Back in December, back before masks, and social distancing, and back before we all reeked of hand sanitizer and uncertainty, the Washington Post published a giant exclusive in which, through official government documents, the newspaper laid bare the lies and malfeasance behind America’s war in Afghanistan. At the time, it seemed as though this would be one of the biggest stories of the past five years. Instead, it disappeared from the national conversation even before the pandemic ate every news cycle. Meanwhile, the war ground on as American involvement gradually dissipated. So, while I hope that The New York Times’s massive “Red Dawn” reporting over this past weekend manages to have a shelf life beyond Monday’s Five O’Clock Follies, I’m not making book on that either way.
