Crash Course: Biden didn’t “lose” Afghanistan — we are finally leaving it alone

[View this email in your browser]( Your daily update from [Salon](. Lay off Joe Biden: He didn’t “lose” Afghanistan — we are finally leaving it alone We spent 20 messed-up years in Afghanistan flexing our muscles and spreading our money around, and now we are making a messed-up exit, [Lucian K. Truscott IV writes for Salon](. We are leaving behind a country comprised largely of people who have never had contact with their government, people who live by religious rules and customs which are foreign to us and with which we don't agree, even rules which we consider to be cruel and "backward." But it's their country, and those are their rules and customs, and now they will return to living as they did before we got there and started ordering them around and demanding that they do things our way, or else. It's "or else" time in Afghanistan, folks, only this time it's their "or else" that counts. That's what you get when you invade and occupy foreign countries. You get shown the door and told not to let it hit you on the way out. Whether or not we'll learn a lesson this time is doubtful. But what's not doubtful is that it's not President Joe Biden's fault. It's ours, because we paid the taxes and elected the politicians who put us there, and we elected the politicians who kept us there, and now we have elected the politician who is getting us out. Good on him. Unions warned the CDC's mask rollback would have consequences. They were right From the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic during the Trump administration, our national response has been fractured, [Bob Hennelly writes for Salon](. Tragically, that dysfunctional response has continued under President Joe Biden, who pledged during his campaign to defeat the virus by making decisions guided by sound public health science and not an economic calculus that was the hallmark of the Trump tenure. In May, with Biden in for four months, the CDC executed a Bushesque "Mission Accomplished" move in the war on COVID. The nation's premiere health agency inexplicably lifted the universal mask mandate for vaccinated Americans in public indoor settings, even as tens of millions of Americans were not vaccinated and living in counties where below 40% of the eligible population had their shots. The unions that represent nurses and healthcare personnel, as well as essential workers in the food processing and distribution sectors, went ballistic fearing for the safety of its members. But because the corporate news media avoids labor stories you most likely missed it. The unions warned that the CDC was relying on an honor system that would put their members at risk and would set the stage for the proliferation of an even more contagious variant that would hit hardest the communities of color with the lowest level of vaccine acceptance. Both things happened, and the results, though still unfolding, have been catastrophic. - Biden defends U.S. withdrawal as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, [refuses to answer questions]( - Liz Cheney: [Donald Trump's meeting with the Taliban]( "set all this in motion" - Donald [Trump Jr. slammed after "gloating" on Twitter]( over the turmoil in Afghanistan - [Pompeo put on the spot by Fox News' Wallace]( “Do you regret giving the Taliban that legitimacy?" - UK defense minister blames Trump's "peace plan" for Taliban retaking Afghanistan: ["A rotten deal"]( - RNC quietly deletes webpage touting [Trump's call for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan]( - GOP Senate candidates backed Trump in [trashing bipartisan infrastructure deal]( - Marie Kondo takes her tidying ways to businesses in [new "Sparking Joy" trailer]( - [“White Lotus” star bids Aloha to a shocking finale]( “Privileged, rich people get away with stuff” - John Oliver shades not-so-”welcome” new [“Jeopardy!” host Mike Richards]( Not a subscriber yet? [Sign up]( to receive Crash Course. Afghanistan blame game: Media ignores what triggered this disaster It's good to be skeptical of the kneejerk assumption in the mainstream media that President Joe Biden will pay politically for "losing" the unwinnable war, [Salon's Amanda Marcotte writes](. Polling data on American attitudes about Afghanistan has long shown a mess. Most Americans don't know or care enough about the issue to have informed opinions. But this tacit agreement between former President Donald Trump and Biden that it's time to get out points to the fact that this endless conflict in Afghanistan doesn't really fit into what ordinary Americans, right or left, believe the American military is for. Liberals tend to reject American imperialism outright and see the military only in defensive terms. As for conservatives, well, Trump's tendency to talk about "keeping the oil" from Middle Eastern countries was, as usual for him, gross and illegal. But it was also an insight into how ordinary conservatives see American imperialism, as something only worth engaging in as a pillaging exercise. This whole pretense that we're going to set up other nations as democracies at the end of a gun no longer holds interest among ordinary Republican voters. I suspect the only people left who really are invested in the imperialism masquerading as American beneficence are concentrated in elite political circles in D.C. and thus have an outsized impact on how the media frames this story. It's doubtful, however, that most Americans will ultimately remember this differently than they do the end of the Vietnam War or the withdrawal from Iraq — as a sad but inevitable end to yet another misguided American adventure war. Biden won't be seen as a failure, so much as the guy who just accepted a reality that multiple presidents refused to embrace. Unfortunately, the media response to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 20 years doesn't leave one with much hope that the mainstream press will be wiser the next time the hawks start beating the war drums, trying to lure the U.S. into yet another expensive entanglement bound for failure. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) [Click here]( to sign up for Amanda's weekly newsletter. TV is ending the romanticized "hot for teacher" student fantasy Finally! Storylines are getting with the times and recognizing the predatory nature of student-teacher "romances," [Salon's Kylie Cheung writes](. In a world of adult creeps who have each state's age of consent committed to memory, problematic and dangerous grooming relationships remain a prevalent problem in real life, even as onscreen representation becomes more self-aware and thoughtful. But that doesn't mean representation — and revisiting what the media portrays as acceptable — isn't important. Fortunate for today's "Gossip Girl" fans, the show is clear where it stands on the insidious danger of the once-romanticized student-teacher relationship. But this level of moral clarity on the harms of grooming didn't happen overnight, requiring years of cultural reckoning and pushback. Shows like "Gossip Girl" and "Cruel Summer" mark significant, hard-won progress in storytelling about youth, power dynamics and abuse, and offer some hope for more thoughtful, victim-centric young adult shows to come. (Photo by HBO Max) - "Inside Biden's defiant Afghanistan response," [CNN]( - "My Taliban nightmare came true. I left, but my sister couldn’t," [The Washington Post]( - "I Was a Marine in Afghanistan. We Sacrificed Lives For a Lie," [The New York Times]( - "US to recommend COVID vaccine boosters at 8 months," [The Associated Press]( - "Mary Trump rails against ‘awful’ Meghan McCain and ‘weak’ uncle Donald," [The Daily Beast]( - "This forgotten slave language is seeing a revival thanks to TikTok," [NBCBLK]( Boebert ripped for mocking Afghans killed trying to flee on US plane There has been a rush of Republican critiques and complaints about the Biden administration's execution of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of fighting. But [no reaction appears to have gone as low as that from freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.]( who joked about Afghans filmed falling off a U.S. military plane to their deaths on Monday. "At least they won't have to read 'mean tweets,'" the congresswoman tweeted. Boebert's tweet was accompanied by a video of hundreds of Afghan men swarming a U.S. military plane as it takes off. Several men quickly fell off the plane. Their deaths were filmed. (Photo by Getty Images/Win McNamee) Have a tip for Salon? Feedback on this newsletter? [Let us know](mailto:brett.bachman@salon.com). [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( Copyright © 2021 Salon.com, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at Salon.com Our mailing address is: Salon.com, LLC 1000 N. West StreetWilmington, DE 19801 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. [Mailchimp Email Marketing](