Seth Masket/Mischiefs of Faction:
What Future Presidents are Learning from Afghanistan
Even if the Afghanistan withdrawal isn't likely to have much of a political effect, though, the media coverage it produced might. The negative press Biden has received over the past two weeks, even from news sources usually more sympathetic to his administration, is exactly what the previous three presidents were trying to avoid. And those who would succeed Biden in office surely don't want this kind of coverage.
For the sake of argument, let’s just posit that Biden did as good a job as could have been done in the situation he was handed. That is, let’s assume that the US military mission there had been lost years ago, that a democratically-elected Afghan government was never going to survive without being propped up by thousands of American soldiers, and that unless the US was willing to commit to an indefinite military occupation, it was always going to face a moment like this one once it withdrew. (Hell, that might even be right.) Would the media tone have been any less negative?
Media bias is often widely misunderstood. Mainstream news reporters may, indeed, lean somewhat left on a personal level, but that’s not typically how they cover the news. Rather, they often focus on blood and scandal. Nuance is often in short supply, particularly in dramatic moments where reporters' access is substantially limited, as Jonathan Bernstein noted. This is an understandable bias from publications that need to sell copy and attract readers and viewers, but it is still a bias.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
Biden makes it clear: Artificial limits won’t hinder his Afghanistan evacuation
Overall, this adds up to a White House effort to tie the evacuation to the original, popular decision to end the fruitless war; to present the evacuation as a complex and so far largely successful endeavor conducted by professional, brave Americans; and to reduce the sense of urgency surrounding the Aug. 31 date and the physical limits of the U.S. presence. Biden plainly wants to prevent a rush to the exits and focus on maintaining a successful airlift. Again, if Biden moves all Americans and vulnerable Afghans to safety, last week will look like a rough, heart-rendering start to an historic rescue operation.
Alissa J Rubin/NY Times:
Did the War in Afghanistan Have to Happen?
In 2001, when the Taliban were weak and ready to surrender, the U.S. passed on a deal. Nearly 20 years later, the Taliban hold all the cards.
It was in the waning days of November 2001 that Taliban leaders began to reach out to Hamid Karzai, who would soon become the interim president of Afghanistan: They wanted to make a deal.
“The Taliban were completely defeated, they had no demands, except amnesty,” recalled Barnett Rubin, who worked with the United Nations’ political team in Afghanistan at the time.
Messengers shuttled back and forth between Mr. Karzai and the headquarters of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, in Kandahar. Mr. Karzai envisioned a Taliban surrender that would keep the militants from playing any significant role in the country’s future.
But Washington, confident that the Taliban would be wiped out forever, was in no mood for a deal.
Hilda Bastian/Atlantic:
The FDA Really Did Have to Take This Long
If vaccine approval feels maddeningly scrupulous, that’s because the alternative is worse.
Some people want the FDA to speed up. Others want it to be more cautious. All of this can be head-spinning for anyone who just wants the agency to do whatever actually works to get us out of this horrendous pandemic. If one thing has defined America’s vaccination rollout, it’s exactly these competing pressures. There’s a fundamental tension between the right to get access to a drug people are desperate for and the right to protection from dangerous failures of quality. The first demands speed; the second requires time.
Catherine Rampell/WaPo:
It’s time for the GOP to dole out some tough love on vaccines
The only halfway decent excuse for delaying coronavirus vaccination — that no shot had received “full approval” from the Food and Drug Administration — is now obsolete. Time for the “Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings” party to stop coddling their followers, dole out some tough love and insist that everyone get their damn shots already.
A year and a half into the pandemic,
40 percent of eligible Americans still aren’t fully vaccinated. And while public health officials have begged the uninoculated to get shots, many ambitious Republicans and right-wing “news” personalities have, perplexingly, refused to do so.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Quinnipiac:
6 In 10 Floridians Support Requiring Masks In Schools, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; 61% Say Recent Rise In COVID-19 Cases In Florida Was Preventable
Schools should be able to require masks for all students, say 54 percent of Floridians in a separate question, while 44 percent say that parents should decide whether or not their own student will be wearing a mask.
On Gov. DeSantis' threat to withhold school leaders' salaries if they require masks for students, 69 percent say it's a bad idea, while 25 percent say it's a good idea. There is agreement across partisan lines, as Democrats say 91 - 8 percent, independents say 70 - 26 percent, and Republicans say 52 - 38 percent that it's a bad idea.