Afghanistan and the Dark Side of American Power

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : I knew that there would come a day when mighty America, with its strong diplomatic, foreign aid and military presence in Iran, would exercise its prerogative to leave.
48% : I left Iran for the United States to become a foreign student in 1966, promising to return and "serve my country," with the secret resolve never to return.
45% : Raised under the shah's authoritarian rule in the thick of the Cold War, when Iran was a key American ally against the Soviet Union, I understood power and politics from an early age.
40% : It was before the fall of Saigon, before the Carter administration would cut and run with the advance of Islamic revolutionaries in Iran, and indeed before this day of the Biden administration leaving Afghanistan in a lurch.
40% : That leaving was so sudden and irresponsible, as it was also in Iran, came to them as a shock that I well understand.
35% : Afghanistan and Iran are in fact a part of a regionwide pattern of seemingly haphazard decision making with little regard for any consequences.
33% : Actually, "blunders" such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya are not altogether unintentional.

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