Thread by @Saintonge235

#Protip: If you want to see what self-blinding looks like, this is a good example.

'Oh, our programs for women didn't try to push "woke" versions of "gender nonsense." We just tried to push education for women that was bound to destabilize traditional Afghan society, and

https://twitter.com/CathyYoung63/status/1433603580678791175

make women judges, which was definitely against Afghan cultural norms. Surely that couldn't have been a bad idea? Even #OrangeManBad was in favor of it.'

Now if we'd been willing to build walls around the border of #Afghanistan, and put enough of an army in there to defeat the

#Taliban and keep infiltrators out, and take over all police and judicial roles, and leave those forces there for at least a half-century, we might have had a chance at changing Afghanistan into the kind of country Young wanted to make it. (We'd almost certainly have created

lots more trouble for ourselves in the rest of the #Muslim world, because our cause would have been objectively anti-#Islam, but pass that by for the moment.) But without being willing to overturn all of #Afghan society, this program didn't have a chance in Hell.

Note that as Young goes on, she makes it clear she knows that the U.S. was deliberately working to overturn Afghan cultural norms, and is proud of it. But she's too stupid too ask what would have been required for lasting results, what the price of that would have been, and

whether the U.S. would pay it.

This is a very human failing, one we all tend to commit. But unless and until we realize it IS a failing, and work on overcoming it, we will continue making expensive and futile gestures, while undermining our security.

Meanwhile, watch out for the Youngs and Eggers of this world, who are committed to not learning from mistakes as a matter of morality.