Truth-Free Treachery; Stone Stupidity
PARIS — Last week I watched 16 hours of back-to-back Senate and House hearings on Afghanistan in stunned disbelief as Republicans displayed stone stupidity, treacherous truth-twisting, or both at the same time. Most harangued, few questioned. Then there was worse.
Some insightful reporters captured the essence. Mostly, Washington watchdogs snuffled around the surface, hounding the wrong quarry. Overall coverage blamed a doddering old Joe for a shameful debacle of historic proportions because he rejected military advice.
The Afghanistan story reverberates around the world all the louder because so many Americans overlook its implications.
Unless a failsafe “fourth estate” gets stories straight and focuses harsh light on politicians with the morality of rabid jackals, Republicans may soon control Congress and more statehouses. A madman could be back in the White House, unbound by checks or balances.
U.S. forces pulled off a masterful evacuation despite circumstances created by Donald Trump’s abject capitulation. Until Gen. Mark Milley convinced him to delay, he planned to withdraw all troops by Jan. 15, with no evacuation plan and few visas for vulnerable Afghans.
Republicans savaged Biden because a suicide bomber killed 11 Marines, a soldier and sailor. Few of them had lamented losses over the years as U.S. defense contractors amassed fortunes, and American casualties rose steadily to far surpass Osama bin Laden’s 9/11 toll.
Whether or not Americans grasp the enormity of the real debacle, terrorist groups do. This was no carefully planned blitzkrieg behind overwhelming armor and artillery. Ragtag zealots on motorcycles overran the proxy army of a space-age superpower, hardly firing a shot.
Republicans say Biden diminished the United States in its allies’ eyes. In fact, allies see them as the problem: venal politicians who parrot fabulist insanities of a defeated president intent on a creeping coup d’etat. In much of the world, America is scorned and pitied, if not hated.
Anyone with an internet connection and an open mind can sort out facts for themselves with sworn testimony in Congress, documents, timelines and dispatches from trustworthy reporters who traveled with the Taliban to explain human complexities in an ancient society.
But most people shape perceptions from whatever emerges in a blizzard of conflicting reports that mislead, inadvertently or otherwise. We need to triangulate, like reporters: Find two solid sources, then confirm with a third. Headlines and “briefs” are not enough.
An example: A Wall Street Journal headline declared: “Gen. Milley Calls Afghan Withdrawal ‘Strategic Failure’ In Heated Senate Hearing.” Milley’s defining quote: “From an operational and tactical standpoint, (the evacuation) was successful. Strategically, the war was lost.“
Since a Congo mercenary war in the 1960s, I’ve covered “unconventional” conflicts all over the map: Vietnam, Israel, Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and a lot of others. They never end well.
America should have learned in Vietnam, then Iraq, that hopeless situations occur when outsiders try to remake at gunpoint societies they don’t understand, with handpicked leaders who impose political systems that clash with traditional ways of life.
Few news reports noted Elizabeth Warren’s clear deconstruction of the inextricable quagmire created by three presidents who propped up corrupt, inept Afghan leaders for 20 years -- or three top generals’ precisely worded explanation of why it ended so badly.
For the record:
Trump’s abject Doha surrender bypassed the Kabul government and NATO allies. It freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners, fighters eager for battle with a vengeance. He had already withdrawn contract workers and intelligence scouts. Morale plummeted in the Afghan army.
Biden extended the deadline to Aug. 31 and agreed with President Ashraf Ghani that an early evacuation would trigger panic. But as the Taliban cut through the dispirited army to the capital, Ghani fled. People mobbed Kabul airport.
The Pentagon rushed in 5,000 prepositioned troops, who held the fort and herded 124,000 Americans and Afghans onto 143 flights to be processed in safety. Some were unavoidably left behind, but efforts continue to get them out.
Republicans said Biden did not follow his general’s advice, ignoring how American democracy works. A civilian commander-in-chief is expected to shape decisions around more than military guidance. Pentagon advice prolonged the war for two decades.
Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Frank McKenzie testified that Biden heard them out. He rejected a proposal to leave 3,500 troops behind, and they acknowledged that a token force would provoke Taliban attacks. Think Custer at Little Big Horn.
One Republican cited a George Stephanopoulos interview, saying (erroneously) that Biden misrepresented his consultations with the generals. He was shocked. Shocked! A president of the United States lied! You could die laughing if this weren’t so drop-dead serious.
Others blasted Austin for not keeping Bagram air base for the withdrawal. Although it has two runways, the secretary explained, it is too vast an area for a fast evacuation. Plus, it is 30 miles up a vulnerable road and would need 5,000 troops just to secure its perimeter.
When a congressman demanded that he resign, Austin replied politely but pointedly that he had commanded Bagram, unlike anyone he noticed in the room. Essentially: shut the fuck up.
Another congressman sent chills to my toenails. He asked Milley to explain how he had the unpatriotic gall to speak truth to journalists about the nation’s business. Because, Milley replied mildly, that is how democracy and a free press are supposed to function.
I pored over coverage and watched reporters pepper Jen Psaki and Pentagon briefers with indictments, not questions. From start to finish, I monitored CNN, which labels itself “the most trusted name in news.” Too often, it left wild distortions unchallenged.
CNN led its Senate wrap-up with Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Cotton, who was an infantry captain in Afghanistan, distorted a reality he knew well and told the generals to resign. He wants to be president. Inhofe, it appears, is just dumb.
Inhofe boasted about his numerous trips to Afghanistan, where he apparently learned nothing. He asked no questions but hurled accusations in a meandering statement as ranking committee member.
He had tried to restrict the hearings to the last few months, skipping over the previous administration. The Tulsa World in his home state quoted his diatribe: “’We still want to know why President Biden left hundreds of Americans behind. That's something we don't do in America. That's something we haven't done before.”
The World checked facts, noting, “The 11,000 Americans and Filipinos left at Corregidor during World War II might disagree.” Then, it added: “but there is no denying the widespread sentiment that a lot of people were badly let down by the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.”
Some reporters went after Biden in an attempt at balance, being as hard on him as they were on his deviant predecessor. Others in an insular America had little idea of how wars play out. Propaganda outlets spewed disingenuous horseshit on purpose.
In the end, no amount of accurate reporting will matter if citizens – voters – don’t recognize what is so blindingly obvious. Just look at Matt Gaetz from Florida. He concluded a five-minute ignorant rant by telling Milley: “If our president wasn’t so addled, you’d be fired.”
An addled president hired Milley, and when he nearly sparked a wag-the-dog war to cling to power, Milley stepped in to ensure that he didn’t. During impeachment debate in early 2019, Gaetz noted that polls put the congressional approval rating at 9 percent. Why is that?
Those hearings left me wondering. How could people in an enlightened democracy with so much wealth and power to do good in a troubled world choose so many closed-minded, mean-spirited, greed-obsessed autocrats to represent them?
We are fast running out of time to get the story straight — and react.