The Forever War They Just Can’t Quit

President Joe Biden is getting increasing flak for his bold decision to finally withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after two bloody, costly decades. But it's not from Republicans, whose voters seem just as weary of endless war as the rest of America. The daily pro-war barrage is coming from the New York Times, the voice of corporate liberalism. Today's newspaper features two more hand-wringing articles about U.S. withdrawal from the "graveyard of empires," including one by Michael Crowley ominously warning that his departure "Could Backfire on Biden."

Yes, the Taliban is quickly retaking Afghanistan. Yes, that is a tragedy for its secular citizens, especially women who don't want to succumb to hardline Islamic rule. I wish the Afghan Army -- which the U.S. trained and heavily armed for 20 years -- was capable of resisting Taliban offensives without the U.S. military. But apparently Taliban rule is the fate of this benighted country.

Here's a news flash for the New York Times and other cheerleaders for endless imperial intervention. U.S. invasion -- from Vietnam to Latin America to the Middle East -- NEVER ends well for the foreign countries that become battlegrounds. The U.S. military ALWAYS showers puppet armies and regimes with endless resources -- only to see these propped-up forces quickly disintegrate as soon as American firepower is withdrawn.

When will the U.S. ever learn the grim lessons of empires? When will the fucking NEW YORK TIMES?!