Update January 18, 2022 See, Pamela Constable, “Afghanistan desperately needs aid. One technocrat from the former government is key to the Taliban’s efforts,” Washington Post,…
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With Western journalists now evacuating from Kabul, reports on what is happening on the ground are becoming more rare. Some reports from Kabul by individual…
Developing See, 1) Paula J. Dobriansky and Paul Saunders, A Way Out of Biden’s Afghan Trap; The U.N. Security Council could authorize the U.S. and…
Recent opinion on the American debacle in Afghanistan. See, 1) Sylvie Kauffmann (éditorialiste), “L’onde de choc géopolitique de la débâcle afghane; L’humiliation infligée à la…
The fundamental question of whether our capacity for empathy is diminishing remains, and the answers are not clear.
Upon those answers the future of the human rights movement, and indeed international law probating war crimes and crimes against humanity, may ultimately depend.
30 years ago, perhaps, the United States still had a foreign policy elite which led public opinion on complicated foreign policy issues, about which the average American was ignorant and didn’t have a clue.
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So, in this media environment, where there are few editors and producers capable of finding and using the best expert opinion from the foreign policy elite–people who really know what they are talking about–it is not surprising that so much discussion focuses on interviews or discussions with individuals with no deep foreign policy expertise on Afghanistan.
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The battle was never about whether the U.S. would win the war against the Taliban. It was always about whether the Afghan people would win their struggle for a civilized, and democratic, future. 70,000 Afghan soldiers, over the years, gave up their lives in pursuit of that goal.
But the United States lacked what has been called ” strategic patience”.
Joe Biden was right about one thing. The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan was due to a failure of government leadership and the lack of a will to fight.
But the failure of government leadership and the lack of a will to fight were, most decisively, not those of Afghanistan, but rather those of the United States.
In one of the great ironies of history, Joe Biden and America, in 2021, have dealt a great body blow to Afghan dreams and aspirations for a civilized and even a democratic future.
See, 1) Ryan Crocker Ryan Crocker, “Was Pulling Out of Afghanistan a Mistake?” in “Afghanistan Under the Taliban,” Carnegie Emdpwment for International Peace, August 18,…
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/full-text-of-joe-biden-e2-80-99s-speech-on-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/ar-AANoeg5 Joe Biden: (00:55) Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, the developments that have taken place in the…
Heads Must Roll: Accountability for the American Debacle in Afghanistan Who is responsible for the decisions that led to the U.S. surrender to the Taliban…
Dispatches See, 1) Amanda Mars / Agncias, “Los talibanes refuerzan su rápido avance con la toma de Kandahar, la segunda mayor ciudad del país; EE…
Developing Dispatches Story to follow Afghanistan is falling to the Taliban. As we observed on July 5, 2021, after the announcement of the total U.S….
If race is used as a criterion for selection, in allocating not only opportunities but also results, how long will it be before those from other races not so favored will rise up in rebellion? What assurance do we have that their rebellion will be constrained by the Constitution and the rule of law?
Maybe it is not the pursuit of excellence or meritocracy per se that is responsible for the racial and social inequities thar exist in society, but a combination of historical, economic, cultural and social forces that have produced the complex reality in which we currently live.
Viewed from this broader perspective, Sandel’s analysis appears to,be unduly reductionistic, the product of too much theory and philosophy and insufficient attention to the concrete realities in which people actually live.
Now, George F. Will, a highly respected and insightful conservative columnist for the Washington Post, has written a powerful critique of Sandel’s book and the whole attack on excellence–as an overriding policy goal for society and universities to follow in allocating not only opportunities but also results, i.e., jobs, power, and other social rewards.
Democrats would do well to listen carefully to Will’s arguments.
