President Biden Should Talk About Afghanistan
Plus: No, Trumpism Can’t Be Fused with Reaganism
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WILL SELBER: President Biden Should Talk About Afghanistan
ON TUESDAY, FORMER CHAIRMAN of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Milley, now retired, was at the time of the withdrawal the senior military adviser to the secretary of defense and the president. He began and ended his opening statement with a promise to the “tens of thousands of wounded and other [service] members who suffer the invisible wounds of war, to help them get answers.” During his nine-minute-long testimony, Milley managed to blame everyone but the military for the bungled “retrograde” from Afghanistan—the political leadership over the course of ten years failed to generate a coherent strategy; the State Department ordered evacuation operations too late; the Afghan Army and government collapsed.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Jake Tapper: American Scandal [Ad-Free🔐]
Shield of the Republic: Nuclear Iran, NATO’s Future, and America First Isolationism
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Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: No, Trumpism Can’t Be Fused with Reaganism.
FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, former Trump administration officials have been living in a kind of exile. Having lost their government posts, many sought refuge in Washington think tanks, biding their time for a return of their man (and, hopefully, a return of their own to new and more high-ranking jobs). For many of them, a primary endeavor is planning for Donald Trump’s second term, which could commence in ten months.
BILL LUEDERS: When Is It Permissible to Rescue a Dog in Peril?
THE TRIAL WAS SUPPOSED TO take place this week. The three animal rights activists and dozens of their supporters had booked their plane tickets. One of the defendants, Paul Darwin Picklesimer of Berkeley, California, was packing up his things for long-term safekeeping in case he didn’t come back. “I hope I won’t go to actual prison,” Picklesimer told me, “but I’m willing to accept what comes.”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Thursday! The Madness is here, so enjoy some basketball as TNB is going to take a few weeks off, returning mid-April. Make sure to check in on The Bulwark Overtime bracket contest as the tourney progresses.
Veepwatch… Sen. Tim Scott has set a summer wedding date.
No news is bad news… The end of the mass-media age is nigh, with big consequences for politics, writes Simon Kuper at FT.
Ken Buck… signs the discharge petition for Ukraine funding on his way out the door, the first Republican to join.
New Yorkers who moved to low-tax Texas, Florida aren’t saving as much as they used to… report (NYPost).
Quote of the Day:
“You need to say ‘fuck you’ to more people more often.”
—Miranda Frum, as told by her father, David, in this wonderful remembrance in The Atlantic.
Happy Birthday, Conor Beck… Remembering a friend and a wonderful intern on what would have been his birthday.
Virginia Beach teen… inspired bill that would end tax exemption for Daughters of the Confederacy (Hastings Tribune).
At the old Alma Mater… Dr. Pestello steps down as SLU President after 10 years.
This might be the most unusual bowling alley in America (News Center Maine).
When the night you didn’t die… Never ends (Defector).
Inside Congress' top-secret nuclear shelter… with Chris Cillizza.
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