House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tried to score some cheap political points blaming 78-year-old President Joe Biden for the chaos in Afghanistan, comparing the Taliban takeover to what happened in Saigon in 1975. McCarthy isn’t that far off comparing the mass evacuations in Kabul to North Vietnam seizing Saigon after the U.S. withdrawal ordered by President Richard Nixon in 1973, finally ending May 7, 1975, after a bitter 10-year war, causing 58,200 deaths with 153,303 wounded. When it comes to Afghanistan, 2,448 soldiers lost their lives with 20,719 injuries, making the Vietnam-Afghanistan comparison skewed, with Vietnam a far bigger failure. Unlike Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers were recruited by the draft, prompting far more protests with draft-eligible U.S. citizens going kicking-and-screaming, prompting a nationwide protest movement that almost created revolution.
When it comes to Afghanistan, the U.S. armed services recruited all of its military personnel through the voluntary military, causing no real protest movement. “This is not Saigon,” said U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, pushing back at McCarthy’s comparison to Vietnam. While the casualty and injuries figures don’t come close to Vietnam, the kind of panic and chaos with U.S. and coalition personnel scrambling to evacuate. When 72-year-old Afghan President fled to Doha, Qatar today, essentially surrendering Kabul to the Taliban, it was similar to Nguyen Van Thieu fleeing Saigon in 1975 before the North Vietnamese takeover. Blinken doesn’t want to admit failure even though watching the chaos draws comparisons to Vietnam. Unlike Vietnam, the U.S. long met its mission in Afghanistan, toppling the Taliban and chasing Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden out of the country.
Vietnam was a different kettle of fish, since the U.S. never really understood or accepted the role Ho Chi Minh’s playedt for Vietnam independence from French-Indo-China colonialization from 1894 to 1964, around the time that the U.S. ramped up the war in Vietnam to fight growing Soviet influence around the globe. President John F. Kennedy and his successor President Lyndon Johnson had an ax to grind during the Cold War, keeping Vietnam from falling to Russia and Chinese communists. When it comes to Afghanistan, former President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct.. 7, 2001, only five weeks after Sept. 11. Operation Enduring Freedom would not have been started had the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar handed over Osama bin Laden or at least cooperated with the U.S. military. Omar refused to play ball with the U.S. after Sept. 11.
Bush toppled the Talban Nov. 14, 2001, driving the Taliban into a guerrilla war against the U.S. and coalition forces. Nearly 10 years of relentless bombardment by the U.S. military didn’t change to outcome in Vietnam, watch Saigon fall May 7, 1975, signaling the worst military defeat in U.S. history. Once the Taliban was toppled Nov. 14, 2001 and Bin Laden escaped into Pakistan in Dec. 2001, the U.S. mission was partly accomplished in Afghanistan. When you consider the 2,448 casualties and billions spent in Afghanistan, it wasn’t nearly the failure of Vietnam. Bush tried with 80-ytear-old former Vice President Dick Cheney to nation-build in Afghanistan, spending nearly 20 years trying, with a series of Afghan leaders, to build up Afghan security forces to take on the Taliban. Biden and Blinken don’t want to admit the Afghan security forces were infiltrated with Taliban sympathizers.
McCarthy tries to score cheap political points against Biden for the chaotic transition back to Taliban rule. All the media talks about are the plight of Afghan women, worried at a return to strict Islamic Sharia law would compromise the educational opportunities for Afghan girls-and-women. U.S. press doesn’t look at the practical reality that the Afghan security forces don’t want to fight their Taliban brothers-and-sisters who seek nothing short than control of the country. Taliban captured 26 of Afganistan’s 34 provincial capitals, encircling Kabul. Ghani said he fled to Doha, Qatar to spare the country more bloodshed. But really, Ghani sought asylum in Qatar because the Taliban was coming for him. Taliban’s 53-year-old Mullah Abdual Ghani Baradar will become the Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, much like the late Mullah Mohammed Omar ruled the Taliban in Kabul and in exile.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs to wake up to the reality of Ghani’s Afghan government infiltrated by the Taliban. Ghani fled to Doha to save his life and that of his family, facing certain catastrophe when Baradar complteted Omar’s dream of returning to power in Kabul. Ghani’s past government has zero to add to Baradar’s new Taliban regime, whether he re-implements Sharia law back to the Taliban government. Judging by Baradar’s commitment to the memory of Omar, it’s likely Kabul will return to strict Sharia law. “In a cosmopolitan city like this there are many people who do not want a return of the old style Taliban government,” said Rob McBride, reporting for Al Jazeera in Kabul. Yet with Baradar taking the mantle of Omar, it’s doubtful that he’ll abandon Islamic principles for demands made by the United Nations or other foreign governments.
