Questions we’re not Asking About Afghanistan — Market Mad House

“News is only the first rough draft of history.” — Alan Barth journalist.*

The ongoing debacle in Afghanistan shows the limits of “news” and modern journalism. Catastrophe has been looming in Afghanistan for years as The Washington Post’s excellent The Afghanistan Papers series demonstrates. Evidence that the Afghan army and government would collapse without American help abounded, but nobody paid attention.

Yet the Taliban’s apparent victory has taken the American media by complete surprise. Instead, the media is attacking President Joe Biden (D-Delaware) for losing a war that began almost 20 years before he took office.

Apparently, no American journalists except some Washington Post reporters were paying any attention to Afghanistan. Now the same hypocritical journalists are attacking Biden for honorably abiding by an agreement his controversial predecessor Donald J. Trump (R-Florida) made.

Worst of all are the questions nobody in the media is asking. I think those questions should include:

1. How did the Taliban get the resources, organization, training, weapons, and leadership necessary to launch a successful blitzkrieg after 20 years of American occupation?

Are we supposed to believe that a mob of poppy growers and sheepherders led by village schoolteachers with Korans is now a crack fighting force? I suspect somebody from outside Afghanistan is helping them.

Sorry, I just cannot believe the Taliban organized and carried this offensive itself.

2. Where are the Taliban getting their weapons, ammunition, fuel, and vehicles from?

The news footage I’ve seen shows Taliban soldiers riding motorcycles and carrying sophisticated modern weapons. Are we to believe Afghan shepherds built the motorcycles and weapons in their village workshop?