As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
We're going to largely avoid the apocalypse in Afghanistan today. There'll be articles and op/eds and many, many books written about the 20 year war (or 20 one- year wars, as many have characterized it) and the chaotic, tragic endgame unfolding right now. But we'll just indulge ourselves with this reminder from James Downie about the true origins of the disaster:
With Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country and Taliban forces entering Kabul on Sunday, the blame game is rampant in Washington. And much of the finger-pointing is coming from the perspectives most responsible for magnifying this catastrophe in the first place. [snip]
... These failures, however, came at the end of a 20-year disaster; avoiding such a long error in the future means going back to the roots of the problem. Those roots can be found in the views expressed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on ABC’s “This Week,” views shared by many other centrist and interventionist politicians and media voices.
“The catastrophe that we’re watching unfold right now across Afghanistan did not have to happen,” Cheney told host Jonathan Karl. “This is not ending the war. What this is doing actually is perpetuating it. What we have done, and what we’re seeing in Afghanistan, is instead of keeping 2,500 forces on the ground, which with air power, working with the Afghans, we were able to keep the Taliban at bay.”
Cheney — like many who share her view — did not include a timeline for those 2,500 forces. Nor did she mention anything more specific than “working with the Afghans” to explain how, if those forces came home five or 10 or 20 years from now, the Taliban wouldn’t return to power just as quickly. [snip]
Those interventionist politicians and establishment voices will also point to the very real dangers posed by the Taliban’s success. The country may once again become a haven for terrorists, they’ll argue. They’ll point to the rising standard of living, and the growth in education and human rights for Afghan women. They’ll ask how can we leave millions of Afghans, especially women, in danger.
Yet those dangers exist because, despite 20 years, billions of dollars, and 45,000 members of the Afghan military and police forces dead, along with more than 2,300 U.S. service members killed, the Afghan government, the United States and their allies never could create a stable, functioning state. And it has been clear for some time that such a task is impossible. Whatever the interventionists will argue, two decades of “nation-building” and counterinsurgency have been defined by corruption, incompetence and self-delusion. As we have seen in recent days, confronting that truth was always going to be ugly. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
Has the Biden Administration, through a catastrophic intelligence failure and "self-delusion," botched the evacuation of Afghans who deserve our protection? Absolutely. But the overall failure of the "nation- building" model has many fathers, most of whom are now denying parentage.
Meanwhile, the Biden domestic agenda is in the capable hands of Speaker Pelosi:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a procedural vote this month that would set up future passage of two economic measures crucial to President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, a move Democratic leaders hope will win must-have votes from unhappy party moderates.
In a letter Sunday to Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that the House will take a single vote that would clear an initial hurdle for both a budget resolution and a separate infrastructure bill. The budget blueprint would open the gate for Congress to later consider a separate, $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill for health, education and environment programs. [snip]
By forcing the House to vote on moving both measures a step forward together, Democratic leaders hope to build pressure on moderates to join the rest of the party in edging its economic and social agenda toward eventual final passage.
Bolstering the social safety net, combating climate change and creating jobs rank atop Biden’s and Democrats’ priorities. A defeat, especially at this early stage, would be deeply wounding to the party’s legislative goals and a political blow ahead of next year’s elections for congressional control.
“These bills will be the biggest and most consequential initiatives that any of us have ever undertaken in our official lives,” Pelosi wrote.
The Speaker has called the House back into session on August 23.
Well, well, well. Remember this Christofascist loon and his Steve Bannon connection? File this under "ye shall reap what you sow":
A right-wing Catholic cardinal who expressed skepticism of the coronavirus vaccines has been placed on a ventilator after his infection with the potentially deadly virus. [snip]
The 73-year-old Burke lives in Rome but became ill while visiting Wisconsin, where he was raised and founded a church in 2008, according to Elizabeth Westhoff, a friend and his former press secretary. [snip]
The cardinal has expressed skepticism for social distancing and opposed mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19, which he called the "Wuhan virus" in a homily, and in May 2021 spread false claims that vaccines contained microchips that would allow governments to track recipients.
"It has been used by certain forces inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda," Burke said in the December homily.
Oh, the schadenfreude!
Speaking of the pandemic of the unvaccinated:
COVID-19 hospitalizations for people in their 30s have reached a record high in the U.S. in the latest evidence that the dangerous delta variant of the disease poses formidable risks for younger age groups.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 170,852 hospital admissions of those age 30 to 39 from the beginning of August 2020 to last Wednesday. The number of daily admissions, based on a seven-day average, jumped from 908 the week beginning July 29 to 1,113 the week starting Aug. 5. That’s a 22.6% bounce — and still climbing.
Hospitalizations for children suffering from COVID also hit a record high with 1,902 in hospitals across the nation on Saturday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, Reuters reported. Children currently account for about 2.4% of all COVID hospitalizations in the U.S.
Not only are more children being affected in this wave of the disease, but they’re experiencing more serious symptoms, according to several reports. Children under 12 aren’t yet eligible for vaccinations, making them more vulnerable to the illness.
Get. The. Damn. Vaccine.
Please make it a point to head over to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best, most comprehensive collection of links to posts from around the Internet. Hopefully, if you're reading this, you've already made it a custom to check it out every week (as well as his essays on various topics).
