Spin machine is in full swing on the one hand is a sort of imperial. You break it. You bought it argument. That says we simply can't leave this place in that state. we now have an obligation to it. This perspective is of course extraordinarily unpopular. It was president trump. Who determined to get us out of afghanistan with pressure from an isolationist base and president biden. Who presided over these final months. Including assuring us just weeks ago that the afghan military could and would stand up to the taliban on their own either way. Staying to fix afghanistan was never in the cards on the other end of the spectrum. Or the peter ions of the world who call this more or less completely predictable and moreover necessary to free up american resources in a piece titled the return of american narcissism. He gave four responses to those criticizing biden for quote losing afghanistan and here. I'm paraphrasing one. If after twenty years in trillions of dollars the afghanistan military can't hold on for two weeks. What would we have gotten for another couple trillion and ten thousand more lives to. We went to afghanistan to prevent the return about kaieda. But in the meantime more effective popped up in dozens of countries. Are we supposed to occupy them. All three are allies in afghanistan. Weren't exactly the type of people. We wanted to be. Allied with and four. It was never worth it from geo-strategic perspective. There was nothing to be one now. Zion goes on to put the withdrawal in its larger context. Which is america's withdrawal from the world in general something that he personally glad about as it gives us a chance to actually reflect quote. It enables the united states to absorb the lessons of the forever. Wars retool its national security agencies and military and start looking at the horizon again. narcissism can be unsightly but it also enables one to focus on different things more relevant to the population and quote yet. Still we live in a social media age and those images those extraordinary images of would-be refugees chasing planes down the runway no matter what the spin no matter if a was years overdue reeks of failure. This is another poll of the commentary. I've read biology. Should've austin wrote public. Military defeat cannot be spun away elites are only as powerful as their assurances and if they're assurances are no longer believed in other times and places and external defeat of this magnitude is catalyzed revolutionary political. Change not always for the good importantly. It's rather clear that this is the narrative the us geopolitical opponents are seizing onto and pointing in the direction of hot spots that are decidedly more significant than afghanistan the global times which is a chinese state run. English language newspaper published an op. Ed connecting the dots to taiwan. And basically saying that. America's taiwan allies should be absolutely terrified. They tweeted from what happened in afghanistan. Those in taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the streets the island's defense will collapse an hours and the us military won't come to help as a result. The dp will quickly surrender. So why connect the dots and talk about this massive geopolitical event on an economics and bitcoin podcast in a weird way. I feel like the story. We're watching transpire. In front of us in afghanistan is evidence of both sides of what i presented at the beginning on the one. Hand my point that it feels dangerous to reduce things to a fiat money system. There's clearly so much going on in the story of the. Us's role in afghanistan a big dose of domestic politics big dose of total strategic lack of clarity and let's not deny the agency of the groups on the ground for whom. This is not a global sideshow in national distraction but the epicenter of their lives a multigenerational struggle at the same time. There is no denying the role that an endless money machine played in this tragedy. This farce afghanistan central bank. Governor as malla mahdi recounts the story of leaving on twitter. The collapse of the government in afghanistan this past week was so swift and complete. It was disorienting and difficult to comprehend. This is how the events seemed to proceed from my perspective as central bank governor. Although much of the rural areas fell to the taliban over the past few months the first provincial capital of the fall was just one week in two days ago on friday. August six zaranj fell over the next six days. A number of other provinces fell particularly in the north. There are multiple rumors that directions to not fight. Were somehow coming from above. There is something left. Unexplained currency volatility and other indicators had worsened but that's the central bank were able to stabilize the macroeconomic environment relatively well. During the last week given the deteriorating security environment then came last thursday. I attended my normal meetings. Ghazni fell in the morning. I left work. And by the time i went home. Herat kandahar and baggies also fell helmand was also under serious attack friday. We received a call that given the deteriorating environment. we wouldn't get anymore dollar shipments. People spread rumors that i had fled on friday on saturday. Had to supply less currency that the markets on saturday which further increased panic currency spike from a stable eighty-one to almost one hundred. Then back to eighty six. I held meetings on saturday to reassure banks money. Exchanges to calm them down. I can't believe this is one day before. Kabul fell on saturday night. My family call to say the most government had already left. I was dumbfounded as security assessment accurately forecast taliban arrival. It took a bull within thirty six hours. And it's fall within fifty six hours. I got worried that i purchased tickets for monday. As a precaution on sunday. I began work reports throughout the morning. We're increasingly worrisome. I left the bank and left. Deputies in charge. Felt terrible about leaving staff but arrived at airport and saw that many were already there. Head of parliament seems content. Amati then goes on to describe the absolute chaos of trying to leave the country of being shoved on a plane of hearing shots fired before the door closed around him from our standpoint. It's hard to ignore the significance of that tweet. As a turning point in their struggle friday we received a call that given the deteriorating environment. We wouldn't get anymore dollar shipments. Interestingly there was a dust up all weekend on. Bitcoin twitter between jason lowrie. A new entrant to the space who works at space force it who has been trying to get people on board with his conception of bitcoin is digital violence and basically the rest of bitcoin twitter. Who went to pains to articulate their belief that bitcoin is the opposite of violence technology. That absolutely breaks the tradition of imposition through state power but is growing based on voluntary adoption technology which without an infinitely expandable supply does not afford the ability to wage forever wars. There's a lot more to explore there. But i had to at least noted in the context of everything happening. There's finally however the more human side of the financial dimension of this crisis on sunday. Bbc journalists saana safi tweeted those in kabul who have careers a passport and money in the bank went to withdraw some cash today only to be told the bank manager has left his post and there may be a pause in their services now to those who say. Bitcoin is in realistic solution. For these people share a tweet from alex glad steen young afghan woman working with roya mahboob and the digital citizen fund. Were self custody in bitcoin as early as twenty thirteen one user bitcoin savings to escape to europe and start a new life no need for the bigotry of low expectations that phrase. The bigotry of low expectations is a great one. I spent my early twenties in post and current conflict zones from northern uganda to rwanda to israel and palestine to syria to lebanon serbia bosnia montenegro. What got me excited about bitcoin. When it finally clicked for me wasn't the idea that it would help every one of the refugees or internally displaced persons that i met nor was it frankly that it could up end a monetary system that had in some cases helped perpetuated enable the conflicts that had so affected their lives. It was that for a few of those people. I knew who even back in two thousand four hundred and five two thousand six we're technologically literate plugged into mobile in the internet and using those tools to hunt for more opportunity for them. It would have represented a totally new a historical force the ability for them to exert agency over their money in a way that had never before been possible. One of the things that makes me most glad to be a part of the bitcoin community is that it is full of people who are willing to think more deeply and with more difficulty and consternation than many if not most other communities out there in our world i believe that that capacity for heterodox and live -ness of mind will be essential for now guys. I hope you had a great weekend. I hope this week is off to a great start until tomorrow be safe and take care of each other piece..