by Michael Tracey at MT
As the withdrawal of US military forces from Afghanistan nears (apparent) completion, images of Bagram Airfield littered with deserted fleets of American-made vehicles — ripe for the taking of whoever ends up with control of that base — have come to exemplify the enormous waste our 20-year intervention is leaving behind. After all, it was US taxpayers, in one way or another, who subsidized the purchase and transport of those vehicles into a remote territory on the other side of the world. So in turn, taxpayers are also underwriting the acquisition of a nice new truck for whichever locals are lucky enough to get first dibs.
What’s usually not appreciated, though, is that this kind of waste was a deeply ingrained feature of the entire war. Which should be blindingly obvious by now — particularly if you paid any attention to the release of the Afghanistan Papers in December 2019 (though it was conveniently drowned out by the first Trump impeachment saga happening at the time.)
But with the withdrawal underway, many inexplicably pro-war pundits are dwelling on the Taliban’s rapid retaking of territory across the country — much of the time without even needing to engage in any combat. This weekend on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd displayed the following scary-looking map produced by a neocon think tank. Red = Taliban!…
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