My friend Chris, in a blog post well worth reading in its entirety, opens with this cogent summary:
"Okay, Tam," you say, "But he's a conservative SOF dude who saw the situation through a soldier's eyes. What about..."
When two people with such different worldviews have deep experience on a topic and come away with such similar conclusions, that's what you call a clue.
"I’ve spent most of my adult life at war, fighting for lost causes. I gave the decades of my youth to strive for that in which I generally believed, alongside men I loved and respected. I regret none of it, but days like today I do feel a bit old, tired, and discouraged.
For those who are wondering how we could have failed so catastrophically in Afghanistan, here’s the simple answer:
We weren’t in Afghanistan 20 years. We were in Afghanistan one year, 20 distinct times."
Well, here's progressive photojournalist Lucas Jackson, who I follow on Twitter:
Then most of them do whatever they want and the Afghans have to relearn what boxes the new guys want to check. This wasn’t 20 years of building momentum or knowledge. This was 20 Hail Mary tries to jam a western military/government/police system in trying 20 different things
— Lucas Jackson (@Lucas_Jackson_) August 16, 2021
When two people with such different worldviews have deep experience on a topic and come away with such similar conclusions, that's what you call a clue.
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