Catharine So I’ve read quite a bit of commentary on this one. Everyone is pointing a finger in one direction or another.
Who is responsible?
Is President Biden responsible for the messy exit? Or is the Afghan government responsible? Biden trusted Afghan’s leaders when they asked him not to begin an evacuation prior to the US exiting, lest it show a lack of faith in the Afghan government.
Is it Trump’s responsibility, because he negotiated with terrorists, invited them to Camp David, and emboldened them to think they were making official deals with a world superpower like the US? Was his deadline of May 1st- the agreement that the Taliban wouldn’t hurt US forces, as long as we left by May 1st- is that why things have gone the way they have? Have the Taliban been planning all this time? Probably. They knew we would be leaving, and had a date to look forward to.
Is the Afghan army responsible? I’d say on the whole, no, but that as a group, there was a negation of responsibility. The corruption within the government, down to the police forces, meant that it was a lot to ask of people to put their life on the line when they didn’t have confidence someone else had their back.
Is it Obama’s fault, for failing to withdraw while he was president, which indirectly allowed time for Trump to become president and negotiate with a terrorist group, giving them additional power and leverage?
Is it George W. Bush’s fault, for taking us there in the first place, to defend our country against terrorists?
Is it the fault of our institutions, our red tape, our bureaucracy that can often oversimplify and underemphasize threats, affording dignity to situations that are more readily described by novelists of guerrilla warfare? Is it the slow clunking of government’s wheels?
Is it the fault of the American people, for the role we’ve each played in our government going along the path it has taken?
Can we point our finger at God, and say since God is sovereign, that somehow that alleviates anyone else’s responsibility?
Better questions to ask
The truth is that this is a complex situation, and no single individual is at fault for the currently developing, catastrophic outcome.
Finger-pointing makes good headlines.
The better questions to ask, rather than “who is responsible for this?,” are questions like these:
- What are the many factors that have led us to this point?
- Have we as American citizens stood by at times when instead we should have stood up?
- What is the role of the United States in the world?
- What can the real consequences for other nations be when we involve ourselves in their affairs, both positive, and negative?
Basically, it is the content of a college class, several masters’ degrees, maybe a doctorate thrown in here or there, and there still would be deeper issues to bring to light.
People need help
What’s certain, at this point, is that people need help. My heart is breaking with the families of many Afghans and Americans who have been wounded and killed recently, and especially in the bombing today. I’ve written about some ways you can help here.
We have a responsibility to learn, and to engage on a deeper level than finger-pointing. I really hope that each of you, in whatever circles you’re in, go deeper than “who is responsible.”
Don’t let the diffusion of responsibility lead to disengagement or oversimplification
It is a common occurrence that someone passes away of a heart attack, surrounded by people, and nobody performs CPR. Nobody touches them- out of fear, perhaps? Perhaps they don’t hold current CPR certification? There’s a reason that part of CPR instruction includes making eye contact with a specific person and saying, “You! Call 911!” Because in the context of a group, responsibility diffuses. No one helps when they think it’s someone else’s job to help. And in this pretend heart-attack scenario, there are pre-existing conditions; perhaps the person was startled by something someone else said. Perhaps they had unhealthy risk factors in their lifestyle.
Where to place blame?
Who is responsible for the crisis in Afghanistan, for the lives that are continuing to be lost?
It’s none of us, and it’s also all of us. Don’t let the diffusion of responsibility lead to disengagement or oversimplification. It’s on us to avoid simple blame-games, and focus on learning to understand the deeper issues at play. Then, that can influence our voting, and influence the actions of our future leaders. Maybe some of us will become those future leaders ourselves.
Dig deeper
Don’t let the emergency fade with the headlines, our adrenaline returning to normal, as we move along on social media, and forget about it.
Humble yourself, don’t point fingers, and dig deeper. Read more. Don’t disengage. Mistakes, even group ones, that aren’t learned from get repeated.
I recommend NYTimes coverage not only for ongoing reporting, but for looking backwards. Here’s a starting place.
