There is no denying that the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan could have been done differently, but is it really as disastrous as some people (the media included) are trying to make it out to be? Political analyst Matthew Dowd says the coverage of the events in Afghanistan has been “way over the top and unconnected to a perspective on the issue from the beginning.”

He says:

“We should judge it on the data of what’s happened and not by anecdotes, and sometimes the press has a tendency to judge things by anecdotes and not the data. And the data for the last week shows Joe Biden has basically gotten 30,000 people out of Afghanistan without a single loss of an American life.”

Some news organizations and lawmakers seemed laser-focused on Afghanistan last week, in doing so they may have neglected the growing COVID crisis (and other stories impacting Americans).

“5,000 people, while this was going on, died of covid in this country. 500 people died of gun violence in the last week in this country. And not a single American has died on the pullout in the midst of this chaotic situation in a political hurricane, and I don’t think the press fully understands what the context is for the American public. So when you understand the context not only of Afghanistan but the context of what’s going on in our country, there are far worse crisis situations, including the assault on our Democracy, that get forgotten about in the midst of this.”