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| In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback. |
| — USA TODAY Opinion editors |
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| By Jackie Munn |
| "Now that the Taliban have regained control of the country, I fear that there will be no more dancing, no more storybooks and no more girls schools. Those little girls are now teenagers, and I worry about their future. I worry that many will be forced into marriages very young. I worry about their lack of opportunities and education now that the Taliban have returned. I worry about the violence many will face." |
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| By The Editorial Board |
| "It seemed all that was left for the Biden administration at that hour was damage control. "This is not Saigon," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued on CNN Sunday morning, rejecting comparisons to the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 two years after U.S. troops were pulled out. But even as he spoke, helicopters were rushing to evacuate personnel from the U.S. embassy in Kabul." |
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| By Daniel DePetris |
| "But the fact is that Afghanistan was in a civil war long before the U.S. military deployed to the country in what was supposed to be a relatively constrained counterterrorism operation in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. Despite the valiant efforts of U.S. troops, there is only so much Washington can do if the host nation's political elite proves to be perpetually fragmented, unwilling to reform itself, and more interested in internal squabbles than meeting the needs of its own citizenry." |
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| By Brett Bruen |
| "Yes, we were always going to pull out. It was a question of how and when. Both of those were decisions that Sullivan had to use his role to carefully guide. Unfortunately, it seems he allowed the president's push for an end to our involvement in the country ahead of Sept. 11 to drive the American timeline. That was a catastrophic error. Our people were unprepared. We failed to get them out of harm's way. The Afghan government and military clearly were not ready, either." |
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| By Jill Lawrence |
| "But women in Afghanistan, the report says, are the victims of 'cultural' factors that range from raw Taliban brutality to government negligence, cruelty and injustice: investigations that didn't happen, local police who didn't know their responsibilities, women imprisoned because they reported being victims of crimes, or at the request of family members, or as proxies for male relatives convicted of crimes." |
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| By Chris Truax |
| "That's all over now. With the fall of Kabul, the Taliban are now in control of most of the country. If they revert to form, Afghanistan will soon become a refuge for terrorist organizations from al-Qaida to the Islamic State, each one looking to take revenge on America and its allies. Should that happen, we might have no choice but to go back to Afghanistan and do this all over again in a sort of endless war Groundhog Day." |
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| By Thuan Le Elston |
| "Former Vietnam War refugees have been watching Kabul in horror. Or unable to watch at all, not wanting to relive our fall of Saigon nearly five decades ago: U.S. military advisers and combat troops leaving after a couple of decades. Check. A corrupt government that failed its people. Check. Helicopters evacuating U.S. Embassy staff. Check. Long lines at different embassies of the desperate trying to get exit visas. Check. Run at the banks. Check. A cowardly president fleeing the country. Check. Kids in the backseat of cars fleeing with their families to God knows where. Check." |
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| By Theresa Olohan |
| "This month, more than 11 million women in the United States are projected to return to college. As women in sororities trend on social media and 'rush Tik-Tok' with their 'outfit of the day,' and single-handedly keep the tanning industry alive, girls in Afghanistan are putting on burqas, knowing their identities are about to be erased from the public eye." |
 | | Mike Thompson, USA TODAY | | USA TODAY | |
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| By Connie Schultz |
| "Ask the family members, including children, who are caregivers to wounded veterans. Our public opinions about their service can ease their suffering or compound their pain. We claim to have learned from our mistreatment of Vietnam War veterans. Now is our chance to prove it to the military families who've been among us all along." |
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| By Paul Brandus |
| "Americans are sick of Afghanistan too, but the pandemic and the economy – which are joined at the hip – will certainly prove to be much larger forces for voters. It's also August, a time when most people aren't paying attention. My sense is that Americans are in a period when we are looking inward, a common occurrence after a war has been waged, and particularly with domestic problems mounting, as they are now." |
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