Lost wars are supposed to provoke soul-searching. In America, they usually bring historical revisionism instead. When once-good wars go bad, Americans tend to conclude that there was never anything redeeming about them in the first place.
This impulse is already coloring the debate over Afghanistan. It won’t help the U.S. recover or learn from defeat.
Much of the flourishing "who lost Afghanistan?” debate features self-exculpation. Trump-era officials such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blame President Joe Biden’s withdrawal for the collapse, eliding their own role in negotiating a weak peace deal with the Taliban. Biden has blamed the Afghan military for folding, not mentioning that a rapid U.S. pullout weakened and demoralized that force.