Round up part 2: Afghanistan

Some observers compared how we left Vietnam to how we left Afghanistan -- not everyone agreed that the episodes have anything to do with each other, but the same thought came to me. I have read a lot about the Hmong people and how the US used them to accomplish certain goals in an area where it was difficult to get the nationals to fight effectively. Later, we nearly abandoned them. Similarities with the plight of the translators in Afghanistan came to mind. Here is one account of the heart-pounding story of the Fall of Saigon: Enemy at the gate: The history-making, chaotic evacuation of Saigon, (although it does not mention the Hmong and how this rescue effort was in part motivated by the need to get them out, and accomplished with their help. I will try to find some other story that goes into that) -- and parallels with the crisis in Afghanistan.

Our reigning ideology of decadent progressivism (and its insistence that we remain "safe" no matter what the cost) is making us vulnerable to actual danger, and we don't even realize it. The fall of Afghanistan and the resurgence of radical Islam: 

Indeed, many of our miscalculations in Afghanistan seem to be based directly on the same kind of magical thinking that now plagues our schools, our city councils and even our military. In times of crisis, we rely on our military to keep a level head when dealing with an enemy like the Taliban. But it now appears that our military was one of the first institutions to succumb to “woke” doctrine—that is, to wishful thinking. Like the radical activists who called for defunding the police. radical generals enthusiastically supported programs which led to a moral disarmament of the troops.

The day Afghanistan died.

"The Afghanistan Commandos are the only force in the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) that actually fight and win. They have done so since we began building them, first with the CIA, then with our own Special Forces. They were known as the only force that had no tribal affiliation and were the only force in the country that would fight for the state of Afghanistan regardless of the human terrain. And they were really good. At one point, toward the end, they were conducting upwards of 90 percent of all combat actions inside the country — strained to the breaking point but succeeding with the support of the United States.

"And then we pulled the support."