Hurricane Ida has touched Louisiana. All living things there are in for a rough time.
I have decided that those blasting President Biden for the chaos in Afghanistan have lost touch with what “war” is. I’m not saying that no mistakes were made, but it could have been worse. See Storer H. Rowley, The Media’s Premature Verdict on Biden’s Afghanistan Pullout and David Rothkopf, There’s chaos and risk in Afghanistan exit, but Biden critics are getting it mostly wrong. Rothkopf writes, “There’s no way that the Taliban regaining control would not have led to chaos with many thousands of Afghans seeking to escape the rule of a thug regime. Whenever we began to airlift folks out, it would have started.” Yes, because war is like that. War is bloodly and chaotic. We seem to think wars can be directed by Steven Spielberg to just give us some good action sequences followed by a positive outcome.
The United States has transported roughly 120,000 Afghans and American citizens to safety at great human cost. That miraculous feat is a tribute to the humanity and bravery of the U.S. military and civilian personnel and volunteers. But any hope of depopulating a war-torn country, and ending the suffering there (including the dismal future for millions of women and girls) after our defeat is not grounded in reality. It belongs with the magical thinking that the United States could create a nation state in Afghanistan.
See also Juan Cole, Biden got 117,000 Afghans Out: Contrast that Time Trump Abruptly Withdrew Troops from Syria and refused to Help Kurdish Allies.
On the covid front: See Vaccine Refusers Don’t Get to Dictate Terms Anymore by Juliette Kayyem.
If the situation in Afghanistan wasn't so fraught with peril, the level of utter hypocrisy displayed by our Reich-wingers would make people around the whole world LOL!
Regarding our exit, though, imo, special condemnation should be focused on the architects of this near 20 year maladventure through the shadows of many valleys of death in Afghanistan: The Necropolis* of Empires.
You remember who the architectural masters of this disaster were, right? Cheney, Rummy, and their dummy: Dumbaya. And that's just a short list of the folks in the maladminustration. Now toss in some punTWITS like Krauthammer and Sr. & Jr. Krystol, and a whole cable "news" network, and you've got the entire conservative machine in rhythm with the drums of war they themselves were beating.
Now having said that, my note to the tRUMP fuc… folks is this: STFU, and sit this one out. Your evil assclown would have made this horrible situation infinitely worse! Infinitely!!! I don't know how, but it would be the worst situation out if many dire possibilities. Of course, if he had won (***shudders***), he would never have pulled us out. He's a craven coward even when it comes to retreat. Ugh.
You were all part of an evil confederacy. And a real, true, Confederacy of Dunces.
STFU and sit this one out, tRUMPasses.
Maybe the next few, too.
*Graveyard is such a negative word, I find. Necropolis sounds like some sort of city.
Lance Murrow penned a piece entitled You are living in the golden age of stupidity: The convergence of many unrelated elements has produced an explosion of brainlessness. I used a favor and had someone send it to me around the paywall and registration requirements of the WSJ. I gave up on their editorial pages quite some years ago. This was a tolerable read for that publication but the idea could be better developed.
I would start with a title like Way past the dawning of the age of Delirious. We have come to a point where terms like mass stupidity are just a bit myopic. We have developed a cultural acceptance of stupidity and insanity that is unprecedented, not just in politics but even in how we invest or pretend to. You can bet your last DogeCoin, Doggy Coin or whatever you call it on That if you are crazy enough to have gotten suckered.
It is going to take an author much more talented than Lance to explain the forces that got us to this point in time.
The great Gulag is right, word choice is critical. There is nothing golden about this age of stupid and beyond.
The GOO is getting their clocks cleaned on COVID. It’s in the simple stat that almost 70 percent have taken the vaccine. Trump got booed for suggesting he had and it might be a good idea.
Trump tries to lead the mob but on the vaccines even Trump must bow. So the GOP has to move the attention to something other than COVID. It has to overshadow the self inflicted pain of the pandemic in the postTrump postVax Biden-Harris era.
Grasping at straws describes the GOP desire for a scandal that doesn’t have Trumps name attached.
Here's a open question:
Vietnam war and Afghan war: how are they alike? How do they differ? Compare and contrast.
Differences: terrain, putative foe (Communism, 'terror')
Similarities: 'nation-building', endless official lies, the masses get the memo before the elites, 'forever war' ( = inevitable defeat delayed until the next president)