RealClearWorld links to three articles today to which I’d draw your attention, each described briefly below.
First, Leonid Bershidsky writes for Bloomberg about why both the Soviets and the U.S. failed in Afghanistan. Here’s a key thought:
No matter what your values, no matter how much time you spend or how many soldiers you lose, no matter whether you’re on the winning or the losing side in geopolitical battles, what you’ll leave behind in Afghanistan is scenes of looting, a weak regime too dependent on your support and unlikely to hold out much longer, tough local fighters who feel vindicated for years of hardship, and gloating Pakistani generals across the border. Another constant: Afghanistan’s flourishing opiate industry, which neither the Soviets nor the Americans could undermine.
Second, Andres Oppenheimer writes for the Miami Herald about Peru’s new leftist President-elect Pedro Castillo. Some are saying Castillo wants to be another leftist autocrat like Venezuela's Chavez.
Castillo vows to call a referendum to convene a constitutional assembly — something that most constitutional lawyers say would be unconstitutional. People who have talked with Castillo’s close aides in recent days tell me that the referendum is one of the issues he considers non-negotiable, and that he is determined to carry it out.
And third, George Friedman writes at Geopolitical Futures that we shouldn’t be surprised if a Chinese naval/missile base shows up in Cuba.
