FOLLOW UP: Kabul Afghanistan
The last article was on planning for an evacuation. This is a follow-up I never expected – or wanted – to write. The following is largely personal opinion. The first paragraph is factual.
On August 26. 2021, a suicide bomber detonated his vest next to the Kabul Airport, and a few minutes later a larger, remotely-triggered explosion occurred nearby. Both were in an area packed with people trying to get into the Kabul Airport. Initial reports were of three U.S. service members dead from the explosion, with perhaps seven others wounded. By the end of the day, the number of dead servicemembers had grown to 18. Or maybe to 13.
We had been told by President Biden that everything was fine, there was a plan to get all Americans out of Afghanistan, with a contingency plan and an emergency plan to accomplish this. None of this was true. It took until afternoon on the day after the explosion for President Biden to address the nation. He accepted responsibility for what has transpired over the past two weeks, reminding us that President Trump had negotiated an agreement with the Taliban to exit by May 2021. He never explained how he was able – even eager – to overturn as many decisions by Trump as possible, but chose to ignore the agreement and never said a word about the plans to withdraw by May.
Between January 20 and July 9, 2021, there were 160 days. General Millie was the carry-over Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. JCS was the level at which responsibility for planning the withdrawal fell; we need to know what was done before January 20. We also need to know how much planning had been done post-January 20, and whether General Millie expressed the difficulty in planning a withdrawal from a hostile environment and the other things that needed to accompany an evacuation. Additionally, we need to know what was occupying General Millie’s time during that period other than pondering white rage, and acquiescing in the stand-down that took the entire U.S. Department of Defense off-line for at least a month.
We were assured that the Taliban could not overtake the entire country before the end of the year, and that we trusted them to secure the outer perimeter of the air base. We were told that the military leadership assured Biden we didn’t need Bagram Air Base, which we abandoned with no notice, leaving more than $80B in advanced weaponry that is now in the Taliban’s hands. We were told that no mistakes were made, that ending in absolute chaos was inevitable. It was all lies.
Late today we learned that the State Department shared the names of American citizens and Afghans who had assisted us with the Taliban, trusting that the information would only be used for good. Something else we learned late this afternoon came from a not-particularly-trustworthy source, Glenn Beck, that an organization he leads has flown hundreds of Christians out of Afghanistan. He reported from a country he declined to identify that the White House and State Department had contacted multiple regional countries and warned them not to accept Afghan Christian refugees. He added that more than 100 such refugees were expelled from the Kabul airport by the State Department. Since all of them are converts from Islam, they are considered apostates by the Taliban and will be burned or crucified.
President Biden continues to imply that opposition to the fallout from execution of his evacuation plan is really opposition to leaving Afghanistan. I cannot dispute that, merely point out that it is a major case of failing to read the room. He also lays blame for the explosions on ISIS, an organization he declared only days ago wasn’t present in Afghanistan, rather than on the Taliban. It is true that the two are not formally allied, although they share a common interest in wanting to destroy the U.S. Al-Qaeda, given space and refuge by the Taliban, is likewise not formally allied with the group, but they share common interests. President Biden has promised to hunt down and take retribution on ISIS for the attacks. I suspect he is being deliberately obtuse.
He promises two mutually exclusive things: to withdraw all US citizens and anybody else wishing to leave, and to complete evacuation of military forces by August 31. The Taliban has closed access to the air base, and now in possession of the military helicopters and armored vehicles abandoned at Bagram, is able to repel any force sent out from the airport to rescue anyone.
This does not seem to support a conclusion of incompetence; it fully supports a conclusion of massive ignorance. There was plenty of time to plan and execute a withdrawal on August 31 that included taking every U.S. citizen out of Afghanistan, along with the bulk of those who worked with our forces. It simply never occurred to the Defense Department, the State Department or President Biden that a withdrawal of all American troops by August 31 was not the entire mission. Perhaps it’s incompetence and ignorance. In any case, it is time for honesty and accountability, two things completely foreign to the current Administration.
How could leaving all that weaponry not be considered a mistake? There is nothing that can be done to undo the inhumanity surrounding the last 20 years, except hold those accountable that deceived and robbed the American people of their losses. There are lots of numbers floating around about the financial debts incurred, and warmongering profiters, but just think of the young lives that were lost. Will there be accountability for any of this?