Afghanistan
POSTED BY: THG
UPDATED: Sunday, November 30, 2025 19:54
VIEWED: 16870
PAGE 4 of 22
Matthew Yglesias has an interesting but ambiguous post up on his substack about Afghanistan. His argument goes like this (this is my paraphrase, except for the quotes):
Withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan was correct on the merits
Generally, politicians should “say and do things that poll well”, a position he calls “popularism”
Withdrawing from Afghanistan polled well and seemed relatively safe politically
In fact, however, media coverage “has been hysterical and lacking in perspective.”
This hysterical, unbalanced coverage was surprising – to journalists, to Yglesias, and (Yglesias suspects) to the Biden White House
As a result of unbalanced and misleading media coverage, Democrats may do poorly in the midterms, and the entire episode may end up reinforcing hawkish and damaging foreign policy myths: “And that’s the problem with doing the right thing regardless of the consequences — if you lose the political fight, you tend to end up losing the substantive fight over time anyway.” Also this: “But my fear is that you only get to take so many political risks in life, and having rolled the dice and lost politically on Afghanistan, it’s now less likely that Biden will challenge the hawkish establishment in other areas like Iran policy that are probably more important.”
The only real alternative to the Biden withdrawal would have been to keep American forces in Afghanistan indefinitely: “This is the can-kicking logic that led to Obama’s incomplete withdrawal and that governed Trump’s decision-making until he was a lame duck . . . the objective political incentives favored it.”
And his conclusion: “. . . I think it makes sense for politicians to be hesitant to run big risks for the sake of doing the right thing.”
It’s not entirely clear that he thinks withdrawal was a mistake, all things considered, but at the very least he nods in that direction (while also acknowledging that if Biden had not withdrawn, Yglesias would have criticized this decision).
More at https://angrybearblog.com/2021/08/political-pragmatism-and-public-opin
ion-yglesias-on-popularism-and-afghanistan
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
"I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it." - John Cena playing the character of every single American President in the movie Suicide Squad.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Over Two Decades, U.S.’s Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives and Cost $8 Trillion
These figures come from a report issued Wednesday by Brown University’s Costs of War Project, an ongoing research effort to document the economic and human impact of post-9/11 military operations.
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/BudgetaryCosts
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll
https://web.archive.org/web/20210901164034/https://theintercept.com/20
21/09/01/war-on-terror-deaths-cost/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:That's 8 x 1000 x 1000 dollars per life. Very inefficient.
Over Two Decades, U.S.’s Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives and Cost $8 Trillion
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Actually, very efficient. The $8 trillion is being spent for AMERICAN weapons made by AMERICANS in AMERICA, not cheap imported Chinese electronics nor imported Korean autos, thus creating good jobs for Trump voters. And 927,000 dead civilians and "terrorists" are actually a waste stream, much like CO2 vented to the atmosphere from a factory. AMERICAN Factory owners want to minimize waste because that is efficient.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:That's 8 x 1000 x 1000 dollars per life. Very inefficient.
Over Two Decades, U.S.’s Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives and Cost $8 Trillion
If the whole purpose of the War on Terror was only to kill civilians and "terrorists", the cost is $1.00 per corpse. See the ammo prices at Lucky Gunner:
https://www.luckygunner.com/handgun/45-acp-ammo
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I think THG might vaguely wish it didn't happen, but THG won't condemn America killing millions of civilians because that is unpatriotic. For examples of heaping piles of dead civilians: Vietnam, Germany (fire bombing), Japan (fire bombing and nuking), Philippines ( https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/war ). There have been other examples but the military is well practiced at shrugging off killing millions of civilians as being just as necessary as breaking a few eggs to make an omelette. Americans love those omelettes.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Terrorism has never won anything throughout history; simple.
That's all a matter of perspective, really.
The US gaining its independence wasn't far removed from terrorism. What the North did to the South was the same. But the history books are written by the winners and nobody who wins calls themselves terrorists. Had the South won the Civil War in our timeline, the entire perspective of the past would be wholly different than it is today.
Today, Antifa/BLM are terrorists, but the Legacy Media today loves them, so they can't even bring themselves to call a riot a riot while talking about a single farcical incident on January 6th still nearly 9 months later.
Terrorism wins all the time. We just don't call it terrorism after the fact.
Infamous video from Iraq: Collateral Murder, which begins with these words:
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind. — George Orwell
On the morning of July 12th 2007, two Apache helicopters using 30mm cannon fire killed about a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad.
Two children were also wounded.
Although some of the men appear to have been armed, the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed.
The U.S. military initially claimed that all the dead were "anti-lraqi forces" or "insurgents".
Somebody went to jail over what happened in this video . . . the person who publicly leaked it, not the people who did the killings.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
The amount of absurdity contained in this conversation is drop dead astounding. I would add, any argument that people die during war so we should refuse to participate and that that would keep America safe, is again, drop dead astounding.
I’ll admit to many a mistake made by the United States in my lifetime and before so long as I’m posting with others who present a well-rounded assessment. Not self-righteous rants.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You should probably drop what you're doing and go fly to Afghanistan and go save some people, Ted.
Talking here isn't accomplishing anything.
--------------------------------------------------
Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Are you one of those Americans who believes that killing civilians protects your freedom? If you are, be happy that drones are still flying: "A US drone strike killed 10 Afghan civilians in Kabul on Sunday. The US and its allies killed thousands of civilians since the war began."
Originally posted by THG:
The amount of absurdity contained in this conversation is drop dead astounding. I would add, any argument that people die during war so we should refuse to participate and that that would keep America safe, is again, drop dead astounding.
I’ll admit to many a mistake made by the United States in my lifetime and before so long as I’m posting with others who present a well-rounded assessment. Not self-righteous rants.
T
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-drone-strike-kills-10-afghan-civili
ans-not-isolated-incident-2021-8
Are you one of those Americans who believes nuclear weapons protect your freedom? If you are, be happy to know more nukes will be built: "Why Are We Still Building Nuclear Weapons? Follow the Money"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhartung/2021/08/10/why-are-we-stil
l-building-nuclear-weapons----follow-the-money/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
We finally found that one issue that I was saying was going to start tearing the Democrats apart on this board and elsewhere. It's actually a shame that Nilbog and Marcos aren't around to dig in too.
Ted's a Bushite, Second.
Marcos and Nilbog are full on SJW Marxist racists.
Your dumb ass still believes the Democrat party is the same as it was in the 60's and 70's.
It's not. You're in the minority.
If you weren't such a jagoff all of the time, you'd probably have realized by now that you are more likely to agree with me on more issues than anybody on the board who leans left.
--------------------------------------------------
Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Over Two Decades, U.S.’s Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives and Cost $8 Trillion
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI: That's 8 x 1000 x 1000 dollars per life. Very inefficient.
Quote:Well, at about about 800,000 soldiers over 20 years, and 8 Trillion in expenditures in (as SLOPPY claims) equipment and ammo) that runs to 1 x 10 x 1000 x 1000 (10,000,000 or 10 million) of military equipment and ammo per soldier!!
Actually, very efficient. The $8 trillion is being spent for AMERICAN weapons made by AMERICANS in AMERICA, not cheap imported Chinese electronics nor imported Korean autos, thus creating good jobs for Trump voters. And 927,000 dead civilians and "terrorists" are actually a waste stream, much like CO2 vented to the atmosphere from a factory. AMERICAN Factory owners want to minimize waste because that is efficient.
WITH A PER-SOLDIER 10 MILLION'S WORTH OF SPENDING ON EQUIPMENT AND AMMO, HOW COULD WE LOSE ??
And who exactly do we thank for that? Congress? Bush the deux? Obama?
If democrats don't do any different, how are they any better?
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME