The last C-17 flew out of Kabul\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s face it<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0we could have left \u201cbetter\u201d. There must have been a more effective strategy than the Trump initiated, Biden completed \u201cWithdrawal Plan\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no good way to give up.\u00a0\u00a0It was going to be ugly no matter what. And while the ugly failure of twenty years of \u201cnation building\u201d was more than jarring – give Biden credit. He is taking the heat rather than risking American lives to push it to a \u201csecond term\u201d or another President.\u00a0\u00a0Biden 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s face it<\/strong>: US involvement was absolutely justified. The tribe governing the country sheltered the terrorists who attacked us. We defeated the terrorists and their \u201cprotectors\u201d. It was a righteous cause. But it slid into what we now call \u201cmission creep\u201d. We went from fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban to propping up a corrupt government.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as several commentators noted, we also \u201csub-contracted\u201d our mission to Afghanistan. More civilian contractors were in-country in the end than US military. Erik Prince of Blackwater, the former \u201cprivate security\u201d firm, even suggested we should out-source the fighting to trained mercenaries.\u00a0\u00a0One President listened to him. And while we didn\u2019t do that, we did contract out a lot of the other functions of war, from advising to supply.\u00a0\u00a0We propped up those companies as well. The \u201cmilitary-industrial complex\u201d that Eisenhower warned us about back in 1960 was in full force In Afghanistan.\u00a0\u00a0And those contracting corporations had every financial reason to extend the conflict. So President Biden stood up to them as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s face it<\/strong> – 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This time as covert agents, rather than the irregulars of an occupying force. But our involvement in Afghanistan is not over.\u00a0\u00a0As we are in Syria and Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia; we will still be in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can be proud of the last eleven days, the \u201cairlift\u201d from the unfortunately initialed \u201cKIA\u201d (Karzi International Airport).\u00a0\u00a0In 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.\u00a0\u00a0And for those who say \u201cwe abandoned\u201d the rest, the effort is not over.\u00a0\u00a0While the C-17\u2019s have completed their missions, now other, more covert means are in development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s face it <\/strong>– 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.\u00a0\u00a0And 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 \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d). The end of this war is no less political, even though it likely would have looked the same under Biden or Trump.\u00a0\u00a0But what shouldn\u2019t be divisive is the fate of our Afghan friends.\u00a0\u00a0They helped us in our time of need in-country, now we need to help them as they face exile from their homes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019t \u201cgood enough\u201d to live in the US. I hope most Americans see past that baseless \u201cnot in my backyard\u201d racism, and welcome them to their new homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission Creep<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mission Continues<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Politics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
City on a Hill<\/h3>\n\n\n\n