{"id":35394,"date":"2021-08-17T14:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/17\/talibans-victory-afghanistan-laid-bare-western-hubris"},"modified":"2021-08-17T14:00:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T05:00:04","slug":"the-talibans-victory-in-afghanistan-has-laid-bare-the-magnitude-of-western-hubris-polly-toynbee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=35394","title":{"rendered":"The Taliban\u2019s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris | Polly Toynbee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was one of many who thought, in the wake of 9\/11, that \u201csomething must be done\u201d. We have learned a bitter lesson<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/aug\/15\/the-fall-of-kabul-a-20-year-mission-collapses-in-a-single-day\">Here ends<\/a> the west\u2019s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path of moderate Islam. In the shadow of New York\u2019s burning twin towers, I was one swept along on that \u201csomething must be done\u201d tide, that drumbeat for a war to stop terror and liberate oppressed people. We have learned a bitter lesson.<\/p>\n<p>How deceptively easy was the 2001 victory, as Taliban fighters fled to melt back into their own population famously murmuring, \u201cYou have watches, we have time.\u201d They have just turned back the clock on 20 wasted years.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/17\/talibans-victory-afghanistan-laid-bare-western-hubris\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was one of many who thought, in the wake of 9\/11, that \u201csomething must be done\u201d. We have learned a bitter lessonHere ends the west\u2019s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path o&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,61,44,2292,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-south-and-central-asia","category-taliban","category-tony-blair","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35395,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35394\/revisions\/35395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}