When will America learn from its foreign policy disasters?
President Lyndon Johnson once said America could afford both “guns and butter” fighting the Vietnam War without neglecting domestic needs.
America then lost the war and voted out its president.
Now, as American troops pull out of Afghanistan and President Joe Biden suffers a big blow to his popularity, I can’t help but ask, “America, when will you learn?”
When Afghan soldiers handed over their American-made weapons to the Taliban, the shocking speed in which they surrendered, city after city, laid bare the failure of American foreign policy.
Vietnam and Afghanistan are countries where the America-installed government was violently toppled because it was ineffective, corrupt, and did not prioritize the well-being of the people.
Ostensibly generous and benevolent, America’s foreign interventions were often doomed from the start, because they ignored the complexities of local history and politics.
If anything, the locals saw a Trojan horse that would bring unwanted, destructive American influence to the region.
Their suspicion was understandable. No one will forget the horrific televised image of thousands of Afghans cramming in a cargo plane leaving their country while Americans wash their hands of a land known for the opium trade, which the CIA once covertly supported.
With rising COVID-19 death tolls and deepening political, racial, and social economical divides on the home front, America should choose butter over guns.
The Afghan people deserve butter too. Simon Wong, Mississauga