It is still early days, and the picture of what is happening in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has regained control of the country continues to develop.
Good morning everyone. So I have some thoughts (as you no doubt are unsurprised to hear!) . . .
1. The US military establishment lied and lied and lied when they talked about the combat readiness of the Afghan army. They have done so for 20 years. They even admitted that they lied a number of times when pressed. Their motive in lying was to present the military trainers as competent, when they were not. If this sounds familiar to those of us who lived through the Vietnam era, well, there you go.
2. There is not a single US administration that behaved proactively in Afghanistan. There has not been a single congressional "class" that has behaved proactively in Afghanistan. Plenty of academics--from historians to economists, to anthropologists, to sociologists--have been saying over the last 40 years that the West's way of dealing with Afghanistan was going to fail and was wrongheaded from the start. But the last 20 years has also seen the dumbing down of the federal government, the glorification of ignorance and prejudice and jingoistic idiocy. So the people who actually had a clue were ignored or vilified. QED.
3. If the people of Afghanistan had cared about the pro-Western cultural institutions that western money propped up in their country--education and rights for women, a government elected through a democratic and transparent process, an economy based on capitalism--they would have embraced this idea beyond the few elites and the dedicated female teachers of girls and women. But they did not. Because Afghanistan is not a country. It is a delegation of provinces with intimate and historical ties to traditions we dismissed and ignored. We did not make them care about women and girls. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT WOMEN AND GIRLS. The hollering going on now about "how do we save the women and girls" is laughable because the people who should have been asking those questions are the ones who embraced TFG's jingoistic and autocratic foreign policy, who are determined to police women's bodies and criminalize women's bodily autonomy in the USA, who claim religious exceptionalism, who say NOTHING about the abuse of women and girls in their favorite countries, like Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda came from. They are our Taliban: they just wear suits and talk about the "rights of the unborn," and claim that their militant death-cult brand of Christianity is the "true" one. And they are winning here in the USA: take a look at the judicial decision to ban certain abortions in TX.
3. We had the chance to do the ONE THING that would have broken the economic back of the Taliban: stop the growing of opium poppies and the opium trade--the market for which is THE WEST--and replace it with well-constructed, carefully planned alternatives that the people in the south and west of the country (where poppies are grown) could manage THEMSELVES. We did not consult with the people whose lives were at risk if they did not grow opium. We did not ask them what THEY wanted to do, what THEY wanted to grow. We just went in and behaved like the boorish mo****f***ers we are and claimed to know better. We did not.
4. Why are all media outlets losing their s*** trying to blame SOMEONE for this horror show? Because they think it will help their ratings. Because as institutions the commercial media are all idiots and ignoramuses, led by suits who like their corporate bonuses no matter their political stripes. Because the last person in the room is the one they blame. Why don't they instead do something useful, like re-animate the pages from the RNC website that praised TFG's "brilliant and groundbreaking deal" with the Taliban? Which they scrubbed as soon as the debacle occurred.
I could go on but I won't. Sorry for my rant of the day. I admit that I don't understand why anyone is surprised by any of this.
Good morning, Linda, and as usual, kudos for the wonderful rant that is right on. I am so angry at media outlets right now and I know damn well that it is ratings. As for women and girls, I was reading yesterday about what the men were saying to women before they won Kabul. It wasn't at all supportive. I could write a book about how females are treated including here. We have always been boors when "helping" others who are not of our culture and frequently don't look like us. I am reminded of Achebe's Things Fall Apart, about the colonization of Nigeria and the coming of missionaries. I was a Peace Corps teacher in Sierra Leone at an Irish Catholic boys school. The students were Catholic at school and practiced all the old ways at home. One of my fellow teachers (known as junior staff!) told me I shouldn't whistle because I would attract evil spirits. I learned a great deal there about that culture and also the overwhelming hubris of Americans and Europeans. To their credit, PC volunteers usually were not. For me, it was a life changing experience especially in terms of our foreign policy, the history of colonization, and the slave trade.
Michele, when I taught General Education World Civ courses, I assigned Things Fall Apart. It remains one of the most profoundly important works of literature I have ever read. And I agree: it should be essential reading for every yutz who ventures outside his or her little enclave.
It was one of my first introductions to literature written by Africans and I will never forget it and have a copy in our home library. Some of my other favorites are written by French speaking African poets. "The slap of the holy water" has stayed with me and then the hilarious one in hybrid English about having only one wife. I read those poems to my students in ancient and English history (world civ for frosh which matched our English dept. sequence). To start them thinking at the beginning of class, we watched The Gods Must Be Crazy which has all sort of great threads in it. (and yes, I rode in a Land Rover where we had to work the windshield wipers by hand and hold one of the doors closed.) One student said, but that's a comedy and I told him it was OK to laugh in history class. Another favorite of mine is The Poisonwood Bible because it is very accurate in terms of how missionaries and Africans see things. I did laugh. I also want to say that I am now starting my am reading your posts and love them.
Brava, Linda! As an immigrant -- and once, an Afghani neighbor -- I have been ranting for a very long time. My rants are often silent for fear of repercussions, my profound thanks to you for this appeasing and most gratifying one!
You hit it on the nose when you wrote that "Afghanistan is not a country. It is a delegation of provinces with intimate and historical traditions that we ignored." All of those countries whose names end with "Stan" differ ethnically and are somewhat alien to those over the next mountain range and that was also true within Afghanistan as you point out. Outside of Islam, little unites them except the quality of isolation from their neighbors which each has. Look at a map of Central Asia where Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan come together and try to figure out why they are separate countries.
“Because they think it will help their ratings. Because as institutions the commercial media are all idiots and ignoramuses, led by suits who like their corporate bonuses no matter their political stripes.” This is precisely what I have been yelling at the television for days. I keep trying to have faith that “GOOD” will prevail in all of these matters, home and abroad. But when the right wing has Fox and the “once believed real news outlets” only care about ratings and profits, is there any GOOD left??
WE read other sources, but most of the country gets any and all information from sources that do not care about the good of our country. They only care about their own pockets.
Linda, Thank you. I was winding up to a lengthy rant and you saved me the time. You are spot on. It always was about the drugs and $$$. We should have learned our lesson in Vietnam. Remember the storied "Golden Triangle"? What ever happened to that?
"We should have learned our lesson in _______________ (add country/region name here)."
That list would be very long and the lessons learned have not been the ones that lead to better/longer lives for either the people of those places or Americans.
Yes, you've hit all the necessary points in this debacle. I just posted my singular thots on legalizing heroin to take the profit out of it. Didn't go into all the details of how the very conservative mouthpieces are likely benefiting from the illegal trade profits - maybe why no one has pushed this in government. Our complicity with allowing the poppy fields to continue may have come from our own government - who knows? Organized crime is just that.
Ironically, the large population of heroin addicts in the US aided the bankrolling the Taliban war effort, as the Taliban, through the sale of morphine, tapped into the highly lucrative opium and heroin markets, some of which came to the US. The poppy trade also played a critical role in corrupting local government officials in Afghani provinces. Although it tried, US was never able to effectively disrupt the poppy trade in Afghanistan. It is highly likely that the Taliban government will remain dependent on the poppy trade as international support for Afghanistan dries up with the Taliban takeover.
Thanks for the rant. Speaking of suits and bonuses- I am waiting for an NBC employee to speak up about China and human rights (Tibet?) before we are bombarded with our next feel good, flag waving bonanza of the NBC winter olympics (from Beijing?). I won’t hold my breath (as I write on my iPad made in China). As Heather says, follow the money.
That's a good point. China is ready to put in infrastructure in Tibet to search for minerals and expand its trade. Perhaps western money put on hold won't matter that much because China will pay and pave its way through Afghanistan as they did in Tibet with "hiring" its citizens to do the ground (literally) work. It will be very interesting to watch China's engagement with provincial governments and cultural beliefs.
From your source: "Putin also spoke to Macron on Thursday, discussing Afghanistan under the Taliban's rule and the importance of ensuring the safety of civilians, the Kremlin said." What could go wrong!?
Or, holding back the former Afghanistan government money to withhold it from the Taliban will only create a thirst that makes the Chinese and Russian influence in the region just that much more powerful.
You said a mouth full with that little phrase, “ Follow The Money “ as the money seems to be the root of all the evil!!! And I ain’t the least bit religious......
The question has to be asked in all of these situations, and that is , Who is gaining what in this situation ???
We seemed to understand some of this when we went into Afghanistan. We teamed up with what we called the northern alliance, tribes from the north, who opposed the Taliban, whose stronghold was the south. But then we seemed to forget all this and tried to create a nation. We also often trap ourselves when we promote democracy and encourage new elections. All foreign aid then goes to these anointed leaders, who siphon off whatever they want, and the aid never reaches the general population. Correcting this situation would make a mockery of the new democracy we helped to create. The soldiers in the Afghan army were often not paid, when there was plenty of money floating around. This is not good for morale. Here is a question: why do the people of some divided areas (Italy, Japan) form nations, while others don’t? Afghans are firm about one thing, tho, no foreign influence. In this they have an ally, pakistan, which gave shelter to al qaeda and the taliban when things got tough. Pakistan is opposed to foreign influence in Afghanistan because it thinks that this will eventually lead to the influence of India on Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which lies between Afghanistan and India, cannot abide being “surrounded” by India.
Probably 2 days before the attack on the twin towers, the tribal chief in the north was killed, maybe assassinated. No one showed up to take his place.
A Big Thank You to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for his SUPERB response just now to media's unfair and inappropriate blaming of President Biden for the "chaotic end" of the US war with Afghanistan. I am still cheering and clapping!!
The fact that we don’t yet know the truth of the “Saudi connection” to 9/11, indicates that we all are still very much in the dark about the games rich and powerful men play with people’s lives. “We the people, all of us, this time” really need to bear down on our quest for truth and transparency and justice and treating others as we want to be treated.
I think we know the truth of the "Saudi connection to 9/11", I just think this is another one of our governments monumental cover ups. We knew the night of 9/11 when Bush escorted his Saudi visitors out of our country under the cover of night.
Sometimes fiction provides more access to factual situations than news reporting does. The writer's imagination can open doors a journalist might miss, and get closer to the truth. There's a 2020 novel (The Opium Prince by Jasmine Aimaq) which can add a lot to understanding Afghanistan. When there's a course on what happened over the past 20 years in Afghanistan, it will be on the reading list.
Thank you for these observations. Just a note... if you watch the videos of the Afghanis trying to board the planes to escape the country, it is about 95% male. Where are the women? I noticed this from the first video and it hasn't gotten any better.
HCR's key (at least for me) - the wart on the proverbial nose which the foolhardy US apparently was unable and/or unwilling to acknowledge: "a society based in patronage networks and family relationships."
At our level - the working and middle-ish classes - we don't really understand the extent to which "patronage networks and family relationships" also operate within the ranks of the ultra-wealthy in the US and other western countries. We have been encouraged to believe that merit counts more than who you know. But is that really the case?
The lesson here might be the consequential damages that occur on a small planet with increasing connectivity when extremism, fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism take over.
US Republicans, with their increasing extremists, fundamentalists and anti-intellectualists, may not believe that we are all in this together. They may believe there are winners and losers, and winners deserve to have it all. They may believe that "you are either with us or against us" meaning against them. They may believe there are "others" here and abroad who shouldn't be here in the US. They may be a softer more kinder "Taliban". Not so sure about this.
But my point is that nations, communities, families, societies, economies, cultures, lives collapse when there is no trust, when there is no freedom to work together, when all orders come from one group, when the doors are shut. Ultimately, the money does stop flowing, systems shutdown, the anger builds and the violence grows.
Russia has never come out of its doldrums. The Dark Ages were not just one period of history. While slaves were eventually freed in the US, slave states continued to sacrifice everything to destroy the achievements of blacks and to oppress them. Whites in the free states could not see their own segregation of blacks as a liability to our own economy and morality. The evidence is and has been everywhere that humanity either works together so that all may prosper in a sustainable way, or there will be no true peace and prosperity. If Christianity and all other religions were practiced with their best intentions, there would only be enlightenment. But like all other human endeavors, those who can command power too often abuse it and destroy everything in their path. We should watch what's happening in Afghanistan with humility and know that we are next if we don't work together, while denying all resources to extremists, our own included.
This goes back to my frequent thoughts over the last 4 years about the so-called Christians. If you’re in an evangelical church are you always considered a Republican? When they sit next to each other in pews each week would they hate you for supporting Democrats like they do in public? Do they self segregate? When did church and religion become so political?
I was raised in the Methodist church. I taught Sunday School for many years so I would know what my daughter was learning and eventually left when it was more about the collection plate than physically helping people. Also, my father was a bigot. Going to church doesn’t make you a good person. What you do outside of the church can.
The fundamentalist church down the street has a huge hubris problem and they also gave the area a huge COVID outbreak. They won't cooperate with their near neighbors in terms of too loud music. Now they have joined the churches who preach hate at Riverside Park in downtown Salem. I can't even imagine a Democrat attending such a place. On the other hand, I have friends whose religious beliefs and church memberships inform their social consciences and they actively take part in progressive causes.
"When did church and religion become so political?" I think that the separation of church and state began to fold when anti abortion became an evangelical theme during the civil rights years. Sometimes I don't get the connection, but churches seemed to rise up to create this theme. Someone help me with the connection.
$$$$. So called leaders of such groups realized that the anti abortion issue feeds the church budget! While their sincerity to preserve life might be heart felt, such emotion is rarely translated into other pro-life issues as being anti war; supporting healthcare for ALL; supporting a living wage which would enable parents to spend more quality time with their children rather than working 60+ hours a week in order to provide food and shelter for their family.
All of these "teachings" should be called out for what they truly are - pushing their political agenda, and as such, they should all have their tax-exempt status revoked. Then see how quickly they "repent."
It was planted in their religious brains by Conservative Movement cons, who saw potential Christian and Catholic armies for their bigoted sexist money and power grubbing cause. Maybe I am being too nice.
C.S. Lewis suggested that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics…allures us to trade grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. —- Phillip Yancey
Here’s an interesting article by Judd Legum about the media’s coverage of Afghanistan.
(I’m not sure everyone can read it without subscribing, so I will post it. He often has great articles. You should consider subscribing.)
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After two decades of war, President Biden finally made the decision to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. It did not go as planned. The Afghan government and security forces, which the United States spent two decades building up, evaporated in days. The Taliban, the Islamist group which harbored Al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks, quickly regained control over the country.
This was a failure that comes with real consequences for innocent Afghans. At particular risk are the Afghans that assisted US efforts, who may face retribution if they remain in the country, and women and girls, who may be stripped of their rights by the repressive Taliban regime.
But was this primarily a failure by Biden, for deciding to withdraw now? Or was it the unavoidable conclusion of failed policies in Afghanistan across four presidential administrations? Most coverage has focused criticism on Biden. And to bolster that argument, media outlets are relying on many of the people responsible for two decades of failure in Afghanistan. While there are legitimate criticisms of the way Biden executed the withdrawal, the result is an extremely distorted narrative.
Let's examine, for example, this piece in the Washington Post: "Biden’s promise to restore competence to the presidency is undercut by chaos in Afghanistan." Although this is presented as a "straight news" piece, the entire premise is that Biden's decision to withdraw reflects his own incompetence. The author, Matt Viser, reports that the decision and its execution reflected "an inability to plan" and "an underestimation of a foreign adversary."
As proof, Viser cites, "leading lawmakers and others" who believe that "the chaotic, and deadly, implementation of [Biden's] decision reflects a failure by Biden at a critical moment to deliver the steady leadership and sound judgment he promised." Who are these "leading lawmakers and others"? The same people who have been consistently wrong about Afghanistan strategy for the last twenty years.
The lead quote comes from former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who said Biden's decision to withdraw reflects the fact that Biden "didn’t really spend much time on the issue" and the Biden administration was simply "crossing their fingers and hoping chaos would not result."
But is Panetta a credible voice on how policies will play out in Afghanistan? In a November 2011 interview with Charlie Rose, Panetta said that the military campaign in Afghanistan had "seriously weakened the Taliban" and now the Afghan people were "able to control their own fate." He said that the development of the Afghan army and police force was "on target" and they were "doing the job."
This was a consistent refrain during Panetta's tenure as Secretary of Defense. "[W]e are moving in the right direction, and we are winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan," Panetta said in December 2011.
After a March 2012 visit to Afghanistan, Panetta was even more optimistic. "Afghanistan needs to be able to govern and secure itself," Panetta said. "We are very close to accomplishing that." In January 2013, Panetta announced we had entered "the last chapter of establishing a sovereign Afghanistan that can govern and secure itself for the future."
Panetta, of course, was wrong about all of this. Afghanistan was not "close" to being able to "govern and secure itself" in 2012. The "last chapter" of establishing a sovereign Afghanistan did not occur in 2013. Nor was Afghanistan ready to "govern and secure itself" eight years later. But, year after year, that rosy picture was used to continue to sell the war to the American people.
As recently as June of this year, Panetta was touting the "progress" that had been made in building up the Afghan security forces and government.
[W]e did make gains in Afghanistan. We have made progress...We have improved their society in terms of how they operate… I saw the Afghan military do some very effective operations… So we have something to work with.
But it was the failure of the Afghan government and security forces to survive even a few days in 2021 that made Biden's withdrawal so chaotic. Had the institutions touted by Panetta held, even for a short period of time, evacuations could have occurred in a more orderly fashion. But neither Panetta's role in the failed mission, nor his history of poor judgments about the trajectory of the country, are mentioned in the Washington Post. Instead he's given free rein to paper over his involvement and place the blame on Biden.
This is not an isolated problem. Panetta was also quoted by Fox News, the New York Post, The Hill, MSNBC, NBC News, the New York Daily News, CNN and many other outlets. None of them noted Panetta's prior inaccurate predictions about the future of Afghanistan.
The next person quoted in the Washington Post piece is Ryan Crocker, the former Ambassador to Afghanistan during the Bush and Obama administrations. His criticism of Biden is even harsher. "I’m left with some grave questions in my mind about his ability to lead our nation as commander in chief," Crocker said.
Like Panetta, Crocker also touted the Afghan military and police, saying in a 2012 speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the security forces represented an "amazing achievement." He described the group as a "capable” and “multifaceted," and claimed they were "close to their maximum strength of 352,000." Like Panetta, Crocker was wrong about their capability and size.
Crocker also touted the "courage and determination" of President Hamid Karzai. But Karzai had "won reelection after cronies stuffed thousands of ballot boxes." After securing power, Karzai presided over a deeply corrupt and incompetent government. Kabul Bank, the country's largest bank, nearly collapsed under the "weight of $1 billion in fraudulent loans." Among the recipients was Karzai's brother, Mahmoud Karzai. Crocker's predecessor, Karl Eikenberry, pressed Karzai to take action in response to the Kabul Bank scandal. But when Crocker replaced Eikenberry in 2011 that ended. Crocker's "attitude was to make the issue go away, bury it as deep as possible, and silence any voices within the embassy that wanted to make this an issue,” according to interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Crocker's role in covering up the corruption of the Afghan government is not mentioned in Viser's Washington Post article or the other outlets that quoted him for criticizing the withdrawal — NBC News, The Hill, Axios, and Fox News.
The next pundit Viser quotes is Eliot A. Cohen, a prominent hawk who advised Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during the Bush administration. Cohen calls Biden's decision "very bad" and a "moral disaster." But Cohen would likely criticize most military withdrawals. He recently wrote a book calling for "a substantially larger military" and more wars. He even suggests the U.S. should be more open to nuclear war. "The actual use of nuclear weapons by the United States is not a last resort," Cohen writes.
Finally, Viser includes brief, critical quotes about the withdrawal from four members of Congress who have supported and funded operations in Afghanistan for many years — Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), and Mark Warner (D-VA), and Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA).
The heard and the unheard
Unrepresented in Viser's piece are any voices that supported withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan — even though a poll last month found that 73% of Americans supported withdrawal. A poll taken August 13-16, amid unrelentingly negative press coverage of the decision, showed that support for the withdrawal dropped significantly. The number of Americans who support withdrawal, however, is still substantially larger than the number of Americans who oppose it. But the Washington Post piece, and many other news articles, only include critics.
The opinions of critics of the withdrawal from Afghanistan — many of whom were complicit in the failed policy over 20 years — are then laundered by prominent media figures as "fact." As Jon Alsop notes in the Columbia Journalism Review, NBC's Chuck Todd asserted that the withdrawal from Afghanistan will "haunt Mr. Biden’s legacy" and Axios' Mike Allen called it an "embarrassment."
The one-sided coverage of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan mirrors the mistakes made in the run-up to the Iraq War. Then, "Bush administration officials were the most frequently quoted sources, the voices of anti-war groups and opposition Democrats were barely audible, and the overall thrust of coverage favored a pro-war perspective." Nearly two decades later, history is repeating itself.
Thank you for this report...it would bring a little perspective to the fore is, but only if, the media and the pols would stop their feeding frenzy to read it and think for five minutes before engaging their mouths or word processors. At a meeting of members of a local Dem committee last night, folks were saying, "Well Seth sure has been everywhere the last few days, hasn't he."(eye rolls galore) Mr Know it all about the military, Mr know it all about what the Democrats need for 'leadership', and, well, Mr know it all just about everything that would get interviews on the airwaves. Team player much?
I can't help wondering why so many people are so eager to throw Biden under the bus...not just Republicans, we know about them, but all the media, not just the right wing yahoos, and so many Democrats. Is everyone just whoring for headlines? Is there no thoughtfulness left anywhere?
I think some people don’t want to be the Dem version of Trumpists and accept/approve all of Biden’s actions without question. Also, people are reacting to media headlines which might not accurately reflect what’s happening. I always try to remind myself that media need money & clicks to survive and that Big Media are owned by wealthy people who benefit from the framework laid out by Republicans. War is profitable.
I also try to remind myself that the images media love to hawk are plentiful and dramatic....better than a horror movie...people clinging to (American🙀) plane wings as they take off and bearded men in robes with automatic rifles sitting atop Humvees roll down the streets of Kabul..as talking heads scream how frightened the women and children must all be. (Duh, ya think?). But this isn't a movie, and the impact on people's perceptions is utterly unhealthy. It's downright destructive.
Why are these people on tv in the first place? Because they present well. They are ready at 3:00 in the morning if you need them. They are polished, they are used to the cameras, they can fill up time, and they promote themselves endlessly, to all media. They look good on tv, they sound good on the radio. It’s a show, after all. It’s also sad to hear the hosts of these shows sounding so ignorant about events they’ve been covering daily for decades. All they seem to know is melodrama. And I’m talking npr!
Ms. Rice, whose singular achievement was to be the first female and black person to get a membership into the Masters golf clan, is another who thought she had a better idea than those who had failed to bring peace to the region!
Big Thank You to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for his SUPERB response just now to media's unfair and inappropriate blaming of President Biden for the "chaotic end" of the US war with Afghanistan. I am still cheering and clapping!!
Agree ... but if our media were not profit based, the alternative would be media paid for by the government, or by interests with agendas, which thereby would not be trustworthy. Maybe we are better off with the diverse media we have today, including the candor of some, as you write about, and the contrast of the lies of others. Risky, but it leaves avenues of dissent open.
There is just one big problem with this piece by Judd L: the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was made February 2020 by the Trump administration. Ever since the deal, American casualties dropped to zero. Biden had the choice of living up to the deal or changing it. As it turned out he extended it by four months, after reflecting on the dire consequences of backing out. The decision must have been wrenching for Biden, as it is far all American Exceptionalists, who simply cannot get their minds around the pathetic scenes resulting form the corruption of the US occupation. The Afghan government and the CIA got the opium trade, not the Taliban, and the US contractors got the trillions wasted. Wake up folks. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/afghanistan-we-never-learn
Elizabeth, I was harsh in response to your reply about my criticism of the planning for withdrawal from Afghanistan. My worry about the people, Afghan women and girls, in particular, fueled my misreading of what you wrote. I apologize.
Apology accepted- I did not intend to upset you -I too am extremely worried about the Afghan people and after reading this letter originally made a donation to a refugee resettlement organization which seems such an inadequate response. Wish I knew how to help more.
Elizabeth you kindness is deeply appreciated. My conscience took too long coming forward. I have put together a long list of organization, which support the Afghan people and will post it tomorrow morning. I think you made an excellent decision in choosing a refugee resettlement organization. Salud!
Kerry, You will see two comments from me after today's Letter. You will see links on one of them, the other has good information about organizations, which you can google to obtain a link. Thank you for asking. Salud!
Fern, you have a big, wonderful, caring heart, and I know it is really hurting thinking of those Afghan women and girls. I am, alas, a Nurse Ratchett for my own survival.
Pancetta, Crocker, Cohen a troika who ignored the lessons of Vietnam. Apparently, they believed that they ‘knew better’ or had ‘a better plan’ than McNamara and his ‘best and brightest’! The dna in the clans whose ancestors have survived the rugged terrain of the lands renamed Afghanistan and Pakistan has evolved over thousands of years eeking out a living in those foreboding mountains and arid lands.
Their descendants easily ‘played the con ’ on ‘strangers from the new world bearing gifts’! The above named troika posited that we needed the government in Pakistan to help stem terrorism! Yet, the American strike force had to hold a stealth raid on the bun Laden compound rather than rely on the Pakistan government to sanction the raid.
It comes of trying to prove they are unbiased so they give time to terribly biased reporters or opinion writers regardless of the truth and lack of cherry picked slant of the pieces. But, y'know, Both Sides right?
WOW! Thank you for this Lisa. I was much more shocked at the media criticism of Biden than the "chaotic pullout" of Afghanistan. Now it makes perfectly awful sense:
"The opinions of critics of the withdrawal from Afghanistan — many of whom were complicit in the failed policy over 20 years — are then laundered by prominent media figures as "fact."
We know this, but it does not explain the disinformation being highlighted by Viser as he gives space ( and therefore credence) to the people who were partly responsible for the mess and what how they lied about it. Facile brush off of a commenter's attempt to provide some corrective information doesn't enhance understanding. And it's rather impolite, wouldn't you agree?
As usual, HCR shines a light on what is missed by many others.
The Taliban are learning what every revolutionary discovers; it is much easier to topple a government than it is to govern. You have to rebuild all that you destroyed. You will need money; lots of it. You will need friends, and discovering who your real friends are can be painful.
Biden is taking the heat for the final (we hope) Aghanistan fiasco in order to divert attention from the multiple failures of so many over the last twenty years, the news media very much included.
My view is the President has shown leadership, and enormous courage, for doing what he knew had to be done.
There isn't a politician, including Joe Biden, who doesn't think about his historical legacy. Because this is Biden's "last rodeo", he could have easily played it safe with his own legacy and kicked the Afghan can down the road like the others.
As bad as the situation is in Afghanistan, the media's and Congress' attempts to focus the blame are worse, at least to me. I can remember in the early reports in the initial weeks of the 9/11 invasion telling us loyalty in Afghanistan was not to the country or government but the local warlord or whoever last gave you something.
There's plenty of blame to go around and should be equally shared by the federal government since 2001 and the media. Had Biden not won, this mess would have been on orders of magnitude worse.
Consider, dopey don pulled out of Syria allowing the Russians to control the area! The reaction was muted because million of Syrians had already fled the country. Then he abandoned the Kurdish allies who were our ‘in the trenches’ proxy in Syria. Who cared?
“…the media portrayal of our withdrawal as a catastrophe also seems to me surprising.” I’m so glad you mentioned this-I find it extremely disturbing. They are really bashing Biden for everything they’re worth. Which could be precisely the point: just as you point out that “keeping an eye on the money will be crucial for understanding how this plays out,” it seems the media are cashing in with a story of catastrophe while they can. They don’t know how it’s going to play out. They have an opportunity to seize eyeballs and advertiser dollars right now. I fear that their avarice will further bolster the march toward right wing authoritarian leadership here at home. I’m all for a free press, but nothing about this coverage feels free.
Catastrophe makes "great video" -- which is much of what the TV networks depend. As in the "if it bleeds, it leads" theory used in local TV. Nuance is not in their nature. Takes too long and there are no pictures.
They could cover the catastrophe by asking more questions rather than randomly assigning cause when there is so much unknown and obvious hidden corruption and agendas.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! My preference is that as many people as possible will be safely evacuated as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure our President is of the same mind.
Morning, Lynell! One of my "go to" arguments with my Republiqan friends over voting rights legislation is that, in my opinion, if your ability to vote was granted by an amendment to the Constitution, you don't get to have a say in what "voting rights" are as you act to curtail them.
Morning, Ally!! Thanks for not giving up with your "Republiqan friends"! One of my husband's long-time clients are big time Republicans. He sees them only occasionally when they need something fixed around their house. The wife was an avid Rush Limbaugh fan. I asked my husband who she was listening to these days now that Rush is gone. He replied "Judge Judy!"
If the powers to be had focused all the resources they did on starting and enabling wars since the 1960s on providing appropriate pre-K thru 12th grade educational and training programs for individuals with different learning styles and coming from poverty, what a different world America would be.
What a tangled mess. Thank you for picking out and explaining the salient threads so at least there’s some kind of way to wrap our brains around the tragedy that’s been unfolding for a very long time and is now only beginning a new chapter. Between this, COVID, and the fires that are the climate change poster children, I’m so stressed out I want to scream. But as long as I have some understanding of what’s happening, I can carry on. Bless you for that gift, Professor.
When the Shah fell in Iran no one in the American embassy spoke Farsi, when America began to intervene in Viet Nam no one spoke Vietnamese, when America fell in Afghanistan not many Americans spoke Pashtun. Rather disturbing pattern, n'est-ce pas?
Colonialism, anyone? Wait - that started right here with our own indigenous people & what was done to them & their cultures & traditions. It all starts at home!
I appreciate this LFAA today. What I know about this topic is miniscule, but I do know this: the retribution for the 9/11 attacks was both understandable (to a degree) and untenable. There is no way to change the nature of that country by invasion and imposition, and pure hubris to think that we could do what other nations have tried to do and failed in each of the past three centuries. It is understandable, knowing our "national makeup" that we would "go after" the person "responsible" for the attacks in our country; defensible is another matter.
I, too, note the bleating from Republiqans about "what about the women and girls" are coming from those who want to severely restrict and control women's bodies here in this country.
There with you Ally. It has been said 'that Afghanistan is where empires go to die.' Even I knew that. And the hypocrisy of it all -'what about women and girls' GMAFB
In case anyone else is interested, 'GMAFB', stands for, Give Me A Freakin' Break. I hope, Charlie, that you can get into the habit of spelling out your abbreviations and acronyms. Thanks, in advance.
No wonder he didn't spell it out. Great to see you, Christine with the funny face. Laughs couldn't be more therapeutic than in this time. Okay, laughs are precious. For being on the spot and showing up, Christine, Thank you and THANK YOU!
I feel a rant of mine coming about republicans and their defense of guns, controlling women's rights, taking away voting rights, and how in hell can people like Desantis possibly be a governor, etc. etc. And, in reality, it is about time women were given control of governments and take away the power, money, and weapons of war from the bad guys and put their testosterone to use in peaceful endeavors.
I can't go on . . and I shouldn't . . as I have to grab basil from the garden to make pesto (in between tornado warnings and torrential downpours!) Between the weather, COVID, international, it's a wonder all our heads don't explode. I thank Heather for helping us to keep it all together; although I have a few cracks in the cranium :)
I have observed that the people living in a place are always much more adept at dealing with the realities of that place/time than anyone else. The Afghans have been shaped by their topography, culture, and history into a pragmatic, tough, beautiful people who do not think like Americans. We could both evaluate the most granular data sets and still arrive at vastly different conclusions about the same circumstances. There were no good choices in Afghanistan, only pragmatic ones. I do not pretend to understand the failings of the Afghan government. I do see some of the chronic failings of my own. Hubris, greed, laziness. Hubris in that we thought we knew best for all concerned. Greed is really what kept our involvement there going. Laziness in that we never were really interested in the people we were fighting against or alongside. We are who we are, so I predict that these tragedies will keep happening, just as they have for the past 60+ years.
So frequently in recent weeks I have thought of the novel "The Ugly American". Based on the authors' knowledge of the reality of U.S. "aid", it epitomizes what your comment describes. See description of the novel at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American
As our own police departments are more successful if the members LIVE in the community they serve. Perhaps a place to start or where we should have started long ago.
I agree, and pray, with your last assertion ("These tragedies will keep happening"), that you are wrong. I'd like to think my kids and grandkids are smarter than we have been. Or noy as essily conned.
I am not an overpaid Washington bureaucrat or even an international diplomat, altho I was in Afghanistan before any foreign invasions in 1975, but I have a way to put more economic pressure on the Taliban.
LEGALIZE HEROIN
There, I said a truth that needs to be taken seriously, and ALL THE FACTS OF ADDICTION AND PROHIBITION, support that truth. While all the reactionary conservatives clutch their pearls and swoon, let me innumerate the facts.
1 PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK. We tried the Great Experiment with booze and it failed miserably. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. (Sort of like a 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan)
2 ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN HEROIN. You can overdose on either drug, but you can die from alcohol withdrawal. Ppl stoned on heroin usually nod, but those drunk on alcohol drive cars, attack others and do irrational things.
3 ILLEGALITY MAKES HEROIN MORE PROFITABLE THAN ALCOHOL. Well, at least since the Prohibition days of alcohol. If we legalized Heroin (and Marijuana, which should have never been illegal) its inflated value would crumble taking all the profit away from cartels & smugglers. Afghanistan would lose one of its major sources of income.
Legalizing all "illegal" drugs would go a long way to neutralizing many of the systems throughout the world that become rich through the trafficking in such things--in Mexico as well as Afghanistan and elsewhere. But I also think there is a reckoning that has to happen. The West invented the opium trade--specifically the British and the French, who both used it as a tool of imperialism. There is a reason why the Opium Wars are not discussed as much in British circles: it is too disgusting a story to tell, especially for the Niall Ferguson types who mourn the loss of the empire. We have to take ownership of the origins and the continuation of this trade and we have to also own up to our neglect of people who are the victims of it--including those who are addicted to these substances. The money made from drugs goes into the pockets not only of the traffickers but of every politician who plays the holier than thou game while looking the other way.
Someone needed to say it. Saw one other comment about the “poppy culture”.
Same with our country and the ridiculous illegal commerce of marijuana. Some states have legalized it and put the tax money garnered into the state’s hard and soft infrastructure while other states continue to criminalize it and put money into the judicial and penal system.
And continued research continues to emerge about the physiological and psychological benefits about medicinal properties of some plants.
There remains the issue of the potential of Taliban benefits from poppy culture/heroin production to replace funds now frozen by western countries. My understanding, confirmed by a number of articles I've just read, poppy culture didn't become a major source of revenue for Afghanistan before the 1980s, after the Russian invasion destroyed the other types of agriculture that Afghanistan had depended on previously, subsequent to the major investments by the U.S. and Russia post-WW II. Before that invasion, my understanding is that Afghanistan was a net exporter of many agricultural products, most if not all destroyed during the fighting between Mujahideen and Russian forces after 1979. All the more reason the decriminalize drugs like heroin and deal with it & other opiates as we do alcohol.
Excerpt from the following informative article (one of several which stated much the same):
"Afghanistan became the world’s largest opium producer only in the 1980s and, although, opium is often identified as an ‘eastern drug’, its use actually originally spread from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean to southeast and east Asia.
While traveling from Europe to Asia, opium morphed in people’s perceptions from a plant grown mostly for its nourishing oil and seeds into one that was farmed for its intoxicating content. In later times, it also morphed from a commodity on which colonial empires were built (1) and from which later guerrilla groups were financed to fight communism to a commodity that is perceived as funding terrorist groups and mafia networks and needs to be eradicated." https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/context-culture/on-the-cultural-history-of-opium-and-how-poppy-came-to-afghanistan/
Judith, You expanded our knowledge of Afghanistan's economic picture concerning agriculture, poppy culture, opium, etc., and the exploitation of the country by an imperialistic invader. Thank you.
THANK YOU ROB! I wanted to, but thought I must be missing something. NO - EVERYONE ELSE IS. Legaize it and terroists won't come (no heroin money to pay their way).
I agree, sorta. I was thinking if we take away their poppy trade what will they do? Start cooking meth? The real battle should be against the Taliban financial supporters and revenue streams. I doubt they can exist solely on their road block tax collections.
Maybe, just maybe, the "300,000 person army" that was trained by the USA are living in fear, now that the Taliban have prevailed, because they have "aided and abetted" the enemy, which is us, the USA. Same goes for all the panicked translators and western oriented Afghan desperately trying to escape at the airport. Yet is it not possible to imagine that the new government will show some mercy on these people, who, after all, are talented and can help in rebuilding the country after twenty years of occupation by western forces? Could it be that the Afghans are feeling relief and joy that the war is over and normality will return? Russia and China appear to be more pragmatic and seem to have a better understanding of how to deal with the situation, which is taking place in their own back yard. Could we not be spared the spectacle of Fox News Talking Head Generals yakking away about Biden, and the MSNBC Talking Heads blaming Trump? Time for Americans to seriously reflect on the utility of the "overwhelming military might". What is next on the agenda? Iran? Or Russia? Or China? How about a society where health is a universal right and education is provided for all? And a government that can prevail on the abusive and destructive system of private monopolies?
When others have commented on how extraordinary one of Heather’s letters are over the others I have wondered what stands out to them. For me they are all extraordinary. Until this one, which for me, has insight that I have not seen anywhere else. Granted I am not the most widely read. But this struck a very raw nerve for me: “And yet, the media portrayal of our withdrawal as a catastrophe also seems to me surprising. To date, at least as far as I have seen, there have been no reports of such atrocities as the top American diplomat in Syria reported in the chaos when the U.S. pulled out of northern Syria in 2019. Violence against our Kurdish allies there was widely expected and it indeed occurred. In a memo made public in November of that year, Ambassador William V. Roebuck wrote that “Islamist groups” paid by Turkey were deliberately engaged in ethnic cleansing of Kurds, and were committing “widely publicized, fear-inducing atrocities” even while “our military forces and diplomats were on the ground.” The memo continued: “The Turkey operation damaged our regional and international credibility and has significantly destabilized northeastern Syria.”
Reports of that ethnic cleansing in the wake of our withdrawal seemed to get very little media attention in 2019, perhaps because the former president’s first impeachment inquiry took up all the oxygen. But it strikes me that the sensibility of Roebuck’s memo is now being read onto our withdrawal from Afghanistan although conditions there are not—yet—like that.”
Where were the media then? Why are they so focused on blaming Biden now, instead of questioning what is happening here? I’m glad they are calling for an investigation. Hopefully it will be a serious one and not another Benghazi. Maybe we can actually learn an important lesson?
I’m wondering the same Christy. Has the media become stuck panic mode? I used to think it was backlash against the t**** administration, but now it seems either a knee-jerk reaction or the realization that it’s more profitable to whip people up in a frenzy.
Media are seeking the heroin-like (speaking if Afghanistan) endorphin thrill of breaking catastrophies. The tRump addiction will take many, many news cycles to wean off.
As this Afghanistan crisis unfolds, many questions remain unanswered. What about the minerals, opium production? Are the Taliban really up to the challenge to make the most financially from this? As financial aid will be shuttered, what have they really gained?
They remind me of the bully that just wants to "say" they won.
As with any situation of this magnitude, follow the money for the clearer picture.
Unlike the US Embassy, the Russian and Chinese embassies are open for business with the Taliban.
In fact, yesterday the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan was escorted around Kabul safely by the Taliban.
I am sure China and Russia, having quietly built alliances with BOTH the Afghan government (now gone) AND the Taliban will have no problems developing the minerals via mining in Afghanistan.
Likewise, the Chinese approach to foreign engagement is invest, build and grow a relationship. Compare that to the US approach, invade, kill and destroy.
If you look at the past 20 years of history, you can see, the Chinese approach is working, and, the US approach has always failed.
The Chinese are now the world's most influential country as a result of investing in almost every country in the world. Even Britain has Chinese engineers and contractors building a giant nuclear reactor for them.
All we offer: We can invade, kill, maximize military contractor profit, and, get out.
Mike, ofcourse China and Russia are positioned to take whatever they want from Afghanistan. They have been waiting decades for this. My point was the Taliban are not up to task to do this on their own.
The Chinese are masterminds of opportunity.
I find it curious that the 2 countries that Trump had zero problem with are going to be , most likely, the largest receivers of of "goods" from this downfall.
Why it's almost as if Trump knew this would happen 🤔.
Our economic system is based of making a profit and using it to bring about growth, with the welfare of the people remaining as a secondary priority. Retired? Look at what your pension (not Social Security), if you're fortunate enough to have one, to see in what it is invested. What the Chinese have accomplished would not have happened if making a profit were their goal. Part of the price they pay, of course, is the loss of freedom.
Good morning everyone. So I have some thoughts (as you no doubt are unsurprised to hear!) . . .
1. The US military establishment lied and lied and lied when they talked about the combat readiness of the Afghan army. They have done so for 20 years. They even admitted that they lied a number of times when pressed. Their motive in lying was to present the military trainers as competent, when they were not. If this sounds familiar to those of us who lived through the Vietnam era, well, there you go.
2. There is not a single US administration that behaved proactively in Afghanistan. There has not been a single congressional "class" that has behaved proactively in Afghanistan. Plenty of academics--from historians to economists, to anthropologists, to sociologists--have been saying over the last 40 years that the West's way of dealing with Afghanistan was going to fail and was wrongheaded from the start. But the last 20 years has also seen the dumbing down of the federal government, the glorification of ignorance and prejudice and jingoistic idiocy. So the people who actually had a clue were ignored or vilified. QED.
3. If the people of Afghanistan had cared about the pro-Western cultural institutions that western money propped up in their country--education and rights for women, a government elected through a democratic and transparent process, an economy based on capitalism--they would have embraced this idea beyond the few elites and the dedicated female teachers of girls and women. But they did not. Because Afghanistan is not a country. It is a delegation of provinces with intimate and historical ties to traditions we dismissed and ignored. We did not make them care about women and girls. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT WOMEN AND GIRLS. The hollering going on now about "how do we save the women and girls" is laughable because the people who should have been asking those questions are the ones who embraced TFG's jingoistic and autocratic foreign policy, who are determined to police women's bodies and criminalize women's bodily autonomy in the USA, who claim religious exceptionalism, who say NOTHING about the abuse of women and girls in their favorite countries, like Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda came from. They are our Taliban: they just wear suits and talk about the "rights of the unborn," and claim that their militant death-cult brand of Christianity is the "true" one. And they are winning here in the USA: take a look at the judicial decision to ban certain abortions in TX.
3. We had the chance to do the ONE THING that would have broken the economic back of the Taliban: stop the growing of opium poppies and the opium trade--the market for which is THE WEST--and replace it with well-constructed, carefully planned alternatives that the people in the south and west of the country (where poppies are grown) could manage THEMSELVES. We did not consult with the people whose lives were at risk if they did not grow opium. We did not ask them what THEY wanted to do, what THEY wanted to grow. We just went in and behaved like the boorish mo****f***ers we are and claimed to know better. We did not.
4. Why are all media outlets losing their s*** trying to blame SOMEONE for this horror show? Because they think it will help their ratings. Because as institutions the commercial media are all idiots and ignoramuses, led by suits who like their corporate bonuses no matter their political stripes. Because the last person in the room is the one they blame. Why don't they instead do something useful, like re-animate the pages from the RNC website that praised TFG's "brilliant and groundbreaking deal" with the Taliban? Which they scrubbed as soon as the debacle occurred.
I could go on but I won't. Sorry for my rant of the day. I admit that I don't understand why anyone is surprised by any of this.
Good morning, Linda, and as usual, kudos for the wonderful rant that is right on. I am so angry at media outlets right now and I know damn well that it is ratings. As for women and girls, I was reading yesterday about what the men were saying to women before they won Kabul. It wasn't at all supportive. I could write a book about how females are treated including here. We have always been boors when "helping" others who are not of our culture and frequently don't look like us. I am reminded of Achebe's Things Fall Apart, about the colonization of Nigeria and the coming of missionaries. I was a Peace Corps teacher in Sierra Leone at an Irish Catholic boys school. The students were Catholic at school and practiced all the old ways at home. One of my fellow teachers (known as junior staff!) told me I shouldn't whistle because I would attract evil spirits. I learned a great deal there about that culture and also the overwhelming hubris of Americans and Europeans. To their credit, PC volunteers usually were not. For me, it was a life changing experience especially in terms of our foreign policy, the history of colonization, and the slave trade.
Michele, when I taught General Education World Civ courses, I assigned Things Fall Apart. It remains one of the most profoundly important works of literature I have ever read. And I agree: it should be essential reading for every yutz who ventures outside his or her little enclave.
It was one of my first introductions to literature written by Africans and I will never forget it and have a copy in our home library. Some of my other favorites are written by French speaking African poets. "The slap of the holy water" has stayed with me and then the hilarious one in hybrid English about having only one wife. I read those poems to my students in ancient and English history (world civ for frosh which matched our English dept. sequence). To start them thinking at the beginning of class, we watched The Gods Must Be Crazy which has all sort of great threads in it. (and yes, I rode in a Land Rover where we had to work the windshield wipers by hand and hold one of the doors closed.) One student said, but that's a comedy and I told him it was OK to laugh in history class. Another favorite of mine is The Poisonwood Bible because it is very accurate in terms of how missionaries and Africans see things. I did laugh. I also want to say that I am now starting my am reading your posts and love them.
The Gods Must be Crazy II Too!
Please whistle!
I learned from your rant. Thank you.
Brava, Linda! As an immigrant -- and once, an Afghani neighbor -- I have been ranting for a very long time. My rants are often silent for fear of repercussions, my profound thanks to you for this appeasing and most gratifying one!
Thanks Rowshan. I find your posts exceptionally interesting to read. You have a more personal and intimate perspective on this than I could ever have.
Awww! Thanks ever so much, Linda! You're too kind.
I enjoy your posts Rowshan. You write so gracefully.
You hit it on the nose when you wrote that "Afghanistan is not a country. It is a delegation of provinces with intimate and historical traditions that we ignored." All of those countries whose names end with "Stan" differ ethnically and are somewhat alien to those over the next mountain range and that was also true within Afghanistan as you point out. Outside of Islam, little unites them except the quality of isolation from their neighbors which each has. Look at a map of Central Asia where Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan come together and try to figure out why they are separate countries.
“Because they think it will help their ratings. Because as institutions the commercial media are all idiots and ignoramuses, led by suits who like their corporate bonuses no matter their political stripes.” This is precisely what I have been yelling at the television for days. I keep trying to have faith that “GOOD” will prevail in all of these matters, home and abroad. But when the right wing has Fox and the “once believed real news outlets” only care about ratings and profits, is there any GOOD left??
WE read other sources, but most of the country gets any and all information from sources that do not care about the good of our country. They only care about their own pockets.
Linda, Thank you. I was winding up to a lengthy rant and you saved me the time. You are spot on. It always was about the drugs and $$$. We should have learned our lesson in Vietnam. Remember the storied "Golden Triangle"? What ever happened to that?
"We should have learned our lesson in _______________ (add country/region name here)."
That list would be very long and the lessons learned have not been the ones that lead to better/longer lives for either the people of those places or Americans.
Once again, I say Brava to you, Linda, and thank you. Keep up the rants, save the dog.
He is def grateful I am not yelling all the time!!
Yes, you've hit all the necessary points in this debacle. I just posted my singular thots on legalizing heroin to take the profit out of it. Didn't go into all the details of how the very conservative mouthpieces are likely benefiting from the illegal trade profits - maybe why no one has pushed this in government. Our complicity with allowing the poppy fields to continue may have come from our own government - who knows? Organized crime is just that.
Ironically, the large population of heroin addicts in the US aided the bankrolling the Taliban war effort, as the Taliban, through the sale of morphine, tapped into the highly lucrative opium and heroin markets, some of which came to the US. The poppy trade also played a critical role in corrupting local government officials in Afghani provinces. Although it tried, US was never able to effectively disrupt the poppy trade in Afghanistan. It is highly likely that the Taliban government will remain dependent on the poppy trade as international support for Afghanistan dries up with the Taliban takeover.
Thanks for the rant. Speaking of suits and bonuses- I am waiting for an NBC employee to speak up about China and human rights (Tibet?) before we are bombarded with our next feel good, flag waving bonanza of the NBC winter olympics (from Beijing?). I won’t hold my breath (as I write on my iPad made in China). As Heather says, follow the money.
That's a good point. China is ready to put in infrastructure in Tibet to search for minerals and expand its trade. Perhaps western money put on hold won't matter that much because China will pay and pave its way through Afghanistan as they did in Tibet with "hiring" its citizens to do the ground (literally) work. It will be very interesting to watch China's engagement with provincial governments and cultural beliefs.
First sentence should read: China is ready to put in infrastructure in Afghanistan.
Guessing that China is not alone. https://www.reuters.com/world/russias-putin-italys-draghi-discuss-afghanistan-ria-2021-08-19/
From your source: "Putin also spoke to Macron on Thursday, discussing Afghanistan under the Taliban's rule and the importance of ensuring the safety of civilians, the Kremlin said." What could go wrong!?
Or, holding back the former Afghanistan government money to withhold it from the Taliban will only create a thirst that makes the Chinese and Russian influence in the region just that much more powerful.
You said a mouth full with that little phrase, “ Follow The Money “ as the money seems to be the root of all the evil!!! And I ain’t the least bit religious......
The question has to be asked in all of these situations, and that is , Who is gaining what in this situation ???
“Jingoistic idiocy” resonates with me this morning.. well put.
We seemed to understand some of this when we went into Afghanistan. We teamed up with what we called the northern alliance, tribes from the north, who opposed the Taliban, whose stronghold was the south. But then we seemed to forget all this and tried to create a nation. We also often trap ourselves when we promote democracy and encourage new elections. All foreign aid then goes to these anointed leaders, who siphon off whatever they want, and the aid never reaches the general population. Correcting this situation would make a mockery of the new democracy we helped to create. The soldiers in the Afghan army were often not paid, when there was plenty of money floating around. This is not good for morale. Here is a question: why do the people of some divided areas (Italy, Japan) form nations, while others don’t? Afghans are firm about one thing, tho, no foreign influence. In this they have an ally, pakistan, which gave shelter to al qaeda and the taliban when things got tough. Pakistan is opposed to foreign influence in Afghanistan because it thinks that this will eventually lead to the influence of India on Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which lies between Afghanistan and India, cannot abide being “surrounded” by India.
Probably 2 days before the attack on the twin towers, the tribal chief in the north was killed, maybe assassinated. No one showed up to take his place.
"divided areas"
- Japan?
A Big Thank You to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for his SUPERB response just now to media's unfair and inappropriate blaming of President Biden for the "chaotic end" of the US war with Afghanistan. I am still cheering and clapping!!
Thanks for sharing, MaryPat!!
The fact that we don’t yet know the truth of the “Saudi connection” to 9/11, indicates that we all are still very much in the dark about the games rich and powerful men play with people’s lives. “We the people, all of us, this time” really need to bear down on our quest for truth and transparency and justice and treating others as we want to be treated.
“Despite being blocked by their own government, lawyers for the 9/11 relatives have found considerable evidence of a Saudi link to a plan by 19 Islamist jihadists — 15 of them Saudi citizens — to hijack four, California-bound commercial jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001.” https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2021/08/06/september-11-attacks-saudi-involvement-scrutiny-new-legislation/5490340001/
I think we know the truth of the "Saudi connection to 9/11", I just think this is another one of our governments monumental cover ups. We knew the night of 9/11 when Bush escorted his Saudi visitors out of our country under the cover of night.
Sometimes fiction provides more access to factual situations than news reporting does. The writer's imagination can open doors a journalist might miss, and get closer to the truth. There's a 2020 novel (The Opium Prince by Jasmine Aimaq) which can add a lot to understanding Afghanistan. When there's a course on what happened over the past 20 years in Afghanistan, it will be on the reading list.
Thank you for these observations. Just a note... if you watch the videos of the Afghanis trying to board the planes to escape the country, it is about 95% male. Where are the women? I noticed this from the first video and it hasn't gotten any better.
HCR's key (at least for me) - the wart on the proverbial nose which the foolhardy US apparently was unable and/or unwilling to acknowledge: "a society based in patronage networks and family relationships."
At our level - the working and middle-ish classes - we don't really understand the extent to which "patronage networks and family relationships" also operate within the ranks of the ultra-wealthy in the US and other western countries. We have been encouraged to believe that merit counts more than who you know. But is that really the case?
Aha.
If that is a rant, then keep ranting please. So much depressing common sense here.
The lesson here might be the consequential damages that occur on a small planet with increasing connectivity when extremism, fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism take over.
US Republicans, with their increasing extremists, fundamentalists and anti-intellectualists, may not believe that we are all in this together. They may believe there are winners and losers, and winners deserve to have it all. They may believe that "you are either with us or against us" meaning against them. They may believe there are "others" here and abroad who shouldn't be here in the US. They may be a softer more kinder "Taliban". Not so sure about this.
But my point is that nations, communities, families, societies, economies, cultures, lives collapse when there is no trust, when there is no freedom to work together, when all orders come from one group, when the doors are shut. Ultimately, the money does stop flowing, systems shutdown, the anger builds and the violence grows.
Russia has never come out of its doldrums. The Dark Ages were not just one period of history. While slaves were eventually freed in the US, slave states continued to sacrifice everything to destroy the achievements of blacks and to oppress them. Whites in the free states could not see their own segregation of blacks as a liability to our own economy and morality. The evidence is and has been everywhere that humanity either works together so that all may prosper in a sustainable way, or there will be no true peace and prosperity. If Christianity and all other religions were practiced with their best intentions, there would only be enlightenment. But like all other human endeavors, those who can command power too often abuse it and destroy everything in their path. We should watch what's happening in Afghanistan with humility and know that we are next if we don't work together, while denying all resources to extremists, our own included.
That's it in a nutshell. You're either for all or for none.
You provided the nutshell, Becky.
You cannot have "connectivity on a small planet" while embracing "extremists, fundamentalists and anti-intellectualists". Well said, well displayed.
This goes back to my frequent thoughts over the last 4 years about the so-called Christians. If you’re in an evangelical church are you always considered a Republican? When they sit next to each other in pews each week would they hate you for supporting Democrats like they do in public? Do they self segregate? When did church and religion become so political?
I was raised in the Methodist church. I taught Sunday School for many years so I would know what my daughter was learning and eventually left when it was more about the collection plate than physically helping people. Also, my father was a bigot. Going to church doesn’t make you a good person. What you do outside of the church can.
The fundamentalist church down the street has a huge hubris problem and they also gave the area a huge COVID outbreak. They won't cooperate with their near neighbors in terms of too loud music. Now they have joined the churches who preach hate at Riverside Park in downtown Salem. I can't even imagine a Democrat attending such a place. On the other hand, I have friends whose religious beliefs and church memberships inform their social consciences and they actively take part in progressive causes.
"When did church and religion become so political?" I think that the separation of church and state began to fold when anti abortion became an evangelical theme during the civil rights years. Sometimes I don't get the connection, but churches seemed to rise up to create this theme. Someone help me with the connection.
$$$$. So called leaders of such groups realized that the anti abortion issue feeds the church budget! While their sincerity to preserve life might be heart felt, such emotion is rarely translated into other pro-life issues as being anti war; supporting healthcare for ALL; supporting a living wage which would enable parents to spend more quality time with their children rather than working 60+ hours a week in order to provide food and shelter for their family.
All of these "teachings" should be called out for what they truly are - pushing their political agenda, and as such, they should all have their tax-exempt status revoked. Then see how quickly they "repent."
Damn (nation).
It was planted in their religious brains by Conservative Movement cons, who saw potential Christian and Catholic armies for their bigoted sexist money and power grubbing cause. Maybe I am being too nice.
C.S. Lewis suggested that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics…allures us to trade grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. —- Phillip Yancey
Truth.
Thank you for sharing this, it is spot on!
Here’s an interesting article by Judd Legum about the media’s coverage of Afghanistan.
(I’m not sure everyone can read it without subscribing, so I will post it. He often has great articles. You should consider subscribing.)
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After two decades of war, President Biden finally made the decision to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. It did not go as planned. The Afghan government and security forces, which the United States spent two decades building up, evaporated in days. The Taliban, the Islamist group which harbored Al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks, quickly regained control over the country.
This was a failure that comes with real consequences for innocent Afghans. At particular risk are the Afghans that assisted US efforts, who may face retribution if they remain in the country, and women and girls, who may be stripped of their rights by the repressive Taliban regime.
But was this primarily a failure by Biden, for deciding to withdraw now? Or was it the unavoidable conclusion of failed policies in Afghanistan across four presidential administrations? Most coverage has focused criticism on Biden. And to bolster that argument, media outlets are relying on many of the people responsible for two decades of failure in Afghanistan. While there are legitimate criticisms of the way Biden executed the withdrawal, the result is an extremely distorted narrative.
Let's examine, for example, this piece in the Washington Post: "Biden’s promise to restore competence to the presidency is undercut by chaos in Afghanistan." Although this is presented as a "straight news" piece, the entire premise is that Biden's decision to withdraw reflects his own incompetence. The author, Matt Viser, reports that the decision and its execution reflected "an inability to plan" and "an underestimation of a foreign adversary."
As proof, Viser cites, "leading lawmakers and others" who believe that "the chaotic, and deadly, implementation of [Biden's] decision reflects a failure by Biden at a critical moment to deliver the steady leadership and sound judgment he promised." Who are these "leading lawmakers and others"? The same people who have been consistently wrong about Afghanistan strategy for the last twenty years.
The lead quote comes from former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who said Biden's decision to withdraw reflects the fact that Biden "didn’t really spend much time on the issue" and the Biden administration was simply "crossing their fingers and hoping chaos would not result."
But is Panetta a credible voice on how policies will play out in Afghanistan? In a November 2011 interview with Charlie Rose, Panetta said that the military campaign in Afghanistan had "seriously weakened the Taliban" and now the Afghan people were "able to control their own fate." He said that the development of the Afghan army and police force was "on target" and they were "doing the job."
This was a consistent refrain during Panetta's tenure as Secretary of Defense. "[W]e are moving in the right direction, and we are winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan," Panetta said in December 2011.
After a March 2012 visit to Afghanistan, Panetta was even more optimistic. "Afghanistan needs to be able to govern and secure itself," Panetta said. "We are very close to accomplishing that." In January 2013, Panetta announced we had entered "the last chapter of establishing a sovereign Afghanistan that can govern and secure itself for the future."
Panetta, of course, was wrong about all of this. Afghanistan was not "close" to being able to "govern and secure itself" in 2012. The "last chapter" of establishing a sovereign Afghanistan did not occur in 2013. Nor was Afghanistan ready to "govern and secure itself" eight years later. But, year after year, that rosy picture was used to continue to sell the war to the American people.
As recently as June of this year, Panetta was touting the "progress" that had been made in building up the Afghan security forces and government.
[W]e did make gains in Afghanistan. We have made progress...We have improved their society in terms of how they operate… I saw the Afghan military do some very effective operations… So we have something to work with.
But it was the failure of the Afghan government and security forces to survive even a few days in 2021 that made Biden's withdrawal so chaotic. Had the institutions touted by Panetta held, even for a short period of time, evacuations could have occurred in a more orderly fashion. But neither Panetta's role in the failed mission, nor his history of poor judgments about the trajectory of the country, are mentioned in the Washington Post. Instead he's given free rein to paper over his involvement and place the blame on Biden.
This is not an isolated problem. Panetta was also quoted by Fox News, the New York Post, The Hill, MSNBC, NBC News, the New York Daily News, CNN and many other outlets. None of them noted Panetta's prior inaccurate predictions about the future of Afghanistan.
The next person quoted in the Washington Post piece is Ryan Crocker, the former Ambassador to Afghanistan during the Bush and Obama administrations. His criticism of Biden is even harsher. "I’m left with some grave questions in my mind about his ability to lead our nation as commander in chief," Crocker said.
Like Panetta, Crocker also touted the Afghan military and police, saying in a 2012 speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the security forces represented an "amazing achievement." He described the group as a "capable” and “multifaceted," and claimed they were "close to their maximum strength of 352,000." Like Panetta, Crocker was wrong about their capability and size.
Crocker also touted the "courage and determination" of President Hamid Karzai. But Karzai had "won reelection after cronies stuffed thousands of ballot boxes." After securing power, Karzai presided over a deeply corrupt and incompetent government. Kabul Bank, the country's largest bank, nearly collapsed under the "weight of $1 billion in fraudulent loans." Among the recipients was Karzai's brother, Mahmoud Karzai. Crocker's predecessor, Karl Eikenberry, pressed Karzai to take action in response to the Kabul Bank scandal. But when Crocker replaced Eikenberry in 2011 that ended. Crocker's "attitude was to make the issue go away, bury it as deep as possible, and silence any voices within the embassy that wanted to make this an issue,” according to interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Crocker's role in covering up the corruption of the Afghan government is not mentioned in Viser's Washington Post article or the other outlets that quoted him for criticizing the withdrawal — NBC News, The Hill, Axios, and Fox News.
The next pundit Viser quotes is Eliot A. Cohen, a prominent hawk who advised Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during the Bush administration. Cohen calls Biden's decision "very bad" and a "moral disaster." But Cohen would likely criticize most military withdrawals. He recently wrote a book calling for "a substantially larger military" and more wars. He even suggests the U.S. should be more open to nuclear war. "The actual use of nuclear weapons by the United States is not a last resort," Cohen writes.
Finally, Viser includes brief, critical quotes about the withdrawal from four members of Congress who have supported and funded operations in Afghanistan for many years — Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), and Mark Warner (D-VA), and Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA).
The heard and the unheard
Unrepresented in Viser's piece are any voices that supported withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan — even though a poll last month found that 73% of Americans supported withdrawal. A poll taken August 13-16, amid unrelentingly negative press coverage of the decision, showed that support for the withdrawal dropped significantly. The number of Americans who support withdrawal, however, is still substantially larger than the number of Americans who oppose it. But the Washington Post piece, and many other news articles, only include critics.
The opinions of critics of the withdrawal from Afghanistan — many of whom were complicit in the failed policy over 20 years — are then laundered by prominent media figures as "fact." As Jon Alsop notes in the Columbia Journalism Review, NBC's Chuck Todd asserted that the withdrawal from Afghanistan will "haunt Mr. Biden’s legacy" and Axios' Mike Allen called it an "embarrassment."
The one-sided coverage of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan mirrors the mistakes made in the run-up to the Iraq War. Then, "Bush administration officials were the most frequently quoted sources, the voices of anti-war groups and opposition Democrats were barely audible, and the overall thrust of coverage favored a pro-war perspective." Nearly two decades later, history is repeating itself.
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https://popular.info/p/the-medias-systemic-failure-on-afghanistan?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1NDkyMTYzLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MDE0OTkwMywiXyI6Imd4TzB5IiwiaWF0IjoxNjI5MzA2NzkyLCJleHAiOjE2MjkzMTAzOTIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xNjY0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.qFEo8-ML6mV7RT5PsDrncDAAqig6AisMFF1s9a1LWUY
Thank you for this report...it would bring a little perspective to the fore is, but only if, the media and the pols would stop their feeding frenzy to read it and think for five minutes before engaging their mouths or word processors. At a meeting of members of a local Dem committee last night, folks were saying, "Well Seth sure has been everywhere the last few days, hasn't he."(eye rolls galore) Mr Know it all about the military, Mr know it all about what the Democrats need for 'leadership', and, well, Mr know it all just about everything that would get interviews on the airwaves. Team player much?
I can't help wondering why so many people are so eager to throw Biden under the bus...not just Republicans, we know about them, but all the media, not just the right wing yahoos, and so many Democrats. Is everyone just whoring for headlines? Is there no thoughtfulness left anywhere?
I think some people don’t want to be the Dem version of Trumpists and accept/approve all of Biden’s actions without question. Also, people are reacting to media headlines which might not accurately reflect what’s happening. I always try to remind myself that media need money & clicks to survive and that Big Media are owned by wealthy people who benefit from the framework laid out by Republicans. War is profitable.
I also try to remind myself that the images media love to hawk are plentiful and dramatic....better than a horror movie...people clinging to (American🙀) plane wings as they take off and bearded men in robes with automatic rifles sitting atop Humvees roll down the streets of Kabul..as talking heads scream how frightened the women and children must all be. (Duh, ya think?). But this isn't a movie, and the impact on people's perceptions is utterly unhealthy. It's downright destructive.
Unlike Vietnam, the media’s coverage of 20 years of war has been carefully managed. Follow the money.
The media miss the good old lucrative days of Friday dumps and histrionic political theater.
They have had a lot of practice aiming buses lately.
Why are these people on tv in the first place? Because they present well. They are ready at 3:00 in the morning if you need them. They are polished, they are used to the cameras, they can fill up time, and they promote themselves endlessly, to all media. They look good on tv, they sound good on the radio. It’s a show, after all. It’s also sad to hear the hosts of these shows sounding so ignorant about events they’ve been covering daily for decades. All they seem to know is melodrama. And I’m talking npr!
And try to convince most NPR fans that this isn't objective news. Argghhh.
Yup.
Right you are! It's very seldom that you see a less-than-handsome commentator.
Thank you, Lisa, for taking the time and trouble to repost this article. I pray that the real truth will finally make its way into the light.
Here is a follow up article to the one I posted earlier. If you can’t read it, i will try to post it.
https://popular.info/p/where-are-the-anti-war-voices
Ms. Rice, whose singular achievement was to be the first female and black person to get a membership into the Masters golf clan, is another who thought she had a better idea than those who had failed to bring peace to the region!
Again, thanks for this. Been wondering about this myself.
WhT does it cost to subscribe to Judd Legum. Might be a nice Christmas gift for family members.
Big Thank You to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for his SUPERB response just now to media's unfair and inappropriate blaming of President Biden for the "chaotic end" of the US war with Afghanistan. I am still cheering and clapping!!
Agree ... but if our media were not profit based, the alternative would be media paid for by the government, or by interests with agendas, which thereby would not be trustworthy. Maybe we are better off with the diverse media we have today, including the candor of some, as you write about, and the contrast of the lies of others. Risky, but it leaves avenues of dissent open.
Hey, MaryPat. Thanks for the heads up. I just watched the show. I agree, it was superb!
There is just one big problem with this piece by Judd L: the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was made February 2020 by the Trump administration. Ever since the deal, American casualties dropped to zero. Biden had the choice of living up to the deal or changing it. As it turned out he extended it by four months, after reflecting on the dire consequences of backing out. The decision must have been wrenching for Biden, as it is far all American Exceptionalists, who simply cannot get their minds around the pathetic scenes resulting form the corruption of the US occupation. The Afghan government and the CIA got the opium trade, not the Taliban, and the US contractors got the trillions wasted. Wake up folks. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/afghanistan-we-never-learn
Thanks for sharing this article.
Elizabeth, I was harsh in response to your reply about my criticism of the planning for withdrawal from Afghanistan. My worry about the people, Afghan women and girls, in particular, fueled my misreading of what you wrote. I apologize.
Apology accepted- I did not intend to upset you -I too am extremely worried about the Afghan people and after reading this letter originally made a donation to a refugee resettlement organization which seems such an inadequate response. Wish I knew how to help more.
Elizabeth you kindness is deeply appreciated. My conscience took too long coming forward. I have put together a long list of organization, which support the Afghan people and will post it tomorrow morning. I think you made an excellent decision in choosing a refugee resettlement organization. Salud!
Looking forward to your list, Fern. I still have some "Economic Stimulus" money to spend on a better cause than new curtains.
The sky is filled with MaryPat stars tonight.
Fern, please do share your list!
Kerry, You will see two comments from me after today's Letter. You will see links on one of them, the other has good information about organizations, which you can google to obtain a link. Thank you for asking. Salud!
Fern, you have a big, wonderful, caring heart, and I know it is really hurting thinking of those Afghan women and girls. I am, alas, a Nurse Ratchett for my own survival.
MaryPat, you do know concerning the women and girls of Afghanistan. Can you arrange for your twin Ratchett to treat Abbott?
🤣😂😅
Pancetta, Crocker, Cohen a troika who ignored the lessons of Vietnam. Apparently, they believed that they ‘knew better’ or had ‘a better plan’ than McNamara and his ‘best and brightest’! The dna in the clans whose ancestors have survived the rugged terrain of the lands renamed Afghanistan and Pakistan has evolved over thousands of years eeking out a living in those foreboding mountains and arid lands.
Their descendants easily ‘played the con ’ on ‘strangers from the new world bearing gifts’! The above named troika posited that we needed the government in Pakistan to help stem terrorism! Yet, the American strike force had to hold a stealth raid on the bun Laden compound rather than rely on the Pakistan government to sanction the raid.
Go figure!?
Holy Smokes! Thanks for your broad perspective. Wow. It goes to show, all media has an agenda.
I just hate it when "liberal" and ultra conservative media merge like they are doing with the whole issue and a new president right now.
I wish Bezos could read your comment, Lisa, and do an attitude adjustment at the WAPO. Did he come back from outer space yet? His head I mean....
It comes of trying to prove they are unbiased so they give time to terribly biased reporters or opinion writers regardless of the truth and lack of cherry picked slant of the pieces. But, y'know, Both Sides right?
Great point.
Agree Gus!!
WOW! Thank you for this Lisa. I was much more shocked at the media criticism of Biden than the "chaotic pullout" of Afghanistan. Now it makes perfectly awful sense:
"The opinions of critics of the withdrawal from Afghanistan — many of whom were complicit in the failed policy over 20 years — are then laundered by prominent media figures as "fact."
Creepy. Have we NO objective reporting anymore?
People will believe what they want to believe.
We know this, but it does not explain the disinformation being highlighted by Viser as he gives space ( and therefore credence) to the people who were partly responsible for the mess and what how they lied about it. Facile brush off of a commenter's attempt to provide some corrective information doesn't enhance understanding. And it's rather impolite, wouldn't you agree?
Being polite can lead to avoiding facing the facts, once they are agreed upon.
I rest my case.
Thanks for posting this.
Damn flaming straight with a feline urine vinaigrette over brandy soaked peaches and julienne rutabaga.
Five stars for this post. Thank you.
As usual, HCR shines a light on what is missed by many others.
The Taliban are learning what every revolutionary discovers; it is much easier to topple a government than it is to govern. You have to rebuild all that you destroyed. You will need money; lots of it. You will need friends, and discovering who your real friends are can be painful.
Biden is taking the heat for the final (we hope) Aghanistan fiasco in order to divert attention from the multiple failures of so many over the last twenty years, the news media very much included.
My view is the President has shown leadership, and enormous courage, for doing what he knew had to be done.
He can take the heat because he knows this is his last rodeo.
There isn't a politician, including Joe Biden, who doesn't think about his historical legacy. Because this is Biden's "last rodeo", he could have easily played it safe with his own legacy and kicked the Afghan can down the road like the others.
But he didn't.
Thank you, Ralph. And so much for the "Liberal Media," who are acting more like Fox and OAN in their treatment of him.
That’s right, Ralph. Thank you.
True grit.
Oooo. I hadn’t thought of that fitting tribute, Charley.
Bravo!!
I'd like to think he would have done what he's doing, regardless of the politics.
As bad as the situation is in Afghanistan, the media's and Congress' attempts to focus the blame are worse, at least to me. I can remember in the early reports in the initial weeks of the 9/11 invasion telling us loyalty in Afghanistan was not to the country or government but the local warlord or whoever last gave you something.
There's plenty of blame to go around and should be equally shared by the federal government since 2001 and the media. Had Biden not won, this mess would have been on orders of magnitude worse.
Sane comment, Christopher. Thank you.
Consider, dopey don pulled out of Syria allowing the Russians to control the area! The reaction was muted because million of Syrians had already fled the country. Then he abandoned the Kurdish allies who were our ‘in the trenches’ proxy in Syria. Who cared?
point well made!
“…the media portrayal of our withdrawal as a catastrophe also seems to me surprising.” I’m so glad you mentioned this-I find it extremely disturbing. They are really bashing Biden for everything they’re worth. Which could be precisely the point: just as you point out that “keeping an eye on the money will be crucial for understanding how this plays out,” it seems the media are cashing in with a story of catastrophe while they can. They don’t know how it’s going to play out. They have an opportunity to seize eyeballs and advertiser dollars right now. I fear that their avarice will further bolster the march toward right wing authoritarian leadership here at home. I’m all for a free press, but nothing about this coverage feels free.
Catastrophe makes "great video" -- which is much of what the TV networks depend. As in the "if it bleeds, it leads" theory used in local TV. Nuance is not in their nature. Takes too long and there are no pictures.
They could cover the catastrophe by asking more questions rather than randomly assigning cause when there is so much unknown and obvious hidden corruption and agendas.
So true ‘if it bleeds….’. Anchor evening news shows spend 99% of show on negative issues and close with a one minute feel good piece!
Precisely.
Very well put, Peggy - thanks
Nope, "nothing about this coverage feels free." It is worth $millions.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! My preference is that as many people as possible will be safely evacuated as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure our President is of the same mind.
In the meantime, may we give a pause to celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment? https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/08/18/On-This-Day-19th-Amendment-ratified-giving-women-the-vote/2581629248448/
Morning, Lynell! One of my "go to" arguments with my Republiqan friends over voting rights legislation is that, in my opinion, if your ability to vote was granted by an amendment to the Constitution, you don't get to have a say in what "voting rights" are as you act to curtail them.
Morning, Ally!! Thanks for not giving up with your "Republiqan friends"! One of my husband's long-time clients are big time Republicans. He sees them only occasionally when they need something fixed around their house. The wife was an avid Rush Limbaugh fan. I asked my husband who she was listening to these days now that Rush is gone. He replied "Judge Judy!"
If the powers to be had focused all the resources they did on starting and enabling wars since the 1960s on providing appropriate pre-K thru 12th grade educational and training programs for individuals with different learning styles and coming from poverty, what a different world America would be.
That was one of my first thoughts with the war cost news, Pat, along with universal healthcare. What a wonderful world it would have been.
What a tangled mess. Thank you for picking out and explaining the salient threads so at least there’s some kind of way to wrap our brains around the tragedy that’s been unfolding for a very long time and is now only beginning a new chapter. Between this, COVID, and the fires that are the climate change poster children, I’m so stressed out I want to scream. But as long as I have some understanding of what’s happening, I can carry on. Bless you for that gift, Professor.
It is hard watching our states burn up every summer.
When the Shah fell in Iran no one in the American embassy spoke Farsi, when America began to intervene in Viet Nam no one spoke Vietnamese, when America fell in Afghanistan not many Americans spoke Pashtun. Rather disturbing pattern, n'est-ce pas?
Colonialism, anyone? Wait - that started right here with our own indigenous people & what was done to them & their cultures & traditions. It all starts at home!
I appreciate this LFAA today. What I know about this topic is miniscule, but I do know this: the retribution for the 9/11 attacks was both understandable (to a degree) and untenable. There is no way to change the nature of that country by invasion and imposition, and pure hubris to think that we could do what other nations have tried to do and failed in each of the past three centuries. It is understandable, knowing our "national makeup" that we would "go after" the person "responsible" for the attacks in our country; defensible is another matter.
I, too, note the bleating from Republiqans about "what about the women and girls" are coming from those who want to severely restrict and control women's bodies here in this country.
There with you Ally. It has been said 'that Afghanistan is where empires go to die.' Even I knew that. And the hypocrisy of it all -'what about women and girls' GMAFB
In case anyone else is interested, 'GMAFB', stands for, Give Me A Freakin' Break. I hope, Charlie, that you can get into the habit of spelling out your abbreviations and acronyms. Thanks, in advance.
Hi wonderful Fern. And actually, no. It’s not “Freakin’”. I think that’s why people abbreviate and leave it to the imagination. 😜
No wonder he didn't spell it out. Great to see you, Christine with the funny face. Laughs couldn't be more therapeutic than in this time. Okay, laughs are precious. For being on the spot and showing up, Christine, Thank you and THANK YOU!
💜💯✅
I feel a rant of mine coming about republicans and their defense of guns, controlling women's rights, taking away voting rights, and how in hell can people like Desantis possibly be a governor, etc. etc. And, in reality, it is about time women were given control of governments and take away the power, money, and weapons of war from the bad guys and put their testosterone to use in peaceful endeavors.
I can't go on . . and I shouldn't . . as I have to grab basil from the garden to make pesto (in between tornado warnings and torrential downpours!) Between the weather, COVID, international, it's a wonder all our heads don't explode. I thank Heather for helping us to keep it all together; although I have a few cracks in the cranium :)
Stay Safe Janet!
Thanks, MaryPat - I survived the weather and got to the garden but didn’t get the pesto made - there is always tomorrow! 😂
Picked my basil. Took a nap. Putting basil in frig...
I have observed that the people living in a place are always much more adept at dealing with the realities of that place/time than anyone else. The Afghans have been shaped by their topography, culture, and history into a pragmatic, tough, beautiful people who do not think like Americans. We could both evaluate the most granular data sets and still arrive at vastly different conclusions about the same circumstances. There were no good choices in Afghanistan, only pragmatic ones. I do not pretend to understand the failings of the Afghan government. I do see some of the chronic failings of my own. Hubris, greed, laziness. Hubris in that we thought we knew best for all concerned. Greed is really what kept our involvement there going. Laziness in that we never were really interested in the people we were fighting against or alongside. We are who we are, so I predict that these tragedies will keep happening, just as they have for the past 60+ years.
So frequently in recent weeks I have thought of the novel "The Ugly American". Based on the authors' knowledge of the reality of U.S. "aid", it epitomizes what your comment describes. See description of the novel at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American
Thanks !
As our own police departments are more successful if the members LIVE in the community they serve. Perhaps a place to start or where we should have started long ago.
I agree, and pray, with your last assertion ("These tragedies will keep happening"), that you are wrong. I'd like to think my kids and grandkids are smarter than we have been. Or noy as essily conned.
I am not an overpaid Washington bureaucrat or even an international diplomat, altho I was in Afghanistan before any foreign invasions in 1975, but I have a way to put more economic pressure on the Taliban.
LEGALIZE HEROIN
There, I said a truth that needs to be taken seriously, and ALL THE FACTS OF ADDICTION AND PROHIBITION, support that truth. While all the reactionary conservatives clutch their pearls and swoon, let me innumerate the facts.
1 PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK. We tried the Great Experiment with booze and it failed miserably. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. (Sort of like a 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan)
2 ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN HEROIN. You can overdose on either drug, but you can die from alcohol withdrawal. Ppl stoned on heroin usually nod, but those drunk on alcohol drive cars, attack others and do irrational things.
3 ILLEGALITY MAKES HEROIN MORE PROFITABLE THAN ALCOHOL. Well, at least since the Prohibition days of alcohol. If we legalized Heroin (and Marijuana, which should have never been illegal) its inflated value would crumble taking all the profit away from cartels & smugglers. Afghanistan would lose one of its major sources of income.
SO THERE, I SAID IT – PROVE ME WRONG.
Legalizing all "illegal" drugs would go a long way to neutralizing many of the systems throughout the world that become rich through the trafficking in such things--in Mexico as well as Afghanistan and elsewhere. But I also think there is a reckoning that has to happen. The West invented the opium trade--specifically the British and the French, who both used it as a tool of imperialism. There is a reason why the Opium Wars are not discussed as much in British circles: it is too disgusting a story to tell, especially for the Niall Ferguson types who mourn the loss of the empire. We have to take ownership of the origins and the continuation of this trade and we have to also own up to our neglect of people who are the victims of it--including those who are addicted to these substances. The money made from drugs goes into the pockets not only of the traffickers but of every politician who plays the holier than thou game while looking the other way.
Someone needed to say it. Saw one other comment about the “poppy culture”.
Same with our country and the ridiculous illegal commerce of marijuana. Some states have legalized it and put the tax money garnered into the state’s hard and soft infrastructure while other states continue to criminalize it and put money into the judicial and penal system.
And continued research continues to emerge about the physiological and psychological benefits about medicinal properties of some plants.
Michigan is a much nicer "state" now!
There remains the issue of the potential of Taliban benefits from poppy culture/heroin production to replace funds now frozen by western countries. My understanding, confirmed by a number of articles I've just read, poppy culture didn't become a major source of revenue for Afghanistan before the 1980s, after the Russian invasion destroyed the other types of agriculture that Afghanistan had depended on previously, subsequent to the major investments by the U.S. and Russia post-WW II. Before that invasion, my understanding is that Afghanistan was a net exporter of many agricultural products, most if not all destroyed during the fighting between Mujahideen and Russian forces after 1979. All the more reason the decriminalize drugs like heroin and deal with it & other opiates as we do alcohol.
Excerpt from the following informative article (one of several which stated much the same):
"Afghanistan became the world’s largest opium producer only in the 1980s and, although, opium is often identified as an ‘eastern drug’, its use actually originally spread from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean to southeast and east Asia.
While traveling from Europe to Asia, opium morphed in people’s perceptions from a plant grown mostly for its nourishing oil and seeds into one that was farmed for its intoxicating content. In later times, it also morphed from a commodity on which colonial empires were built (1) and from which later guerrilla groups were financed to fight communism to a commodity that is perceived as funding terrorist groups and mafia networks and needs to be eradicated." https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/context-culture/on-the-cultural-history-of-opium-and-how-poppy-came-to-afghanistan/
Judith, You expanded our knowledge of Afghanistan's economic picture concerning agriculture, poppy culture, opium, etc., and the exploitation of the country by an imperialistic invader. Thank you.
Thank you for this Judith. If only the morphine plant can morph back to lemon poppyseed cake.
I think it's time that you be paid.
Shoot! Thought you were talking to me. ;-)
..but I agree with your assessment.
THANK YOU ROB! I wanted to, but thought I must be missing something. NO - EVERYONE ELSE IS. Legaize it and terroists won't come (no heroin money to pay their way).
I agree, sorta. I was thinking if we take away their poppy trade what will they do? Start cooking meth? The real battle should be against the Taliban financial supporters and revenue streams. I doubt they can exist solely on their road block tax collections.
Maybe, just maybe, the "300,000 person army" that was trained by the USA are living in fear, now that the Taliban have prevailed, because they have "aided and abetted" the enemy, which is us, the USA. Same goes for all the panicked translators and western oriented Afghan desperately trying to escape at the airport. Yet is it not possible to imagine that the new government will show some mercy on these people, who, after all, are talented and can help in rebuilding the country after twenty years of occupation by western forces? Could it be that the Afghans are feeling relief and joy that the war is over and normality will return? Russia and China appear to be more pragmatic and seem to have a better understanding of how to deal with the situation, which is taking place in their own back yard. Could we not be spared the spectacle of Fox News Talking Head Generals yakking away about Biden, and the MSNBC Talking Heads blaming Trump? Time for Americans to seriously reflect on the utility of the "overwhelming military might". What is next on the agenda? Iran? Or Russia? Or China? How about a society where health is a universal right and education is provided for all? And a government that can prevail on the abusive and destructive system of private monopolies?
When others have commented on how extraordinary one of Heather’s letters are over the others I have wondered what stands out to them. For me they are all extraordinary. Until this one, which for me, has insight that I have not seen anywhere else. Granted I am not the most widely read. But this struck a very raw nerve for me: “And yet, the media portrayal of our withdrawal as a catastrophe also seems to me surprising. To date, at least as far as I have seen, there have been no reports of such atrocities as the top American diplomat in Syria reported in the chaos when the U.S. pulled out of northern Syria in 2019. Violence against our Kurdish allies there was widely expected and it indeed occurred. In a memo made public in November of that year, Ambassador William V. Roebuck wrote that “Islamist groups” paid by Turkey were deliberately engaged in ethnic cleansing of Kurds, and were committing “widely publicized, fear-inducing atrocities” even while “our military forces and diplomats were on the ground.” The memo continued: “The Turkey operation damaged our regional and international credibility and has significantly destabilized northeastern Syria.”
Reports of that ethnic cleansing in the wake of our withdrawal seemed to get very little media attention in 2019, perhaps because the former president’s first impeachment inquiry took up all the oxygen. But it strikes me that the sensibility of Roebuck’s memo is now being read onto our withdrawal from Afghanistan although conditions there are not—yet—like that.”
Where were the media then? Why are they so focused on blaming Biden now, instead of questioning what is happening here? I’m glad they are calling for an investigation. Hopefully it will be a serious one and not another Benghazi. Maybe we can actually learn an important lesson?
I’m wondering the same Christy. Has the media become stuck panic mode? I used to think it was backlash against the t**** administration, but now it seems either a knee-jerk reaction or the realization that it’s more profitable to whip people up in a frenzy.
Media are seeking the heroin-like (speaking if Afghanistan) endorphin thrill of breaking catastrophies. The tRump addiction will take many, many news cycles to wean off.
We let the Kurds slowly twist in the wind. Why?
Because the wind was blowing a different way.
😔 We Ugly Americans.
Thank you Heather.
As this Afghanistan crisis unfolds, many questions remain unanswered. What about the minerals, opium production? Are the Taliban really up to the challenge to make the most financially from this? As financial aid will be shuttered, what have they really gained?
They remind me of the bully that just wants to "say" they won.
As with any situation of this magnitude, follow the money for the clearer picture.
Be safe, be well.
Linda,
Unlike the US Embassy, the Russian and Chinese embassies are open for business with the Taliban.
In fact, yesterday the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan was escorted around Kabul safely by the Taliban.
I am sure China and Russia, having quietly built alliances with BOTH the Afghan government (now gone) AND the Taliban will have no problems developing the minerals via mining in Afghanistan.
Likewise, the Chinese approach to foreign engagement is invest, build and grow a relationship. Compare that to the US approach, invade, kill and destroy.
If you look at the past 20 years of history, you can see, the Chinese approach is working, and, the US approach has always failed.
The Chinese are now the world's most influential country as a result of investing in almost every country in the world. Even Britain has Chinese engineers and contractors building a giant nuclear reactor for them.
All we offer: We can invade, kill, maximize military contractor profit, and, get out.
Who wants that?
Mike, ofcourse China and Russia are positioned to take whatever they want from Afghanistan. They have been waiting decades for this. My point was the Taliban are not up to task to do this on their own.
The Chinese are masterminds of opportunity.
I find it curious that the 2 countries that Trump had zero problem with are going to be , most likely, the largest receivers of of "goods" from this downfall.
Why it's almost as if Trump knew this would happen 🤔.
Trump's planned rapid pullout from Afghanistan was likely a direct order from Putin to Trump. Remember, his plan to be out was last May.
I really have no doubt Putin told him to get out.
Also, I don't think the Taliban are on their own. I think China and Russia have been their partners and will continue to be.
No doubt .
NO DOUBT.
Our economic system is based of making a profit and using it to bring about growth, with the welfare of the people remaining as a secondary priority. Retired? Look at what your pension (not Social Security), if you're fortunate enough to have one, to see in what it is invested. What the Chinese have accomplished would not have happened if making a profit were their goal. Part of the price they pay, of course, is the loss of freedom.