What’s happening in Afghanistan is terrible and heartbreaking—and two decades in the making, according to New Abnormal guest Susan Glasser. The former war correspondent and CNN global affairs analyst tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan is what happens after 20 years of bad decisions, mainly by the United States, and yes, all of the presidents in between.
“Our politicians lied to the American people and they lied to the Afghan people. And by the way, folks, that was Democrats as well as Republicans. I know we’re in a partisan moment, but both teams can lie to you guys; both teams have done so in this case,” Glasser says of the game of Whose Fault Is This? that people are playing.
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In other words, it’s America’s fault, period. More recently, Glasser says both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden threw fuel on the fire. Trump made a terrible deal with the Taliban, she says—and Biden kept it. He also did not aptly prepare for this scenario. Nor is he being accountable for it.
So what can we do?
To start, stop pointing fingers and hope we can make things right, despite the damage.
“The problem is there are so many horrible instances of the Americans in history, and recent history, deserting our allies and subjecting them to terrible fates," she says.
Also on the show, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) rips into Gov. Greg Abbott for, in her words, not keeping things consistent with schools.
When there’s a lice outbreak, that student is identified and checked, and all families are notified. Why isn’t the governor mandating the same for COVID? “Now that’s just not even good Texas common sense,” she says.
Plus! Adam Harris, author of The State Must Provide, blows our minds explaining how historically Black colleges and universities came to be (hint: racism) and how the federal government is paying off states to ignore the problem today.
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