Wednesday open thread: We lost the war years ago

Good morning, friends.

It's another busy day for your humble blogrunner. Yesterday we had a few sardonic laughs. Today, we have this:

Exclusive: U.S. officials systematically misled the public about the war in Afghanistan, according to internal documents obtained by The Post.

These are The Afghanistan Papers: A secret history of the war. https://t.co/DbCYuP0OrT

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 9, 2019

This was published almost two years ago, as the former administration was ramping up its surrender to the Taliban. Afghanistan's fate was known to everyone except the American public, who were dealt a steady diet of lies and rosy predictions. The US was played for chumps, and played itself. There was never an Afghan nation to rebuild, because the power brokers in the country had no interest in what we were selling. What this country was able to do in Germany and Japan after World War Two was the exception which proved the rule: you can't impose a political system from the barrel of a gun.

Stay frosty, friends.