This has been maybe the largest evacuation in US history, 50k evacuated and more to come without hostages or causalities. Yet the media continues to hammer Biden and refuses to acknowledge the important work his administration has done in the past week. Tweet by Ilhan Omar @IlhanMNMom, Refugee and Congresswoman for #MN05. Progressive Caucus Whip. Fighting for a more just world. Join our grassroots funded progressive movement
If you compare the capacity to make agreements of colleagues and partners, then the Taliban have long seemed to me far more capable than the Kabul puppet government, The Russian Director of the Second Department of Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zamir Kabulov, on state TV.
This has been a disturbing week, with the grey skies only hinting at the fires burning out of control in the background, and, in the foreground, all week, the Delta variant and the tragic collapse of Afghanistan. I haven’t seen videos of the collapse, I’ve only seen stills of the traumatized crowds, but the fear and desperation come through. These are people who trusted us and believed us, believed in us, and many, got rich off of us. Now these people’s lives are in danger, at least that’s what we’re constantly told, and surely, some of their lives are in danger, although probably not all. Still, all of these desperate people will not continue to live the life they have become accustomed to, probably not even a decent life, if they stay in Afghanistan.
By the State Department and the Pentagon’s estimate, there are somewhere around 10,000 to 15,000 Americans living and working in Afghanistan. I find that shocking, in two different ways. One, that is a lot of people and what are they all doing? And, two, we really have no idea how many Americans are working and living in Afghanistan? It turns out that Americans going to Afghanistan are encouraged but not required to check in with the embassy. Operation Get the Hell of Afghanistan started out as a debacle but all involved seem to be on a pretty steep learning curve and it seems many if not most of the people who want out will be able to actually get out. Apparently, the US and the Taliban have made a deal and the Taliban agreed not to shoot at people trying to get out (although, at some point, they’ll realize that the people leaving are the people who run the city and they might change their mind).
For the week before this one, as Kabuk fell, we made the mistake of spending our ample spare time watching White Lotus on HBO and The War Machine with Brad Pitt channeling General Stanley McChrystal futilely trying to nation-build in Afghanistan during the Obama years. I knew The War Machine would be painful and, I guess, I wanted to wallow in my righteous anger but White Lotus was a shock. Very roughly, it is an Upstairs Downstairs sort of movie that takes place at a high-end resort in Hawaii but, watching it as Kabul fell, it seemed like a thinly veiled allegory of Afghanistan. At the end, all I could think about was those poor, poor, people dealing with us rich, pampered, White people.
It got me thinking; Have we Europeans ever colonized – or, if you prefer, Gone in to help. – a country and actually improved it? Sure, I know we brought in technology and medicine which improved the lives of billions of people. But we didn’t have to conquer the country to do that. Nobody ever conquered and colonized China and they seem to be doing fine. We are so sure that our way is the right way; no, not the right way, the only right way that we are blind to the damage we have done, are doing.
Yesterday, on Facebook, almost every post that isn’t about cute animals is about Mattis and what a disaster his quitting is. Over at Twitter, everybody I follow thinks it is great, well, good.
Whoah – looks like our Congressional orientation had a lot more lobbyists than we thought. This is not okay. Lobbyists are not impartial – they are employed to influence legislation. 60+ incoming members were listening to panelists without knowing which were hired lobbyists. 