Alan S. Austin
Arizona Playwright • Writer • Poet
  

AFGHANISTAN IS TRUMPS FAULT (8/30)

When a newspaper discovers it has published a mistake, it is normal to address the mistake in the corrections column. I would be interested to know what happens when a letter from a reader is published which contains obvious falsehoods. Did the editor include such a letter knowingly to whip up controversy? Was it just a mistake or did the newspaper wish to promote the falsehood? Today's letter from a reader in Sedona, accusing Biden of appeasement and comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, is a case in point. Biden made no agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Trump set up the terms of the agreement which was signed in Jan 2020. Biden followed through and implemented it. That agreement freed the Taliban and ISIS-K fighters from prison well before Biden became President and thence ensued the horrors we have been witnessing. Trump opened pandora's box. Mike Pompeo, asserted that the administration was "seizing the best opportunity for peace in a generation." echoing Chamberlain's words. No victory was ever declared. No piece of paper was brandished. One wonders what the right wing press would have written, if Biden had torn up the agreement and continued the occupation.