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What’s Happening in Afghanistan is So Much More Than a ‘Messy’ Exit.

We need to remember everything that led to this end result.

Lauren Elizabeth
3 min readAug 18, 2021
Photo via TIME

As someone who was too young to really understand at the time what was going on leading up to the United States going to war with Afghanistan in the first place, it has been surreal to watch our mainstream media once again unabashedly parrot the talking points of the empire. Of course, it should come as no surprise considering they were given the task of manufacturing consent for the war before it even began. That said, to watch media outlets like the TODAY show lamenting the current circumstances and centering the entire conversation around Afghans who feel “abandoned”, a “messy exit”, and the veterans who fought there has been a sight to behold, when we actually think. about everything that led to this moment.

As I and countless others have said, we spent trillions of dollars on this war, and for what? This is a war that’s been going on longer than some of our military personnel have even been alive. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans lost their lives. Men, women, and children alike. We installed a puppet government that would dutifully serve the interests of the United States, accept our presence there, and expected the military to be loyal enough to fight for it.

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Lauren Elizabeth
Lauren Elizabeth

Written by Lauren Elizabeth

Lauren is a writer & leftist with analysis on topics related to politics & policy. She can be reached at LaurenMartinchek@gmail.com or Twitter @xlauren_mx

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