digby: No, George W. Bush doesn't deserve a pass on Afghanistan

[babylonsister]

No, George W. Bush doesn't deserve a pass on Afghanistan
The former president has shown an incredible lack of self-reflection in the twenty years since his war of revenge
By Heather Digby Parton
Published August 18, 2021 10:27AM (EDT)


It seems like only yesterday that the President of the United States was standing on the pile of rubble of the World Trade Center with a bullhorn telling the world, "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." That iconic image of President George W. Bush promising vengeance 20 years ago was America's primal scream in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the echoes of that scream still reverberate today.

But to watch the febrile pundits on TV and read the agitated screeds of hundreds of observers and experts over the past few days, you would never know that the Afghanistan "mission" came out of such a primitive war cry. The sad truth is the war was an act of revenge. The attacks of 9/11 were truly terrifying and wanting to hit back was a natural human response. But leaders are supposed to rise above such emotions and make rational decisions in the national interest. Clearly, that doesn't always happen. For a variety of reasons, they instead start wars, which are the most irrational human activity of all. America has been acting irrationally about Afghanistan ever since.

snip//

But perhaps the most cynical of all the rationales they offered in those early days before they pivoted to Iraq and pretty much put Afghanistan on cruise control was the unctuous, insincere, marketing campaign they launched to convince the American people that they were fighting the war on behalf of Afghan women. On November 17, 2001, just a few weeks after the attacks, they sent out First Lady Laura Bush to make a speech about the repressive Taliban regime's treatment of women, all of which was true but was clearly designed to make the war into something nobler than the crude act of vengeance it really was. After all, feminists and others had been speaking out about Taliban oppression of women for years. A year and a half before the attacks, the New York Times had featured a hair-raising interview with two sisters by Katha Pollitt, chronicling the truly brave work by RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, called "Tearing the Veil." American feminists had been agitating for Afghan women's rights for some time. There was zero interest in the issue on the right until the Bush administration decided to make it a central rationale for the war in Afghanistan.

snip//

But it's George W. Bush who bears the most responsibility for the mess in Afghanistan. He was the man who started that war to fulfill America's hunger to hit back and set the U.S. and Afghanistan on the road to two long decades of losses in blood and treasure that accomplished almost nothing in the end.

more...

https://www.salon.com/2021/08/18/no-george-w-bush-doesnt-deserve-a-pass-on-afghanistan/

[Me.]

1. Why No Mention Of The Saudis In All This Angst?

You know, the ones who actually drove the planes that slammed into the WTC and Pentagon? Why was the Bin Laden family assisted in leaving the country?

[babylonsister]

3. I think because some journalists

are tired of hearing "the media" blame Biden when clearly he didn't start anything.

[Me.]

4. But Biden Didn't Have Abything To Do With THe Saudis Then

Bush and Cheney did

[babylonsister]

6. Exactly. That's why this article is about dimson. nt

[CrispyQ]

2. Outstanding commentary! -nt

[Steelrolled]

5. I agree that including the defense of women and girls rights

as a war aim was a big mistake. Yet I still hear this concern on the news today. It was never something foreign armies could do, and still isn't.

But I'd argue the initial invasion and war aims were justified, and politically necessary.

[babylonsister]

8. If that's so, it makes me wonder why the bush

admin felt compelled to lie us into war.

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/06/lie-after-lie-what-colin-powell-knew-about-iraq-fifteen-years-ago-and-what-he-told-the-un/

Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew About Iraq 15 Years Ago and What He Told the U.N.

[Steelrolled]

10. I think the fact that the war was going well in Afghanistan

(at the start) encouraged Bush and Co to try to take care of Iraq while there were in the neighborhood.

[GoCubsGo]

7. Not only does he not deserve a pass,

he deserves all of the scorn and vitriol, and then some, that is currently being piled on President Biden

[niyad]

9. Thank you for posting this most imporrtant article. Would you consider cross-posting

n Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.

And this is the first mention that I have seen of RAWA in thi current feeding frenzy, so I thank you doubly for this OP.

[mitch96]

11. HIM and his buddy Cheney could not pass up a good crisis to make bucket loads of money

for their military industrial complex friends. Got to pay back all them thar political donations.
YMMV
m