Well versed in the rhetorical skills of creating something out of nothing, Goldberg today gives us another masterclass in journalistic horse whispering on behalf of the Republican Party. Main aim of course is to bash Biden using similar adjectives to last week "inept," "shambolic." Never, of course trash Trump, just stay silent. All Trump did was agree to release the Taliban and Isis-K fighters from prison and told them they could have the country. Nothing wrong there! The debacle in Afghanistan must be all Biden's fault.

Goldberg maintains the "conservative elites" have had a foreign policy. Nobody seems to have informed him that to get themselves elected in 2016, Republican foreign policy was to build a wall and keep the foreigners out. Allies could go "piss" on themselves. Unless of course they were willing to invest in Trump properties, build a hotel or were sources of campaign cash. Most Americans' understanding of foreign policy starts on the East Coast and ends on the West, with Canada and Mexico on the top and bottom of the sandwich. Afghanistan? Somewhere over there. In any case, foreign policy doesn't usually decide elections. I don't think Republicans in Alabama or Montana care much. Goldberg adds a little historical salt and pepper from the 1930s and comes to the magnificent conclusion about WW2 that "It's complicated" which of course it isn't. It was a war to defeat fascist dictatorship. We were the arsenal of democracy. We sacrificed an unbelievable half a million American lives.

According to Goldberg the mess in Afghanistan has to be about American decline. America is going down the tubes. So, the underlying premise is vote for Republicans and they'll make America Great again. It's all horse hockey because Americans vote for a new president every four years and allow him to go and do just about what he wants overseas. One minute it's let's be friendly with killers and fascist dictators, the next... I am not playing with you any more, I am going back to my old friends. America's Mickey Mouse foreign policy. The losses of Vietnam like the losses in WW2 taught a generation about foreign policy. It always ended in the deaths of thousands of young people because war is the failure of politics. The only winners are the arms manufacturers. Getting out of Afghanistan, though devastating for its people, is hopefully the best option long term. Short term it's a nightmare. If Russia, China or Iran want a piece of that pie, they are welcome to it.

The most powerful tool in America's foreign policy arsenal is not a weapon but an idea, the idea of freedom, freedom under the law, freedom from poverty, freedom to choose a leader, freedom to live without secret policemen or cameras watching you, freedom to earn a living and educate your family, freedom to vote for who you want. We argue but somehow get to the right place in the end. This is as it should be and all Americans should have access to knowledgeable and well informed analysis of current events and understand their own history and the geography, both physical and political, of the world. For our safety sake we need to be involved. Where there is ignorance and prejudice, there is hatred and division. Both must be fought with soft power and by example. Democracy only dies when people are too ignorant or apathetic to know what tyranny means. Education will always be the key to success. Unfortunately every generation has to discover this for themselves. Retreating to the castle and pulling up the drawbridge may work temporarily but not long term.

I cannot understand why you publish so many editorials from right leaning contributors, week in week out, unless there is some profit in it for them or for you. The readers of the Arizona Republic deserve a richer diet and a greater variety of products on the shelves to choose from.