Confusion, Blame-Shifting, and Inaccuracy: Academia Reacts to the Fall of Afghanistan
by A.J. Caschetta
National Review
August 20, 2021
The nation's foreign-policy and Middle East "experts" have blown it again, and academics are part of the problem. In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, many are simply silent while others are expressing surprise. Still others can't transcend their default position of blaming America.
Let's start with silence. What is the Middle East Studies Association up to? Its Committee on Academic Freedom is very active when it comes to writing letters to governments that restrict access to education. Where is the letter to the Taliban demanding that women be allowed to learn how to read and write and universities should remain open?
What about the academics who have been teaching Afghans? What will happen to the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF)? Founded in 2006 with a grant from USAID, it bears the name "American" on its façade and claims to be devoted to "implementing an American higher education model." Academics certainly thought highly of it — even more highly than they thought of American involvement there in the first place. According to Victoria Fontan, a professor of peace and conflict studies at AUAF, "the university is really one of the only positive U.S. legacies in Afghanistan that has no dark corners." If Fontan is willing to speak about the U.S. effort in Afghanistan so caustically to CBS, one can only imagine what maligning might occur in her peace-studies seminars.
https://www.meforum.org/62583/academia-reacts-to-the-fall-of-afghanistan
