Withdrawal Symptoms

It's clear that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has had terrible results on the ground there.  It is likely that other plans could have been made that would have made it go better.  What is also likely is that, at best, it would have delayed this situation, not caused it to not occur.

The "blame" that Republicans are putting on President Biden is likely to have occurred, as well, probably pretty much whatever he did.  But the more the far-right tries to put all of this on Joe Biden, the more the push-back will shine a bright light on the larger reality.  The buck stops with the president - but all roads getting us there go through Trump.

In February, 2019, Trump negotiated for the release in Pakistan of Abdul Ghani Baradar.  In case the name isn't ringing a bell, this article in the National Herald describe Baradar as the "Taliban co-founder."  He is now the senior leader of Taliban forces in Afghanistan.  So, yes, Trump released the leader of the Taliban.

That wasn't all that Trump released. In his cracker jack "peace talks" with the Taliban, Trump also released 5,000 Taliban fighters, the people who are helping lead this humanitarian disaster.

Those Trump "peace talks" with the Taliban not just importantly, but critically cut out the Afghan government from participation, which weakened them, lessening their authority.

The "peace agreement" Trump signed with the Taliban was for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan in May, 2021.  That's three months earlier than ended up occurring, given the U..S. even less time to put protective measures in place.

Yes, it gets worse.

After the Trump "peace talks," Trump said that he had a "very good" relationship with Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who he'd had released, and also praised the Taliban for "killing terrorists…some very bad people."  (Side note: they also killed some incredibly good people.)

And lest it be forgotten, Trump even wanted to not only invite the Taliban to Camp David (!) - but do so over 9/11.  The public and private reaction within his administration was so profoundly aghast that even Trump realized he had to drop that.

But it gets even worse.  Really.  And doesn't even need much time to forget. 

Only two months ago (!) in June, during one of his attempts at a "victory" tour speech, Trump said -- “I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn’t stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn’t stop the process.”

Indeed, as British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said today --

"The die was cast when the deal was done by Donald Trump, if you want my opinion. President Biden inherited a momentum, a momentum that had been given to the Taliban because they felt they had now won, he'd also inherited a momentum of troop withdrawal from the international community, the U.S. I think in that sense, the seeds of what we're seeing today were before President Biden took office."

I've heard some Republican analysts suggest that there had been peace in Afghanistan before the withdrawal because the U.S. had a small force on the ground.  But it wasn't the small force on the ground that kept the peace there - rather it was the helicopter and air force, of which the Taliban was unequipped and had none, and that was always at the center of the U.S. withdrawal.  Further, having a date for the withdrawal kept the peace with the Taliban - since there was no reason to fight, knowing that the U.S. would be leaving, and moreover, fighting would only serve to likely keep the forces there longer.

And of course, some far-right analysts are arguing that we should never have withdrawn our forces, period.  But after 20 years, if the Afghan army and government couldn't last two weeks without being overrun, what make the far-right believe that staying longer would have made things any better??  How much longer should we have stayed - six months after 20 years?  Another year?  Another decade?  Forever?!  Even the Russians realized Afghanistan was a sinkhole that help destroy their economy and country -- and eventually got out.

And for all those on the far-right "outraged" -- outraged!! -- at us supposedly abandoning Afghanistan after only a mere 20 years training them to take over for themselves, their outrage would have so much more meaning and depth if they ever had at least the slightest problem with Trump actually abandoning the Kurds, which also put our own bases at risk.

I am sure that the administration could have handled the withdrawal better.  Whether it would have caused any of this to not occur, is another matter and seems questionable.  At best, it seems that a better withdrawal wouldn't have lessened the chances of a humanitarian disaster, but would have served to help get U.S. personal and the Afghans who helped our forces out more safely.

But for any on the far-right who want to try to make this seem like the fault, indeed all the fault of Joe Biden, who ended the United States involvement in a 20-year debacle that impacted our own economy, which ultimately hurts us in protecting the country from terrorism, they only serve to show all the fingers pointing back at them that not only helped cause this disaster, but got us involved in Afghanistan in the first place - and got us involved in Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11, in the first place.  And that even before 9/11 it was a Republican president who ignored the warning that bin Laden was poised to attack with airplanes.

It's a disaster in Afghanistan.  The planning to get us out wasn't great.  Any planning to get us out would likely never have been great.  But it was leading to this for 20 years.  And the horrific actions of Trump that helped get us to this place -- that Republicans enabled, every single time -- only ensured that the worst possible result was the most likely.