People utilize metaphors explain what is up-to-date or unknown. Metaphors are especially crucial in helping citizens understand international events. They influence not only public opinion, but also U.S. foreign policy.
Decades ago, Munich was the dominant metaphor for the Cold Warriors who wanted America to stand up to Soviet expansion around the world.
Desiring to avoid war in Europe, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, signed an agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938 in Munich which accepted the Nazi annexation of western Czechoslovakia in exchange for Hitler’s promise to go no further.
The following year, Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland, starting World War II and making Munich a symbol of appeasing the enemy rather than opposing it.
In response, presidential administrations during the Cold War used force or the threat of force to oppose communist aggression in Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam.
Vietnam, in turn, became a metaphor for American overreach and failure. After ten years of American combat operations in support of the South Vietnamese government, which resulted in the death of 60,000 Americans, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975
US policy was therefore shaped through competing metaphors, one supporting US military intervention (Munich) and the other advising it (Vietnam).
The attacks of September 11, 2001 strengthened News from Munich (and Pearl Harbor). strength, readiness and the need to decisively defend American interests. This led to “war on terrorism”, which included wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and cyberspace.
However, Iraq and Afghanistan became endless US occupations, as did Vietnam. New metaphors have also emerged, such as Guantanamo and Abu Gharib euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation”, “preventive war” and “extraordinary rendition”.
It always ended this way in Dick Polman’s Afghanistan
Influenced by the analogy to VietnamPresident Joe Biden decided to pull the plug on Mission in Afghanistan.
The similarities between American wars in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia they are striking. Both concerned American deaths, training of allied forces to fight on their own, supporting corrupt governmentstrillions of dollars spent, the final withdrawal of US troops and messy scenes of desperate allies trying to escape their country before a brutal regime takes hold.
Most Americans agree with Biden that US military involvement in Afghanistan should end. At the same time, about three-quarters of Americans believe it the evacuation goes badly.
One would expect Republicans to be particularly tough on Biden and They didn’t disappointalthough President Trump reached an agreement with the Taliban to remove all US troops by May 2021.
The surprising thing is that hostility of the mainstream media towards the current administration. Biden honeymoon with the pressif there was one, there is one ready.
I am not an expert on the Middle East, Central Asia, or US foreign and military policy. However, as a political analyst, I see the potential for Afghanistan to become a metaphor for the decline of Biden’s presidency.
No, I’m not saying that Biden will be a one-term presidentbut I don’t believe it we will quickly forget about itor. The Afghanistan fiasco coincides with other events that signal the return of polarized politics as usual.
First, public acceptance of Biden’s role as president dropped below 50%, a trend that began before the fall of Kabul. The main reason is the renewed fear of Covid-19 and growing dissatisfaction with Biden’s handling of the pandemic.
Secondly, the Afghan crisis slower dynamics in Congress for passing Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan and $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Democratic leaders want to support the president’s domestic agenda loyalty testbut Biden’s dwindling popularity makes it easier for dissidents to say no.
With the return of the Taliban, it seems that 20 years of progress for women will disappear overnight | Opinion
Third, Biden is responsible for performing U.S. intelligence and military services that it claimed The Afghan army could cope against the enemy and he missed his sudden fall entirely. This was contrary to Biden’s position claim to higher competence in foreign policy and crisis management.
Fourth, the collapse of Afghanistan will impact U.S. national security interests. Strengthens Russia’s influence and Chinaboth they will keep their embassies in Kabuland that adds Russian gains in the region after the US withdrawal from Syria under Trump. Despite the Taliban’s assurances of moderation, the up-to-date government will probably be a bad actor once again.
Fifth, it is likely that bad news from the region will continue to emerge. The situation in Kabul is this extremely threatening. Stories of abandoned allies will continue. Humanitarian concerns will arise from: a refugee crisiswho has It has already become politicized. Erosion will almost certainly occur human rights for Afghan womenAND punishing those who helped the US.
Yes, Biden has time to recover. Successful evacuation of Americans and supporters of Afghanistan it would support. It would also be useful to adopt the president’s economic program. The most beneficial of all would be taking control of the coronavirus.
Most importantly, Biden must be a straight shooter. Must avoid presidential tendency to avoid responsibility, blame others, minimize or lie when things go wrong. Since he ruled for only eight months of a 20-year war, there is no need to undiscovered the truth.
The last thing this president needs is the revival of another legacy of the Vietnam era – the so-called credibility gap.
Opinion writer Fletcher McClellan is a professor of political science at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. His work appears biweekly on the Capital-Star magazine’s comments page. Readers can email him at [email protected]and follow him on Twitter @mcclelef.
