No, Afghanistan is NOT a humiliating defeat.

We have heard a lot of overheated rhetoric about America suffering a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. Among the many commentators are those who should know better than to characterise the end of the conflict as a humiliating defeat.

When compared to *any* previous humiliating defeat, America’s withdrawal from Afghtanistan after 20 years of war, at a time, place, and pace of its choosing, is anything *but* a humiliating defeat. To argue otherwise, is to be intellectually dishonest and to dishonour those who have suffered a humiliating defeat.

1. France 1940 is a humiliating defeat. France (and its allies) was defeated in six weeks. A well equipped, well trained, modern, experienced army was steamrolled in six weeks by the Nazis. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/fall_france_01.shtml
2. Dunkirk 1940 is a humiliating defeat. Britain had to evacuate most of its troops but still left behind all their equipment and 40,000 men. They fled under an improvised evacuation facing continuous German attacks as the remaining French and British troops fought a valiant, if ultimately futile, rearguard action. Nothing was negotiated and France and Britain surrendered on the Nazis terms. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/defeat-west
3. Burma 1942 was a humiliating defeat. As General Joseph Stillwell put it bluntly, the Allies (British, Chinese, and American) were run out of Burma by the Japanese. He had to fight an exhausting rearguard action holding off the Japanese…