It's all the more frustrating because the "credibility" they seem so enamored with seems to refer to American willingness to sacrifices its own sons and daughters for the interests of foreign states. Do Bret Stephens and the other swamp-creatures parroting the "credibility" line actually believe that China is going to annex Hawaii tomorrow because they now doubt our "credibility?"
Oh no, are Taiwan and Ukraine now having doubts about our "credibility?" Great! That means they're less likely to engage in reckless behavior due to the moral hazard created by blank-check security guarantees and that if they chose to engage in such behavior, it is they rather than us who will bear the cost of it. In other words, these governments are now less likely to engage in destructive behavior and we are less likely to pay for it. That's a wonderful deal for the United States.
In point of fact, the Blob monsters who are lamenting the American withdrawal are most just embarrassed that the United States was humiliated by a group of rabble with funny facial hair who dress funny. A hundred years ago, Bret Stephens would have simply said what he is thinking: we cannot let our Great Nation get beaten by savages! Well, Bret, it's their country, not yours. Hence, much like the Viet Cong before them, they were willing to fight for it due to a syncretic mix of nationalism and religious fervor. On top of that, they didn't much appreciate the presence of foreign troops in their country, and apparently the locals weren't willing to fight or die on behalf of a comedically corrupt regime that had virtually zero support outside of Kabul, where the American gravy train coincidentally had its epicenter. As I seem to recall, our own nation had an episode where a group of unwashed farmers beat the mightiest imperial military in the world. Happed some time around 1776 I think.
Afghanistan was a complete farce from the beginning. A corrupt military industrial complex milked the occupation for all it was worth. Generals who were only interested in their own careers consistently lied about how well the occupation was going. Their underlings fed the generals false information because it was what they wanted to hear. Afghan elites latched onto American largesse in order to advance their own status and positions; it was only they, and not ordinary Afghans living in small villages, that the pliant press used to represent the voice of the Afghans.
Beyond this, the fact that neither the generals, the politicians, or the American public knew anything about the modern history of Afghanistan at the beginning of the war is somewhat excusable. It was a quick-strike response to 9/11. The fact that nobody in a position of authority in Washington know anything about the country or its history 20 years later is an inexcusable farce. Everyone with a star on their collar in Washington should have known the broad strokes of Mullah Omar's biography within a year of the war beginning. But much like Iran or China, we fill in the gaps of a country whose history we do not understand with cultural stereotypes.
The imperial war machine deserved the humiliation of Afghanistan and so much more, and so do its supporters. Cry me a river over the fact that they will have to endure an embarrassing news cycle. This entire project has been an embarrassment from the beginning.
I have a different concern than that [expletive deleted] Brett Stephens:
When I was younger, I used to sometimes take meals with an older lady who had lived in a suburb of Warsaw during WWII and who liked cats. She mentioned that, as sadistic as the Nazis had been in 1939-42, they were far worse in 1943-44, when you could see the terror in their eyes, the eyes of a bully who had met up with a bigger meaner, nastier bully and who was afraid that he was losing his grip. The Germans were fleeing the Red Army as fast as they could, but they were still dangerous to Poles, Czechs and the like.
Every time I see Jen Psaki jawing fatuously on some press conference and sounding like nothing so much as Hirohito after Nagasaki ("the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage...") , what worries me is that, having just been publicly beclowned in front of the entire world, that the United States will start another war, just to avoid the accusations of "weakness" and something something Muh American Credibility.
It's all the more frustrating because the "credibility" they seem so enamored with seems to refer to American willingness to sacrifices its own sons and daughters for the interests of foreign states. Do Bret Stephens and the other swamp-creatures parroting the "credibility" line actually believe that China is going to annex Hawaii tomorrow because they now doubt our "credibility?"
Oh no, are Taiwan and Ukraine now having doubts about our "credibility?" Great! That means they're less likely to engage in reckless behavior due to the moral hazard created by blank-check security guarantees and that if they chose to engage in such behavior, it is they rather than us who will bear the cost of it. In other words, these governments are now less likely to engage in destructive behavior and we are less likely to pay for it. That's a wonderful deal for the United States.
In point of fact, the Blob monsters who are lamenting the American withdrawal are most just embarrassed that the United States was humiliated by a group of rabble with funny facial hair who dress funny. A hundred years ago, Bret Stephens would have simply said what he is thinking: we cannot let our Great Nation get beaten by savages! Well, Bret, it's their country, not yours. Hence, much like the Viet Cong before them, they were willing to fight for it due to a syncretic mix of nationalism and religious fervor. On top of that, they didn't much appreciate the presence of foreign troops in their country, and apparently the locals weren't willing to fight or die on behalf of a comedically corrupt regime that had virtually zero support outside of Kabul, where the American gravy train coincidentally had its epicenter. As I seem to recall, our own nation had an episode where a group of unwashed farmers beat the mightiest imperial military in the world. Happed some time around 1776 I think.
Afghanistan was a complete farce from the beginning. A corrupt military industrial complex milked the occupation for all it was worth. Generals who were only interested in their own careers consistently lied about how well the occupation was going. Their underlings fed the generals false information because it was what they wanted to hear. Afghan elites latched onto American largesse in order to advance their own status and positions; it was only they, and not ordinary Afghans living in small villages, that the pliant press used to represent the voice of the Afghans.
Beyond this, the fact that neither the generals, the politicians, or the American public knew anything about the modern history of Afghanistan at the beginning of the war is somewhat excusable. It was a quick-strike response to 9/11. The fact that nobody in a position of authority in Washington know anything about the country or its history 20 years later is an inexcusable farce. Everyone with a star on their collar in Washington should have known the broad strokes of Mullah Omar's biography within a year of the war beginning. But much like Iran or China, we fill in the gaps of a country whose history we do not understand with cultural stereotypes.
The imperial war machine deserved the humiliation of Afghanistan and so much more, and so do its supporters. Cry me a river over the fact that they will have to endure an embarrassing news cycle. This entire project has been an embarrassment from the beginning.
I have a different concern than that [expletive deleted] Brett Stephens:
When I was younger, I used to sometimes take meals with an older lady who had lived in a suburb of Warsaw during WWII and who liked cats. She mentioned that, as sadistic as the Nazis had been in 1939-42, they were far worse in 1943-44, when you could see the terror in their eyes, the eyes of a bully who had met up with a bigger meaner, nastier bully and who was afraid that he was losing his grip. The Germans were fleeing the Red Army as fast as they could, but they were still dangerous to Poles, Czechs and the like.
Every time I see Jen Psaki jawing fatuously on some press conference and sounding like nothing so much as Hirohito after Nagasaki ("the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage...") , what worries me is that, having just been publicly beclowned in front of the entire world, that the United States will start another war, just to avoid the accusations of "weakness" and something something Muh American Credibility.
Please see/listen to the truly eye-opening US recent bipartisan crimes in this outstanding Haiti interview -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3iT3y7MktI