Egberto Willies: As Troubling as the Afghanistan Chaos Is, We Must Not Lose Focus on Saving Democracy in the US and Passing Progressive Legislation
As troubling as the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan is, we mus not forget the domestic threats to democracy. (Geoff Livingston)
August 16, 2021
By Egberto Willies
It pains me that we went to an Afghanistan in shambles 20 years ago, and we are leaving it in shambles now. The truth is that unless we intended to be the permanent protectors of all Afghanis from the Taliban, we should not be there and should not have been there in the first place. It has always been a fallacy to fight them there, so we do not have to fight them here. Those were slogans created to placate funding of a military-industrial complex. We could have spent a fraction of the cost securing our borders, airports, and shores with covert surgical operations when needed.
I feel for the plight of the Afghani women. I wrote a post at DailyKos where a reader suggested that America should have, installed a female president and armed the women. Because the Afghani forces did not put up a fight, just maybe if they were fighting for a cause they really believed in, they would have engaged. As painful as it is, Afghanistan is out of our hands and was always out of our hands. Big guns, fighter jets, tanks, and other sophisticated weaponry is no match for unchanging culture. I hope we can be lenient with our asylum policy to let every Afghani who worked for Americans and every Afghani woman, so desires come to America.
As serious as Afghanistan is, we must not lose focus. The mainstream media will hyperventilate about a war that we lost before it started and will create scores of what-ifs around it. That will take a lot of precious time away from the necessary discussion on how best to structure the infrastructure bills. It will also remove the heat from the Red State governors and Republican politicians who are causing the deaths and maimings of their constituents with their irresponsible masking and lack of effective vaccine policies. We must not let that happen. I will not let that happen on the Politics Done Right platform.
So please, as people in your sphere attempt to elevate Afghanistan as the most important topic of discussion, remind them that more people are dying in America daily from COVID than soldiers at any time in Afghanistan. While the military-industrial complex loves war to keep its funding stream alive, it is the homegrown infrastructure we need. It will generate a prosperous economy for the middle-class and a measurable improvement in our quality of life.
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