America's endgame in Afghanistan turns out to be a blame game. Everyone is blaming everyone else, which is what a spectacular defeat looks and sounds like. Defeat of this magnitude is a super-messy process. There's no glorious retreat to speak of, and so far no one has had the audacity to speak of such. Insult and injury are royally self-inflicted as much as royally self-invited.

Enough.

I am here to unlearn, rather than repeat, what I have already learned from the talking heads in today's media. 

Concisely and precisely, America "invaded" Afghanistan so as to track down the 911 culprits. 911 was NOT Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century. Unlike Pearl Harbor, 911 was made possible by a non-state actor with covert backing of collaborative states. More importantly, 911 was virtually a viral outbreak. It victimized Americans and, by extension, their friends and allies around the world.

For the better part of the 2010s, the (George W.) Bush administration had hardly made any headway in tracking down the 911 culprits in Afghanistan. It had a hard time explaining their lack of progress. Americans insistently demanded progress, however. So, the White House redefined the Afghanistan mission as nation building of an Islamic democracy, which would hopefully justify the long haul. Alas, hope is not a policy, much less a war objective. This is a no-win situation. You lose when being stuck in a no-win situation. 

Blame the Biden administration all you want, which is totally understandable in view of its incoherence and incompetence. Just don't let any US president get away with redefining a US mission in order to stay in power.

by Lingyang Jiang