The "fake middle ground" position here is that instead of saying it was illegal, Biden could have let SIV applications come be processed in the US before August, that we didn't need to make visiting a single medical clinic in Kabul a bureaucratic prerequisite for visa applicants https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1429474045238693889 …
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How much of the decision to break commitments to people we worked with in Afghanistan was calculated policy, and how much was due to ineptitude or carelessness, is impossible to discern from the outside. It's an important question entirely distinct from "should we stay or go"
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I'm fine with people like
@mattstoller or@mattyglesias insisting this was a binary choice, and calling the people who disagree idiots. We're on Twitter, after all. I'm less cool with them accusing people who reject the framing of intellectual dishonesty, like we saw upthreadShow this thread -
I get that fighting over Afghanistan is making old scars from the 2002-era Blog Wars tingle. But there are people outside of Substack and the U.S. military whose lives have also been affected by our conduct in Afghanistan, and it is not some ideological foul to talk about them
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Arguing that leaving our closest friends and allies behind was the inevitable result of "messiness", rather than a political decision recognizing that no one wants Afghan refugees, and that anyone who disagrees is carrying water for "The Blob" is taking people to inhuman places.
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You'd think the central lesson of these wars would have stuck: it's not always about what happens to America and Americans. Biden could have saved thousands of lives by making better (or less cynical) policy decisions; and the value of those lives is not a function of citizenship
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You'd think someone like Yglesias would be the one arguing that details of policy implementation matter more than ideological battles waged over cable news. The failure to get vulnerable Afghans out was a catastrophic and *unnecessary* concomitant to withdrawing our troops.
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Despite suggestions to the contrary, Afghanistan is a large country with many cities, and we left our friends stranded in all of them. This is not a "wait and see" situation where early incompetence gives rise to a smooth evacuation and all ends well. The die was cast weeks ago.
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My chief request to people is just a thought experiment. Pretend that the current withdrawal, and the policy decisions about handling Afghan refugees, were happening under Trump. Would your reaction be different? If so, why?
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at root this is the same thing that happened in the former USSR: they care about the people on the ground less than they care about scoring ideological and political points
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The American government supposedly had some minimal level of respect for the Soviets, and still chose to twist the knife during the fall and liberalization. What respect did they ever have for Afghanistan?
End of conversation
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