RE: The United States has not spent $ 300 million a day on war in Afghanistan.
August 26, 2021 at 12:51 pm
(August 26, 2021 at 12:27 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Or that it took so long and we still never achieved that thing that the afghan people need, so desperately, now. People here in the us are positively apoplectic over the idea of the authorities rounding people up and shooting them in the streets. It's the big bad that even good policies can be assassinated with.
Now, I'll say this. 20 years is a long time to go to bat for people you don't know, who hate you - but might we be seeing the end of american's appetite for going to bat for anyone or anything, even themselves? That we aren't withdrawing there as it's own thing, but as a part of a larger trend of receding in our sphere of concerns which, for at least some americans...doesn't just exclude afghan citizens, but other americans as well. More than half of them, perhaps.
I know I bitch about this to you guys alot, and I appreciate that you put up with it, but more and more, I feel like I have no country or never had one. Our inaction in syria and now our withdrawal from afghanistan....it's rough. Your boy was doing good work for good reasons, one day...even the people there are going to enjoy the freedoms we failed to institute. The history of that place will include the attempt, and we can hope it might distinguish between the poor decisions of successive us administrations and the profuse decency of the the people who listened and helped on the ground.
(bold mine)
I do see the withdrawal of the U.S. from the world sphere as a problem, as there are plenty of enemies who want to crush even the idea of democracy. That is why I disagree that people in Afghanistan will eventually enjoy freedoms.
I don't see freedom as something that can be retained without the willingness to die for it, and I see very little will for that in any nation. Democracy is not a default condition - it requires a balance between a strong educated populace, and a government strong enough to keep order. If either side gets too powerful, we get populist autocratic revolution or an elitist oligarchy.
I see myths as central to the existence of a nation. The myth of "divine right" held together kingdoms. The myth of divine succession holds together theocracies. The myth of "inherent rights given by a creator" holds together liberal democracies.
Today, most people don't give a damn about liberal democracy, as long as they can buy the next iPhone.