In Afghanistan, the U.S. succeeded only in creating a virtual fantasyland

We create our own reality, Rove said. What he failed to add was that this manufactured reality could not exist without its creator. It’s easy to create beautiful fictions, but to create something more solid involves accepting the limits of our powers and the contingency of the world. In Afghanistan, the dream of total power ended in collapse. The U.S. did not withdraw from Afghanistan so much as it crashed out of Afghanistan.

We were left with that extraordinary telephone exchange between presidents Biden and Ghani on July 23, something to match or surpass the exchange with which I began. Biden starts: “As you know and I need not tell you, the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban.” This was correct, as everyone in Kabul could readily testify. That it directly contradicts later statements coming from the administration to the effect that no one could have predicted the defeat against the Taliban and the fall of the Afghan government is intriguing. What explains Biden’s inability to act in July and August according to the facts he so accurately portrayed to his interlocutor? It seems that he did not regard them as facts but as a perception that could be more or less magically replaced with a different perception. As he put it: “And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.” We make our own reality, whether it is true or not.

Ghani, who henceforth had always been ready to play his part in the great illusion, is suddenly less sure of himself. He still has faith in the world’s great superpower, but doubts are creeping in. Could it be that the Americans really do believe the world is no more than a picture? But now the Taliban are descending on the presidential palace and a picture is not enough. In desperate tones, he pleads: “Mr. President, we are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10–15,000 international terrorists, predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this, so that dimension needs to be taken account of.”