In 2001 the United States toppled a brutal Medieval Islamist government in Afghanistan vowing to replace it with a modern democratic state that respected human rights. Continuing a policy of reconciliation with the ousted Taliban that was started by Barrack Obama, president Donald Trump brokered the release of a key Taliban leader from prison and negotiated a peace deal with him in 2019. That deal included the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan jails. Incoming president Joe Biden continued Trump’s policies, and confidently predicted in July of this year the elected Afghan government would win any war against the Taliban without a U.S. presence. In August the president of the Afghan government fled the country as the Taliban entered the capital. We saw scenes of Afghans clinging to retreating U.S. planes desperate to do the same. Biden blamed the Afghans for not fighting.
In this article Antonio Garcia Martinez argues that current U.S. political elites engage with a reality of their own construction instead of an objective reality and this has contributed to the humiliating U.S. defeat. He suggests that when reality becomes “non-optional” it is ignored as “beyond human comprehension or concern.” We see this as an illustration of the Woke postmodern belief all reality is socially constructed. Please discuss.
We are no longer a serious people – by Antonio García Martínez – The Pull Request
