The sudden collapse of the government in Kabul is both stunning and revealing. It is the cruelest indictment and repudiation of 20 years of imperial nation building on the part of both parties. It isn’t an argument for isolationism, but for a new foreign policy resting on peaceful, democratic, and equitable relations between states, the right of countries to national independence and their chosen path of development, broad scale assistance to the countries in the Global South, and a worldwide campaign against a warming planet and nuclear weapons.

The most strident critics of Biden’s handling of the draw down and evacuation of people from Kabul and elsewhere are right wing white nationalist authoritarians – all Republicans. Up to now not much of their critique of the Biden administration has stuck. Their hope is that this one will. We shouldn’t help them.

Beware: Some of the voices who are most critical of the evacuation process are an array of people, politicians, media outlets, and members of the National Security Establishment who either opposed or expressed strong reservations about ending US military presence in Afghanistan.

To think that the South Korean model in which the US permanently deploys US troops would work in Afghanistan boggles the mind. And yet that is what Condoleezza Rice suggested in an op ed article in the Washington Post.

Too many critics of Biden can’t admit that the US military machine met its match in Afghanistan and had no option but to withdraw its troops. This refusal of Biden’s critics to soberly look at reality is not only mistaken, but can be dangerous. Hopefully, wiser heads will prevail and the American people will understand that US power is limited in today’s world.