attacks from IS-K is very real. The Taliban takeover has created a very permissive environment for IS-K to operate. They saw this as an opportunity to start attacking Taliban security and intelligence now. The attack at the airport was a perfect example of IS-K trying to undermine public confidence in the Taliban. And it may have just worked.
Intelligence had warned for months that a potential IS-K attack could be likely during the Biden Administration’s exit from the country. Both German and U.S. intelligence had stressed this in the past couple of weeks. Crowds of civilians who were waiting to be processed to enter the airport provided a ripe opportunity for disaster. The Taliban takeover has created a very permissive environment for IS-K to operate. They will use these opportunities to exploit the security vacuum. President Biden even stated earlier the week of the attack that “Every day we’re on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both US and allied forces and innocent civilians.”
On the morning of the 26th, a suicide bomber with 25 pounds of explosives in a vest, was able to get by Taliban checkpoints. He eventually reached the Abbey Gate portion of Hamid Karzai International Airport. Slipping down into the drainage ditch where citizens were waiting to be processed. He tried to enter the gate, but was denied entry. He most likely detonated his vest while U.S. troops were conducting physical checks of people in the line. IS-K’s attack was a breach of the 2020 Trump Peace deal which stated “The Taliban will prevent any group or individual in Afghanistan from threatening the security of the United States and its allies, and will prevent them from recruiting, training, and fundraising and will not host them.”
Many believe the Taliban will not be able to stave off IS-K attacks without outside support, support and intelligence they no longer have from the U.S. IS-K will use every opportunity to disrupt their already weak ability to create order and govern. While they likely could not topple the Taliban, they can certainly make it difficult for them. Since the group operates primarily in one area, and supported by the Pakistani’s, countering them in just Afghanistan won’t squash the group. Pakistan must play a role in diminishing the group as well. Although one thing is for certain, no matter who is in charge, Afghanistan will remain contested territory.
Sources:
Cagnassola, Mary Ellen; “Germany Warns of ‘Increase’ in Islamic State Suicide Bombers Entering Kabul”; 08/24/2021; Newsweek.com
Gollum, Mark; “Why ISIS-K poses a significant security threat in Afghanistan as civilians, troops attempt to flee”; 08/26/2021; CBC.ca
Todd, Brian; “What do we know about ISIS branch threatening Kabul evacuation”; cnn.com
Watts, Clint; “Deciphering Competition Between al-Qa’ida and the Islamic State”; July 2016, ctc.usma.edu
Eaton, Joshua; “What is ISIS-K, the group that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 civilians in Afghanistan?”; 08/28/2021, yahoo.com
Sayed, Abdul; “ISIS-K is ready to fight the Taliban. Here’s how the group became a major threat in Afghanistan”; 08/29/2021, washingtonpost.com
Maher, Shiraz; “Who is IS-K and what do they want?”; 08/28/2021; newstatesman.com
Allam, Hannah; Mekhennet, Souad; “ISIS-K, the group behind the Kabul airport attack, sees both Taliban and the U.S. as enemies”; 08/26/2021; washingtonpost.com
Clarke, Colin; Sayed, Adbul; “Nineteen Years after 9/11, Afghanistan Faces a New Foe: The Islamic State”; 9/11/2020, Newsweek.com
Our current involvement in Afghanistan started 20 years ago, with U.S. planes being flown into two of our nation’s tallest buildings, our military headquarters, and a field in Pennsylvania. Those images are still seared in the minds of many of us who remember that horrific day. As our involvement comes to a close, images of Afghan citizens clinging to the landing gear, falling from, and eventually packed 100’s deep within the bellies of U.S. planes will be seared for years to come. Which brings us to the question, what in the world happened these past two weeks that got us to this point?
To fully understand it, we need to briefly go back a bit further. Back to the time period of the conclusion of Part 1 of this series. After we entered Afghanistan in October 2001, we virtually had them defeated and thrown out of power just one month later, in November. By early 2002, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda, were in full scale retreat. With many of their fighters going back to hide in rural remote Afghanistan where their tribal affiliations were, and the leadership heading across the border to hide (or be hidden) in Pakistan (this is where Osama bin Laden was found).
By early 2003, the first phases and major battles against the Taliban had all but stopped. This is when one of the first major blows to U.S. involvement and the future of Afghanistan started to deteriorate. President Bush shifted major resources from Afghanistan to Iraq. A force of 300,000 troops went to Iraq for the invasion, leaving less than 10% of that number in Afghanistan. As a result, neither conflict ended up going well.
As previously stated, at that time much of the remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were located in very rural parts of the country. It is extremely difficult for a small fighting force of troops to safely and effectively simultaneously monitor rural tribal villages. In 2004, the Taliban started a sizable resurgence. The famed Ali Soufan, who was the only Arabic speaker on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, and the person who came the closest to preventing the 9/11 attacks, even went as far as saying shifting those resources in 2003 lost us the war (There is a fantastic miniseries on Hulu titled “The Looming Tower” which details Soufan’s role pre and post 9/11. Give it a watch, or read the book The Looming Tower). The Taliban were regrouping at that time, we knew it, and yet still turned our attention away. Osama bin Laden would declare war against the United States in his famous 2004 video, accepting responsibility for the September 11th attacks, and criticizing President Bush. His video would inspire several terrorist attacks and bombings in the coming years.
When President Obama was elected in 2008, he briefly increased the troop presence in Afghanistan in 2009 to around 100,000 troops. This is considered the third phase of the war, and was meant to protect the Afghan population, train the Afghan military and police force and hand security over to them by 2011, and eventually all forces would withdrawal from Afghanistan. Even this transition period 10 years ago did not go well, as the Afghan military and police force showed major signs of being ill-prepared to hold off the Taliban. Taliban attacks would again surge. While President Obama formally ended the U.S combat mission in Afghanistan on December 28th, 2014; he also announced that not all troops would be leaving the country as first indicated. A force of around 12,000 troops would remain to “train, advise and assist Afghan forces and to conduct counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al-Qaeda”.
Informally, and not known to many at the time, the Obama administration started peace talks with the Taliban as early as 2012. In June 2013 the President formally announced the peace talks. The talks would occur in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Around the same time, the Taliban made a statement that they were opening a political office in Qatar. Suhail Shaheen, one of the Taliban’s chief spokesmen, confirmed that the talks took place. (Shaheen is currently still serving as one of the Taliban’s chief spokesmen, and has given several interviews since the takeover). For both sides to have these talks, two concessions were made. The U.S. dropped the stipulation that the Taliban had to completely cut ties with al-Qaeda for talks to happen. It would instead be used as a negation point. And the Taliban conceded that the U.S. would not have to withdraw all of their troops before negotiations could take place, as they had previously stipulated.
The peace talks were best remembered by the prisoner swap of U.S. Army Soldier Bowe Bergdahl for five high-ranking Taliban members held in Guantanamo Bay. Also known as the “Gitmo Five”. One of the released prisoners was a man by the name of Khairullah Khairkhwa. He was the Taliban’s interior minister. Upon release to Qatar, Khairkhwa would rejoin the Taliban and become a senior ranking member of their leadership. He is currently a member of the Taliban’s official negotiation delegation, and just earlier this year in Moscow he sat across the table from President Biden’s envoy to Afghanistan to help negotiate the final terms of the U.S.’s recent withdrawal. Many believe that he also helped plan the capture of Kabul, and he has been spotted in pictures currently in Afghanistan.
The next complication in the 20-year Afghan conflict occurred a few years later, around 2018. At this point in time, the Taliban were once again growing in strength. As a result, the Afghan government called for peace talks with the Taliban, and the future possibility of making them a formal political party and releasing Taliban prisoners. The US then reentered the peace talk process around June of 2018. In September 2018, President Trump appointed Zalmay Khalilzad as U.S Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, with a goal of facilitating an intra-Afghan peace process.
Zalmay Khalilzad is an Afghan-American who has served as a diplomat under several recent presidencies. He was at times the Unites States Ambassador to Afghanistan, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, and the U.S Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN for a bit under President Obama, and the U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan under both President Trump and currently under President Biden.
Khalilzad wasted no time conducting several rounds of talks with the Taliban, almost exclusively taking place at their office in Qatar mentioned earlier. All-in-all, the talks were made up of a series of nine rounds. The most notable, and one that has become recently popular on the internet and in memes, happened in February of 2019. This meeting featured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the Taliban’s senior leaders, an original member, and considered by many to be a co-founder. Baradar had been held in a Pakistani prison since 2010. Just a few months before the February 2019 meeting, Baradar was released, at the request of Khalilzad to the Pakistani government. Khalilzad felt that someone like Baradar, who had been a chief negotiator for the Taliban for years (even while he was in prison), would speed up the talks and improve the chances of a deal. Especially since Baradar had real decision making power. Baradar was put in charge of the Qatar Political Office at his release. While nothing has been made former, there are good chances that Baradar will become President of the new Taliban governed Afghanistan.
Peace talks progressed quickly from there, and just one year later, the Trump Afghan Peace deal had been signed by February 2020. The deal included several key points, commitments, and conditions. It hinged on four main contingencies. The first of which was a cease-fire, temporarily, between the U.S., the Taliban, and Afghan forces. Which would also be part of intra-Afghan negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The second part was a withdrawal of forces. The U.S. agreed to drop the number of troops in the country from 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days of completing the deal. If the Taliban followed through on their commitments, the U.S. would pull out all troops within 14 months. That day would be May 1st, 2021. The third piece of the deal was the intra-Afghan negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government. The Taliban agreed to start the peace process with the Afghan government by March 2020. Lastly, the Taliban agreed to some counterterrorism assurances that they themselves would not conduct attacks, nor would they allow Afghanistan to be a safe harbor to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. They would cut ties with all terrorist groups. Not part of the contingencies, but also part of the negotiation process, was that that U.S. agreed to have the Afghan government release 5,000 taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 captured Afghan security forces.
As no surprise, the deal went sour just within a matter of weeks. By March 2020, the Taliban did not follow through with starting intra-Afghan peace talks with the Afghan government. The deal could have been null and void at this time, as it was conditional, and they were already failing to meet conditions. The talks barely ever occurred at all. Secondly, they did not hold their end of the deal regarding the cease-fire. Four U.S. troops were killed just a few weeks before the of signing the deal, which almost caused it to never be signed. But after the deal was signed, hundreds more Afghan security forces were killed, Taliban attacks on towns occurred, and districts were overrun. And likewise, dozens of Taliban fighters were being killed. The in-fighting had not slowed at all. Additionally, they had shown no signs that they had cut ties with terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. The United Nations even released a report stating that al-Qaeda remained “heavily embedded” within the Taliban.
Despite the Taliban holding up no point on the end of their deal, the U.S. was also to blame for major flaws within the deal. First, Representative Khalilzad was negotiating and making deals about the future of Afghanistan, but the government of Afghanistan was not present at the negotiating table or a part of the talks. Decisions and actions were being made without the consent of the parties who were being required to do them. Secondly, the deal called for no permanent cease-fire. And lastly, the deal was doomed when the Taliban started making nonnegotiable unreasonable demands that were never going to be achieved, such as calling for the reestablishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. And institution of Deobandi Islamic Sharia Law. The absolute only part of the deal that was upheld, was one point, that we reduced our troop number to the required levels by the 135 day timeline. The rest of the peace deal was a failure.
One of the first orders of business for the new Biden Administration in early 2021, was reviewing the Taliban Peace Deal from the Trump Administration . National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the administration was “taking a hard look at the extent to which the Taliban are complying”. In January 2021, just after President Biden took office, a U.S. Congressional Panel urged President Biden to extend the May 1st deadline to withdraw troops, as attacks by the Taliban against Afghan forces were steadily increasing. They warned withdrawing troops could lead to a civil war, with a resurgence of al-Qaeda. One member of the Congressional Panel, retired 4-Star Marine General Joseph Dunford Jr., who once led all international forces in Afghanistan, stated if the drawdown goes ahead as scheduled, the terrorist groups will have the “opportunity to reconstitute” in just a matter of months.
President Biden announced in April of this year that he would be withdrawing all remaining troops by September 11th, 2021, which turned into August 31st. (After heavy criticism for selecting the 20th anniversary date of the 9/11 attacks as the date to leave the country). The withdrawal would start on May 1st. By the end of May, we had severely decreased airstrikes on Taliban positions, and they launched attacks on the most vulnerable provinces in southeastern Afghanistan. At the time, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby stated that the Taliban had seized dozens of districts, and 4-Star Gen. Scott Miller, the top american general in Afghanistan, warned that a civil war could very well break out as the Taliban were strengthening. President Biden himself even remarked in July that “The Taliban is at its strongest, militarily, since 2001”.
While much as been made about the Taliban taking over the country in one week’s time, and while that is true, they were seizing numerous amounts of U.S. military-supplied weapons and vehicles from Afghan forces that they were defeating after we stopped airstrikes from May to July. This is something they had been laying the groundwork and planning for years. They certainly didn’t just decide to take over the country in one week. At the beginning of July, the U.S. Military quietly departed Bagram Air Base, the largest military base in the country, with the most secure airport runways. Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram stated that the U.S.’s departure from the base happened overnight, in the middle of the night, and involved no coordination from local officials, and the new Afghan commander of the base was not notified of the departure. The electricity was turned off within 20 minutes of the abandonment. This led to dozens of looters storming through the gates of the base. Even Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called us leaving the base a “positive step” and that the Taliban did not plan on seizing the airbase “for now”. The Afghans and the Afghan military took a severe morale beating with the way in which we left the military base.
The Afghan Security Forces decided to pool their resources and protect more strategic provinces, having to sacrifice other areas along the way. At the beginning of August, the Taliban was starting to seize territory that it hadn’t claimed since the mid-90’s. They were able to start launching attacks on major cities such as Herat and Kandahar. August 6th saw the Taliban take their first provincial capital city. They took over another capital on the 7th. And in the next couple of days, they conquered 4 more. On August 10th, President Biden stated that he did not regret his decision and was continuing to move forward with the withdrawal. Also on August 10th, U.S intelligence issued a warning that it would take 30-90 days for the capital, Kabul, to collapse and fall to the Taliban. It fell 5 days after that warning.
Many have questioned, why did Afghanistan’s capital fall so fast? And questions have arisen about why the Afghan forces didn’t “fight back”? This occurred for a number of complicated reasons. First of all, the Afghan forces have been fighting. In recent weeks they’ve lost 30-50 soldiers a day, according to CENTCOM’s commander General McKenzie. He stated in April of just this year “The Taliban have never stopped fighting as I’m sure you’re very much aware. So, and the pace of their attacks has been as high as any during the entire history of our war in Afghanistan.” Adding “Afghan soldiers, and policemen, and other security people are fighting and dying everyday in significant numbers, 30-50 a day, sometimes more a day”. The United States have lost a little under 2,500 service members throughout the War in Afghanistan. While even one death is to much for a nation at war, the Afghan forces have lost north of 66,000 troops. We have only had one combat death in Afghanistan in a year and a half, and really haven’t had any serious combat there in 5 years. 66,000 troops is more troops than we lost in either of World War I or Vietnam. So the Afghan forces have suffered tremendous loss, and that is not counting the tens of thousands who have been wounded. They have consistently been fighting and dying in large numbers. This notion that the administration has put out that the Afghan’s don’t care to fight for their own country, from one week of assessment, it despicable.
President Biden also claimed that they had a force that was 300,000 strong. That is simply untrue. The Afghan forces never reached a number near 300,000. This figure is coming from budgeting and funding numbers. The U.S. has supplied enough funds to train and outfit 300,000 Afghan security forces. But that certainly doesn’t mean they ever achieved close to that, mainly due to corruption and squandering. Throughout this past year, those forces had limited resources, no logistical support, and a highly ineffective supply chain. Recently they were starting to run out of fuel, ammo, food, and had not been paid, resupplied, or seen their family in months. When the Taliban would roll into these cities, they were able to use the millions of dollars in their war chest (from places like Pakistan, China, and Russia) to pay off the warlords who controlled the forces in each region. Having no food, ammo, or paycheck, it didn’t take much enticing for them to sign surrender agreements. With distrust of the Afghan government, no U.S. air support, and failed morale from the U.S. overnight troop withdrawal, many of the forces simply did not have the means to continue that fight with the Taliban. And that brought us to the current disastrous situations, humanitarian crisis, and poorly planned evacuations we are seeing in Kabul and Afghanistan as a whole.
David Sedney, a top pentagon official under President Obama, called the move “strategically stupid, a humanitarian disaster and morally reprehensible. “ Deciding not to abide by the “conditions-based withdrawal” agreed upon by the Trump administration, and instead deciding to leave the country against the advice of intelligence and senior Pentagon officials who wanted a force of 2,500 troops to remain. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, says she’s “disappointed” in Biden’s decision. “The U.S. has sacrificed too much to bring stability to Afghanistan to leave without verifiable assurances of a secure future,” Shaheen says. “It undermines our commitment to the Afghan people, particularly Afghan women.” And democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Representative Adam Smith stated on the Afghanistan withdrawal: “the thing that is really troubling is the Biden Administration didn’t listen to the intelligence more carefully and didn’t plan better…”. With so many high ranking Democrat’s not in support of this decision, no less than 4 committee investigation have been launched to see what went wrong in the decision making by the Administration.
The U.S. has most likely evacuated over 20,000 individuals. But the job is not over, and is becoming increasingly dangerous. The Taliban have surrounded the airport, placed check points, and blockaded roads. President Biden stated that “We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in” to the airport. But at the same time the military was launching three Chinook helicopters to rescue around 170 Americans stuck at a hotel in Kabul who were unable to get into the airport. And ISIS has made specific terror threats against the airport to the point where flights out are having to use missile-defense flares, and flights in using rapid, diving combat landings. And now the Taliban are seizing Afghan-American’s passports and driver’s licenses, and denying them entry past the gates. While the date to remove troops is August 31st, the administration has stated that they are willing to keep the almost 7,000 troops currently in place there until the evacuations are completed. I do not foresee that wrapping up before August 31st.
We can be thankful that its not the faces of our leaders, but those of the soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors that the citizen of Afghanistan picture when they think of American support. Those who’ve protected our freedom’s both domestically and abroad. And tirelessly committed to protecting the freedoms of those who weren’t even their countrymen. Those who protected citizens from taking a beating, being stoned to death, or women being whipped for flashing a bare ankle. And giving young girls the opportunity to go to school, and women having the ability to have any job opportunity they so choose, such as in the media, as a lawyer, and in the police and military forces. The recent images of a young female Marine comforting a crying Afghan baby, troops hoisting babies over walls of the airport, a young soldier pouring water into the mouths of children waiting to enter the airport, or cradling babies on the evacuation flights embodies everything a U.S. service member stands for. Please keep our men and women in harm’s way in your thoughts and prayers, especially those locally here to southeast Missouri who are currently on the ground helping with the evacuations or piloting the flights.
In the third and final part of this series, we will take a look at what comes next. The combat battle for Afghanistan has shifted. We will look at where that will take place, and who those players will be, as well as what type of U.S. equipment the Taliban has seized. Additionally, we will take a look at what all of this means for the U.S, the region, and globally. While President Joe Biden may be done with Afghanistan, you can bet Afghanistan is not finished with him.
Sources:
Obama, Barack; “Statement by the President on the End of the Combat Mission in Afghanistan”; 12/8/2014; obamawhitehouse.archives.gov
Graham-Harrison, Emma; Roberts, Dan; “Taliban peace talks: ‘Peace and reconciliation’ negotiations to take place in Qatar”; 6/19/2013, theguardian.com
Ians; “Peace talks with US started secretly under Obama: Taliban Spokesperson”; 03/02/2020; business-standard.com
Ackerman, Spencer; “Bowe Bergdahl faces life in prison after being charged with desertion’; 03/25/2015; theguardian.com
“What happened to captured US soldier Bowe Bergdahl; 06/01/2014; bbc.com
Sperry, Paul; “Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama”; 08/16/2021; nypost.com
“Department of Defense JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment” – Khairulla Khairkhwa
“Joint Declaration between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States of America for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”; 02/29/2020; state.gov
Shah, Taimoor; Nordland, Rod; “U.S. Diplomats Held Face-to-Face Talks With Taliban, Insurgents Say”; 07/28/208, nytimes.com
“Zalmay Khalilzad Will Try to Pave Way for Taliban Talks with Afghanistan”; 09/28/208; Cato Institute
“Pakistan frees Taliban co-founder at US request; will play constructive role in Afghan peace initiative”; 02/09/2019; National Herald
“Afghan peace talks: Taliban co-founder meets top White House envoy”; 02/25/2019; bbc.com
Maizland, Lindsay; “U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal: What to Know”; 03/02/2020; cfr.org
Witte, Griff; “Afghanistan War 2001-2014”; britannica.org
Gul, Ayaz; “Taliban Kills 21 Afghan Troops, Warns of ‘Dangerous Escalation’ if US Breaches Deal”; 02/05/2021; voanews.com
Wellman, Phillip Walter; “US goes one year without a combat death in Afghanistan as Taliban warn against reneging on peace deal”; 02/08/2021; stripes.com
Dunleavy, Jerry; “From prison to power: Taliban leaders go from jail, to negotiating table, to Kabul”, 08/18/2021; yahoo.com
Lee, Matthew; Madhani, Aamer; “Biden to pull US troops from Afghanistan, end ‘forever war’”, 04/14/2021, apnews.com
Macias, Amanda; Wilkie, Christina; “U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will end by August 31st, Biden says”; 07/08/2021; cnbc.com
Gannon, Kathy; “US left Afghan airfield at night, didn’t tell new commander”; 07/06/2021; apnews.com
Shinkman, Paul; “From 300,000 to a Few Hundred: What happened to Afghanistan’s Army”; 08/18/2021; usnews.com
Madhani, Aamer; Miller, Zeke; “‘Overdue: Biden sets Aug. 31 for US exit from Afghanistan”; 07/08/2021; apnews.com
Woodward, Alex; “Biden overruled top generals’ advice to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan”; 08/17/2021; independent.co.uk
Johnson, Thomas; Goodson, Larry; “How America Lost Afghanistan”, newslinesmag.com, 8/18/21
Dozier, Kimberly and Hennigan, “President Joe Biden Is Withdrawing U.S. Forces From Afghanistan. What Happens Now?”; 4/13/21; time.com
“The shocking speed of the Taliban’s advance: A visual timeline” – Washingtonpost.com
McLeary, Paul; Seligman, Lara; Ward, Alexander; “Taliban seize power amid chaos in Afghanistan”; 08/15/2021; politico.com
To understand the current conflict in Afghanistan, one must first have an understanding of the Taliban. Understanding their history and purpose will start to shed some light on why these things are happening, and how we got to this point. We will first turn our attention to the 1980’s and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The 1980’s saw the US still locked in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. When we think of the Cold War, we often reflect on the events where the US was more heavily involved. Think about events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, the space race, and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. While those were certainly important events, the Soviet Union was also having its own conflicts. One of which, was the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This was the first and only time the Soviets invaded a country outside of the Eastern Bloc. This move to occupy Afghanistan, would eventually lead to the birth of the Taliban.
In the late 70’s Afghanistan was ruled by communists. In 1979 their communist leader was assassinated, and the new potential president appeared that he was going to switch sides to the United States. Upon learning that information, the Soviets decided to deploy their army across the border to halt the civil war, took over the capital city of Kabul, and installed a soviet loyalist as President of Afghanistan. While the government of Afghanistan remained communist, many thousands of Afghan citizens did not agree with this form of government. The civil war would now switch to a war of liberation of their country.
Most of the religious and ethnic groups of Afghanistan opposed the Soviets. These pockets of rebel groups came to be known as the “Mujahideen”. Mujahideen in Arabic means “defenders of the faith”, or freedom fighters. While they varied in tribal and ethnic affiliations, they were united in the religion of Islam and anti-communism. Many of these rebellious Afghans fled across the border into nearby Pakistan, specifically the city of Peshawar.
In Peshawar there were dozens and dozens of various afghan resistance groups. They started a council to unite their groups under common interests such as liberating Afghanistan, toppling the regime, and creating a single political bloc ruled under Islamic law. In Pakistan the groups were able to unite enough to form a sizable resistance toward the Soviets.
Throughout the 1980’s, the Mujahideen were able to implement a style of guerrilla warfare that kept bleeding the Soviets of resources for years. They were even able to recruit thousands of Arab fighters from Middle Eastern countries to come join their cause in both freedom fighters and financial backing. These individuals were know as “Arab Afghans”. Many of these Arabs wanted to travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan to support the cause of Islam defeating communism, and support their religious brothers and sisters.
As a sidebar, but a necessary one, this is where Osama bin Laden (OBL) enters the equation. OBL came from a wealthy Saudi family, as his father owned a giant construction company that served the royal family. At one point in time, his family was the largest owner of Caterpillar construction equipment in the world. OBL left college, traveled to Pakistan, and in 1984 started an organization that’s purpose was to funnel money, weapons, and fighters from the Arab world to the Mujahideen. Because he himself was wealthy, and had many wealthy contacts in Saudi Arabia and surrounding areas, he was able to funnel millions of dollars to the rebels. He was even able to use his knowledge of construction and equipment to build numerous man made tunnels and caves throughout the mountains of Afghanistan. This relationship will become important later on in the story.
The Mujahideen also received heavy support from the US government (through the CIA) and the government of Pakistan (who did not want a soviet country on their border). These are both much larger stories,but for now we will leave it at that. The US supplying the Mujahideen with shoulder firing Stinger missiles is believed to be what ultimately turned the tide in the war. They were now able to shoot down Soviet helicopters which were reeking havoc on their fighters.
With a new leader coming to power in the Soviet Union, their draining of resources against the mujahideen and in other countries, and their conflict with China, they decided in 1988 and 1989 to withdraw their forces. This was a victory for the mujahideen and the Afghan freedom fighters, and a victory for Islam. But the liberation of the country was still a battle to be fought, because the leader of Afghanistan was still receiving support and funds from Moscow. By 1992 the Mujahideen had taken over Kabul and created the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
This ended up being another disaster for the citizen of Afghanistan. While the Soviets were now gone, another problem arose. As we described earlier, the freedom fighters were made up of dozens and dozens of factions. And no unified singe system of government ever works well when you have dozens of competing factions trying to rule the country. This once again plunged Afghanistan into a brutal civil war. Different factions decided to not recognize the interim government, and with no military and no police force yet set up, warring factions controlled various parts of the country. This led to much corruption, human rights violations, and disagreements over Islamic law.
Fed up with the corruption and the government not adhering to strict Islamic Law, a man by the name of Mohammed Omar decided to take matters into his own hands. Mullah Mohammed Omar was a religious scholar and a former mujahideen commander. After the war, he took jobs teaching at religious schools, called madrassas, within Afghanistan and Pakistan. By 1994 he was teaching at a Madrassa in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
With corruption, raping, and pillaging running rampant in that region, he took 50 of his students and formed a group simply known as the Taliban. Taliban is Pashto ( the language spoken in that region) for students. So Taliban simply means the students, as this is where the first followers originated. Omar solicited the help from some former mujahideen commanders, and recruited from madrassas (schools) mostly in Afghan refugee camps along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He started out by leading his followers to freeing children from warlord captivity, and other minor small village disputes. By the end of the year he had recruited over 12,000 students from Islamic schools to join his cause. The Taliban took over the city of Kandahar, and by the end of 1995 had control of over a dozen of Afghanistan’s provinces. By 1996, the Taliban continued to grow and grow in number and stature. By September of that year, they had the numbers to take over the capital, and Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban.
The Taliban quickly declared Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They also instituted a moral code of Islam, with strict Sharia type Islamic law and traditional Afghan and Pashtun practices and traditions. When the Taliban took over, two decades of fighting various countries and groups had left the country with no running water, little electricity, barely usable roadways, a few telephones. Many could not access basic needs. While the UN tried to help address this issue, little was ever accomplished.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Osama bin Laden was expelled from his home in the Sudan in 1996 after the Sudanese government faced intense pressure from the US and surrounding countries like Egypt for his links to bombings and assassination attempts. The Sudan permitted him to leave to any country of his choosing. With no options and no country willing to take him, his only choice was to return to the war torn country of Afghanistan, with its newly installed government, and seek the protection of the Taliban comprised of mujahideen that he once helped, financed, and fought alongside. Mullah Omar took him in, and they begun forming a strong relationship.
It was from Afghanistan that Bin Laden declared war against the United States for entering Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, and from here he and his group al-Qaeda planned the 1998 embassy bombings of two US African embassies, the USS Cole bombing, and the September 11th attacks. After the 9/11 attacks President Bush ordered the Taliban to hand over OBL, in which they refused to do so. In October 2001 we entered Afghanistan and with the help of the Northern Alliance (another mujahideen group who controlled the northern part of Afghanistan, and did not join the Taliban) quickly thwarted the Taliban and kicked them out of power.
Since 2001, the Taliban have conducted a guerrilla warfare type insurgency against US troops, the Afghan government, and the Afghan security forces. Hiding out in Pakistan (the Taliban leadership) and Afghanistan. These were done through attacks, bombings, suicide attacks, assassinations, and drug trafficking. By the mid-2010’s it was estimated that’s the Taliban controlled around 20% of the country.
Mullah Mohammed Omar would die in 2013 from natural causes, most likely tuberculosis. But news of his death was not released until two years later in 2015. His son, Mohammad Yaqoob, is currently the leader of the Taliban’s military. Sirajuddin Haqqani, a member of the despised Haqqani Network serves as the deputy leader of the Taliban, and the current Supreme Commander of the Taliban is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada.
In the next addition, we will look at the events that have taken place in the past couple of weeks facilitated by the Taliban and it’s current leadership.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the events of last week will be remembered for decades by its pictures. Unbelievably striking images, and breath-taking videos. Alarming scenes with famous works of art in the background were ones that stood out to me. In particular, one image of a man holding a rebel flag in a hallway filled with portraits. You’ve all likely seen that picture by now, but deeper than face value, that photo has another meaning. The meaning comes from the portrait hanging in the center of the room, and the strange connection the man portrayed has to the 2021 image. This is the story of Senator Charles Sumner and “The Crime Against Kansas”.
In the photograph in question, you see a portrait in an ornate gold frame hanging above the bench. Who is this man? He is none other than Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, who was almost killed on the Senate floor 165 years ago for opposing slavery. Charles Sumner was a United States Senator representing Massachusetts from 1851 until 1874. His most famous incident, and defining moment, came in May of 1856. Just 5 years before the Civil War. Franklin Pierce was nearing the end of what would be his one term as President, and slavery, along with statehood, were the issues of the day. 1856 would see intense debate on the infamous Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would repeal the Missouri Compromise. If you’ll remember, this Missouri Compromise was the legislation that allowed Missouri to be admitted as a slave state, and prohibited any new slave states above the 36°30’ parallel. Almost all of Missouri lies above this line (it’s the boundary of Missouri and Arkansas, except for our Missouri Bootheel which extends below the line Southeastern Missouri bootheel slave holding cotton plantation farmers were therefore instrumental in helping to pass the Missouri Compromise).
Nearly 40 years later, now the unorganized territories west of Missouri were ready to become territories and states, that of Kansas and Nebraska. Both Kansas and Nebraska lie well above that Missouri parallel line, therefore both would have to be free states. But the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act would allow settlers to decide whether or not slavery would be allowed within their new state borders. This was in direct violation of the Missouri Compromise.
Which sets the stage to lead us to one Mr. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Charles Sumner was known as the most anti-slavery member of the Senate, even to the point to where he switched parties multiple times to whichever was the most anti-slavery, eventually settling on the Republican Party. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was being implemented in 1856 amongst bloodily confrontations between pro and anti settlers in the Kansas Territory (and parts of western Missouri), you can believe no one was more fired up that Charles Sumner. And boy was he fired up.
It was finally time to debate Kansas and Nebraska’s statehood, and the issue of slave vs. free state. If you think our political system is slow today, you will be shocked to find out that it took Senator Sumner two months to schedule floor time to speak on Kansas statehood. Sumner was quite the imposing character, at 6’2 and 185 pounds, with a broad chest, and often wearing light colored coats and lavender pants (when black was the new black in the 1850’s legislature). It was May 19th, and the temperature inside the Senate Chamber was north of 90 degrees. Having two months to prepare his speech, it weighed in a 112 pages long. Even more impressive was the fact that though Sumner had special printed all 112 pages, he had memorized every word and sentence of the speech. He titled it, “The Crimes Against Kansas”.
He would give his 112 page speech for 5 hours over two days time. He had absolutely scathing words for President Fillmore who had signed the legislation, and most notably Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina who had co-authored the Act. Sumner described Douglas as appearing that he needed new clean clothes and to be put under a shower, and then turned to him, looking him directly in the face, and calling him “noise-some, squat, and nameless animal”. Though Senator Butler wasn’t present that day, that didn’t spare him from Sumner’s wrath, stating that Butler had taken a lovely mistress, the harlot known as slavery.
The speech made national headlines. Sumner even had copies printed and sent them out across the nation. “The Crimes Against Kansas” was heralded, and it was scoffed at. Within a month his speech had sold over 90,000 copies. Two days after the speech, on May 22nd, 1856 Sumner was sitting alone in the Senate chamber addressing his mail. He was approached by a member of the House of Representatives, Preston Brooks. Brooks stared down at Sumner and told him “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine”. Preston Brooks just so happen to be a House Rep from South Carolina, and Andrew Butler’s first cousin, who Sumner had seriously rebuked just two days prior. Before Sumner could respond to the accusation, Brooks took his thick walking cane, and started repeatedly beating Sumner with the gold metal head of the cane. Sumner was knocked under his desk, which were fixed to the floor in the Senate Chamber. Stuck, with no where to escape, Brooks continued hitting Sumner over the head with his cane, until the point that the thick cane snapped in two. Finally, two other Representatives heard the commotion, entered the chamber, and drug Sumner out into the hallway. He would collapse in the hallway unconscious.
Sumner would survive, but experience severe head trauma that took months to heal, and caused pain he would suffer for the rest of his life. Due to his recovery, he would not enter the Senate Chamber for another 3 years, until 1859. Sumner was seen in as a hero in the North, and as a villain in the South. And likewise Brooks was heralded with adoration in the South. This event made both politicians increasingly popular. The city of Brooksville, Florida named itself after him immediately after the event, as did Brooks County, Georgia. Brooks was forced to resign in July of 1856 for the incident, but was re-elected the next month in a special election in August to the fill the empty position that he had vacated.
Sumner was loved so much, he would get reelected to the Senate during his recovery period, and they even left his Senate desk empty for two years while he recovered. This incident would be one of the first violent acts, though little-known, that would help lead up to the Civil War a few years later. Franklin Pierce would lose his bid to run for a second term for President, largely because of his signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Democrats would not select him to run again, and instead picked James Buchanan. Buchanan would win. Pierce’s support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act would make him the only President in history not to be selected by his party to run for second term, and then have his party win.
War was being waged in Congress. Northerners were attacking with harmful and dangerous words. Southerners were attacking with force. This led to little debate, and little freedom speech on the floor of Congress. You could say that it was in the halls of Congress that the very first battles of the Civil War were waged. With one striking photograph, comes a whole history revealed.
What a whirlwind this presidency has been. That is realized more than ever when you sit down and read about it word after word, page after page, all in a 400-page book. I reviewed Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” in September of 2018. That book would go on to have Simon & Schuster’s bestselling opening week of all time, and was instantly the New York Times No.1 best seller. For the Washington Post, Bob Woodward has covered and written about 9 different Presidents, or 20% of all President’s this country has known. “Rage”, is Woodward’s second book about the Trump administration. So, let’s take a dive into what the book reveals.
Rage is a strong word. Likewise, it is a strong emotion. The title comes from a quote Trump gave Bob Woodward when he was still a presidential candidate in 2016. The quote reads “I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have. I don’t know if that’s an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do.”. When you take a look at the current state of our country, I can think of no better word to describe national emotions than rage. I think President Trump, even in 2016, delivered an accurate quote, and Woodward accurately named this book as such.
While “Fear” focused mostly on campaign/White House logistics and the Russia Investigation in the first 13 months of the presidency, “Rage” in my opinion does a much better job of laying out multiple issues. I’m sure this is primarily due to the fact that this book covers a longer time period and more issues to cover occurred. But with that being said, I felt Fear was told too much through the eyes of disgruntled and fired Trump staff members. This book is classic Bob Woodward, with direct interviews he conducted himself with the President. It’s told through his eyes, with his journalistic touch. Overall, I thought Rage was much better written and entertaining than his first work on the Trump Administration.
While many issues are touched upon, two main issues dominated the most chapters in the book. That would be North Korea and the Coronavirus. More chapters are devoted to the Trump Administrations response to those two issues than any others.
The book commences by discussing several of President Trump’s senior cabinet level position appointees. It goes to show lots of evidence that appointees such as James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Rod Rosenstein, and Dan Coats where actually really good fits for their positions. He has assembled quite the team. Although, that would be short lived, as many of the beginning individuals (or nearly all of them), are no longer part of the administration.
The revolving door rotation of senior level cabinet positions was due to a multitude of reasons. Many of those reasons all had one central theme in common, communication. Either the lack of it, or the overabundance of it. Twitter. Twitter was a constant thorn in the side of the cabinet. Many of these folks were retired older Americans, and not social media users at all. They did not even know what Twitter was, much less how it operated. As we’ve come to know, the President uses Twitter every single day, sometimes tweeting or retweeting over 60 times a day. And not just trivial matters, but hiring’s, firings, and communication with foreign leaders and policy announcements. Many of the cabinet members had to find out very important pieces of information from Twitter, or be notified of the tweets hours later due to not having this form of social media. Some of these men were even
terminated via Twitter, with no prior knowledge that was going to occur. Failures to communicate in person, Twitter, and the old saying ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ led to many very qualified individuals no longer being part of the administration.
We learn from the book that the issues with North Korea were much bigger than much of the public realized. We were quite close to going to war with North Korea, and both sides were quite prepared for that possibility. in 2017 North Korea did a series of missile tests, launching them distances that would reach Hawaii, then Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast, and finally they tested a ICBM that would pretty much reach anywhere within the US. We were so concerned that a strike could happen at any time, that Secretary of Defense James Mattis had a light installed in his bathroom, that would flash so he would know a missile launch alert was incoming in case he was in the shower. He also had bells in his bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom that would ring for an alert. We had missile defense units in Alaska, California, and on ships in the ocean on high alert, and armed and ready to go at a moment’s notice ready to shoot down any incoming missiles.
The nuclear bomb that North Korea tested September 4th was estimated to be 17 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb. As 2018 started, and US sanctions crippled North Korea’s economy, Kim Jong Un was finally ready to negotiate. Kim and President Trump exchanged dozens of letters, many of which Bob Woodward was given declassified access too. The book highlights many of these, and it is fascinating to read. On June 12th, 2018 President Trump and Kim would meet at a summit in Singapore, thus being the first time, a sitting US President has met a North Korean head of state. A year later in June 2019, they would shake hands at the border between South Korea and North Korea, which eventually led to President Trump crossing the border into North Korea. Also becoming the first sitting President to have entered North Korea.
These would be historic international relations. Although relations would cool and the relationship became a bit soured, due to the fact that North Korea would not go as far as the Trump Administration required with denuclearization. We will have to wait and see if negotiations ever pick back up to where they once were.
As was mentioned, and to be expected, coronavirus dominated the seconded half of the book. Woodward does an adequate job of explaining what was, and is, a complex situation. COVID came onto the US’s radar on about January 1st, 2020. Although on a very minor scale. There were some news reports that it could be SARS, it was unconfirmed. But those reports are what peaked Rob Redfield, the Director of the CDC’s interest.
Redfield with the CDC and Fauci with the NIAID both began closely monitoring China. Feedback from China was that the virus was not a big deal, it was less deadly thank SARS, that every reported case was linked back to a wet market, and that they had it under control. Once we learned of human-to-human spread, and asymptomatic spread, things began to get much more serious. That was a game changer. The CDC activated 1,000’s of employees to begin working on this virus, and airports started doing screenings from China.
We had our first know positive case in late January. It was confirmed the person was a traveler from China, and that we shouldn’t be worried. The US continued offer China our CDC experts to visit the country, but were denied time and time again. We were no information, or inaccurate information from China. It wasn’t until late February that the World Health Organization was allowed into the country,
and with only one CDC expert as part of the team. Our official reported back that while there was a lot of disease there, China seemed to be doing everything that they could do, and extreme lock downs were in place. None of the officials were allowed into Wuhan. We later learned that over 5 million people left Wuhan before it was locked down, including through a major train/substation located very close to the wet market.
The CDC issued reports that human-to-human spread seemed relatively low, and both Fauci and Redfield confirmed this early on. Many of the presidential briefings by our health experts seemed to down play the issue. President Trump would then go on to make statements such as the virus would go away in 15 days, hot weather would kill it, and it would go away by a miracle. The shutdown of travel from China was a major important step early on. It was one of the first decisions that the administration made. Unfortunately, China had not restricted travel early enough, especially intra-China travel, and that to Europe. Therefore, it seemed that many of our cases were coming in from those who had traveled from China to Europe, and then to the United States.
Testing was also an early failure. Fewer than 500 tests had been conducted across the entire nation by early March. This, gabs in PPE and swabs, and the distribution of faulty tests early on made it extremely difficult to get a good picture of number of infections and how quickly the virus was spreading. Reading through these things in the book is quite compelling, especially since we are still reaping the effects of early decisions, misinformation, incorrect health expert assessments, and lacks in knowledge.
To sum up this synopsis, I found one particular paragraph of the book very telling. I feel an assessment I made in my Fear review two years still rings true with Rage. If you were a fan of President Trump before reading this book, you will still be a fan afterward. If you despised him before reading the book, you will also continue to do so. I do not believe this book will change any minds, and it isn’t a “tell-all”. At one point in the book, it described a nationwide focus group process conducted by President Trump’s campaign manager. The focus groups included 1,000 people. A question was asked reading “would you vote for someone you like but don’t agree with his policies, or would you vote for someone you don’t like but you like his policies?”. The results all across the nation were 1,000 to 0. All 1,000 people responded that they would vote for the person they didn’t like if they liked his policies. In my opinion, that’s politics in a nutshell.
I recommend picking up the book and giving it a read. It was well written, and easily digestible. Fear was worth the purchase from an entertainment perspective, Rage is worth the purchase because you might actually learn something or gain some further insight into the inner workings of the administration. I enjoyed Rage more than Fear. it will be another #1 New York Times best seller. Buy the book, and let me know what you think!
As many of you have now most likely heard, the U.S. carried out a target drone strike killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. He was in a convoy of vehicles on his way to the airport in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The strike took place just outside the airport.
While many may not be familiar with this man, I saw one Iranian reporter compare his killing to as if George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Captain America all rolled into one was suddenly killed. Soleimani was responsible for coordinating and planning hundreds of attacks that have killed American troops since the Iraq invasion in 2003. His use of IED’s were horrendous, and thousands of U.S. soldiers have been wounded as a result. To simply, this was a major major blow to Iran’s leadership and military.
Soleimani was the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. This is Iran’s elite intelligence and fighting force that is responsible for carrying out attacks, and spreading Iran’s agenda outside of their borders. They are the overseas are of the Revolutionary Guard. Think of them such as U.S. equivalents to the CIA and Navy SEALS. These proxy groups are ones that we have continuously encountered in places such as Lebanon, Syria, and mainly, Iraq.
Recent encounters with these proxy groups, specifically one called Kataib Hezbollah (KH), had led to this escalation. On December 27th, KH launched rocket attacks on a location where U.S. troops were stationed. One U.S. contractor was killed (along with some Iraqi troops), and several U.S. soldiers were wounded. We then launched drone attacks on three of KH’s locations in Iraq and Syria, killing around 20, 3 of which were Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. On New Year’s Day supports of these proxy groups, and members of the groups, stormed our U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. This led to the evacuation of U.S. personnel inside the embassy, and the rapid deployment of troops from the Gulf, as well as hundreds more from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. An additional 4,000 troops being deployed to the area is also very likely. The U.S Embassy has also now released a statement for all U.S citizens to leave Iraq immediately.
So, what does this all mean. Well, that’s a very complicated question with a complicated answer. Iran is currently the number one state sponsor of terrorism. There is no doubt about that, and Soleimani was the puppet master pulling those strings. The U.S.’s response was that this attack was carried out due to Soleimani planning more attacks against the U.S. like has been shown over recent weeks. I truly believe that to be the case. But he has been planning and carrying out attacks against U.S. interests for years. This is now a very hard redline that has been drawn by the Trump Administration. The Iranian’s, and Soleimani himself, DID NOT see this type of strike coming as a response to their recent attack. Soleimani had made taunting statements in recent days, paraded himself around freely and carelessly, and his locations were publicly known. Including his travels to the airport.
Maybe it doesn’t seem this way to the public eye, but this assassination is bigger than Osama bin Laden. Soleimani commanded more troops, carried out more attacks, killed more individuals, and reeked more havoc than Osama bin Laden. But most importantly, besides being a terrorist, he was also a head of state. Arguably, he was the second most important and influential person in Iran, right behind the Supreme Leader Ayatollah. He has the highest favorability rating in Iran. He was Captain Iran. Again, this is a hard red line that has been drawn.
So how will the Iranian and their supporters respond? Most believe in the immediate they will begin with threats and demonstrations. Those two things have already started. Massive protests and parades are occurring in Tehran, the capital of Iran, as this is being written. The streets are filled with protesters and mourners alike. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has released a statement saying they will seek revenge. The Supreme Leader Grant Ayatollah Khamenei has instituted three days of mourning, and stated that this assassination serves a double the motivation of the resistance against the United States and Israel. They have also already named his replacement, Ismail Quani. Quani has been the deputy commander of the Quds Force since 1997.
Threats and statements have also come out of Iraq, where much of this conflict, and the drone strike killing Soleimani took place. One of the top Islamic Shia clerics, Muqtada al-Sadr has reactivated is Mahdi Army. His Mahdi Army was another proxy group of Shia fighter’s who battled US troops during the Iraqi invasion in 2003. They were disbanded by Sadr in 2008. The President of Iraq has also condemned the strike. He has called for an emergency session of parliament tomorrow to make “decisive decisions that put an end to U.S. presence inside Iraq”. He called this strike a breach of the deal that permits U.S. presence in Iraq, as it was not in an effort to stop or defeat ISIS.
So, where does this all lead. Most experts and analysts do not expect an all-out war. The threats and the demonstrations occurring were to be expected. They would look extremely weak if they didn’t come out with threats after a major attack like this. In the short-term, we will most likely see retaliation attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. We could also see attacks against U.S allies like Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Possibly even more missile strikes against Saudi oil facilities like last year that crippled 50% of Saudi Arabia’s production. Oil prices have already shot up today. But rest assured, Iran will tread very carefully. Whether you agree with the decision to kill Qassem Soleimani or not, the fact remains that this was a major decision, a major power play, and our administration has sent a clear message.
Our 12th President of the United States again paints the picture of one of our often-forgotten pre-Civil War Presidents. In fact, Zachary Taylor may be one of our oddest Presidents, being a man who was not interested in politics, had no strong political beliefs, and had never even voted. And despite those facts, he rose to hold the position of our nation’s highest office. His lack of rememberability lies in part to the fact that he served the 3rd shortest term of any President, only being in office for a year and four months.
It seems with recent Presidents we have looked at, we have been flip-flopping between those that came from prominent families, and those that did not. Taylor falls into the prominent family category, from wealthy Virginian planation owners. In fact, his second cousin was our fourth President, and father of the Constitution, James Madison. So, politics did play a role in his family.
In 1808 Taylor would join the U.S. Army, a place where he would spend the next several decades, turning him into a nationally known figure. The first part of his military career was mostly spent in the U.S. territories around places like Indiana and Louisiana. When the War of 1812 broke out 4 years later, he spent much of his time in those territories battling British allied Indians and winning some decisive battles. He would travel up and down the Mississippi River during these years commanding troops and establishing forts from New Orleans, to St. Louis, to the northern territories in Wisconsin.
We would spend the next two decades rising in rank, and again fight Indian wars such as the Black Hawk War and the Seminole War. He led troops against the Black Hawk Indians at the northern part of the Mississippi River in present day Minnesota. He was then sent to Florida to fight in the Seminole Wars, where his troops won one of the largest U.S. vs. Indian battles to ever take place. He was promoted to brigadier general and given command of all the troops in Florida. His reputation for winning so many battles ended up giving him the nickname of “Old Rough and Ready”.
During this period his daughter Sarah started dating an Army Lieutenant by the name of Jefferson Davis. The same Davis who would go on to become the President of the Confederate States of America. Zachary Taylor opposed this union, but Sarah and Jefferson were married despite Taylor’s wishes. Although Sarah would contract malaria, and she died in 1835 just three months after they were married. She would never know Jefferson as the President of the Confederate States.
In 1841 Taylor was promoted to oversee most of the entire U.S. Army west of the Mississippi River. This new position put him in correspondence with President William Henry Harrison. This would be Taylor’s first step into any involvement in the political world. In 1844 the Mexican-American War broke out, which Taylor would have a significant role in. A few generals outranked Taylor, but they were members of the Whig Party, and President Polk was a Democrat. So, he appointed the politically unaffiliated Taylor to lead the U.S. Troops (now that’s some petty spaghetti right there). So Taylor lead the U.S. forces into disputed areas of Texas along the Rio Grande River.
Although greatly outnumbered by the Mexican forces, Taylor’s Army crossed and forced the Mexicans back across the Rio Grande, winning major decisive battles of the war. In 1847 he even defeated Mexican General Santa Anna’s 20,000 strong force, which virtually established victory of the war to the Americans. His heroism led up to the promotion to major general and a commendment from Congress.
In 1848, just one year later, there was no man more popular than the hero Zachary Taylor. So much so, that both the Whig party and Democratic party tried to nominate him to represent their party and run for President. This was an uphill battle, as this man had never made his political beliefs known, or even ever voted for either party. As the year went on, his beliefs did start to become known as both parties recruited him to their side. He did not support a national bank, wanted lower trade tariffs, and did not support the expansion of slavery into the new territories that he had just help win. This more aligned with the political beliefs of the Whigs.
Finally, after much urging from the Whig leadership, which included a rising political star named Abraham Lincoln, Taylor accepted their nomination for President. As both parties knew would likely happen, Taylor did go on to win the Presidential election of 1848, still riding the wave of popularity from his military career. He would be the last Whig elected President, and the last person elected to the Presidency that would not come from either the Democratic or Republican Party to this day.
As Taylor was taking office, the issue of slavery was taking the top political issue spot. Taylor was very anti-slavery, and saw the new territories becoming slave ones as being a needless point of controversy. He argued that the crops that many slaves were used to harvest and plant, wouldn’t even grow in the new western territories. So, Taylor allowed places like California to join the union as a state, and not a federally regulated territory, because he knew the people of California would decide to establish their state as being anti-slavery.
Shortly after Taylor took office, he began suffering from severe gastrointestinal issues. Many members of his cabinet did as well. In July of 1850, his condition worsened, and he was diagnosed with cholera. As we discussed in the William Henry Harrison Killer White House article, the White House’s water supply had been contaminated by human waste from the White House and other D.C. residents. On July 8th, the Killer White House claimed it’s third Presidential victim. After just barely a year in office, Zachary Taylor would pass away at the age of 65. His Vice President would step in to take over the rest of his term, and we will explore him further in the next article.
Again, Zachary Taylor, Ole Rough and Ready, is one of our least remembered Presidents. He was a man who never desired the office and wasn’t much interested in politics at all. He will always be remembered more for being one of the United State’s great military leaders over anything he was able to accomplish in his short stint as President.
James K. Polk made 4 campaign promises when he ran for office. Those were that he would cut tariffs, reestablish the U.S. Treasury which had been done away with under Martin Van Buren, secure the Oregon Territory from Great Britain, and purchase California and New Mexico from Mexico. Oh, and he promised he would do all of this in just one four-year term. Well guess what? Unlike 99% of most politicians, James K. Polk did what he set out to do, and when he said he would do it. Polk is the last successful President we will see of the pre-civil war area. Under President Polk, the Unites States would first become a nation truly from sea to shining sea.
Polk joins the club of Presidents born to more modest families. He was born in a log cabin, in Pineville, North Caroline, to a family of farmers. He was the oldest of 10 children. At age 8 his family moved to the frontier area of Tennessee, where James’ father became a good acquaintance of future Tennessee President Andrew Jackson. Polk was a sickly child but became more robust in his teenage years. He enrolled at Bradley Academy in Murfreesboro, TN; and then attended the University of North Carolina when the school only had 80 students (it is close to 20,000 today).
Like so many Presidents before him, he graduated and quickly pursued the law profession. He moved to the frontier town of Nashville (again no hot chicken or opry yet). He studied under a famous trial lawyer and was even elected clerk of the Tennessee State Senate at age 24. At 25 he was admitted to the Tennessee Bar. He first case was to defend his father against charges from a public fighting citation (talk about awkward…..).
In 1825 Polk was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Tennessee. He would remain here for years, and in 1835 in his 5th consecutive term he would be elected Speaker of the House (and the only Speaker of the House to become President). In 1839, he would run for Governor of Tennessee as a Democrat, as a Whig Party candidate had won the 1835 election for the first time ever. He would run a successful campaign and be elected governor in 1839.
Polk always had aspirations of becoming President and saw the Vice Presidency as the most logical stepping stone. Martin Van Buren was running for President once again, and Polk desired to be his running mate. The hottest button issue at the time was the republic of Texas’s revolt against Mexico, and the possibility of the U.S. annexing Texas. Van Buren was against annexation, and Polk was very pro bringing Texas in as part of the United States. In a surprise move, the Democrats quit backing Van Buren, and backing Polk as they knew only a pro-annexation candidate would win. Overnight, Polk was suddenly in position to grab the office he always dreamed of. He would go on to win the election, after it was made known that his opponent was also against annexing Texas. The mood of the country was definitely to expand our territory, and that’s exactly what Polk set out to do.
Upon entering office, and the youngest to do so at that point at age 49, he immediately set out to tackle his four goals that we stated in the first paragraph. He quickly did move to annex Texas, and add them as our 28th state. As to be expected, Mexico was unhappy with this move, leading to the Mexican-American War from 1846-1848. The U.S. would win this war, and receive from Mexico all or parts of Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
While this was taking place, Polk was also working to secure the Oregon Country from the British. They laid claim to the land from the explorations of their sea captains Cook and Vancouver. The Americans claimed the land from the Lewis and Clark expeditions. Neither the British nor the United States thought it wise to battle over a distant territory that barely had any people living there at all. The U.S. especially didn’t since they were already fighting a war with Mexico. As a result, the U.S. received all of the Oregon Territory below the 49th parallel, and the British everything above (now Canadian Territories of British Columbia and Alberta). Now Polk in another large move had secured all or parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
Polk, in just two moves, added the territory that would become 12 states, while Iowa and Wisconsin also became states under his watch, increasing the total to 14. In his one term, he increased the size of the United States by more than a 3rd. Within his first year he would reestablish the national treasury that he set out to do, and it would stand for decades until the early 1900’s. He also did tariff negotiations with several different players such as Great Britain, Spain, and several central and South American countries. He lowered tariffs on all of them, booming the U.S economy out of the downward spiral it had been experiencing. He had truly fulfilled all of the campaign promises that he promised to do in just one term.
While Polk’s expansion helped shape what the United States looks like today, it wasn’t without consequences. The addition of so many new states and territories brought the slavery debate to the forefront of national attention. This problem would come to a major head in just under 15 years. Polk’s Major General of the United States Army would become a national war hero during the Mexican-American War. So much so, that he would succeed Polk as President (and was a man who had never expressed any political beliefs, or had even ever voted!). We will take a look at that man in our next article.
The 9th President William Henry Harrison is dead. And just 32 days after he took office. The government has been thrown into chaos, and Vice President John Tyler is stuck in limbo. William Henry Harrison’s cabinet met within one hour of his death, and debate about Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution began. This particular clause governed intra-term presidential succession, which had never had to be used up until this point. The cabinet determined that this clause only gave Vice President Tyler the powers of the presidency, and not the actual office of the Presidency. Well John Tyler whole heartedly disagreed with this. He quickly summed William Cranch the Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia to this hotel room. In that hotel room Tyler had Cranch administer the oath of office of the Presidency, and John Tyler became our 10th President.
Tyler, like Harrison, was born into a prominent Virginia family descending from colonial Williamsburg. His father, John Tyler Sr. was a great friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson, served in the Virginia House of Delegates (with William Henry Harrison’s father), became a state judge, and U.S. district judge, and governor of Virginia. So as you can see, John Tyler was familiar with politics from birth.
Tyler entered college at William and Mary at the age of 12 and graduated from college at 17. He then studied and apprenticed in law for 2 years, and at age 19 was admitted to the Virginia bar (which was under the 21 years of age limit, but the admitting judge never asked him how old he was….). And 2 years after that, he would enter politics for the first time after being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He was elected to this position in 1811, and war was quickly looming over the horizon.
When the War of 1812 broke out, it wasn’t long until the British would invade Virginia. When they did so, Tyler organized a militia, and led it as their captain. They helped to defend the capital of Richmond
Over the next two decades, Tyler would serve in the U.S House of Representatives and the Virginia House of Delegates. And in 1824 as the Governor of Virginia, just like this father. Then in 1828 he would be elected to the U.S. Senate. Throughout Tyler’s career he was known to be an extremely strong supporter of state’s rights. Voting again and again against anything that would add more government oversite or regulation. This came to a crescendo with him being alienated from his party, which prompted him to join the newly formed Whig party, and eventually becoming President Pro Tempore of the Senate when the Whig party took control.
With the economy in it’s first recession largely due to Martin Van Buren’s administration, the election of 1840 was a critical one. William Henry Harrison was chosen as the Whig’s Presidential candidate. And John Tyler was chosen as the Vice-Presidential candidate. To be frank, not much thought was given into making Tyler the Vice-Presidential candidate. No President had ever not finished their term, and the role of Vice President was very minimal at that time. Tyler was a southern slave owner, and had support state’s slave rights, and they figured he would better be able to help secure the southern vote against the northern Van Buren.
This election of 1840 would go on to set the standard for the modern Presidential campaign. You would see the first true campaign ticket slogan and theme song, complete with attack ads and mudslinging. This was mainly due to the fact that the newly formed Whig party had no platform, they were brand new. Their opposition and distain for Van Buren was all they had to run on. They started out on a national speaking tour, included speeches given by Tyler, which was unusual for a Vice President candidate at the time. They were also the first campaign to mobilize women in their efforts, despite the fact that women couldn’t vote.
When the mudslinging started, the modern campaign was born. The Whigs labeled Van Buren as a wealthy snob, and out of touch with the common man. And in turn the Democrats labeled Harrison and Tyler as backwoods country boys, who would just want to sit around drinking hard cider and living in log cabins (a reference to Harrison’s time living in a log cabin in the western frontier), and Harrison as an old washed up military man. The Whigs used these insults as fuel, and the “Log Cabin Campaign” was born. They turned around the insults and labeled Harrison “the log cabin and hard cider candidate”, who understood and could relate to the everyday citizen (even though both Harrison and Tyler were likely both wealthier than Van Buren). The two candidates created the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”. Referring to William Henry Harrison’s nickname from the battle of Tippecanoe and his military service.
Playing to the insult, an image of a log cabin was used on all campaign materials, and hard cider was dispersed at their political rallies. Then came the songs. Glee clubs sprang up all across the U.S. singing campaign songs in support of the two. The most famous of which read “What has caused this great commotion, motion, our country through? It is the ball a-rolling on, for Tippecanoe and Tyler too, Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and with them, we’ll beat little Van, Van, Van. Van is a used-up man”. And “We shall vote for Tyler therefore/without a why or wherefore”.
As was discussed in the Martin Van Buren article, due to the country’s hard economic times, and Harrison and Tyler being seen as more in touch with the common man, they easily won the election. Tyler would travel to Washington and be sworn in as Vice President. He was also present during Harrison’s two-hour inauguration speech. Again, going back to an earlier point, Tyler was seen as unimportant, and even left Washington D.C. to go back and spend his time in Virginia. If Harrison had a question for his Vice President, he would send a letter down to Virginia for Tyler to respond too (which wasn’t often). Then Tyler started to get letters of Harrison’s sickness and rapidly degrading health. Not wanting to seem like he was anticipating Harrison’s death, Tyler didn’t even travel to Washington until he received word that Harrison had already passed away.
Now the man who was serving in the Vice Presidency as more of a formality, was all of a sudden in the role of President after only 32 days since the start of the term. Tyler would serve as President without being elected to the office longer than any other person who took over the office mid-term. As Tyler had always demonstrated in his political beliefs, he held to the fact that federal power should be limited (which isn’t often the President’s political thought process haha), and his Presidency was no different. His political opponents referred to him as “His Accidency” for the way he grabbed the position, and any mail they sent to him they labeled “vice president” or “acting President” (which he promptly returned unopened every time).
Adhering to his beliefs in limited federal power and decision making, Tyler vetoed numerous pieces of legislation dealing with things from national banks, to raising tariffs to pay for the recession’s budget deficit, to funds to make necessary repairs to the White House. His own party became so frustrated with his lack of support, that his whole cabinet resigned, and his Whig party-controlled Congress started impeachment proceedings against him (the first impeachment proceedings to ever take place against the President).
Even to the point that in the election on 1844 he tried to run as President representing the other party! (which obviously didn’t work). He formed his own third party but took so much heat that he stated he would drop out of the Presidential race and back the other candidate if the media and the party members would cease the attacks on him. They agreed, and Tyler removed himself from the election and endorsed the Democratic Party candidate.
After the presidency, some years later, Tyler would vote for Virginia to secede from the Union and was even elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. But he passed away from a stroke before the Confederate House’s first session.
Fun fact, John Tyler was born in 1790, and has two living grandsons in 2019 (yes, you read that correctly, but feel free to read again. GRANDSONS). Tyler’s son Lyon was born when Tyler was 63 (he had a daughter at 70), and Lyon’s two sons were born in 1924 and 1928 when Lyon was 71 and 75……. One currently lives in Franklin, TN and the other lives in John Tyler’s home town and in the family home in Charles City County, Virginia. The home is open daily for tours from 9am-5pm and you can meet grandson Harrison Ruffin Tyler. It’s the longest frame house in the United States and features 25 acres of gardens and landscaping.
Next week we will look at the man who Tyler promised he would endorse for President, who would go on to win the election of 1844.
March 4th, 1841 was a very cold and wet Thursday. William Henry Harrison, our 9th President, was in the middle of giving the longest inaugural address that a President has ever given. At nearly two hours and 8,445 words (after being edited for length…. Wowzers), he literally went over every campaign agenda point of the Whig Party. Despite the cold and rain, Harrison wore no coat, no hat, and was delivered to the ceremony riding on open horseback. He wanted to appear tough and live up to his war general and tough guy reputation, and not the backwoods uneducated man his election opponents had cast him. Harrison would get severely ill and die 31 days later, making him the man who was President for the shortest amount of time. But was it the cold and rain of his 2-hour address that killed him? Or did our first President to die in office, and serve the shortest term, die of something that would soon claim the lives of 2 more Presidents? A Killer White House.
But let’s start from the beginning. Up to this point as we have seen, we have had Presidents come from extremely prominent families, and on the other end of the spectrum ones who had been orphaned or born into poverty. William Henry Harrison fell on the prominent end of the spectrum. His father, Benjamin Harrison V was a prominent politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, served in the Virginia Legislature, and as Governor of Virginia. William’s older brother Carter was also a U.S. House representative from Virginia. So, William grew up around politics, and entered college at age 14. He studied there for 3 years, and then pursued medicine. He was not a fan of medical studies, and when his father died when he was 18, he discovered the family was out of money. He left medical school, and joined the military, thus setting the course that would determine his future path.
Harrison was quickly commissioned to the army and stationed in what is present day Cincinnati (They were NOT eating watery chili over spaghetti noodles at this time), in the Northwest Territory. By 1793 he was commanding troops in the frontier, battling numerous Indian tribes and winning some famous battles. A few years later he would resign from the military and begin his political career when President Adams appointed him the secretary of the Northwest Territory, and he often served as governor. By this time the Northwest Territory had gained enough population to warrant a seat in Congress. So, at age 26 Harrison ran for election and became the territory’s first congressional delegate. Two years later at age 28 President Adams would appoint him as governor of the Indiana Territory.
He would serve in this post for several years, that is until the War of 1812. Not being able to keep a good man down, he resigned the governorship and resumed his role in the military. Harrison once again led troops against battling Native Americans. This time it was against the fierce Shawnee. The Shawnee launched a surprise attack against Harrison and his men. Harrison would win this fight, known as the Battle of Tippecanoe, and become a national war hero. This would also give him his nickname of “Ole Tippecanoe”. Harrison would soon become brigadier general of the United States Army.
After the war, William Henry Harrison would enter politics once more. Over the years he would run for U.S House of Representatives, the Ohio Senate, the governor of Ohio, the U.S. Senate, and appointed the minister to Colombia. Around 1830 he retired from the political life. That was until he was bored once again and ran for the Presidential election of 1836, where he was unsuccessful against Martin Van Buren. But that didn’t stop Harrison. As we know from the Van Buren article, he had a rough Presidency, and William Henry Harrison easily defeated him the second go round in 1840.
Harrison would at the time be the oldest President our nation had elected at 68 years old (until Ronald Regan at 69 more than a century later, and now Donald Trump at 70.). Harrison had suffered through one of the most intense Presidential campaigns our nation has ever seen (Yes, its always been as bad as it is now). We have the invention of the campaign slogan, with “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” and even a campaign song. We will visit this campaign more in Harrison’s Vice President John Tyler’s article.
Again, Harrison stepped into the role of our nation’s 9th President on March 4th, 1841. He delivered the longest inaugural speech, outside, in a pouring rain storm. He then attended an outdoor parade, and three inaugural balls, all while wearing the same wet clothing. A few weeks later, he contracted pneumonia like symptoms and severe stomach and bowel issues. 9 days later, we had our first President to die while in office. The newspapers and rumors flew that his own inaugural speech had killed him, and the country was in a panic. No one even knew if the Vice President would ascend him into the office.
But did William Henry Harrison really die of pneumonia? And if so, why did the symptoms not show up until 23 days after his cold and wet inaugural address. The reason is because the White House killed him. More specifically, originating in a putrid marsh not far from the White House. As it is today, the White House is staffed by dozens and dozens of workers. Which in turn creates…… a lot of human waste. Well, the early 1840’s weren’t quite known for their sewage systems. In fact, the White House and Washington D.C. itself didn’t even have a sewer system.
Therefore, White House staff would cart this “night soil” to the nearest body of water, as did every other D.C. resident. The nearest body of water for waste disposal was in a marsh 7 blocks from the White House. The problem was this marsh was upstream from the area where the White House pumped in their water supply. So after extensive research in the 2000’s with today’s medical knowledge, it was determined that William Henry Harrison died from typhoid fever and gastroenteritis by salmonella, from this marsh which seeped into the White House water supply. But did the Killer White House stop there? It did not, James K. Polk, the 11th President Polk frequently wrote in his diary that since moving into the White House he suffered from violent diarrhea (yyeeeaahh….) while in office. 3 months after leaving office, he died from cholera morbis. And what about or 12th President, Zachary Taylor? He also died in office. And guess from what? Yep, acute gastroenteritis.
Other White House staff reportedly also passed away during this time period from similar aliments. Washington D.C. would not have a fully functioning sewage system until the 1870’s. So little did we know, the White House itself has been the biggest Presidential assassin, killing 3 out of 4 Presidents in a 9 year period. With Harrison’s sudden death, only 31 days after taking office, someone would need to fill his role. And our Constitution did not explain who that person would be. In our next article we will take a look at our nation’s first, and controversial, mid-term Presidential succession of power.
