“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interrèd with their bones,” intoned Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar. Nothing could be more appropriate to describe President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan debacle, which hangs around his neck as a yoke of shame. One year after the US foreign policy and defense leadership team’s ignominious withdrawal from Kabul, the image of the disastrous exit remains fresh in the minds of those who witnessed the mess.
On Aug. 31, 2021, the curtain came down on the failed attempt by the United States and its allies to bring Afghanistan into the 21st century as a productive global nation. In a way, the ham-fisted operation to leave the Taliban-overrun country was a fitting reflection of the failure of the 20-year American sojourn. Whatever modest improvement the US mission in Afghanistan may have made, in the end, the Biden administration’s mishandling of the departure of American military forces, civilian personnel, and friendly Afghans who assisted was a disaster of historic proportions. Moreover, the many planning and execution blunders were made manifest for the world to see.
Numerous studies and congressional reports have concluded the same thing: The Biden administration’s mismanaged withdrawal left consequences that will be visited on the United States for years to come. The Republican members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations issued a thoughtful, in-depth, and highly critical indictment of Biden’s retreat. “Titled ‘Left Behind: A Brief Assessment of the Biden Administration’s Strategic Failures During the Afghanistan Evacuation,’ the 65-page report is a scathing critique of the administration’s lack of planning and bumbling execution removing U.S. military and civilians from the Afghan capital,” Liberty Nation reported in its coverage.
The Afghanistan Debacle Will Not Go Away
(MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)
Not long after the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee assessed the actions of leadership in departing Kabul, the US Army published a 2,000-page report. Its evaluation was “unequivocal … It was a White House horror show.” Much of the evidence points to failure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Biden rejected sound counsel on the withdrawal operation that might have resulted in a smoother process. “But when the president makes a decision, it’s time for us to execute the president’s decision,” the operational commander overseeing the retreat, General Frank McKenzie, gave as his excuse. The consequences of acquiescing “to execute the president’s decision” were 13 service members killed at the Kabul airport and a drone strike that murdered an innocent non-governmental organization employee and members of his family, including children. The justification: There was “no time for a thorough and necessary vetting of the required intelligence.”
Though a year has passed, the disastrous results linger, and Biden will not be able to change the subject, as Leesa K. Donner, Liberty Nation’s editor-in-chief, predicted shortly after the fumbled pullout. “It did not go unnoticed by conservatives that the crisis in Afghanistan spawned the first real questions the Biden administration had to face from its friends in the media,” Donner observed. And the fallout continues.
“Thousands of Afghan security personnel, including special forces troops, likely fled to Iran with US equipment and military knowledge as their country fell to Taliban insurgents last year, according to a new report released by House Republican leaders on Monday [Aug. 15],” Leo Shane III reported in the Military Times. So, not only did the Biden national security team leave billions of dollars in serviceable modern weapons for the Taliban to use but also provided an opportunity for Iranians to get their hands on US weapons. Additionally, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX), appearing on Face the Nation, explained the report revealed there was “no urgency in evacuating America’s Afghan partners.”
Afghanistan Safe Haven for Terrorists a Year After US Departure
Whether Biden likes it or not, the Afghanistan debacle is his legacy. His mishandling of the Kabul withdrawal created misery among those who have been left to the merciless Taliban. Reports confirm that as many as 74,000 Afghans who worked for the United States remain trapped inside the Taliban borders.
Furthermore, the prediction that Afghanistan would once again be a haven for terrorists such as Al Qaeda and ISIS has proven true. The recent drone killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri while he basked in the Kabul sunshine, believing himself protected by the Taliban, is ample evidence the country will be, if it is not already, the stomping ground for global terrorism. If the Taliban was protecting Zawahiri, how many other terrorists and terrorist organizations are being supported?
The opinions are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
