Justin Ward
1 min readAug 30, 2021

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George W. Bush has the same basic take on the withdrawal.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/politics/george-w-bush-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal/index.html

The irony here is that you're essentially legitimizing and rationalizing a man's war while directly echoing his justifications, reinforcing the neoconservative idea that the US military has been a force for progress in Afghanistan.

You include a lot of stats here while omitting the numbers of women killed by US/NATO bombings or subjected to sexual violence and repression by US-allied fundamentalist warlords.

At the same time, you ignore the voices of Afghan women who view the withdrawal as a net positive, like Malalai Joya, the youngest Afghan to serve in parliament and members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

They've been fighting both the United States and the fundamentalists for decades and faced the constant threat of assassination, rape and torture.

They also understand the situation in their country far better than you or I do and recognize that the US military is not a source of stability.

https://justinward.medium.com/do-americans-really-care-about-afghan-women-f64671ce277e

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Justin Ward
Justin Ward

Written by Justin Ward

Journalist and activist. Founder and co-chair of DivestSPD. Bylines at SPLC, The Baffler, GEN, USA Today. Follow on Twitter: @justwardoctrine, @DivestSPD

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