I think if I took an unlabeled map of the world's countries and stood out front of our local Walmart in my very deep red state and asked persons to point to Afghanistan that a preponderance of persons would not be able to accurately locate it. Yet, many of these very same persons are right now rabidly condemning President Biden on Facebook and other social media sites for his foreign policy incompetence. Meanwhile many media talking heads are stirring up public fury by interjecting their own overwrought emotions into the news. As a modestly or moderately informed person, I find myself stunned at my own lack of appreciation for how so many hundreds or even thousands of Afghan people are, or were, symbiotically--and some perhaps parasitically--deeply intertwined with the American presence in their country, so that now the severance is not only painful, but life threatening. Other countries, those supporting the American presence, apparently also had deep intertwining. It seems then that Americans and others have been or become very like colonizers over the past 21 years, and while perhaps benevolent in some respects, the accompanying graft and corruption, especially in Kabul has been appalling. I'm also not certain how much ongoing hospitality and sustained welcoming the refugee Afghans will experience in the U.S., given the often rabid anti-immigrant views being expressed to others seeking freedom and life in America. Certainly, there will be an outpouring of immediate support from many, as has already been evidenced, but America right now has a very ugly side in great prominence. Even for the native born that is becoming more and more difficult to navigate and maintain civility, so perhaps "steady" is the best thought to keep in mind, and hope that President Biden and his advisors, as well as the military, will keep "steady" in mind as well. Now, if someone could just instill "steady" into all the cable TV pundits, who keep ranting and revving up the situation, that would be fine.
It is so easy to fall into a knee-jerk, emotional and judgemental response to the televised images of the mass evacuations from Afghanistan. Thank you, Dan for the reminder that human affairs are not a set table.
Thank you for this thoughtful essay. I keep thinking about when the country was so gung-ho about starting this war and indeed they are easier to start than they are to end. I remember Bush the 2nd trotting out in his little jump suit declaring victory while so many in the nation cheered him on. Now I hear that hypocrite Liz Cheney criticizing President Biden when her own father was one of the architects of this debacle. Do some people have no shame? Do they never admit mistakes? We, as a country, have to get smarter. I don’t know how many more senseless wars we can take before it totally destroys us.
We keep hearing Americans saying they tried to start the removal of Afghans earlier and people DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE. These are people who ere finally living with families and friends in relative peace as combat died down. And WHERE WERE THE GOING? How would they be treated? Placed in refugee camps? Sent where the color of their skin would mark them as Lesser?
We live in a country where people are afraid of a vaccine which could save their life! Can we not understand these people's fear of a a much greater unknown. If intelligence specialists didn't see the fast collapse, I can understand common people wanting to stay in familiar circumstances as long as possible.
In reading these comments, probably the most frequently used word to describe this column and the views of Dan Rather/the Steady Team is "perspective." The first-listed definition in Webster's Collegiate dictionary for the noun "perspective " is:
"The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point."
It is interesting that indeed, this story provides all of the items in the listed defintion even though it describes a way to view a picture or image that lacks three dimensions. When you think about the depth missing in most of the information readily available to us via the internet, social media and television --especially things that only focus on one narrative (e.g., all actions by Biden/Democrats are bad, wars are only won or lost, you are either with us or against us, etc.)-- this defintion applies all the more. Without visual perspective --which almost none of us have in terms of viewing news events firsthand with our own eyes, in three actual dimensions-- we all lack perspective. It shows badly when considering most of the information shared in our public domain. So I join the fray in thanking the Steady Team and the steady hand of Dan Rather for their unskewed views, and for keeping our vision on track for receiving the "right impression" as it relates to other viewpoints.
We gave them plenty of warning. Probably more than enough time to plan a takeover. The same country that planned 9/11 without us knowing. The Afghans are intelligent people.
I have watched the steady reporting of the tragedy in Afghanistan with a mixture of sadness and disgust. There seems to be a lot of hand wringing and finger pointing. I have yet to hear a single person suggest how they might have handled differently the evacuation of American personnel and allies in the face of the the sudden and complete evaporation of the Afghan army. Ending a war is never easy, admitting failure is never easy, dealing with the fallout of bad decisions is never easy, - but finger pointing and hind sight? Piece of cake....
Exactly right at this time on almost every count! Right on the present questions and the important historic perspective! Plenty more to do and learn. We have two primary (primal?) obligations now: Find out what went wrong and why; and Get our people and others who helped us out safely. Many questions about both of those.
In a documentary "Civilization" states war leads to growth. In almost every case that is true. The victor to keep the people from rising up against them changes. When they don't do that there is more war.
The Afghan people must rid themselves of the Taliban. Every country should refuse to trade with the Taliban offer no financial help. If the Taliban want to govern they must figure it now.
The number of people trying to leave the country are not just people who helped the United States. Thousands are people trying to escape life living under the Taliban.
If the Afghan people want a country they can live in they must fight to get it.
Thank you again, Dan and Steady team for always giving us a broader understanding of the causes and nuances behind news headlines and a calm, rational explanation of the facts beyond the 30-second reports in the news.
If it is time to leave, it is time to leave. When you are fighting someone else's war, you cannot expect the two sides to say...oh, you're leaving? OK, we'll stop too. Enough is more than enough. I am sorry we didn't fix everything but other than obliterating the bad guys, that was not going to happen. I would hope tgat the good guys learned enough to support themselves. Unfortunately that rarely happens either. May God bless the good people in this ravished country and hopefully allow them to be somewhere safe.
Once again, excellent article, Dan. Great perspective on the outcome of any and all wars, or conflicts, wherever they are.
There has been a lot said about the Afghanistan departure, how it was done. Could it have been better? Done differently? Should the American troops stayed until all Americans, and Afghanistan people were out that needed to be gotten out? These, and many other questions will haunt us for decades to come. Just as the questions about Vietnam, World Wars 1 and 2, Korean war, and all the others.
I, personally, don't have the answers to any of these questions. I'm also not getting on any social media and voicing my opinion about any of the methods we have done anything. I will make one comment on here though. I believe in the President, and I back his decision to do whatever he feels is necessary, and the best for this country. He has proven himself over the many years of huis service to this country that he thinks things through before making any rash decision. So, his decision to pull out troops out, good. I'm glad. We were there way to long.
Thank you for this calm, careful commentary. Dan Rather and Heather Cox Richardson have been two of the calmest, steadiest voices in my life over the last year and more. Politics is a new area for me. I had never previously engaged much with the details. In presidential elections, my preferred candidate may or may not have won, but I never worried for the future of our country as a democratic republic.
That all changed when Donald Trump assumed the office. Especially in the past year, I've been voraciously reading all I could about present day political circumstances. This piece reminds me of how important it is to connect today's events with events of the past, to see how previous events have influenced what is happening today. It is also a good reminder that, with regard to the pullout from Afghanistan, we are in the "messy middle." The messy middle can be a hard place to be. What is happening today has been influenced by all that came before with regard to Afghanistan, including not just the political and military actions taken by the US and actors before us, but the personal relationships that have been built between Afghan individuals and Americans (and people of other countries) they worked for and with.
My hope is that this operation can be completed as safely as is humanly possible given the conditions on the ground. There will be plenty of time for Monday-morning quarterbacking once it's all over. I hope that those who need to develop policy moving forward will reflect carefully on how their choices may impact the people and the country of Afghanistan and not react with partisan potshots.
As always, this history-in-the-making takes place in the midst of all the other "messy middle" situations our country and our world face today. We will always be in the "messy middle" of something.
I think this is a very perceptive column, specifically the idea that there is no tidy beginnings or endings in human affairs and the future often looks a whole lot different than we imagine it. One point that I don't think that is mentioned enough is the role of NATO in this. When Trump began to draw down troops there were many more European than American troops in Afghanistan at the end of 2020. Europe essentially pulled out in April, before the "Trump deadline." A coordinated US/European pull out might have gone much more smoothly.
I think if I took an unlabeled map of the world's countries and stood out front of our local Walmart in my very deep red state and asked persons to point to Afghanistan that a preponderance of persons would not be able to accurately locate it. Yet, many of these very same persons are right now rabidly condemning President Biden on Facebook and other social media sites for his foreign policy incompetence. Meanwhile many media talking heads are stirring up public fury by interjecting their own overwrought emotions into the news. As a modestly or moderately informed person, I find myself stunned at my own lack of appreciation for how so many hundreds or even thousands of Afghan people are, or were, symbiotically--and some perhaps parasitically--deeply intertwined with the American presence in their country, so that now the severance is not only painful, but life threatening. Other countries, those supporting the American presence, apparently also had deep intertwining. It seems then that Americans and others have been or become very like colonizers over the past 21 years, and while perhaps benevolent in some respects, the accompanying graft and corruption, especially in Kabul has been appalling. I'm also not certain how much ongoing hospitality and sustained welcoming the refugee Afghans will experience in the U.S., given the often rabid anti-immigrant views being expressed to others seeking freedom and life in America. Certainly, there will be an outpouring of immediate support from many, as has already been evidenced, but America right now has a very ugly side in great prominence. Even for the native born that is becoming more and more difficult to navigate and maintain civility, so perhaps "steady" is the best thought to keep in mind, and hope that President Biden and his advisors, as well as the military, will keep "steady" in mind as well. Now, if someone could just instill "steady" into all the cable TV pundits, who keep ranting and revving up the situation, that would be fine.
It is so easy to fall into a knee-jerk, emotional and judgemental response to the televised images of the mass evacuations from Afghanistan. Thank you, Dan for the reminder that human affairs are not a set table.
Thank you for this thoughtful essay. I keep thinking about when the country was so gung-ho about starting this war and indeed they are easier to start than they are to end. I remember Bush the 2nd trotting out in his little jump suit declaring victory while so many in the nation cheered him on. Now I hear that hypocrite Liz Cheney criticizing President Biden when her own father was one of the architects of this debacle. Do some people have no shame? Do they never admit mistakes? We, as a country, have to get smarter. I don’t know how many more senseless wars we can take before it totally destroys us.
We keep hearing Americans saying they tried to start the removal of Afghans earlier and people DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE. These are people who ere finally living with families and friends in relative peace as combat died down. And WHERE WERE THE GOING? How would they be treated? Placed in refugee camps? Sent where the color of their skin would mark them as Lesser?
We live in a country where people are afraid of a vaccine which could save their life! Can we not understand these people's fear of a a much greater unknown. If intelligence specialists didn't see the fast collapse, I can understand common people wanting to stay in familiar circumstances as long as possible.
Kirschner, Rather & Steady Team
In the middle of history we often think we see 20/20, but we’re swayed by lots of things in the present
Like posts and reactions and phone calls telling us to jump off a pier
I wouldn’t run for president
Wouldn’t take it on a dare
Yet I’d do what Biden is doing now
Damn the torpedoes
Act like I’m president
He won’t be running for re-election
So he’s doing things instead
Like we would if it were foisted upon us
In reading these comments, probably the most frequently used word to describe this column and the views of Dan Rather/the Steady Team is "perspective." The first-listed definition in Webster's Collegiate dictionary for the noun "perspective " is:
"The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point."
It is interesting that indeed, this story provides all of the items in the listed defintion even though it describes a way to view a picture or image that lacks three dimensions. When you think about the depth missing in most of the information readily available to us via the internet, social media and television --especially things that only focus on one narrative (e.g., all actions by Biden/Democrats are bad, wars are only won or lost, you are either with us or against us, etc.)-- this defintion applies all the more. Without visual perspective --which almost none of us have in terms of viewing news events firsthand with our own eyes, in three actual dimensions-- we all lack perspective. It shows badly when considering most of the information shared in our public domain. So I join the fray in thanking the Steady Team and the steady hand of Dan Rather for their unskewed views, and for keeping our vision on track for receiving the "right impression" as it relates to other viewpoints.
We gave them plenty of warning. Probably more than enough time to plan a takeover. The same country that planned 9/11 without us knowing. The Afghans are intelligent people.
I have watched the steady reporting of the tragedy in Afghanistan with a mixture of sadness and disgust. There seems to be a lot of hand wringing and finger pointing. I have yet to hear a single person suggest how they might have handled differently the evacuation of American personnel and allies in the face of the the sudden and complete evaporation of the Afghan army. Ending a war is never easy, admitting failure is never easy, dealing with the fallout of bad decisions is never easy, - but finger pointing and hind sight? Piece of cake....
Exactly right at this time on almost every count! Right on the present questions and the important historic perspective! Plenty more to do and learn. We have two primary (primal?) obligations now: Find out what went wrong and why; and Get our people and others who helped us out safely. Many questions about both of those.
In a documentary "Civilization" states war leads to growth. In almost every case that is true. The victor to keep the people from rising up against them changes. When they don't do that there is more war.
The Afghan people must rid themselves of the Taliban. Every country should refuse to trade with the Taliban offer no financial help. If the Taliban want to govern they must figure it now.
The number of people trying to leave the country are not just people who helped the United States. Thousands are people trying to escape life living under the Taliban.
If the Afghan people want a country they can live in they must fight to get it.
Thank you again, Dan and Steady team for always giving us a broader understanding of the causes and nuances behind news headlines and a calm, rational explanation of the facts beyond the 30-second reports in the news.
Thank you so much for your words..
If it is time to leave, it is time to leave. When you are fighting someone else's war, you cannot expect the two sides to say...oh, you're leaving? OK, we'll stop too. Enough is more than enough. I am sorry we didn't fix everything but other than obliterating the bad guys, that was not going to happen. I would hope tgat the good guys learned enough to support themselves. Unfortunately that rarely happens either. May God bless the good people in this ravished country and hopefully allow them to be somewhere safe.
Once again, excellent article, Dan. Great perspective on the outcome of any and all wars, or conflicts, wherever they are.
There has been a lot said about the Afghanistan departure, how it was done. Could it have been better? Done differently? Should the American troops stayed until all Americans, and Afghanistan people were out that needed to be gotten out? These, and many other questions will haunt us for decades to come. Just as the questions about Vietnam, World Wars 1 and 2, Korean war, and all the others.
I, personally, don't have the answers to any of these questions. I'm also not getting on any social media and voicing my opinion about any of the methods we have done anything. I will make one comment on here though. I believe in the President, and I back his decision to do whatever he feels is necessary, and the best for this country. He has proven himself over the many years of huis service to this country that he thinks things through before making any rash decision. So, his decision to pull out troops out, good. I'm glad. We were there way to long.
Thank you for this calm, careful commentary. Dan Rather and Heather Cox Richardson have been two of the calmest, steadiest voices in my life over the last year and more. Politics is a new area for me. I had never previously engaged much with the details. In presidential elections, my preferred candidate may or may not have won, but I never worried for the future of our country as a democratic republic.
That all changed when Donald Trump assumed the office. Especially in the past year, I've been voraciously reading all I could about present day political circumstances. This piece reminds me of how important it is to connect today's events with events of the past, to see how previous events have influenced what is happening today. It is also a good reminder that, with regard to the pullout from Afghanistan, we are in the "messy middle." The messy middle can be a hard place to be. What is happening today has been influenced by all that came before with regard to Afghanistan, including not just the political and military actions taken by the US and actors before us, but the personal relationships that have been built between Afghan individuals and Americans (and people of other countries) they worked for and with.
My hope is that this operation can be completed as safely as is humanly possible given the conditions on the ground. There will be plenty of time for Monday-morning quarterbacking once it's all over. I hope that those who need to develop policy moving forward will reflect carefully on how their choices may impact the people and the country of Afghanistan and not react with partisan potshots.
As always, this history-in-the-making takes place in the midst of all the other "messy middle" situations our country and our world face today. We will always be in the "messy middle" of something.
I think this is a very perceptive column, specifically the idea that there is no tidy beginnings or endings in human affairs and the future often looks a whole lot different than we imagine it. One point that I don't think that is mentioned enough is the role of NATO in this. When Trump began to draw down troops there were many more European than American troops in Afghanistan at the end of 2020. Europe essentially pulled out in April, before the "Trump deadline." A coordinated US/European pull out might have gone much more smoothly.