Final Word from Monday, August 23, 2021

Culture Min. Lubomír Zaorálek yesterday compared the fall of Kabul and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban to the Munich Agreement of Sept. 1938. He said on TV Prima that the negotiations were held with the Taliban, and not with the Afghan government; that the Taliban did not keep to its previous agreements; that Afghan Pres. Ashraf Ghani fled when it became clear that it was over, just as Edvard Beneš did; and that there will now be a Taliban protectorate. (Of whom, he did not say.) There is a major difference that Zaorálek didn't mention. No one openly considers the way the U.S. ended the war in Afghanistan to be a success. In contrast, Franklin D. Roosevelt considered the Munich Agreement to be a "very fine example of team play and everybody working right together with very great success." It remains taboo to speak about how FDR took ownership of Munich, similar to the way it was taboo for years to speak about where the war in Afghanistan was headed. [ Czech Republic United States Joe Biden Czechoslovakia Hitler Germany ČSSD CNN Prima News ]