Thread by @Pinboard

US coverage of the retreat from Afghanistan is an exercise in solipsism (this headline from the Washington Post). Thousands of troops are being sent to evacuate the embassy, but there is still no plan to evacuate Afghan translators and others marked for execution for helping us.

Another angle in US coverage is whether abandoning all these people to die is making our own soldiers feel bad.

What's happening in Afghanistan is primarily a story about Afghan people, who are human beings with every much a right to live in peace as we have, and stories of their own. The tradition in American journalism that only our troops merit coverage is one reason we suck at empire.

The Biden administration made no plans to evacuate thousands of Afghans who helped US forces. When confronted by indignant veterans and members of Congress, they half-assed a policy, but didn't adopt any measures to physically evacuate allies who are now in peril of their lives.

The decision to re-enact the disaster of Operation Frequent Wind (the best-named operation in American military history) is entirely on Biden. There were no Taliban armored divisions bearing down on Kabul; the US could leave on its own terms and decided to fuck up one last time.

Again, even if you're an American nationalist who doesn't care a whit about Afghan people, needlessly abandoning tens of thousands of those who voluntarily helped us to die will ensure that the next military adventure is that much deadlier for US troops. What a pointless defeat.

What it comes down to is that the most powerful country on earth, after a 20 year occupation, is simply too afraid of Afghans to let thousands of Afghan citizens who saved American lives come and build new lives in our country. Even after Vietnam we weren't this cowardly.

I'm sure a lot of people in Taiwan are watching the fiasco in Afghanistan and feeling really good about American strategic planning and promises of mutual aid.

Just to be crystal clear here—the decision to end the American military occupation of Afghanistan is laudable, the failure to send C-130's filled with green cards and arrange to evacuate the vulnerable before evacuating our troops is what fills me with shame.

Like, there's a whole young generation of Afghan women who got an education and a chance to live a non-medieval life. Imagine what those young women could achieve in America, and how much we would benefit, if we let them immigrate freely.

I've shared this before, but if you want a story about Afghanistan that's not told through the lens of war, this travelogue by a Dari-speaking Polish couple is wonderful. Eight episodes so far, with large parts in spoken English and the rest subtitled.

Semper Fidelis*

* Terms and conditions may apply. Not available in all theaters of war. Offer limited to U.S. citizens or resident aliens aged 18 or older. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES OR GUARANTEES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO WITHDRAWAL OF OCCUPATION FORCES.

The callousness and incompetence on display here is stunning. The bureaucratic crisis at the embassy is entirely self-inflicted, and telling people they and their families have to die because we don't want to finish their paperwork on Guam is unacceptable. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Imagine if it took as much paperwork to kill an Afghan civilian as it does to grant them a visa.