🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 198 (from laksa115)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa198.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://newrepublic.com/article/163291/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://newrepublic.com/article/163291/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163291\/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them","crawl_time":1776780722,"first_indexed_time":1629146739,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,newrepublic!\/article\/163291\/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them s443","src_root_hash":"11035468536271498598","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"The Afghanistan War Was Founded on Lies. Some People Are Still Telling Them. | The New Republic","meta_descriptions":["As the Taliban takes over the country, hawkish pundits and ex-officials in America are still clinging to the long-broken dream of nation-building."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"From its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush\ntold\nservice members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama\nproclaimed\nthat America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner.\nManifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In\nThe New York Times\n, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan\nclaims\nthat “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In\nThe Wall Street Journal\n, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies\nassert\nthat “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in\nThe New York Times\n, Bret Stephens perplexingly\naffirms\nthat “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country.\nThese and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image.\nThe cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce.\nOther writers subscribe to the so-called\nPottery Barn rule\n: If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl\nremarked on Twitter\n, “The issue [with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.”\nBut the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.).\nIronically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S.\nrejected\na December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold.\nPerhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently\nafter\nlooting\nthe country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks.\nIn 2019, the\nAfghanistan Papers\nproved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all.\nOne hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future.\nAmerica, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as\nMadeleine\nAlbright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys?","attrs_markdown":"[Skip Navigation](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163291\/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them#main)\n\nThe New Republic\n\n- [LATEST](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/latest)\n- [BREAKING NEWS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/breaking-news)\n- [POLITICS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics)\n- [CLIMATE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/climate)\n- [CULTURE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/culture)\n- [MAGAZINE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/magazine)\n- [NEWSLETTERS]()\n- [PODCASTS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/podcasts)\n- [VIDEO](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/video)\n\nPolitics Homepage\n\n- [Trumpworld](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/donald-trump)\n- [Congress](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/congress)\n- [Supreme Court Watch](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/supreme-court-watch)\n- [Media](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/media)\n\nThe New Republic\n\n- [LATEST](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/latest)\n- [BREAKING NEWS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/breaking-news)\n- [POLITICS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics)\n- [CLIMATE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/climate)\n- [CULTURE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/culture)\n- [MAGAZINE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/magazine)\n- [NEWSLETTERS]()\n- [PODCASTS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/podcasts)\n- [VIDEO](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/video)\n\nPolitics Homepage\n\n- [Trumpworld](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/donald-trump)\n- [Congress](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/congress)\n- [Supreme Court Watch](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/supreme-court-watch)\n- [Media](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics\/tags\/media)\n\n[Daniel Bessner](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/daniel-bessner \"Daniel Bessner\"), [Derek Davison](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/derek-davison \"Derek Davison\")\/\n\nAugust 16, 2021\n\n# The Afghanistan War Was Founded on Lies. Some People Are Still Telling Them.\n## As the Taliban takes over the country, hawkish pundits and ex-officials in America are still clinging to the long-broken dream of nation-building.\n\n![President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in September 2001](https:\/\/images.newrepublic.com\/a4cd6b33f294ac8e1a47e2acd14026072a40380c.jpeg?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&q=65&w=1000&ar=3%3A2&ixlib=react-9.11.0)\n\nPAUL J. RICHARDS\/AFP\/Getty Images\n\nPresident George W. Bush in the Oval Office in September 2001\n\nFrom its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush [told](https:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/news\/releases\/2001\/10\/20011007-8.html) service members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama [proclaimed](https:\/\/obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/the-press-office\/2016\/07\/06\/statement-president-afghanistan) that America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner.\n\nManifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In *The New York Times*, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan [claims](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/12\/opinion\/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html) that “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In *The Wall Street Journal*, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies [assert](https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-human-rights-terrorist-jihadist-islamist-taliban-kabul-11629044191?mod=e2two) that “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in *The New York Times*, Bret Stephens perplexingly [affirms](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/15\/opinion\/afghanistan-taliban-biden.html) that “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country.\n\nThese and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image.\n\nThe cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce.\n\nOther writers subscribe to the so-called [Pottery Barn rule](https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/afghanistan-and-pottery-b_b_374505): If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl [remarked on Twitter](https:\/\/twitter.com\/Brian_Riedl\/status\/1427073214736474112?s=20), “The issue \\[with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan\\] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.”\n\nBut the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.).\n\nIronically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S. [rejected](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/12\/07\/news\/rumsfeld-rejects-planto-allow-mullah-omar-to-live-in-dignity-taliban.html) a December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold.\n\nPerhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently after [looting](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/europe-russia-8cb3a75e8db4f4e30a011e0e826fc54d) the country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks.\n\nIn 2019, the [Afghanistan Papers](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/graphics\/2019\/investigations\/afghanistan-papers\/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents\/) proved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all.\n\nOne hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future.\n\nAmerica, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as Madeleine Albright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys?\n\n[Daniel Bessner](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/daniel-bessner)\n\nDaniel Bessner is an Associate Professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the co-host of the podcast *[American Prestige](https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/american-prestige\/id1574741668)* and the author of *[Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual](https:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9780801453038\/democracy-in-exile\/).*\n\n[Derek Davison](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/derek-davison)\n\nDerek Davison is a writer and analyst covering U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. He is the co-host of the podcast *[American Prestige](https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/american-prestige\/id1574741668)* and publisher of the [Foreign Exchanges](https:\/\/fx.substack.com\/)newsletter at Substack.\n\nRead More:\n\n[The Soapbox](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/the-soapbox), [Politics](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/politics), [Foreign Policy](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/foreign-policy), [Afghanistan](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/afghanistan), [George W. Bush](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/george-w-bush), [Barack Obama](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/barack-obama), [Joe Biden](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/joe-biden), [War](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/war), [The Insecurity Complex](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/the-insecurity-complex)\n\nEditor’s Picks\n\n[The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163283\/far-right-wokeness-lost-afghanistan \"\nThe Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan\n\n\")\n\n[Jacob Silverman](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/jacob-silverman \"Jacob Silverman\")\n\n[Jacob Silverman](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/jacob-silverman \"Jacob Silverman\")\n\n[The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163283\/far-right-wokeness-lost-afghanistan \"\nThe Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan\n\n\")\n\n[![The American flag is reflected on the windows of the U.S. embassy building in Kabul as a helicopter flies away.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163277\/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban \"Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.\")\n\n[Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163277\/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban \"Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.\")\n\n[Michael Tomasky](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/michael-tomasky \"Michael Tomasky\")\n\n[![The American flag is reflected on the windows of the U.S. embassy building in Kabul as a helicopter flies away.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163277\/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban \"Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.\")\n\n[Michael Tomasky](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/michael-tomasky \"Michael Tomasky\")\n\n[Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163277\/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban \"Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.\")\n\n[The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163258\/two-year-president-biden-clinton-obama \"The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway\")\n\n[Timothy Noah](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/timothy-noah \"Timothy Noah\")\n\n[Timothy Noah](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/timothy-noah \"Timothy Noah\")\n\n[The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163258\/two-year-president-biden-clinton-obama \"The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway\")\n\n[![A close-up of an Afghani man, seeking an immigration application.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163252\/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns \"The\nOnly Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.\")\n\n[The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163252\/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns \"The\nOnly Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.\")\n\n[Walter Shapiro](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/walter-shapiro \"Walter Shapiro\")\n\n[![A close-up of an Afghani man, seeking an immigration application.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163252\/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns \"The\nOnly Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.\")\n\n[Walter Shapiro](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/walter-shapiro \"Walter Shapiro\")\n\n[The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/163252\/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns \"The\nOnly Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.\")\n\nLatest From Politics\n\n[Memo Mori](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209283\/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa)\n\n[The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209283\/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa \"The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled\")\n\n[Matt Ford](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/matt-ford \"Matt Ford\")\n\n[Memo Mori](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209283\/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa)\n\n[Matt Ford](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/matt-ford \"Matt Ford\")\n\n[The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209283\/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa \"The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled\")\n\n[Doom Loops](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage)\n\n[![Trump and Netanyahu](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage \"Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over\")\n\n[Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage \"Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over\")\n\n[Alon Pinkas](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/alon-pinkas \"Alon Pinkas\")\n\n[![Trump and Netanyahu](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage \"Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over\")\n\n[Doom Loops](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage)\n\n[Alon Pinkas](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/alon-pinkas \"Alon Pinkas\")\n\n[Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209271\/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage \"Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over\")\n\n[Why-Oh, Why-Oh](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/208747\/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy)\n\n[The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/208747\/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy \"The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy\")\n\n[Sarah Stankorb](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/sarah-stankorb \"Sarah Stankorb\")\n\n[Why-Oh, Why-Oh](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/208747\/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy)\n\n[Sarah Stankorb](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/sarah-stankorb \"Sarah Stankorb\")\n\n[The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/208747\/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy \"The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy\")\n\n[CUPIDITY](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading)\n\n[![Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading \"Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?\")\n\n[Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading \"Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?\")\n\n[Timothy Noah](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/timothy-noah \"Timothy Noah\")\n\n[![Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon.](data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading \"Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?\")\n\n[CUPIDITY](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading)\n\n[Timothy Noah](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/authors\/timothy-noah \"Timothy Noah\")\n\n[Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/209247\/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading \"Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?\")\n\n- [BREAKING NEWS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/breaking-news)\n- [POLITICS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/politics)\n- [CLIMATE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/climate)\n- [CULTURE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/culture)\n- [MAGAZINE](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/magazine)\n- [PODCASTS](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/podcasts)\n- [VIDEO](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/video)\n\n- [Events](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/events)\n- [Travel](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/travel)\n- [Bookstore](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/bookstore)\n- [Donate]()\n- [Advertise](https:\/\/advertise.newrepublic.com\/)\n- [FAQ](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/faq)\n- [Press](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/tags\/press-release)\n- [Jobs](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/jobs)\n- [Submissions](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/contact#submissionGuidelines)\n\n- [Subscribe to *The New Republic*]()\n- [Sign Up for Our Newsletters]()\n\n- [Accessibility Statement](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/accessibility-statement)\n- [Terms and Conditions](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/terms-and-conditions)\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/pages\/privacy)\n- [Cookie Settings]()\n\n- Copyright 2026 © *The New Republic*. All rights reserved.","attrs_readable_markdown":"From its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush [told](https:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/news\/releases\/2001\/10\/20011007-8.html) service members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama [proclaimed](https:\/\/obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/the-press-office\/2016\/07\/06\/statement-president-afghanistan) that America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner.\n\nManifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In *The New York Times*, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan [claims](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/12\/opinion\/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html) that “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In *The Wall Street Journal*, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies [assert](https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-human-rights-terrorist-jihadist-islamist-taliban-kabul-11629044191?mod=e2two) that “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in *The New York Times*, Bret Stephens perplexingly [affirms](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/15\/opinion\/afghanistan-taliban-biden.html) that “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country.\n\nThese and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image.\n\nThe cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce.\n\nOther writers subscribe to the so-called [Pottery Barn rule](https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/afghanistan-and-pottery-b_b_374505): If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl [remarked on Twitter](https:\/\/twitter.com\/Brian_Riedl\/status\/1427073214736474112?s=20), “The issue \\[with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan\\] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.”\n\nBut the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.).\n\nIronically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S. [rejected](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/12\/07\/news\/rumsfeld-rejects-planto-allow-mullah-omar-to-live-in-dignity-taliban.html) a December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold.\n\nPerhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently after [looting](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/europe-russia-8cb3a75e8db4f4e30a011e0e826fc54d) the country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks.\n\nIn 2019, the [Afghanistan Papers](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/graphics\/2019\/investigations\/afghanistan-papers\/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents\/) proved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all.\n\nOne hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future.\n\nAmerica, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as Madeleine Albright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys?","meta_canonical":null,"ml_categories_json":"{\"\/News\":761,\"\/News\/Politics\":646,\"\/News\/Politics\/Campaigns_and_Elections\":437,\"\/Law_and_Government\":334,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Military\":272,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Military\/Other\":222,\"\/People_and_Society\":132,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\":116}","ml_types_json":"{\"\/Article\":999,\"\/Article\/Opinion_Piece\":633}","ml_intent_types_json":"{\"Informational\":999}","meta_language":"en-us","attrs_author":"Daniel Bessner","attrs_publish_time":1629072000,"attrs_original_publish_time":1629072000,"attrs_is_republished":0,"attrs_nr_words":"1507","attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words":"1021","body_ext_links_number":30,"body_int_links_number":51,"meta_nofollow":0,"meta_noarchive":0,"props_was_rendered":0,"src_redirect":"","download_time_msec":890,"download_ttfb_msec":887,"download_size":56008}

3. Robots.txt Check

Query:

Response:

4. Spam/Ban Check

Query:

Response:

5. Seen Status Check

ℹ️ Skipped - page is already crawled

📄

INDEXABLE

✅

CRAWLED

1 day ago

🤖

ROBOTS ALLOWED

Page Info Filters

Filter	Status	Condition	Details
HTTP status	PASS	`download_http_code = 200`	HTTP 200
Age cutoff	PASS	`download_stamp > now() - 6 MONTH`	0 months ago
History drop	PASS	`isNull(history_drop_reason)`	No drop reason
Spam/ban	PASS	`fh_dont_index != 1 AND ml_spam_score = 0`	ml_spam_score=0
Canonical	PASS	`meta_canonical IS NULL OR = '' OR = src_unparsed`	Not set

Page Details

Property

Value

URL

https://newrepublic.com/article/163291/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them

Last Crawled

2026-04-21 14:12:02 (1 day ago)

First Indexed

2021-08-16 20:45:39 (4 years ago)

HTTP Status Code

200

Content

Meta Title

The Afghanistan War Was Founded on Lies. Some People Are Still Telling Them. | The New Republic

Meta Description

As the Taliban takes over the country, hawkish pundits and ex-officials in America are still clinging to the long-broken dream of nation-building.

Meta Canonical

null

Boilerpipe Text

From its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush told service members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed that America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner. Manifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In The New York Times , the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan claims that “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In The Wall Street Journal , former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies assert that “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in The New York Times , Bret Stephens perplexingly affirms that “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country. These and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image. The cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce. Other writers subscribe to the so-called Pottery Barn rule : If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl remarked on Twitter , “The issue [with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.” But the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.). Ironically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S. rejected a December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold. Perhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently after looting the country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks. In 2019, the Afghanistan Papers proved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all. One hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future. America, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as Madeleine Albright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys?

Markdown

[Skip Navigation](https://newrepublic.com/article/163291/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them#main) The New Republic - [LATEST](https://newrepublic.com/latest) - [BREAKING NEWS](https://newrepublic.com/breaking-news) - [POLITICS](https://newrepublic.com/politics) - [CLIMATE](https://newrepublic.com/climate) - [CULTURE](https://newrepublic.com/culture) - [MAGAZINE](https://newrepublic.com/magazine) - [NEWSLETTERS]() - [PODCASTS](https://newrepublic.com/podcasts) - [VIDEO](https://newrepublic.com/video) Politics Homepage - [Trumpworld](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/donald-trump) - [Congress](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/congress) - [Supreme Court Watch](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/supreme-court-watch) - [Media](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/media) The New Republic - [LATEST](https://newrepublic.com/latest) - [BREAKING NEWS](https://newrepublic.com/breaking-news) - [POLITICS](https://newrepublic.com/politics) - [CLIMATE](https://newrepublic.com/climate) - [CULTURE](https://newrepublic.com/culture) - [MAGAZINE](https://newrepublic.com/magazine) - [NEWSLETTERS]() - [PODCASTS](https://newrepublic.com/podcasts) - [VIDEO](https://newrepublic.com/video) Politics Homepage - [Trumpworld](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/donald-trump) - [Congress](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/congress) - [Supreme Court Watch](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/supreme-court-watch) - [Media](https://newrepublic.com/politics/tags/media) [Daniel Bessner](https://newrepublic.com/authors/daniel-bessner "Daniel Bessner"), [Derek Davison](https://newrepublic.com/authors/derek-davison "Derek Davison")/ August 16, 2021 # The Afghanistan War Was Founded on Lies. Some People Are Still Telling Them. ## As the Taliban takes over the country, hawkish pundits and ex-officials in America are still clinging to the long-broken dream of nation-building. ![President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in September 2001](https://images.newrepublic.com/a4cd6b33f294ac8e1a47e2acd14026072a40380c.jpeg?auto=format&fit=crop&crop=faces&q=65&w=1000&ar=3%3A2&ixlib=react-9.11.0) PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in September 2001 From its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush [told](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011007-8.html) service members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama [proclaimed](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/06/statement-president-afghanistan) that America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner. Manifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In *The New York Times*, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan [claims](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/opinion/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html) that “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In *The Wall Street Journal*, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies [assert](https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-human-rights-terrorist-jihadist-islamist-taliban-kabul-11629044191?mod=e2two) that “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in *The New York Times*, Bret Stephens perplexingly [affirms](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/opinion/afghanistan-taliban-biden.html) that “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country. These and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image. The cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce. Other writers subscribe to the so-called [Pottery Barn rule](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/afghanistan-and-pottery-b_b_374505): If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl [remarked on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Brian_Riedl/status/1427073214736474112?s=20), “The issue \[with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan\] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.” But the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.). Ironically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S. [rejected](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/news/rumsfeld-rejects-planto-allow-mullah-omar-to-live-in-dignity-taliban.html) a December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold. Perhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently after [looting](https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-8cb3a75e8db4f4e30a011e0e826fc54d) the country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks. In 2019, the [Afghanistan Papers](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/) proved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all. One hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future. America, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as Madeleine Albright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys? [Daniel Bessner](https://newrepublic.com/authors/daniel-bessner) Daniel Bessner is an Associate Professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the co-host of the podcast *[American Prestige](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/american-prestige/id1574741668)* and the author of *[Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual](https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801453038/democracy-in-exile/).* [Derek Davison](https://newrepublic.com/authors/derek-davison) Derek Davison is a writer and analyst covering U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. He is the co-host of the podcast *[American Prestige](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/american-prestige/id1574741668)* and publisher of the [Foreign Exchanges](https://fx.substack.com/)newsletter at Substack. Read More: [The Soapbox](https://newrepublic.com/tags/the-soapbox), [Politics](https://newrepublic.com/tags/politics), [Foreign Policy](https://newrepublic.com/tags/foreign-policy), [Afghanistan](https://newrepublic.com/tags/afghanistan), [George W. Bush](https://newrepublic.com/tags/george-w-bush), [Barack Obama](https://newrepublic.com/tags/barack-obama), [Joe Biden](https://newrepublic.com/tags/joe-biden), [War](https://newrepublic.com/tags/war), [The Insecurity Complex](https://newrepublic.com/tags/the-insecurity-complex) Editor’s Picks [The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan](https://newrepublic.com/article/163283/far-right-wokeness-lost-afghanistan " The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan ") [Jacob Silverman](https://newrepublic.com/authors/jacob-silverman "Jacob Silverman") [Jacob Silverman](https://newrepublic.com/authors/jacob-silverman "Jacob Silverman") [The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan](https://newrepublic.com/article/163283/far-right-wokeness-lost-afghanistan " The Far Right Thinks Wokeness Is Why America Lost in Afghanistan ") [![The American flag is reflected on the windows of the U.S. embassy building in Kabul as a helicopter flies away.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/163277/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban "Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.") [Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163277/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban "Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.") [Michael Tomasky](https://newrepublic.com/authors/michael-tomasky "Michael Tomasky") [![The American flag is reflected on the windows of the U.S. embassy building in Kabul as a helicopter flies away.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/163277/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban "Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.") [Michael Tomasky](https://newrepublic.com/authors/michael-tomasky "Michael Tomasky") [Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163277/end-war-afghanistan-bush-taliban "Afghanistan Is a Disaster. But It Was Always Going to Be.") [The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway](https://newrepublic.com/article/163258/two-year-president-biden-clinton-obama "The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway") [Timothy Noah](https://newrepublic.com/authors/timothy-noah "Timothy Noah") [Timothy Noah](https://newrepublic.com/authors/timothy-noah "Timothy Noah") [The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway](https://newrepublic.com/article/163258/two-year-president-biden-clinton-obama "The End of the Four-Year Presidency—for Democrats, Anyway") [![A close-up of an Afghani man, seeking an immigration application.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/163252/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns "The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.") [The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163252/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns "The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.") [Walter Shapiro](https://newrepublic.com/authors/walter-shapiro "Walter Shapiro") [![A close-up of an Afghani man, seeking an immigration application.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/163252/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns "The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.") [Walter Shapiro](https://newrepublic.com/authors/walter-shapiro "Walter Shapiro") [The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163252/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-taliban-returns "The Only Thing Worse Than Leaving Afghanistan? Staying.") Latest From Politics [Memo Mori](https://newrepublic.com/article/209283/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa) [The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled](https://newrepublic.com/article/209283/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa "The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled") [Matt Ford](https://newrepublic.com/authors/matt-ford "Matt Ford") [Memo Mori](https://newrepublic.com/article/209283/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa) [Matt Ford](https://newrepublic.com/authors/matt-ford "Matt Ford") [The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled](https://newrepublic.com/article/209283/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-virginia-epa "The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled") [Doom Loops](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage) [![Trump and Netanyahu](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage "Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over") [Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage "Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over") [Alon Pinkas](https://newrepublic.com/authors/alon-pinkas "Alon Pinkas") [![Trump and Netanyahu](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage "Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over") [Doom Loops](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage) [Alon Pinkas](https://newrepublic.com/authors/alon-pinkas "Alon Pinkas") [Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over](https://newrepublic.com/article/209271/trump-netanyahu-iran-war-political-damage "Trump and Netanyahu Have Royally Screwed Each Other Over") [Why-Oh, Why-Oh](https://newrepublic.com/article/208747/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy) [The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy](https://newrepublic.com/article/208747/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy "The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy") [Sarah Stankorb](https://newrepublic.com/authors/sarah-stankorb "Sarah Stankorb") [Why-Oh, Why-Oh](https://newrepublic.com/article/208747/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy) [Sarah Stankorb](https://newrepublic.com/authors/sarah-stankorb "Sarah Stankorb") [The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy](https://newrepublic.com/article/208747/ohio-republican-party-laboratory-autocracy "The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy") [CUPIDITY](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading) [![Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22384%22%20height%3D%22216%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading "Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?") [Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading "Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?") [Timothy Noah](https://newrepublic.com/authors/timothy-noah "Timothy Noah") [![Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D%22320%22%20height%3D%22180%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20fill%3D%22%23F5F5F5%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E)](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading "Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?") [CUPIDITY](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading) [Timothy Noah](https://newrepublic.com/authors/timothy-noah "Timothy Noah") [Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?](https://newrepublic.com/article/209247/warren-hegseth-iran-insider-trading "Does the SEC Care Whether Hegseth Is Killing Iranians To Get Rich?") - [BREAKING NEWS](https://newrepublic.com/breaking-news) - [POLITICS](https://newrepublic.com/politics) - [CLIMATE](https://newrepublic.com/climate) - [CULTURE](https://newrepublic.com/culture) - [MAGAZINE](https://newrepublic.com/magazine) - [PODCASTS](https://newrepublic.com/podcasts) - [VIDEO](https://newrepublic.com/video) - [Events](https://newrepublic.com/pages/events) - [Travel](https://newrepublic.com/travel) - [Bookstore](https://newrepublic.com/bookstore) - [Donate]() - [Advertise](https://advertise.newrepublic.com/) - [FAQ](https://newrepublic.com/pages/faq) - [Press](https://newrepublic.com/tags/press-release) - [Jobs](https://newrepublic.com/pages/jobs) - [Submissions](https://newrepublic.com/pages/contact#submissionGuidelines) - [Subscribe to *The New Republic*]() - [Sign Up for Our Newsletters]() - [Accessibility Statement](https://newrepublic.com/pages/accessibility-statement) - [Terms and Conditions](https://newrepublic.com/pages/terms-and-conditions) - [Privacy Policy](https://newrepublic.com/pages/privacy) - [Cookie Settings]() - Copyright 2026 © *The New Republic*. All rights reserved.

Readable Markdown

From its inception in 2001 to its ignominious end, the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been defined by lies. It was a lie when, in 2001, President George W. Bush [told](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011007-8.html) service members that “your mission is defined, your objectives are clear.... We will not fail.” It was a lie when, in 2016, President Barack Obama [proclaimed](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/06/statement-president-afghanistan) that America had successfully “trained Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security.” And it was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner. Manifold elites are now lying about the fall of Afghanistan “under Biden’s watch.” In *The New York Times*, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan [claims](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/opinion/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html) that “a disastrous Taliban takeover wasn’t inevitable,” though it has been obvious for years that the Taliban was winning and that the Afghan government would eventually fall without overwhelming U.S. support. In *The Wall Street Journal*, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies [assert](https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-human-rights-terrorist-jihadist-islamist-taliban-kabul-11629044191?mod=e2two) that “the refusal to provide the Afghan people the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens China, Russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the U.S. an unreliable partner and a declining power,” though the U.S. has proved time and again that it is already those things. And in *The New York Times*, Bret Stephens perplexingly [affirms](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/opinion/afghanistan-taliban-biden.html) that “Disaster in Afghanistan Will Follow Us Home,” as if the militarization of U.S. policing that occurred in the wake of the war on terrorism hasn’t already done significant damage to the country. These and other comments evince the cynicism that always defined the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s hard to imagine that Kagan, McMaster, Bowman, and Stephens really believe that America’s vital security or economic interests will be adversely affected by the Taliban’s victory. The U.S. remains a very safe, powerful, and rich country that faces no serious security threats. Rather, one gets the impression that the hawks are annoyed and embarrassed that a small paramilitary group was able, like the North Vietnamese army before it, to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, America’s inability to remake foreign nations in its image. The cynicism, though, is truly something to behold. While the U.S. war in Vietnam was a pointless tragedy that resulted in untold human misery, it was not totally absurd for U.S. decision-makers to believe that communism was an existential threat worth fighting. The same cannot be said for the war in Afghanistan—only paranoiacs could have ever claimed that “terrorism” could seriously harm the United States. As such, for 20 years the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has done little but enrich defense and military contractors and bolster the global heroin trade while harming a country about which Americans knew and understood little. First time as tragedy, second time as farce. Other writers subscribe to the so-called [Pottery Barn rule](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/afghanistan-and-pottery-b_b_374505): If you destroy a country, you fix it—no matter how long it takes. As the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl [remarked on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Brian_Riedl/status/1427073214736474112?s=20), “The issue \[with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan\] is the ‘Pottery Barn Principle’ - you break it you buy it. If we want to overthrow a dangerous government threatening us, do we leave the place in chaos without helping install any new government that’s any different? That’s the challenge.” But the invocation of the rule in relation to Afghanistan doesn’t make sense. It’s not as if the United States made one fixable mistake and decided to leave. It’s more like Uncle Sam went into a Pottery Barn, strapped bombs to every item, detonated those bombs, and then ran a steamroller over the smoldering remains. The only way that Pottery Barn will be fixed is if some other group decides to rebuild it, likely without the direct aid of Uncle Sam (though the rebuilders of Afghanistan could and should demand money from the U.S.). Ironically, by trying to force history upon the Afghan people, the U.S. wound up removing them from it, stifling any organic attempts to transform the country. After 20 years of an expensive and terrible war, the Taliban was able to retake the country in a matter of weeks. Afghanistan therefore finds itself where it was on September 10, 2001, with very little to show for it. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions that the U.S. [rejected](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/news/rumsfeld-rejects-planto-allow-mullah-omar-to-live-in-dignity-taliban.html) a December 2001 Taliban surrender offer, or any of the innumerable opportunities for ending this war on terms more favorable than those that have now taken hold. Perhaps the best thing about the Taliban advance over the past few weeks was that local officials didn’t resist it, thus sparing the population further violence. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, most of them surrendered their arms and accepted the reality that their military and government didn’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, apparently after [looting](https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-8cb3a75e8db4f4e30a011e0e826fc54d) the country’s treasury, and will likely live a life of resplendent exile—possibly with a sinecure at one of our nation’s Ivy League universities or prestigious think tanks. In 2019, the [Afghanistan Papers](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/) proved that the U.S. government had been lying about the war’s progress for years. But in our hyperreal time, no one really seemed to care, least of all American citizens who didn’t directly suffer the consequences of their nation’s imperial adventures. We therefore went back to accepting the lies, until the Taliban’s advance shattered them once and for all. One hopes that the experience of Afghanistan—and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and many more places—will destroy the dream, expressed by every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the U.S. can use its overwhelming power to reshape foreign nations along American lines. This project has failed time and again, and will do so in the future. America, in short, can’t do whatever it wants in the world, and shouldn’t try. We are not, as Madeleine Albright infamously affirmed in 1998, the “indispensable nation” able to “see further than other countries into the future.” If anything, we’re the opposite, and it’s time for Americans to look themselves in the mirror and ask: What if we’re the bad guys?

ML Classification

ML Categories

/News		76.1%
/News/Politics		64.6%
/News/Politics/Campaigns_and_Elections		43.7%
/Law_and_Government		33.4%
/Law_and_Government/Military		27.2%
/Law_and_Government/Military/Other		22.2%
/People_and_Society		13.2%
/People_and_Society/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy		11.6%

Raw JSON

{
    "/News": 761,
    "/News/Politics": 646,
    "/News/Politics/Campaigns_and_Elections": 437,
    "/Law_and_Government": 334,
    "/Law_and_Government/Military": 272,
    "/Law_and_Government/Military/Other": 222,
    "/People_and_Society": 132,
    "/People_and_Society/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy": 116
}

ML Page Types

/Article		99.9%
/Article/Opinion_Piece		63.3%

Raw JSON

{
    "/Article": 999,
    "/Article/Opinion_Piece": 633
}

ML Intent Types

Informational

99.9%

Raw JSON

{
    "Informational": 999
}

Content Metadata

Language

en-us

Author

Daniel Bessner

Publish Time

2021-08-16 00:00:00 (4 years ago)

Original Publish Time

2021-08-16 00:00:00 (4 years ago)

Republished

Word Count (Total)

1,507

Word Count (Content)

1,021

Links

External Links

Internal Links

Technical SEO

Meta Nofollow

Meta Noarchive

JS Rendered

Redirect Target

null

Performance

Download Time (ms)

890

TTFB (ms)

887

Download Size (bytes)

56,008

Shard

198 (laksa)

Root Hash

11035468536271498598

Unparsed URL

com,newrepublic!/article/163291/afghanistan-war-founded-lies-people-still-telling-them s443