Examining the Lessons of the Afghanistan Debacle

Today, August 26, is the third anniversary of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal of US troops in a war which went on longer than it was supposed to. Once Osama Bin Laden was put down in 2011, the mission was complete. Mission Accomplished.

 

As the attached Newsmax article shows, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Along the way, nation-building and Jeffersonian Democracy got in the way. Instead, three Presidents continued to leave troops on the ground, putting them unnecessarily into harms’ way.

The excuse of supporting a government barely operating out of the eighth century was used, where woman and girls were treated as third class citizens, and boys were expected to fight along side grown men.

The leadership that President Bush installed to originally replace the Taliban, was totally inept and incapable of defending itself from subversive aggressors. This forced Presidents Obama and Trump to continue our presence in this backward hellhole.

Finally, near the end of Trump’s term, he negotiated a planned withdrawal to leave Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, assuming he would be re-elected.

But when he wasn’t, the Biden-Harris Administration was left with that responsibility and immediately changed the terms.

This angered the Taliban who were now clearly in charge, with a division of ISIS supporting them.

So, Biden and Harris began pulling troops out inconsistently, now forcing our troops to engage with Afghans and ISIS through August of 2021, until they were over-matched.

Finally, on that fateful day, which resembled the day Americans left Saigon in 1975, Americans were forced to abandon Kabul, leaving behind billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment, thirteen dead American soldiers, hundreds of dead Afghani soldiers, and thousands of Afghani allies to suffer cruel and painful deaths at the hands of the Islamic State and the Taliban.

Let’s hope the soldiers who died that day will have taught future American Presidents that sending troops into harms’ way NEVER comes out the way it was planned. We have no business sending Americans off to fight to defend any nation against an aggressor, when that nation’s citizens have no desire to defend themselves.

Instead, we must use our brave women and men, and our treasure, to defend us, FIRST.