The Week USA - 13.03.2020

ARTS

21 Books

Ross Douthat examines

our age of decadence

22 Author of the week

Hilary Mantel fi nally

puts her antihero on the

chopping block

24 Film & Music

Elves deal with

mortality

in Pixar’s

Onward

25 Television

HBO’s

Westworld

steps

outside the

theme park

NEWS

4 Main stories

Joe Biden surges

on Super Tuesday;

coronavirus spreads

rapidly across the U.S.

6 Controversy of the week

Will President Trump

pass the coronavirus

leadership test?

7 The U.S. at a glance

The Supreme Court

hears a big abortion

case; tornadoes cause

death and destruction in

Nashville

8 The world at a glance

The Vatican opens up its

archives; Israel holds its

third election in a year

10 People

How James Taylor

overcame his demons; the

Indiana Jones of surgery

11 Briefi ng

What’s driving America’s

affordable-housing crisis?

12 Best U.S. columns

Pete Buttigieg’s historic

presidential run; open

partisan confl ict on the

Supreme Court

15 Best international

columns

A humanitarian disaster as

Turkey and Syria face off

16 Talking points

Trump’s bid to get the

U.S. out of Afghanistan;

how to reduce your risk of

catching Covid-19; Bernie

Sanders and the dictators

LEISURE

26 Food & Drink

Baked fi shcakes just like

mamachka used to make

27 Travel

Chasing the counterculture

on Mexico’s Pacifi c coast

28 Consumer

Hyundai’s unusually cute

and affordable new SUV

BUSINESS

32 News at a glance

Fintech fi rm Robinhood

crashes; Apple settles over

iPhone slowdowns

33 Making money

How the coronavirus

could hit your wallet

34 Best columns

The global economy

catches a viral chill; when

your boss is a computer

Casting a ballot in Herndon, Va., on Super Tuesday (p.4)

James
Taylor (p.10)
Getty (2)

Afghanistan in 2020 is starting to look a lot like Vietnam in 1973.

That year, with no input from South Vietnam’s pro-U.S. govern-

ment, President Richard Nixon signed a deal with North Vietnam

to speed America’s exit from a deeply unpopular “forever war.”

The Trump administration struck a similar accord with the Af-

ghan Taliban this week, also with minimal buy-in from our local

allies. (See Talking Points.) In return for vague Taliban promises

to shun al Qaida and talk power sharing with the government

in Kabul, the U.S. will withdraw its 12,000 troops over the next

14 months. History tells us what’s likely to happen next. Two

years after Nixon inked his accord, the North Vietnamese overran

Saigon and sent hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese to re-

education camps. Should the U.S. quit Afghanistan, the Taliban

may take Kabul not long after. If they do, bloody reprisals are cer-

tain, and the women the U.S. encouraged to leave their homes, at-

tend schools, and work will be forced back into the Middle Ages.

Many Afghans will rightly feel betrayed by our departure. Yet by

most measures, America’s nearly 20-year-old war there is a fail-

ure. We did annihilate the al Qaida terrorists responsible for 9/

and topple the Taliban government that sheltered them. But the

Taliban—which have a strong base of support among the coun-

try’s ethnic Pashtuns—have surged back and now control 50 per-

cent of the country. Our efforts to create a thriving democracy

have also amounted to nothing. The government in Kabul is rid-

dled with corruption and hugely unpopular, and much of the ter-

ritory it supposedly controls is dominated by warlords deeply

involved in opium trafficking. Afghanistan has already cost us

$2 trillion and the lives of 2,300 American troops; more blood

and treasure won’t buy victory. Nixon once promised that he

would deliver “peace with honor” in Vietnam. We should know

that no such thing is possible in Afghanistan.

Editor’s letter

Contents 3

Visit us at TheWeek.com.

For customer service go to www

.TheWeek.com/service or phone us

at 1-877-245-8151.

Renew a subscription at www

.RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift

at http://www.GiveTheWeek.com.

Theunis Bates

Managing editor

Editor-in-chief: William Falk

Managing editors: Theunis Bates,

Mark Gimein

Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie

Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell

Senior editors: Chris Erikson, Danny Funt,

Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie,

Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller

Art director: Dan Josephs

Photo editor: Mark Rykoff

Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins

Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partlan

Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin,

Bruno Maddox

Chief sales and marketing officer:

Adam Dub

SVP, marketing: Lisa Boyars

Executive account director: Sara Schiano

Midwest sales director: John Goldrick

West Coast executive director: Tony Imperato

Director, direct response: Alexandra Riera

Head of brand marketing: Ian Huxley

Director of digital operations &

advertising: Andy Price

Sales & marketing coordinator: Lauren

Addicks

Chief executive: Kerin O’Connor

Chief operating & financial officer:

Kevin E. Morgan

Director of financial reporting:

Arielle Starkman

Consumer marketing director:

Leslie Guarnieri

HR manager: Joy Hart

Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo

Chairman: Jack Griffin

Dennis Group CEO: James Tye

U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell

Company founder: Felix Dennis