“I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”This morning I got into it on an open thread and wrote this:
Afghanistan has been a shit show from day one. Now we're seeing some of it. We were wrong (practically, morally, and legally) to respond to 9/11 by failing to apply international criminal law to evil actors and thinking we had to use our hammer (the military).Like Joe Biden, I'm sticking to my stance on this one. Since the beginning of this blog in 2005, I've probably written 50 posts about this aimless, fruitless campaign. I've reported on dozens of reporters' books. I've written about opium; I've written about women and education; and I've written about apparently boundless stupidity in Washington and a succession of military commands. This never worked and it was never going anywhere good.
Biden is having to carry the burden of making visible what has been implicit since 2002 at the latest. We had no business trying to remake that country. Ugly scenes -- but remember that the people of the US long ago gave up caring so long as their kids weren't among the casualties.
Many more Afghans will suffer. Many already have. That reality comes as a physical injury to the Afghans and a moral injury to those of our forces who tried.
But it's over.
Paul Waldman warns we can't be expected to have learned our lesson.
Just as before, there will be an effort to unlearn Afghanistan’s lessons so its mistakes can be repeated.
... We’re so convinced of our own benevolent intentions that we can’t wrap our heads around the idea that people in the rest of the world see us not as a force of altruism and liberation but as a global hegemon imposing its will and maintaining its control, so often indifferent to the death and dislocation it causes. They do not trust our motives, they do not share our confidence, and they often view our own history with a clearer eye than we do.... One day — and it won’t be too long — another president will come along and tell us that morality and national security demand that we launch yet another invasion to add to our long list.
“By god,” he’ll say, “we’ve kicked the Afghanistan syndrome once and for all.”
The photo is from a protest in Pakistan in 2001.
3 comments:
Already on Morning Joe I've listened to how many troops are in Korea, Germany, Italy, etc. and that is supposed to be proof we can help other countries and the retired General made it clear we were wrong to leave. sigh...
Oh yes. Again yes.
A former Afgan pilot in their Air Force training here who subsequently immigrated to the U.S., then ultimately started a local business spoke to a group I was in after our country went into their nation. He described family history including a Grandfather who was a Warlord, the centuries of events. He accurately described then the forces that would likely not be overcome as has proven to be true. I remember thinking at the time that D.C. decision makers should have been consulting with him. I think now, too, of a young woman nurse with whom I worked several years ago and she enthusiastically left the U.S. to go to Afgan. I can't help wondering what has become of her.
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