Let’s Face it

The last C-17 flew out of Kabul’s airport yesterday. The war that began on October 7th, 2001, for the United States, ends today, August 31st, 2021. It was a war that even got two opposing Presidential candidates to agree – whichever won the US Presidency in 2020, we were leaving Afghanistan. 

Ending Ugly

Let’s face it:  we could have left “better”. There must have been a more effective strategy than the Trump initiated, Biden completed “Withdrawal Plan”.   We should have found a way to leave the Afghans stronger. But if that meant staying in-country longer, losing more than just the thirteen young people we did – then it probably was not worth it.

There is no good way to give up.  It was going to be ugly no matter what. And while the ugly failure of twenty years of “nation building” was more than jarring – give Biden credit. He is taking the heat rather than risking American lives to push it to a “second term” or another President.  Biden feels that he owes it to the American military to NOT risk their lives any more in a stalled conflict. Agree with him or not, he is a man of honor and commitment. 

Mission Creep

Let’s face it: US involvement was absolutely justified. The tribe governing the country sheltered the terrorists who attacked us. We defeated the terrorists and their “protectors”. It was a righteous cause. But it slid into what we now call “mission creep”. We went from fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban to propping up a corrupt government. 

And as several commentators noted, we also “sub-contracted” our mission to Afghanistan. More civilian contractors were in-country in the end than US military. Erik Prince of Blackwater, the former “private security” firm, even suggested we should out-source the fighting to trained mercenaries.  One President listened to him. And while we didn’t do that, we did contract out a lot of the other functions of war, from advising to supply.  We propped up those companies as well. The “military-industrial complex” that Eisenhower warned us about back in 1960 was in full force In Afghanistan.  And those contracting corporations had every financial reason to extend the conflict. So President Biden stood up to them as well. 

Mission Continues

Let’s face it – the US mission to Afghanistan has changed but not ended. ISIS K has made it clear that we must still be interested and involved. And so has the ideological descendants of al Qaeda. So the CIA and our Special Operators will once again walk the streets of Kandahar and Jalalabad and Kabul.   This time as covert agents, rather than the irregulars of an occupying force. But our involvement in Afghanistan is not over.  As we are in Syria and Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia; we will still be in Afghanistan.

We can be proud of the last eleven days, the “airlift” from the unfortunately initialed “KIA” (Karzi International Airport).  In a limited mission, the United States Armed Forces put over 5000 troops on the ground and airlifted over 120,000 people out of Afghanistan. We sacrificed thirteen service members, and injured several more. But we not only brought out American citizens and other foreign nationals, but many thousands of the Afghans who aided us in our twenty-year involvement.  And for those who say “we abandoned” the rest, the effort is not over.  While the C-17’s have completed their missions, now other, more covert means are in development.  

Politics

Let’s face it – everything in America today is political, from the flag we fly on the front porch, to the mask we wear to protect us from Covid.  And Afghanistan has been political ever since George W Bush pulled our troops out of the mountains of Tora Bora and sent them to invade Iraq (to prevent Saddam Hussein from having “weapons of mass destruction”). The end of this war is no less political, even though it likely would have looked the same under Biden or Trump.  But what shouldn’t be divisive is the fate of our Afghan friends.  They helped us in our time of need in-country, now we need to help them as they face exile from their homes.  

We welcomed South Vietnamese into the United States in 1975, recognizing their sacrifice was even greater than our own.  We should do the same to the Afghans, encouraging them to resettle here in the United States.  Of all of the issues dividing us, they should NOT be one.  But the hypocrites, so quick to blame President Biden, are also demanding that they be settled elsewhere, as if their loyalty and friendship wasn’t “good enough” to live in the US.  I hope most Americans see past that baseless “not in my backyard” racism, and welcome them to their new homes. 

City on a Hill

Let’s face it:  the War in Afghanistan did not end well.  Like the British Empire of the 19th century, and the Soviet Union in the 1980’s, we could seize the country, but we could not hold it.  Americans failed the lesson of history –  our arrogance doomed us to repeat it.  But perhaps we can learn for the future.  The lesson is not to “never get involved”.  It should be that we recognize that what’s right and what works for Americans isn’t necessarily right for everyone else in the world.  The American experiment may well be Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill”, but we can’t impose that City on others.  They must come to it of their own will.