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Victories or Defeat Measured in Perceptions of Survivors and How the Dead are Remembered

Reader comment on item: Reflections on the Debacle in Afghanistan: Interview
in response to reader comment: Afghanistan is a defeat only if we make it be one

Submitted by M Tovey (United States), Sep 16, 2021 at 18:00

Afghanistan is going to be remembered differently, to be sure, dependent upon who lost more in dignity; the rest is statistics.
The American perception of who won or who lost is debatable for a variety of reasons; the leadership of the 46th American Administration has definitely lost much, if not all creditability in the world, as well as those who continue to support the current administration as much as the delusion they hold to allows.
The American people of the republic, on the other hand, under suppression of their freedoms due to the actions of the current administration, have lost confidence that any leadership coming from the Capitol is actually concerned about what they are compromising in order to promote their style of leadership; Afghanistan is merely an indicator of a symptom of their delusion: they really have no clue.
On the other side of the world, however, their anticipation of what their thinking they have won as a perception of victory is already vaporizing before their eyes, since nothing about attitudes has changed and this is a precursor of a set change before the next stage in these chronic battles is revealed for the build up to the more momentous engagement now in preparation. Does anyone think that the Iranian Islamic Regime is going to let this opportunity pass without making the most of what is perceived to a world-wide game changer? The 46th American Administrative teams of political practitioners have no sense of anticipating what is going to happen next.
Afghanistan is going down as a loss; but the war there is not over. More importantly, the theater of operations merely expanded and the 46th American Administration is, in obvious terms of confusion, found unprepared for how to react to the next threat; is it China(?): the American presence in the ME is now more vulnerable without Afghanistan; and what of the American loss of merchandizing global energies when all American production is marginalized by the Administration's shutdown of such resources? Is this not a defeat as well?
Al great deal of American resources in blood and treasure went down as a loss of investment with Afghanistan: how much more will it take before someone realizes in the current Administration this is unsustainable; or do they care?
Is there enough of an American memory of the freedoms being lost to instigate a return to what was the American legacy of times past; or does America have any resolve left to handle what is coming, which ever way it goes?

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Reader comments (39) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
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w/response from Daniel Pipes
Leni ValentaSep 19, 2021 11:11274821
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