This post was originally written in early September 2021, but I am now just getting a chance to post it.
Newspapers’ headlines triumph fully paraded that announcement in large, bold letters last week at the top of the front page. However, our enemy, radical Islamic terrorism, has a vote in that boastful declaration. The war is not over if they continue to be at war with us. Realistically, we just entered the next phase of the on-going conflict. Our exit from Afghanistan does not automatically end the “War on Terror.” Not by any stretch of imagination or wishful thinking. That ideological war has no borders or time constraints and the perpetrators don’t wear uniforms or follow Geneva conventions. This will be a multi-generational war of terror attacks followed by retaliatory responses.
Realistically, we’ve been involved in a long-term fight with a radical ideology, not Afghanistan. The Taliban are just another jihadist group like AQ and Isis who intend to destroy us, the infidels. We have only moved onto the next stage of this existential threat that will predictably be based in Afghanistan. The Taliban may not intend to attack our homeland, but will harbor jihadists in the recently reacquired sanctuary of Afghanistan. We are dealing with fanatical bad actors who have every intention of launching attacks on us worldwide. It’s just a matter of time before chaos comes to a neighborhood near you.
Reflect for a moment on the unintended consequences of abandoning Bagram AB along with $84 billon of high-tech military gear and equipment. The Taliban is now one of the best armed adversaries in the world. Those armaments and technologies command big prices on the open market, sustaining Taliban coffers. Selling them aids and abets other adversaries. Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China come to mind. Did anyone consider that appalling outcome before arriving at the decision to surrender Bagram?
So, we are not only back to square one in Afghanistan, 2001, but face a more formidable adversary because of faulty strategic contingency planning and poor tactical execution twenty years later. And to top it off, we no longer have in-country allies, intel sources, or the strategic airbase at Bagram. All three represent huge mistakes in our withdrawal.
This debacle could have been avoided. We hastily abandoned Bagram AB in the middle of the night in July without consulting our NATO allies or Afghani commanders. What’s that all about? Is our word no longer trustworthy? Our credibility in tatters? Who made those disastrous decisions? Will there be accountability?
Final thoughts- We no longer have a critical Central Asian presence between Iran and China. Monumental myopia in strategic planning. We still have troops in Germany, Japan, and South Korea as “deterrents” decades after the wars. Our QRF at Bagram held the Taliban at bay by providing close air support to the Afghan Army. Why not maintain the status quo until every one’s safely out of Afghanistan? Or, even longer term? Why the rush?
Adding insult to injury, we essentially deserted many Afghanistan allies similar to our shameful, humiliating exit from Saigon in 1975. The historical parallels of errors of omission and commission associated with Vietnam cannot be denied- the pretext, the self-imposed rules of engagement, nation building objectives, political corruption at the top of the host government, flawed exit strategy, the whole nine yards.
This sad story will not end with our withdrawal. The subsequent tragedies soon to unfold will haunt us for years. Vietnam polarized America. What will be the consequences of Afghanistan?
We should never have gone there in the first place. No ultimate result in sight and too costly. We are naive and rather ignorant as Americans.
Charles- A lot of people would agree with your opinion re our involvement in Afghanistan, similar to the objections voiced to our Vietnam experience that I chronicled in my historical narrative, RECALL. But understand the pretext- “The War on Terror.” – The objective- to prevent a training ground for further attacks on the homeland like 9/11. Others would argue that we should have left in 2011 after taking out Osama Bin Laden and neutralizing the AQ/ ISIS threat in Afghanistan. Others would make a case for a permanent QRF at Bagram, a strategic base in Central Asia between Iran and China. We still have troops in Germany, Japah, and South Korea as president. But no one can deny the ideological war on terrorism is far from over, the purpose of my blog.