Why US Foreign Clients Collapse – and Collapse Fast
Americans who watched the collapse of South Vietnam’s government during the early months of 1975 are experiencing déjà vu in response to the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. In a matter of weeks after the United States began withdrawing its troops from...
Self-Delusion Is Cruelest of All: The Collapse of Afghanistan and American Illusions
Yesterday I found myself dry-heaving and hyper-ventilating in broad daylight, crouched behind the corner of an unused outdoor patio bar in Kansas. I hadn’t had but two beers, but I’d had more than enough of American obtuseness. On a smoke break from wielding my...
Recognizing and Combating the Pernicious Effects of Propaganda
The U.S. is extraordinarily secure from physical threats, and the threat of international terrorism is small and manageable, but the government has nonetheless waged a "war on terror" for the last 20 years in which it assumed extensive new powers that...
Blame Bush and Obama for the Afghan Disaster
Former President Trump, President Biden and their partisans are rushing to blame each other for the debacle unfolding now in Afghanistan. The “National Unity Government” and its military and police forces have completely evaporated in the face of the...
Kabul Has Fallen – But Don’t Blame Biden
This weekend the US experienced another "Saigon moment," this time in Afghanistan. After a 20 year war that drained trillions from Americans' pockets, the capital of Afghanistan fell without a fight. The corrupt Potemkin regime that the US had been propping...
Iraq Daily Roundup: Seven Killed, Including Turkish Soldiers
As America’s Imperial Ambitions Collapse, Washington Should Ask: Who Lost Afghanistan?
America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is nearly over. Yesterday Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared: "This is manifestly not Saigon." Yet Associated Press reported: "panic set in as many rushed to leave the country through the Kabul airport, the...
Afghanistan: Taliban Victories Explain the Wisdom of US Withdrawal
As I write this column, the Taliban are on a roll. They’ve taken 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals in a single week, including the country’s second and third largest cities (Kandahar and Herat), and Ghazni, which sits astride the main...
Hold the Generals Accountable This Time
If, after the horrors of this week in Afghanistan, the 4-Starry-eyed generals responsible for this 20-year March of Folly are not held accountable, there will be still worse to come. None were held accountable for the disasters of Vietnam or Iraq, and now the...
