Afghanistan, “We Hardly Knew Ye”: Why the Lessons of Vietnam Were Not Learned

Abstract

A long time ago, this past midsummer, the United States left Afghanistan (or at least its main body of troops left) much as the Taliban said it would, as everybody knew it would, sooner or later, didn’t they? Kabul fell almost immediately, on August 15. (Small irony: I write on Armistice Day, November 11.) The U.S. government claimed to be surprised at the speed with which the Afghan military collapsed. Just speculating, but with the endgame clear, maybe nobody on what had until recently been “our” side wanted to be the last to die? For the United States, there was little time to get its weapons, much less many people, out. The evacuation was completely foreseeable yet mismanaged, chaos. For the first time in many years, the war in Afghanistan held global attention, and for several news cycles. Images of desperate people hanging onto, and then falling from, transport planes, other human anguish. Solid television.