The US Government Lied for Two Decades on Afghanistan(greenwald.substack.com) |
The US Government Lied for Two Decades on Afghanistan(greenwald.substack.com) |
Why?
Is there some objective reason you believe them more, or is it just that they tell you the things that feel right to you?
Speaking purely for myself, I find Greenwald and Taibbi to be every bit as slanted and shrill as any other source of media, they're just slanted in a different direction.
Should they be included as part of an overall media diet that, on balance, gives you a more rounded view of current events?
Perhaps.
Should they be believed to the exclusion of other media sources? If you're asking me, absolutely not. That's no better than subsisting on a diet solely of Fox or the Times.
Incompetent people are people who dig themselves into deep holes because they are clueless or crazy. They are not capable of digging themselves out.
Now what happens if such people yank a whole bunch of others into that deep hole? What do you do?
If you are not capable of pulling all of them out sure you can make a big noise and hope grandma or someone shows up to help. But for some problems no one is coming.
And these two fools sell to their fan clubs that grandma will show up if the right noise is produced. For all their giggling and raging, count the number of times that has happened.
Bureaucracies are weird, byzantine things. To assume malice when, given the information we currently have, incompetence is equally likely seems to me to be editorializing.
Is incompetence good? Hell no, and the administration has a lot to answer for. But to assume, not just that the administration didn't know how bad the exit from Afghanistan would be, but that they intentionally lied about it, is a leap that, while possible, I'm not yet willing to make.
It probably would - but even if there were no civilian casualties, consider that such a strike would further radicalize the next generation of Taliban members who are unified by hatred towards a common enemy.
The U.S has been fighting fire with fire for the past 20 years in Afghanistan. The OP hints at the deeper mysterious behind this operation, and voices a concern that is representative of the growing public disdain for the entire fiasco. As much as I want peace and equality for everyone in the region, more drone strikes are unlikely to fix the systemic and generational issues.