Afghanistan in Abandonment

So as to curry favor with the American people, especially those 

with relatives or friends serving in the military and deployed to 

Afghanistan, President Biden announced that he would bring home

our military personnel who had been stationed in that country, 

some for several tours of duty. In fact, American military and

civilian personnel are presently being flown out and are on

their way home. Now, who wouldn't want to have family and 

friends come home, alive and healthy, from a trouble spot in

a far-flung part of the world? It is so sweet to see one's loved

ones and treasured friends again after months or years, with one

wondering during that time if one would ever see them again.

But consider the consequences in not that they are being

brought home, but how; that is, having a quick and sizeable

drawdown of our troops without providing any protection

for the Afghanis in the wake of the U.S. turning over the 

war against the Taliban, merely turning over everything to

the Afghanis be they ready or not.

On Saturday August 14 Biden delivered a statement cutting 

off critical help for Afghanistan. The shameful act will surely

go down in history as the biggest retreat by the U.S. since

the Vietnam War when we pulled out and left the South

Vietnamese helpless in the face of the rapidly advancing

communist forces from the northern part of that country.

Afghanistan's military's last resistance collapsed, the 

Taliban quickly overran the country, and just days ago 

took Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. President Ashraf Ghani,

the Afghan head of state, fled while remaining forces 

worked frantically to evacuate Americans from the doomed 

capital. Just twenty years after the U.S. toppled the jihadists

for sheltering Osama bin Laden, a reversal of fortune came

about with those same jihadists flying their flag over the 

U.S. Embassy building. Happy Anniversary, America.

To their credit, President Biden's advisers offered an alternative

for troop removal, as did the Afghanistan Study Group. President

Biden let what they had to say go in one ear and out the other.

Biden gave his self-justification for his fateful drawdown 

method thus: "One more year, or five more years, of U.S. 

military presence would not have made a difference if the 

Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country."

But the Afghans were willing to fight and absorb casualties

with U.S. support, especially air power. Some military experts 

contend that all that was needed were a few thousand troops 

and contractors to do the job.

But Biden wasn't through yet; he is trying to pin the blame for

his rotten decisions on his immediate predecessor, President 

Trump. Quote: "When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut 

by (Mr. Trump) --- which he invited the Taliban to discuss at

Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 --- that left the Taliban

in the strongest military position since 2001 and imposed a 

May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. forces. Shortly before he left 

office, he also drew U.S. forces down to a bare minimum of 

2,500. Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice 

--- follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our

forces and our allies' forces out safely, or ramp up our presence 

and send more American troops to fight once again," This was 

after his beyond insulting remarks about the Afghans for not 

fighting harder and more fiercely and signaling the most 

terrible ingratitude to those who had helped us in both military

and non-military ways! Can you imagine such a thing?

Biden was more critical of Trump than he was of the Taliban

in his statement. Mr. Trump's withdrawal deadline could have

been better planned out, but Biden, even though his military 

and foreign policy advisors suggested otherwise, pig-

headedly ordered a rapid and total withdrawal in time for

the symbolic target date of 9/11. Of course the lamestream 

media praised Biden's decision as courageous (!). 

This event was the worst humiliation suffered by the U.S. 

since the fall of Saigon in 1975, right down to the haste 

to destroy classified documents, the helicopters evacuating

American diplomats, other American civilian personnel 

scrambling to find commercial airplanes to fly them out 

of Afghanistan, and the abandonment of valuable U.S. 

military equipment into Taliban possession. A most

terrible redux. But the Afghans who trusted the U.S. 

and assisted the Americans for over twenty years now 

face certain death at the hands of the Taliban. Biden was

much too slow in getting them out of the country despite 

urgent warnings, which of course he neglected to act 

swiftly upon. Their deaths will make a large red stain 

on Biden's presidency and legacy, one that all of the 

detergent in the world will never wash away. 

Have we learned nothing from the ending of the Vietnam

War? Apparently President Biden has not. And he appears

not to care. 

MEM