Over the last 60+ years US policy in the middle-east [and elsewhere] has been pretty much a total fiasco/incomprehensible. The one thing that has been pretty much consistent is: “hands off Israel”.
At the present time the talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan are moving ahead with a schedule of withdrawal on September 11th 2021. Now why does that date seem familiar? Oh, I know it was the day the neoconservatives got their most fervent wish, the right to attack anyone, knowing that US public opinion would initially support them.
Just over one month later the US on October 7th 2001 and the Taliban Regime was “run out” of “Dodge” by December 9th 2001. Bin Laden (Al Qaeda) the actual target, walked away to be found somewhere else many years later. I think Donald Rumsfeld declared victory in May 2003 by that time the US Government, via their troops, was having more bloody fun in Iraq.
During the next few years the US discovered that they could justify and then move on from torture either by US troops or getting someone else to do it by means of “extraordinary rendition”. We also found out that we could get away with bombing a hospital in Afghanistan (MSF Kunduz) with little or no backlash. Good days.
During this time we then we faced [mainly by surrogates] by an enemy of our own creation ISIS, oh joy of joys another fuck up. During this time “terrorist” became to have a variable meaning based upon: who we were funding, and when we stopped funding them. Freedom Fighter as a designation has lost popular usage [except by US seditionists].
So now the Taliban are claiming victory and Afghanistan with go back to its pre 9/11horror show of religious oppression and women will lose any rights they have, once again.
The Taliban are far worse than Hamas, yet we are negotiating with them, incredible, no?
As the neoconservatives told the world they were “changing hearts and minds” how's that whole Arab Spring working out.
Perhaps we are better off not getting involved at all, but we [US Government] are, Israel is politically our protectorate, although public opinion is slowly changing: re diary by Tamar.
[I know it is brief and snarky, intentinally so]