You are exactly right about Afghanistan (and the rest of today's letter). Jay Markowitz had it exactly right in a letter in the NYT: "U.S. soldiers can spend forever killing Taliban troops. But only Afghans can defeat them." That was a lesson that we never learned. One thing I would add: If Biden wants to get something useful out of this debacle, he will initiate a deep and completely frank investigation into how US policymakers could be so completely befuddled about the true state of affairs in Afghanistan.
Initially, the most difficult part of the withdrawal from Afghanistan for Joe Biden has been the scrambling to explain the chaos (even an explanation that withdrawal was to save American lives comes in a year when there have been no deaths among American military in Afghanistan). If anything, the collapse of the Afghan military demonstrates that there was something deeply wrong. Maybe, like the Kurds, the Afghani military should have included women -- who had something to fight for. Here's an extreme thought about the chaos. We have an obligation, not only to those who worked with the American military, but to every Afghani to w him we gave hope. Evacuate those who wants to get out of there. Use Guam or somewhere else as a holding area to necessary assessments. These are people for whom we have responsibility.
Thank you for remembering veterans of the last two decades of military struggle in the Middle East. Afghanistan has always been a losing proposition for foreign intervention (see Heather Cox Richardson’s blog for August 15). Biden is decisive, and he has ended the steps by which three interim Presidents, one Democratic, tried to win the conflict. Thank you also for information of the Postcards to Voters program re: Gavin Newsom. We have a lot at stake in California.
It's not a question of whether or not to leave Afghanistan. Of course we could not stay indefinitely. However, Biden's tragic error was not to begin getting people out months ago! Why did the administration wait till the very last minute that re-created Americans shameful departure from Viet Nam?
Thank you for the reference to the Josh Marshall piece in TPM. It was very enlightening. Among the many things that are bothering me about the withdrawal and the reporting on the withdrawal, two things rise to the top for me.
1 - Heather Cox Richardson in her 8/15/21 newsletter wrote, “The U.S. and many other countries are rushing to evacuate their diplomatic personnel and allies from the country, although Russia is not,…” Given the transactional tendencies of Donald Trump, what side deals did he have with the Russians or other Taliban supporters related to this withdrawal ? If he won reelection? If he lost?
2 - When is somebody going to pay attention to the long and inexcusable history our generals have of lying to the President and the American people about the status of war. Overly optimistic assessments on the part of our generals goes back, at least, to the Civil War and probably further.
You are exactly right about Afghanistan (and the rest of today's letter). Jay Markowitz had it exactly right in a letter in the NYT: "U.S. soldiers can spend forever killing Taliban troops. But only Afghans can defeat them." That was a lesson that we never learned. One thing I would add: If Biden wants to get something useful out of this debacle, he will initiate a deep and completely frank investigation into how US policymakers could be so completely befuddled about the true state of affairs in Afghanistan.
Initially, the most difficult part of the withdrawal from Afghanistan for Joe Biden has been the scrambling to explain the chaos (even an explanation that withdrawal was to save American lives comes in a year when there have been no deaths among American military in Afghanistan). If anything, the collapse of the Afghan military demonstrates that there was something deeply wrong. Maybe, like the Kurds, the Afghani military should have included women -- who had something to fight for. Here's an extreme thought about the chaos. We have an obligation, not only to those who worked with the American military, but to every Afghani to w him we gave hope. Evacuate those who wants to get out of there. Use Guam or somewhere else as a holding area to necessary assessments. These are people for whom we have responsibility.
Thank you for remembering veterans of the last two decades of military struggle in the Middle East. Afghanistan has always been a losing proposition for foreign intervention (see Heather Cox Richardson’s blog for August 15). Biden is decisive, and he has ended the steps by which three interim Presidents, one Democratic, tried to win the conflict. Thank you also for information of the Postcards to Voters program re: Gavin Newsom. We have a lot at stake in California.
It's not a question of whether or not to leave Afghanistan. Of course we could not stay indefinitely. However, Biden's tragic error was not to begin getting people out months ago! Why did the administration wait till the very last minute that re-created Americans shameful departure from Viet Nam?
You may already have seen this from the Sierra Club re recipients of donations from the fossil fuel industry: https://www.sierraclub.org/california/capitol-voice-august-2021#Dollars
Thank you for the reference to the Josh Marshall piece in TPM. It was very enlightening. Among the many things that are bothering me about the withdrawal and the reporting on the withdrawal, two things rise to the top for me.
1 - Heather Cox Richardson in her 8/15/21 newsletter wrote, “The U.S. and many other countries are rushing to evacuate their diplomatic personnel and allies from the country, although Russia is not,…” Given the transactional tendencies of Donald Trump, what side deals did he have with the Russians or other Taliban supporters related to this withdrawal ? If he won reelection? If he lost?
2 - When is somebody going to pay attention to the long and inexcusable history our generals have of lying to the President and the American people about the status of war. Overly optimistic assessments on the part of our generals goes back, at least, to the Civil War and probably further.