Thread by @RadioFreeTom

To avoid today, we would have had to make different decisions at least a decade ago, or more. We didn't. We waved flags and sang along with Lee Greenwood and said "Make sure whatever that thing is over there doesn't annoy us too much." /1

So, our political leaders said "message received," and told the military to "go make sure we're winning or something," and the military saluted smartly and said "okay, by our metrics, we're doing fine." And that kept the peace... at home. /2

We could have made a lot of other choices: Stay and be serious about staying for a *long* time, or leave with a warning about not making us come back.
But instead we did the flag and singing stuff. /3

And when that wasn't fun anymore, we wanted to use "forever war!" as a partisan lance to stab our partisan enemies, even if we didn't know what it meant. And a majority coalesced around "just get out," but Obama and Trump wouldn't do it.
Biden did. Well, okay. Wish granted. /4

Did Biden botch the last few days, not getting our friends out? Sure looks like it. But in the end, he gave Americans what they wanted. Now we're all going to sit around and bitch about how we shouldn't get what we want unless it has no costs and no risks and Dad fixes it all. /5

In a country where we can't even agree to stop a pandemic by doing the simplest things.
/6x