Joy Reid Says Afghanistan Shows America Is Not ‘Superman’: ‘For God’s Sakes, We Can’t Even Make Our Own Democracy Fully Work’

Joy Reid hosted a panel Monday’s ReidOut hours after the U.S. war in Afghanistan ended after 20 years. After saying “there’s no pretty way to lose a war,” the MSNBC host asked veteran of the war and Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) for his reaction.

“I think hope and heartbreak are the right words,” he said. “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.”

Auschincloss said he was hopeful because literacy rates in Afghanistan have doubled, and access to electricity there has quadrupled. “There’s four million girls in school now that weren’t there 20 years ago,” he said. “The Taliban are taking over the country, but they’re taking over a different country.”

He noted that he wouldn’t want his daughter to grow up in Afghanistan, “but there is the glimmer of hope for women and girls there that their society may permanently have changed for the better.”

“Indeed,” Reid replied. “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 sakes, 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.”

Watch above via MSNBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!