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BooksInterview‘America is not a perfect country’: David Rubenstein on Trump, Biden and a nation’s troubled historyMartin Pengelly In his new book of interviews with influential figures, the billionaire considers the health of US democracy and how it might withstand further attacks@ More
BooksThe Afghanistan Papers review: superb exposé of a war built on lies Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post used freedom of information to produce the definitive US version of the warJulian BorgerSun 5 Sep 2021 02.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 5 Sep 2021 02.02 EDTIn the summer of 2009, the latest in a long line of US military commanders in Afghanistan commissioned the latest in a long line of strategic reviews, in the perennial hope it would make enough of a difference to allow the Americans to go home.‘The intensity has not changed’: Jason Kander on the fall of Afghanistan – and trying to get friends outRead moreThere was some excitement in Washington about the author, Gen Stanley McChrystal, a special forces soldier who cultivated the image of a warrior-monk while hunting down insurgents in Iraq.Hired by Barack Obama, McChrystal produced a 66-page rethink of the Afghan campaign, calling for a “properly resourced” counter-insurgency with a lot more money and troops.It quickly became clear there were two significant problems. Al-Qaida, the original justification for the Afghan invasion, was not even mentioned in McChrystal’s first draft. And the US could not agree with its Nato allies on whether to call it a war or a peacekeeping or training mission, an issue with important legal implications.In the second draft, al-Qaida was included and the conflict was hazily defined as “not a war in the conventional sense”. But no amount of editing could disguise the fact that after eight years of bloody struggle, the US and its allies were unclear on what they were doing and who they were fighting.The story is one of many gobsmacking anecdotes and tragic absurdities uncovered by Craig Whitlock, an investigative reporter at the Washington Post. His book is based on documents obtained through freedom of information requests, most from “lessons learned” interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar), a watchdog mandated by Congress to keep tabs on the hundreds of billions flowing into Afghanistan.In the Sigar files, and other interviews carried out by military institutes and research centres, Whitlock found that soldiers of all ranks and their civilian counterparts were “more open about their experiences than they likely would have been with a journalist working on a news story”.Blunt appraisals were left unvarnished because they were never intended for publication. The contrast with the upbeat version of events presented to the public at the same time, often by the very same people, is breathtaking.The Afghanistan Papers is a book about failure and about lying about failure, and about how that led to yet worse failures, and so on for 20 years. The title and the contents echo the Pentagon Papers, the leaked inside story of the Vietnam war in which the long road to defeat was paved with brittle happy talk.“With their complicit silence, military and political leaders avoided accountability and dodged reappraisals that could have changed the outcome or shortened the conflict,” Whitlock writes. “Instead, they chose to bury their mistakes and let the war drift.”As Whitlock vividly demonstrates, the lack of clarity, the deception, ignorance and hubris were baked in from the beginning. When he went to war in Afghanistan in October 2001, George Bush promised a carefully defined mission. In fact, at the time the first bombs were being dropped, guidance from the Pentagon was hazy.It was unclear, for example, whether the Taliban were to be ousted or punished.“We received some general guidance like, ‘Hey, we want to go fight the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan,’” a special forces operations planner recalled. Regime change was only decided to be a war aim nine days after the shooting started.The US was also hazy about whom they were fighting, which Whitlock calls “a fundamental blunder from which it would never recover”.Most importantly, the invaders lumped the Taliban in with al-Qaida, despite the fact the former was a homegrown group with largely local preoccupations while the latter was primarily an Arab network with global ambitions.That perception, combined with unexpectedly easy victories in the first months, led Bush’s defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to believe the Taliban could be ignored. Despite offers from some leaders that they were ready to negotiate a surrender, they were excluded from talks in December 2001 on the country’s future. It was a decision the United Nations envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, called the “original sin” of the war.Rumsfeld declared there was no point negotiating.“The only thing you can do is to bomb them and try to kill them,” he said in March 2002. “And that’s what we did, and it worked. They’re gone.”Not even Rumsfeld believed that. In one of his famous “snowflake” memos, at about the same time, he wrote: “I am getting concerned that it is drifting.”In a subsequent snowflake, two years after the war started, he admitted: “I have no visibility into who the bad guys are.”’The Taliban had not disappeared, though much of the leadership had retreated to Pakistan. The fighters had gone home, if necessary to await the next fighting season. Their harsh brand of Islam had grown in remote, impoverished villages, honed by the brutalities of Soviet occupation and civil war. The Taliban did not represent anything like a majority of Afghans, but as their resilience and eventual victory have shown, they are an indelible part of Afghanistan.Bruised Biden tries to turn the page after US debacle in AfghanistanRead moreWhitlock’s book is rooted in a database most journalists and historians could only dream of, but it is far more than the sum of its sources. You never feel the weight of the underlying documents because they are so deftly handed. Whitlock uses them as raw material to weave anecdotes into a compelling narrative.He does not tell the full story of the Afghan war. He does not claim to do so. That has to be told primarily by Afghans, who lived through the realities submerged by official narratives, at the receiving end of each new strategy and initiative.This is a definitive version of the war seen through American eyes, told by Americans unaware their words would appear in public. It is a cautionary tale of how a war can go on for years, long after it stops making any kind of sense.TopicsBooksAfghanistanSouth and Central AsiaUS militaryUS foreign policyUS national securityGeorge BushreviewsReuse this content More
DemocratsInterview‘The intensity has not changed’: Jason Kander on the fall of Afghanistan – and trying to get friends outMartin Pengelly The Missouri Democrat has been described as a possible president – but for now he’s focused on healing wounds of a 20-year war@ More
OpinionDonald TrumpTrump’s coup attempt has not stopped – and Democrats must wake upRobert ReichHe still refuses to concede and riles up supporters with his bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Tens of millions of Americans believe him Sun 5 Sep 2021 01.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 5 Sep 2021 01.02 EDTThe former president’s attempted coup is not stopping. He still refuses to concede and continues to rile up supporters with his bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Tens of millions of Americans believe him.Trump reportedly nears DC hotel rights sale as ally says ‘I think he’s gonna run’Read moreLast Sunday, at a Republican event in Franklin, North Carolina, Congressman Madison Cawthorn, repeating Trump’s big lie, called the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January “political hostages”.Cawthorn also advised the crowd to begin stockpiling ammunition for what he said was likely to be American-versus-American “bloodshed” over unfavorable election results.“Much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs,” he said, “there’s nothing I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.”On Tuesday, Texas Republicans passed a strict voter law based on Trump’s big lie – imposing new ID requirements on people seeking to vote by mail and criminal penalties on election officials who send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, empowering partisan poll watchers, and banning drive-through and 24-hour voting.This year, at least 18 other states have enacted 30 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote, based on Trump’s lie.On Thursday, at Trump’s instigation, Pennsylvania Republicans launched an investigation soliciting sworn testimony on election “irregularities”, scheduling the first hearing for next week.Arizona’s Republican “audit” will report its results any day. There’s little question what they’ll show. The chief executive of Cyber Ninjas, the company hired to conduct it, has publicly questioned the election results. The audit team consists of Trump supporters and is funded by a group led by Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.The Republican chair of the Wisconsin state assembly campaigns and elections committee has begun “a full, cyber-forensic audit”, akin to Arizona’s. Trump’s first White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, says Wisconsin Republicans are prepared to spend $680,000.These so-called audits won’t alter the outcome of the 2020 election. Their point is to cast further doubt on its legitimacy and justify additional state measures to suppress votes and alter future elections.It’s a vicious cycle. As Trump continues to stoke his base with his big lie that the election was stolen, Republican lawmakers – out to advance their careers and entrench the GOP – are adding fuel to the fire, pushing more Americans into Trump’s paranoid nightmare.The three top candidates to succeed Richard Burr in North Carolina all denounced the senator’s vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. The four leading candidates to succeed Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania all embraced Trump’s call for an “audit” of election results.A leading contender for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Shelby in Alabama is Representative Mo Brooks, best known for urging the crowd at Trump’s rally preceding the Capitol riot to “start taking down names and kicking ass”. Brooks has been endorsed by Trump.Yet even as Trump’s attempted coup gains traction, most of the rest of America continues to sleep. We’ve become so outrage-fatigued by his antics, and so preoccupied with the more immediate threats of the Delta variant and climate-fueled wildfires and hurricanes, that we prefer not to know.A month ago it was reported that during his last weeks in office Trump tried to strong-arm the justice department to falsely declare the 2020 presidential election fraudulent, even threatening to fire the acting attorney general if he didn’t: “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen.”The news barely registered on America’s collective mind. The Olympics and negotiations over the infrastructure bill got more coverage.A top Trump adviser now says Trump is “definitely running” for president in 2024, even though the 14th amendment to the constitution bars anyone from holding office who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the nation.Federal legislation that would pre-empt state voter suppression laws is bogged down in the Senate. Biden hasn’t made it a top priority. A House select committee to investigate the Capitol riot and Trump’s role is barely off the ground. The justice department has made no move to indict the former president for anything.But unless Trump and his co-conspirators are held accountable for the damage they have inflicted and continue to inflict on American democracy, and unless Senate Democrats and Biden soon enact national voting rights legislation, Trump’s attempted coup could eventually succeed.It is imperative that America wake up.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist
TopicsDonald TrumpOpinionUS elections 2020US politicsUS voting rightsRepublicansUS elections 2024commentReuse this content More
Pete ButtigiegPete Buttigieg and husband Chasten announce birth of adopted twinsTransport secretary says ‘Chasten and I are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family’ Martin Pengelly and Edward HelmoreSat 4 Sep 2021 13.52 EDTFirst published on Sat 4 Sep 2021 12.58 EDTPete Buttigieg and his husband have announced the birth of adopted twins.Trump reportedly nears DC hotel rights sale as ally says ‘I think he’s gonna run’Read moreIn a post to social media on Saturday, the US transportation secretary and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination said: “Chasten and I … are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family.”The Buttigiegs announced last month that they were engaged in the adoption process. Sharing a picture of the babies on Saturday, they said they were “beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents”.One of the twins is named for Buttigieg’s father, Joseph, a Notre Dame professor who died in 2019.Buttigieg, 39, is a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana who came from obscurity to make a strong impression in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020. He is now the first out gay parent in the US cabinet, having already become the first openly gay person to be confirmed by the US Senate for a cabinet post.The Washington Post reported in July that the Buttigiegs had put themselves on lists to adopt a baby or babies abandoned or surrendered, and were preparing by “going through home studies and parenting workshops, writing up descriptions of their family values and ideal weekends”.Chasten, a part-time drama school teacher, described how he received a call about a mother in labour wanting to place her baby for adoption. The mother then changed her mind.“It’s a really weird cycle of anger and frustration and hope,” he said.Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents. We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family. pic.twitter.com/kS89gb11Ax— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) September 4, 2021
The couple met in 2015 on the dating app Hinge and married three years later. After being appointed to the Biden cabinet, Pete Buttigieg said: “Travel in my mind is synonymous with adventure, growth and even love, so much so that I proposed to my husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal.“Don’t let anyone tell you O’Hare [the Chicago airport] isn’t romantic. And let me take this chance to thank Chasten for all that he does, and for his sacrifices, to support me in pursuing public service.”When Pete Buttigieg announced that he and Chasten were looking to adopt, first lady Jill Biden shared his tweet and said: “Congratulations to you and Chasten! Welcome to parenthood!”The interior secretary, Deb Haaland, said: “Being a parent has been one of the great joys of my life. Congrats to you and Chasten on this terrific news!”Lis Smith, Buttigieg’s top communications adviser during his presidential bid, said: “They will be the best dads.”On Saturday the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, once a rival for the Democratic nomination, tweeted: “You’re both going to make wonderful parents, congrats.”TopicsPete ButtigiegUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
Donald TrumpTrump reportedly nears DC hotel rights sale as ally says ‘I think he’s gonna run’Hotel, which opened in 2016, was hub for government businessJim Jordan tells supporters in Ohio that Trump is likely to run Martin Pengelly@ More
US politics‘I’m not Rambo’: Republican unrepentant about attempt to enter AfghanistanCongressman Markwayne Mullin, criticized for rogue rescue effort, says he would do it again ‘without hesitation’ Edward Helmore in New YorkSat 4 Sep 2021 11.31 EDTLast modified on Sat 4 Sep 2021 11.36 EDTThe Oklahoma Republican congressman Markwayne Mullin has said he has no regrets about trying to enter Afghanistan on a rescue mission last month, saying that though he is “not Rambo” he would make such an attempt again “without even hesitation”.Afghanistan: militia endure ‘heavy assaults’ from Taliban in Panjshir ValleyRead moreMullin, a former wrestler described on his own website as “a former mixed martial arts fighter with a professional record of 5-0”, told Fox News he tried to enter Afghanistan as thousands of westerners and their Afghan allies attempted to flee the Taliban.“I wasn’t trying to go over there and be a cowboy or anything like that,” Mullin said. “It was just, ‘What else do you do when you see a problem? How do you say no if you can be an asset?’”Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last month, nearly 20 years after the US-led invasion. The Biden administration has said it evacuated about 124,000 American citizens and Afghans deemed at risk under Islamic militant rule.Mullin said he received requests to help thousands of people. He also said he was asked to accompany people with US military connections – “Delta [Force] guys” and “special forces” – into the war-torn country.“I’m not Rambo,” he said. “Never pretended to be Rambo. We were surrounded by great people. Out of all the guys I was working with, I’m the low man on the totem pole. And I understood that.”John Rambo is a character played by Sylvester Stallone in a series of action films first made in the 1980s, one concerning a mission to find Americans left behind after the Vietnam war.Mullin said he planned to help his companions by “open[ing] the doors for them, making phone calls and being able to take in the [special immigrant visa applicants] or the [American citizens] as they came onto the plane. That was the plan.”But, he said, “that plan changed. And it changed when we wasn’t allowed to get into Afghanistan.”According to the Washington Post, Mullin first attempted to enter Afghanistan via Greece, only to be denied permission by the defense department.He then reportedly called the US ambassador to Tajikistan with a request to help transport a large amount of cash into the country, saying he would be going on to Afghanistan to rescue a woman and her four children, all US citizens.Mullin told the embassy he planned to fly to Dushanbe in Tajikistan from Tbilisi in Georgia, then to rent a helicopter. The embassy turned him down. Officials told the Post Mullin threatened the US ambassador, John Mark Pommersheim.Mullin told Fox News: “Unfortunately, the ambassador, Pommersheim, was not helpful at all.”Mullin’s attempts to reach Afghanistan followed an unauthorized and widely criticised visit to Kabul by a Republican congressman, Peter Meijer, and a Democrat, Seth Moulton. The two military veterans have defended their actions.US troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan this week. The state department says Americans should not visit the country “due to civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, terrorism, kidnapping, and Covid-19”.Congressmen criticized over Kabul visit say they were ‘uniquely situated’ for tripRead moreMullin, who told Fox News he and others had estimated they had “a 50-50 chance of coming back” from their planned mission, wrote on Instagram on Wednesday that he had nonetheless helped Americans out of the country.“I am heading home,” he wrote, without specifying where he was.“Have we been helping get Americans out of Afghanistan? Yes. Is the mission continuing? Yes. Am I missing? No. Did I go dark for a little? Yes, because it wasn’t safe to be communicating. Am I extremely disappointed in how we (United States) left Americans behind … that would be an understatement.”Biden and members of his administration have said between 100 and 200 US citizens remain in Afghanistan. The White House has said it will continue efforts to help any who wish to leave the country. Veteran-led rescue groups have said the official estimate overlooks hundreds of permanent legal residents with green cards.After claiming Joe Biden was “absolutely lying to the American people about Americans and our friends being left behind”, Mullin added a hashtag: #Ordinarypeopledoingextraordinarythings.TopicsUS politicsUS foreign policyUS militaryAfghanistanSouth and Central AsianewsReuse this content More
Texas‘Outraged, sickened, terrified’: Guardian readers on the Texas abortion banNine Guardian readers share their thoughts on the ruling that bans most abortions – and what it means for reproductive rights Guardian readers and Rachel ObordoSat 4 Sep 2021 06.00 EDTLast modified on Sat 4 Sep 2021 06.01 EDTThe US supreme court voted 5-4 to allow a Texas law banning most abortions to remain in force. The law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant.Nine people share their reaction to the ruling and what they think it means for women’s rights.‘Women’s rights are being stolen out from under us’We have all these yahoos down here screaming about their rights being taken away (guns, vaccines and maskless), but women’s rights are being stolen out from under us. Abortion should not be a political decision – it is a moral decision. No one has the right to tell me what I can do with my body. One day “I” will answer to my Lord, no one else will stand in place during my judgment day. It is very disheartening. Women’s rights are slowly being taken away. What will they take away next? Michelle, 52, Texas‘How can I still be afraid of my voice not mattering?’It’s absolutely not right to have control over a woman’s body like this. I had one abortion when I was 22. My now husband and I had just started dating and we weren’t financially or emotionally ready to have children. If we were not allowed to have an abortion then, our relationship would not have survived. I would have been a single mother, trying to support a baby I wasn’t ready for and didn’t want. How do you think that child would have been raised? We now have two children and we are able to support them with love and everything they need to thrive. To this day my husband and I do not regret the extremely hard choice we had to make. We were both grieving for a while but, it was the right decision and it was my body, my choice.I had to have two C-sections with both of my sons as they were too large for me to give birth naturally. During my last C-section, I chose to get sterilized and my tubes tied. This was a difficult choice, but it was my choice for a healthy life. I decided for myself that day so no one could for me another day. I live in the USA, it’s 2021, how can I still be afraid of my voice not mattering? Kelsi, 30, Arizona‘This law is deeply and blatantly misogynistic’Saying I’m appalled does not begin to cover it. I am speechless. I just want to emphasize what others have been saying: there are no laws dictating what men can do with their bodies. For there to be full equality under the law, there can be no laws dictating what a woman can do with hers. I will be boycotting Texas in every way I can. The unintended consequences of this law will be deadlier and more horrific than the unintended consequences of Prohibition. This law is deeply and blatantly misogynistic. All women everywhere should be protesting in the streets. Valerie, 69, New York‘I spent my life fighting for abortion rights and now I feel defeated’I am outraged, sickened and terrified. I spent my life fighting for abortion rights, and now I just feel defeated. I’d leave this sick and evil country if I could, but I’m too old and too poor to be able to get out. I’ll stay and battle on, but the future looks increasingly bleak and dark.I fear for the lives and health of Texas women, and for the future of anyone in America who is not a white, straight, Christian, rightwing male. I am absolutely horrified and feel like a lifetime’s worth of work by so many people just went up in smoke. American women are in grave danger, and not just in Texas. Linda, 71, Maryland‘This is not the country I fought for’This is Handmaid’s Tale stuff. When I was young, I was a Goldwater Republican, but I left the party after Newt Gingrich was elected speaker. They [the Republicans] see Trump as America’s Viktor Orbán, running a “soft” dictatorship. The abortion ruling is one more step in their plan to eliminate freedom. Their stance on gun control is to ensure that their followers will be armed to the teeth the next time they try to pull off an insurrection. As a retired disabled veteran of the Vietnam war, this is not the country I fought for. Back in 1968 it was a different country – Republicans were the good guys – I’m not sure I want to keep living here if this is the way things are going. Bill, 74, Georgia‘The burden will be on the lower socioeconomic people’An absolute outrage. How dare a white male majority make choices about our bodies? I had two negative pregnancy tests when pregnant with my daughter, and didn’t get confirmation until I was 16 weeks pregnant. I am a social worker and know there are thousands of children who are languishing in the foster care system and will never be adopted. Who will care for these unwanted children? The burden, as usual in the USA, will be on the lower socioeconomic people. We are going backwards and it is beyond distressing. The wealthy will have access to abortions and other women will be forced to carry and bear children they don’t want or can’t support financially or emotionally. What a travesty. Allison, 50, Utah‘I think the ban starts six weeks too late’I am thrilled, though I think the ban starts six weeks too late. I’m hopeful that the supreme court will at least acknowledge a state’s options to set its own standards here. My concerns are that so much of our country is comfortable with the murder of the most innocent lives among us. It’s hard to get anything right as a society when infanticide is acceptable. Michael, Kansas‘Welcome back to the dark ages’This is utterly disgusting and abhorrent. Women of all ages should and must be able to make their own choice concerning their body. Welcome back to the dark ages. It’s OK to be against abortion but you don’t get to choose for others – it’s a matter of personal choice. I went through an abortion in my late 20s when I was living in Asia. My then boyfriend was immature and stupid and so was I. Anyway, it was a traumatic experience for many reasons and I wouldn’t go through it again, but that was my choice and I’m glad I had the option. Gally, 40, California‘Saying it’s too complicated is such a lazy response’It’s cowardice supreme. Such a twisted law – pitting people against each other. The supreme court can’t even give a good reason for blocking it other than that it’s too complicated. That is such a lazy response. It’s a sad day for women. I can only imagine what other countries think of this. I worry that other states will take approaches like this and effectively ban abortion elsewhere too. Jeremy, 24, MinnesotaTopicsTexasAbortionUS politicsHealthfeaturesReuse this content More
