There is a big difference between the U.S. and Soviet experience in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union never invented exile groups and forced them on the native Afghan population to rule over them.
Poor People's Campaign members understand that what's really underway in this country is a struggle between democracy and potential autocracy or, as Martin Luther King once put it, between community and chaos.
The American security establishment knew that the invasion had failed: the Taliban could not be subdued no matter how long they stayed. The fact is that over twenty years, the US has failed to build anything that might redeem its mission.
Stanley Aronowitz died this week at 88. He hated work, loved life, and brought his overflowing, exuberant approach to social problems to picket lines, classrooms, and vacation. A fighting left needs more people like him.
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