In which the pond gives up and indulges in critical blonde theory, before turning to the swishing Switzer ...

 

 

The pond knew that today was going to be difficult, but like an American withdrawal, didn't realise how difficult ...

Grim discordant humour? Well it's not the same as falling from a plane, but cop this lot ...

 

 

 

 

 

Switzer? Could the pond go as low as that?

 

What about the virus? Perhaps the pond could get its shot there?

 

 

 

No, there's Fergo, the poor person's Killer Creighton, doing a bit of standard comrade Dan bashing, because, people, allow the pond to assure you that Gladys' do and die approach still leaves hope, nay ecstasy, in its wake ... we've never had it so good in cockroach land, at least in the bunker in Surry Hills?

Forget about comrade Dan, we're still living with the reptiles' and Gladys' gold standard, and how good is that?

Send in the troops, the pond says, and then feels the urge to move along.

What about the top of the page then?

 

 

We can't save them all, says the rapture man?

Indeed, indeed, who would hold a prose. Well we can't save them all, and it seems pointless to save a noun without a verb, and there you go, once upon a time handy translators and helpers ...

But at least there was a poignant pictorial juxtaposition between the Taliban, and the Talibanish Dame Slap ...

 

 

 

... and having provided clear evidence of its workings, the pond had nowhere else to go ...

 

First, please allow the pond to note where Dame Slap is starting from ...

 

Ah yes, that feels about right ... now how about a bit of sublime Dame Slap logic to kick things off with a bang? Which is to say, logic has nothing to do with it, so much as argumentum ad absurdum ...

 

Indeed, indeed, important questions. Are they aware of Australia's singular achievements in fair minded equality for all?

 

 

 

There'll certainly be no black armbands here, especially not from a privileged blonde scribbling furiously from her planet above the Faraway tree ...

 

 

 

Solidly argued. This fad notion that somehow blondes might be equal to blacks is simply insulting ... there's been a long and proud tradition in this country asserting the suffering of blondes at the hands of ill-tempered prejudice and bigotry ...

 

 

And so to the final gobbet of ever-rising indignation at the outlandish demands of pesky, difficult, never satisfied blacks ...

 

 

 

Yes, it's all pretty much done and dusted. Never mind those who turned their back on the Ruddster on the day, never mind the many and sundry failures and errors, the bigotry and posturing, we're all right Jack (and Jill, though really you should never grow up to be IPA chairman), and there's absolutely no institutionalized racism in this country ... though come to think of it, the pond regrets using up that Wilcox cartoon the other day, because it would have come in handy today.

Oh what the heck ...

... and here's a bonus ...

 

And so, for another bonus, and with a deep sigh, it's on to the lesser bromancer, the swishing Switzer ...

 

 

 

 

 

Not change a thing? Not even the manner of the retreat?

 

It took the reptiles a little while to reach this position.

 

Yesterday there were some that thought a few things might have been changed for the better, not least the dismal manner and method of the retreat and surrender ...

 

 

 

 

 

Panicked incoherence? Nope, the swishing Switzer wouldn't change a thing. Lo, he looked at what was happening, and it was all good and inevitable and done and dusted ...

 

 

 

Say what? Why there's absolutely no comparison, and it certainly hasn't become a widely shared meme, one that will live on for a long time in the collective memory ...

 

 

 

Hard to pick which is which ... perhaps a date?

 

 

 

And as for the pathetic wretches who want to flee the country, what a cowardly bunch they are. Waiter, could we have the total on the tape?

 

 

 

 

Hmm, that seems about right.

Rating one American service member as being roughly equivalent to 100 tribal and medieval villagers, primitive folks of not much use in the world, it will be seen that the human cost for the US far exceeds the casualties suffered by the people of Afghanistan ...

Now let's continue putting the best gloss on things, in a way only a swishing Switzer can manage ...

 

But what if you have clueless advisors, who chop and change in the breeze? You know the sort ...

 

 

 

And then there was Switzer swishing away in the WSJ on 6th July 2021, under the header Nixon Warned About U. S. Decline, half a century ago, he foretold the loss of American pre-eminence.

Well Nixon was an expert on how to lose pre-eminence, no doubt about it, and being something of a Nixonian himself, the Switzer was on fire with insights:

The U.S. has been through dark times before—and in living memory. Fifty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon spoke frankly about America’s doldrums in a speech that didn’t get enough attention from the media at the time or historians since. On July 6, 1971, the 37th president addressed senior midwestern media executives in Kansas City, Mo., amid racial unrest, campus agitation and antiwar protests.
The columns of the National Archives Building in Washington reminded Nixon of ancient fallen empires. “I think of what happened to Greece and Rome, and you see what is left—only the pillars. What has happened, of course, is that the great civilizations of the past, as they have become wealthy, as they have lost their will to live, to improve, they then have become subject to decadence that eventually destroys the civilization.” Nixon’s lament: “The United States is now reaching that period.”
America, he said, needed to find the “moral and spiritual strength” to shape the emerging post-Vietnam era. Counterculture revolutionaries wanted to define America as “an ugly country.” Nixon urged his countrymen to reject “negativism” and “defeatism” and concentrate on building a nation that was “healthy” both morally and physically.
“The United States no longer is in the position of complete pre-eminence or predominance,” he said, because “we now face a situation where four other powers”—the Soviet Union, Western Europe, Japan and China—“have the ability to challenge us on every front.” Yet this “can be a constructive thing.” A few months later, he told Time magazine: “I think it will be a safer world and a better world if we have a strong, healthy United States, Europe, Soviet Union, China, Japan, each balancing the other.”
Here was the old Cold Warrior calling on fellow citizens to adapt to decline in a more plural international environment. He wanted to adopt policies that would smooth the path of a more limited U.S. role in foreign affairs: détente with the Soviets, abandonment of Bretton-Woods dollar-gold link, and the opening to China. As Nixon spoke, national security adviser Henry Kissinger was secretly en route to Beijing to plan the first presidential visit to China.
Nixon’s predictions about the end of U.S. global pre-eminence proved to be wrong, or so it seemed in the five years before his death in 1994. The Soviet Union collapsed and the U.S. enjoyed what Charles Krauthammer called “the unipolar moment.” Late in life, Nixon wrote books arguing that the U.S. would dominate the world scene and its will would shape the new era. “Because we are the last remaining superpower,” he declared in uncharacteristically sweeping terms, “no crisis is irrelevant to our interests.”
Today China is rising, Russia is resurgent, and the U.S. is again consumed by division and self-doubt. Will the U.S. disprove the forecasts of decline again, or was Nixon ahead of his time?
Mr. Switzer is executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney and a presenter at the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
 

Splendid stuff, and what good news about China. You see, the US might have been done down by primitive medievalists and tribal types, but that means they're ready to tackle the Chinese, a wretched mob who aren't even up to primitive medieval, tribal standards, and so can be given a sound thrashing, and made to like it ...

 

 

 

Oh it's Asia where it's all happening, is it? A good thing the pond doesn't have to answer the trick question as to whether Afghanistan is in Asia or the middle east, and perhaps mistakenly propose that Afghanistan is in south central Asia. 

Instead a quick survey of the headlines will prove the swishing Switzer is right on the money ...

 

 

 

Yes, there's no doubt the managing of the retreat has done wonders for the US image abroad, and has put it in a very strong position to focus on China ... and if you believe all that, the pond has got a barely used Switzer, left over from RN, to sell you ...

And in keeping with the Switzer theme for the day, a message to medievalists and tribalists everywhere, courtesy the immortal Rowe, with more Rowe here ...