https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...rves-credit-not-blame-for-afghanistan/619925/
I respect people who do the right thing even when it's not the popular thing. No other president had the courage to disentangle us from Afghanistan, including the Trump officials who strengthened the Taliban with their concessions and left Biden to clean up the mess.
I agree that no one predicted that the 300,000 man Afghan Army, trained and financed by the U.S., would collapse within days--even when we left equipment there to help them defend their government. And I put the blame on them. It is completely illogical to think that 300,000 American trained and funded soldiers with billions of dollars of high powered equpment could cave in a week.
I would like to see a little more of that spine in Biden in the future. On voting rights, on ending the filibuster---at least for something as important as saving our democracy. He needs to remember that the last president with his legislative experience--LBJ--was able to negotiate the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court shamefully shredded. LBJ enacted Medicare, Medicaid, and the Great Society.
And now, 60 years later, our society sure doesn't look so "great," when domestic terrorists storm state capitols and the U.S. Capitol to throw their weight around, when rogue governors thumb their noses at public health and threaten and coerce the school districts and businesses who care about the children and customers they serve. It doesn't look so great when we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care.
Our democracy has been under attack and there are those who would hijack it. We need a good legislative negotiator--but we need courage even more.
And so God bless you, President Biden, for your courage, for your willingness to take the heat from alt-right wing news networks. Keep it up.
Unlike his three immediate predecessors in the Oval Office, all of whom also came to see the futility of the Afghan operation, Biden alone had the political courage to fully end America’s involvement. Although Donald Trump made a plan to end the war, he set a departure date that fell after the end of his first term and created conditions that made the situation Biden inherited more precarious. And despite significant pressure and obstacles, Biden has overseen a military and government that have managed, since the announcement of America’s withdrawal, one of the most extraordinary logistical feats in their recent history. By the time the last American plane lifts off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 31, the total number of Americans and Afghan allies extricated from the country may exceed 120,000.
Former military officers and intelligence operatives, as well as commentators who had long been advocates of extending America’s presence in Afghanistan, railed against Biden’s artificial deadline... Some were Trump-administration officials or supporters who had negotiated with and helped strengthen the Taliban with their concessions in the peace deal and then had punted the ultimate exit from the country to the next administration.
I respect people who do the right thing even when it's not the popular thing. No other president had the courage to disentangle us from Afghanistan, including the Trump officials who strengthened the Taliban with their concessions and left Biden to clean up the mess.
I agree that no one predicted that the 300,000 man Afghan Army, trained and financed by the U.S., would collapse within days--even when we left equipment there to help them defend their government. And I put the blame on them. It is completely illogical to think that 300,000 American trained and funded soldiers with billions of dollars of high powered equpment could cave in a week.
I would like to see a little more of that spine in Biden in the future. On voting rights, on ending the filibuster---at least for something as important as saving our democracy. He needs to remember that the last president with his legislative experience--LBJ--was able to negotiate the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court shamefully shredded. LBJ enacted Medicare, Medicaid, and the Great Society.
And now, 60 years later, our society sure doesn't look so "great," when domestic terrorists storm state capitols and the U.S. Capitol to throw their weight around, when rogue governors thumb their noses at public health and threaten and coerce the school districts and businesses who care about the children and customers they serve. It doesn't look so great when we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care.
Our democracy has been under attack and there are those who would hijack it. We need a good legislative negotiator--but we need courage even more.
And so God bless you, President Biden, for your courage, for your willingness to take the heat from alt-right wing news networks. Keep it up.