Out now: the September edition of The Spectator World

Twenty years ago, Americans watched as the world changed. Our September 2021 edition reflects on the two decades of defeat since September 11, 2001. Freddy Gray considers the Trumpian echoes in the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Daniel McCarthy explains why America would never have succeeded in democratizing Afghanistan, while Andrew Bacevich draws a comparison to Vietnam to demonstrate why ‘forever wars’ will always fail. Paul Wood sifts through the ashes of America’s moral authority in Iraq as Robert D. Kaplan shifts his gaze eastward to the geopolitical repercussions in Central Asia. Kelley Beaucar Vlahos looks at how the internal corruption of the US military made an expensive failure inevitable.

Beyond foreign failures, our September edition includes much more:

• Our lead editorial examines America’s dramatic decline since 9/11
• Michael Wolff reveals the secret of the eternal political life
• Matt Purple fears for his life as he frantically flees from Trump’s fundraising email team
• Roger Kimball defends liberal education from leftist attacks
• Mary Harrington takes a look at how trans rights groups are transforming what it means to be human
• Jesse Singal stacks up the pros and cons of Substack
• Mary Kate Skehan can’t take the heat of her Hot Vax Summer

In Books and Arts, Calla J. Corner remembers famed children’s literature author Richard Scarry, while Frederic Raphael writes a candid letter to his friend, the late critic George Steiner. Christopher Sandford un-cancels fallen actor Fatty Arbuckle as Chilton Williamson, Jr watches reruns of Perry Mason.

In Life, Benjamin Riley goes island hopping in Greece and Lesley Downer studies samurais in Japan. Timothy Jacobson and Jeremy Clarke say au revoir to French restaurants, while Felipe Fernández-Armesto criticizes American carnivores for culinary closed-mindedness.

If failure is the best teacher, then now is the time to remember, reflect and learn. Subscribe here.