Sam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
l33tminion) wrote2021-08-17 04:42 pm
l33tminion) wrote2021-08-17 04:42 pm
Saigon 2
The scenes from Afghanistan sure are disheartening. Two decades of war, and for what? Well, dismantling Al Quaeda wasn't nothing, but that's been done for a while and maybe could have been done with less. And maybe the US government would have had more chance of success if Bush hadn't simultaneously tried to run another war in Iraq.
It's disheartening to see Republicans simultaneously cheer the Taliban to own the libs and try to rake Biden over the coals for a withdrawal negotiated and started by Trump. To be clear, Biden either was far less than transparent about the Afghan government's odds of holding out against the Taliban or egregiously oblivious to the realities of the situation. But probably the former, and there is something counter-productive about saying aloud that you think an ally's situation is hopeless when you'd rather they fight on. Trump had no such tact, obviously. His statements on February 29, 2020, after negotiating a settlement with the Taliban, Trump said, "But now it’s time for somebody else to do that work [fighting ISIS], and that'll be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries." Not "that will be the [then] government of Afghanistan". It seems to me to amount to a statement that the Afghanistan government's most significant ally had effectively surrendered them on their behalf.
Noah Smith suggests that the US takes the wrong lessons from post-WW2 success. Rather, even winning wars is generally bad, and your fallen enemies transforming into prosperous, democratic allies requires particular preconditions and some amount of luck, not just decisive military superiority.
On the home front, the COVID situation is pretty horrifying in Florida, Texas, etc. Previously, I'd thought that people would talk a big game about "we have to open the economy" but when push came to shove they wouldn't let the healthcare system be overwhelmed. But now it seems some states are on the full YOLO-into-catastrophe approach, objectively pro-virus policy positions. Now that there's a vaccine it must be fine and if it's not then nothing can (nothing must!) be done.
It's disheartening to see Republicans simultaneously cheer the Taliban to own the libs and try to rake Biden over the coals for a withdrawal negotiated and started by Trump. To be clear, Biden either was far less than transparent about the Afghan government's odds of holding out against the Taliban or egregiously oblivious to the realities of the situation. But probably the former, and there is something counter-productive about saying aloud that you think an ally's situation is hopeless when you'd rather they fight on. Trump had no such tact, obviously. His statements on February 29, 2020, after negotiating a settlement with the Taliban, Trump said, "But now it’s time for somebody else to do that work [fighting ISIS], and that'll be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries." Not "that will be the [then] government of Afghanistan". It seems to me to amount to a statement that the Afghanistan government's most significant ally had effectively surrendered them on their behalf.
Noah Smith suggests that the US takes the wrong lessons from post-WW2 success. Rather, even winning wars is generally bad, and your fallen enemies transforming into prosperous, democratic allies requires particular preconditions and some amount of luck, not just decisive military superiority.
On the home front, the COVID situation is pretty horrifying in Florida, Texas, etc. Previously, I'd thought that people would talk a big game about "we have to open the economy" but when push came to shove they wouldn't let the healthcare system be overwhelmed. But now it seems some states are on the full YOLO-into-catastrophe approach, objectively pro-virus policy positions. Now that there's a vaccine it must be fine and if it's not then nothing can (nothing must!) be done.