Our biggest problems today are Covid-19 and the debacle in Afghanistan. Is there any way of tying these two problems together?

• Covid-19: Not spread person-to-person, spread person to person. Nothing to worry about, be very afraid. Vaccine 90% effective in stopping transmission, still need masks. Vaccine protects others, vaccinated people have almost as much virus in noses and throats as unvaccinated people. Masks do little, masks essential.

Yes, science updates itself as new evidence comes in. But so many 180-degree reversals suggest that something else is going on.

• Trump planned an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan. The secure Bagram Air Force Base would be held, and enough troops would remain until civilians were evacuated. The Taliban were warned that any attack on our people would be dealt with harshly. But Biden (or whoever is really in charge) abandoned Bagram and relied on insecure Kabul Airport in middle of city impossible to secure. Then withdrew troops until too few remained, and left thousands of US and allied civilians hanging out to dry.

Yes, the enemy always gets a vote whatever our plans. But so many 180-degree reversals of Trump’s plans suggest that something else is going on.

We are all too familiar with control freaks: The rebellious child who wrecks his room rather than obey his parents. The over-controlling mother who stifles self-reliance in her children. The overbearing father who makes his kids afraid to assert themselves. The meddling boss who interferes with the functioning of his department.

All these people would rather assert control than actually accomplish anything tangible. Is this the “something else going on” with both Covid-19 and Afghanistan?

Would Fauci and his acolytes rather bully people than control the pandemic?

Would the Biden administration rather scrap Trump’s plan than oversee an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Would progressives rather wreck America than admit that someone else had built something more beautiful than they could ever construct?

If I were a psychologist, when people came to me with problems, I’d try to see whether their lust for control was poisoning their relationships. The same thing may be true in political life. Whether it is a scientist in a lab coat or a politician in an expensive suit, it really may still be the obnoxious child wrecking his room to assert control.

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