MSNBC’s Reid: Afghanistan Shows America Is Not ‘Superman’ — ‘Can’t Even Make Our Own Democracy Fully Work’

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid said Monday on her show “The ReidOut” that the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan showed the United States was not “Superman.”

Reid said, “War is messy. I’m going to talk to the veterans like yourself, those who served. At the end of the day, very few Americans participate in our military and bear the bloody burdens of tearing out our political policies like the one in Afghanistan. Speak to those veterans and how are the folks feeling.”

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said, “I think hope and heartbreak are the right words. Heartbreak in that tens of thousands of Americans and Afghans died over the last two decades in a counterinsurgency that had no political endgame. And that was this president’s key insight – was that while we can win every battle, we were still gonna lose the war because there was no political partnership in Kabul and no organic nationhood on which to build in Afghanistan.”

Reid said, “I think America is doing some growing up this week and learning that we are not Superman. We are not Captain America from the comics. We can’t change and solve and remake the world. For God’s sake, we can’t even make our own democracy fully work. We can’t get even get our own population to accept being vaccinated. Our democracy is teetering as well. And so we might want to do a little inward-looking and try to fix the one that we have here, lest we lose it. A cautionary take for all.”

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