Fall of Afghanistan: Lies Exposed

It’s a conservative cliché to imagine state-run enterprises as versions of the DMV — frustrating, inefficient, an experience that leaves you enraged. You enter in line in order to be told the next line to line up in. The DMV isn’t like that in many states now — often the DMV runs through kiosks and databases. But the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, now gives you something of the old experience, spiced up with the threat of abandonment, mutilation, and death.

Finally, in Afghanistan we are almost getting to the truth of our involvement there. People have gotten too used to lying about the war in Afghanistan, but the pictures from Afghanistan and the reactions to them here at home are making it harder and harder to lie about our defeat there.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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It’s a conservative cliché to imagine state-run enterprises as versions of the DMV — frustrating, inefficient, an experience that leaves you enraged. You enter in line in order to be told the next line to line up in. The DMV isn’t like that in many states now — often the DMV runs through kiosks and databases. But the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, now gives you something of the old experience, spiced up with the threat of abandonment, mutilation, and death.

Finally, in Afghanistan we are almost getting to the truth of our involvement there. People have gotten too used to lying about the war in Afghanistan, but the pictures from Afghanistan and the reactions to them here at home are making it harder and harder to lie about our defeat there.