Honest and Confused Thoughts About Afghanistan
The collapse of the Afghan government is awful. The footage of people desperately trying to leave the country before the Taliban takes over is tragic. It just seems like a terrible situation. But in general, I don’t know what to think about Afghanistan.
It doesn’t seem like we made any progress there for 20 years. And it seems like this would have happened any time the US pulled out its troops. Maybe all the presidents from Bush to Biden that presided over this have a responsibility for that failure.
I’m trying not to politicize this, and by that I mean reflexively defend Biden because I voted for him and criticize Trump because he’s evil. Well, I’m trying not to reflexively defend Biden. And I’m also trying not to worry about how I think and speak to others about Afghanistan with an ear for protecting Biden’s electoral reputation. I do think the images will last and it will be Biden’s challenge to bear. That said, one of Biden’s strong suits coming into the Presidency was his foreign policy, so this is his chance to show why.
I’m a bit worried that we are about to get rope-a-doped into re-invading Afghanistan to quash the Taliban, and pencil us in for another 20 years of occupation.
Does the Taliban just become the government now? And does that process normalize them (on the world stage, over decades), neuter them in the eyes of their true believers (you used to be revolutionaries and now you are just politicians), and create space for an even more extreme group?
Do you think anyone really knows how to deal with the situation there? Like there’s someone with a great idea that no one is listening to? I don’t.
One thing this is doing is revealing some arbitrary limit to how much compassion and empathy I have resources for. I don’t think I knew this before the pandemic, but empathy has an energy cost, at least emotionally. And I feel drained by all the abject horror in the world. One of my recent theories is that social media expands our universe beyond the point that we have any control. We see tragedies but we have no ability to take action. What can any individual in the United States do to help people in Afghanistan? Find a charity and send $50?
My response to the last thought is to then cut off input, not check Twitter as much, not read about this stuff. But then you turn around, and by accident on YouTube you find out that South Africa had massive riots and looting in July and you never even heard about it. But again: what can you do?
Sorry, we got to the last bullet and again I have no answers for you. I hope we can find some way to make as many people safe in Afghanistan as we can. In the meantime, I donated $50 to Women for Women, an international nonprofit helping female survivors of war (including Afghan refugees), and they’re matching up to $500,000 in donations right now.