Americans refuse to believe their country could lose

This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on [Bloomberg]( This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on web readership. [If You Think World War III Is Unimaginable, Read This]( — Niall Ferguson Are we unable to imagine defeat? You might have thought that, having so recently lost a small war, Americans would have no difficulty picturing the consequences of losing a large one. But the humiliating abandonment of Afghanistan in 2021 has been consigned with remarkable swiftness to the collective memory hole. Photographer: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images A year ago, US President Joe Biden traveled to Kyiv and told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy: “You remind us that freedom is priceless; it’s worth fighting for as long as it takes. And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President: for as long as it takes.” That turned out to mean, “For as long as it takes House Republicans to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy and cut off aid to Ukraine.” (McCarthy was gone by early October.) Will the news networks replay Biden’s Kyiv speech the night the Russians march into the Ukrainian capital? Or will one of them air Tucker Carlson’s next interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin? What if we hear news that Taiwan has been blockaded by the People’s Liberation Army and that the president has decided — after carefully reviewing the considerable risk of starting World War III — not to send a naval expeditionary force to enforce freedom of navigation and supply the Taiwanese people with weapons and essential supplies? How much attention will we devote to the end of Taiwan’s democracy and the imposition of Chinese Communist Party rule on its people? More than we pay to the next Grammy awards ceremony or Super Bowl? I fervently hope none of these grim scenarios comes to pass. However, especially when I recollect the fall of Kabul in 2021, I find it hard to dismiss the idea that we might acquiesce quite insouciantly in all three cases. And the only explanation I can find for this is that Americans, deep in their hearts, do not think that defeat applies to them. Read the [whole thing](. [Hawaii Rightly Rejects Supreme Court’s Gun Nonsense]( — Francis Wilkinson [What If Tesla Can’t Leave?]( — Matt Levine [The $10 Billion Mistake That Will Revive Canadian Oil]( — Javier Blas [The US Needs to Get Out of the Middle East — Soon]( — Andreas Kluth [Californians Are Dreaming of Lower Taxes]( — Tyler Cowen [New York, You’re Squeezing Out the Young and Ambitious]( — Conor Sen [The Death of a Marathoner and the Price of Running]( — Howard Chua-Eoan [Trump Flaunts His Threat to NATO and the US]( — Timothy L. O’Brien [A 14th-Century Warning for Fans of 21st-Century Demagogues]( — Max Hastings More From Bloomberg Opinion Here’s what we’ve been listening to and watching this week. - [Crash Course: The Taylor Swift Takeover Is Finally Complete]( with Timothy L. O’Brien - Karishma Vaswani is worried about [Indonesia’s election of an ex-general as president](. - [Elon Musk has a lot to say about Ukraine](, but Marc Champion says he has a lot more to learn. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](