The Empires Strike Back

Don't you just love how today’s front-page story by Steven "Keep the Bullets Flying -- But Not Near Me" Erlanger of the New York Times features handwringing quotes from French and British diplomats about U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan? President Biden's decision will only worsen the U.S. "credibility problem," according to these foreign affairs "experts." Now let me get this straight. These are spokesmen from former empires that long ago were forced to abandon their colonies, including Vietnam, Algeria, India, Egypt and, yes, Afghanistan. And now they're scolding us for finally waking up to the futility of our 20-year war in Afghanistan? It takes Erlanger more than 20 grafs to finally find a European official willing to support Biden's pragmatism. But mostly his wise men of Europe are shocked and dismayed by the U.S. empire doing what their countries did decades ago.

In other news, Europe is on fire -- from Turkey to Greece to Italy. The highest heat in European history was just recorded in a blistering Sicilian town, where citizens baked in nearly 120 degree Fahrenheit weather and the farmed snails that are the delicacy of the region burned alive in their shells. "Europe is dying," a local farmer tells the Times elsewhere.

And guess what? More war -- especially fossil fuel wars in the Middle East -- will only make the climate hotter and make Europe and the rest of the world die faster.

So fuck the European diplomats who scold America for ending a 20-year imperial war. And fuck Steven Erlanger. And fuck the New York Times.