#5SmartReads - August 12, 2021

On Afghanistan, vaccine passports, and Friday Night Lights

Inside the Biden administration as Afghanistan collapses (Axios)

I don’t envy any of the presidents - from Bush 43 to Biden - on the difficult decisions they made in Afghanistan. Hindsight is 20/20 - it’s very easy to claim that the war was a poor choice from our safe perch at home.

I personally have had opposing thoughts on our withdrawal from Afghanistan, especially as the Taliban has quickly seized over half the provincial capitals in the last few weeks.

We entered a war we could not win. And at some point, one president has to make the decision to withdraw and end it. Biden made a really tough decision that has a lot of opposition, but is also working the diplomatic channels.

For the details that are reported here, there are many more we don’t know.