Thread by @ggreenwald

For years people wanted the US out of Afghanistan. It was bipartisan: Trump and Biden both were adamant about it, and were right.

It's easy (and maybe opportunistic) to complain about how it was done, but there was *no withdraw plan* that would have prevented Taliban takeover.

The US doesn't have the capacity to control and transform other countries on the other side of the world, especially ones radically different in terms of culture, history, etc.

There never was an ANSF: that was a lie. This outcome was inevitable with any withdrawal plan.

It's good when presidents resist the permanent pro-war national security DC faction and the media that supports it. It was good when Obama refused to go to war with Assad more than he did, good when Trump tried to improve relations with Russia, good that Biden left Afghanistan.

People are forgetting the contours of the Afghanistan debate. Trump urgently wanted to leave. In Congress, a coalition of pro-war, Raytheon-funded House Dems and neocons like Liz Cheney united to try to block it. Trump & Biden are right about Afghanistan.

theintercept.com/2020/07/02/hou…

I understand that people can support withdrawal while objecting to "the way it was done." I'm sure some are sincere in that.

But objecting that "now is not the time" or "withdrawal was done the wrong way" is always how the Endless War faction justifies staying longer.

Could this withdraw have been better managed? Yes, probably. But on the whole, any withdraw was going to result in chaos, bloodshed and, above all else, the Taliban back in power. A 20-year-war produces horrific outcomes, and leaving while losing does, too. But leaving was right.