Reading news from Afghanistan is a mixed exercise in distress, fascination, confusion and … say what?
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For instance, what is wrong with this sentence? "On Monday, gunfire erupted in the tense, milling crowds outside the [Kabul] airport’s North Gate, which is controlled by American troops."
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Here's an example of why I rarely use the word "morality" as a universal term: "On Monday, Taliban leaders met with hundreds of Afghan imams and religious school administrators in Kabul to begin the group’s directions for education and morality. No women could be seen at the gathering."
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False hopes, conflicting signals, self-canceling assistance: "In Kabul, Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and secured Special Immigrant Visas said they had received emails from the State Department in recent days asking them to come to the airport for evacuation." Once there, they "were turned back at … a State Department checkpoint."
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More conflicting signals: "A State Department official [admitted] that some former Afghan military interpreters or other close U.S. allies … were being turned away from the airport…. The State Department denied the accounts of Afghans being turned away."
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As of yesterday — and as part of her world public relations tour "to limit the damage to [U.S.] credibility as an ally" — Vice President Kamala Harris was still scheduled to visit … Vietnam.