Sometimes, a single news event is so titanically important that it blows away every other story, even those that had seemed titanically important, such as Democrats piling many trillions more dollars onto our mountain of debt.
That’s how it is with the national disgrace of America’s shambolic scuttle out of Afghanistan. We had no moral obligation to continue war there, the longest in our history. But we did have a moral and strategic obligation not to run away, not to shame our nation in the eyes of the world, not to expose American strength as a shabby pretense, not to hand China, Russia, and other enemies propaganda gifts that will keep on giving perhaps for decades, not to betray the Afghans whom we promised protection in exchange for their support.
Ended? Hardly. This is the beginning of a new chapter in a story that can end with American eclipse or, far harder, with American revival. The war between civilization and Islamofascists does not end simply because we stopped fighting. The wider trial of strength between enlightenment, currently but precariously represented by the West, and dark forces operating in different guises from Bamiyan to Beijing is perpetual, for it is really between the instinct for freedom hard-coded into human nature and the evil that will always try to suppress it.
Biden ran for office pretending that he would bring knowledge and gravitas to our foreign policy, as though his unbroken 40-year record of misjudging world events somehow lent him competence merely because of its creaking longevity. He doesn’t know what he is doing, his most senior Cabinet sidekicks declare the Afghan mission a “success,” and when asked for detailed answers to vital questions, his agencies, that have had years to prepare, have “no further information at this time.”
The aftershocks of this debacle are shaking America and the world. We start sustained coverage in this week’s magazine with our cover story, “Biden’s Catastrophe,” by Bradley Bowman, who lays out self-delusions that led the administration to disaster. Trent Reedy, a veteran of Afghanistan, details the sacrifices made by our troops and by Afghans now at the mercy of the Taliban and asks if it was “All for Nothing.” Jamie McIntyre says the collapse was foreseeable yet unforeseen by policymakers. And our editorial holds Biden’s feet to the fire on his false promises.
