President Joe Biden reaffirmed today his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, saying he “stands squarely” behind his decision to end the 20-year Afghan War. But to be honest about what the U.S. has done over the last 20-years, it’s been more about national building than fighting a war. Biden’s received flack from all over the world, especially in the European Union and U.K. for his decision to end U.S. involvement before the 20-year anniversary of Sept. 11. Former President George W. Bush acknowledged after Sept. 11 that he became a war president, fight what he thought was a war on terror. Once Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden fled Afghanistan in Dec. 2001 over the Khyber Pass into Pakistan, the U.S. accomplished its mission of putting Bin Laden on the run. Since then, Biden Laden never committed another large scale attack in the U.S. or in Europe.
It took 10 years for the U.S. military to track down and kill Bin Laden May 2, 2011, putting a bow on Operation Enduring Freedom that started Oct. 7, 2001. It didn’t take long to topple the Taliban government Nov. 14, 2001, sending the late Mullah Mohammed Omar into hiding. Omar could have avoided the wrath of the U.S. military had he helped the Pentagon track down Bin Laden. So for the last 20 years, the Taliban has patiently planned its return, knowing that one day the U.S. would end its stay in the war-torn area. Just ask 68-year-old President Vladimir Putin who watched the Soviet Union end its 10-year-occupation of Afghanistan Feb. 15, 1989, only months before the Berlin Wall collapsed Nov. 9, 1989. Putin remembers well President Ronald Reagan funding Osama bin Laden to fight Soviet occupation. How ironic that Bin Laden winds up lashing out at the United States.
Former President Donald Trump, 75, called on Biden to “resign in disgrace” for the failure in Afghanistan. Trump negotiated through his envoy Zalmay Khalilzad an end to the Afghan War with the Taliba, assuring a safe transition when the U.S. left Afghanistan by May 31. When Biden came to power, he moved up the transition period by three months, leaving Aug. 31 as the official end date. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, scheduled to retire next month, said the U.S. Afghan operation “as it seems right now like its was all in vain,” meaning that all the NATO and European Union [EU] was a failure because of Trump and Biden’s unilateral decision to end the war. Merkel sympathizes with the Afghan women who hoped to have a better life with 72-year-old Ashraf Ghani’s coalition-backed regime. Merkel criticized Biden for not seeing the bigger picture in Afghanistan.
Merkel reflects that EU position that Afghanistan was a long-term project for developing human and civil rights, especially for women. “it is terrible for the millions of Afghans who had worked for a freer society and who, with the support of the Western community, have focused on democracy, on education, on women’s rights,” Merkel said, clearly not seeing the big picture. With the U.S. doing most the heavy lifting, it’s easy for the EU to say the U.S. should have been in it for the long haul. Merkel sees the U.S. decision to withdraw troops as “domestic political reasons,” something completely off base. Biden ended the Afghan War because it approached the 20-year anniversary of Sept. 11, an event that changed everything in the U.S. While Europe was hit with its own terrorism, it was nothing like the devastating attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.
Merkel’s likely replacement 60-year-old Armin Laschet showed he’s got a lot to learn about international diplomacy. “It is the biggest debacle that NATO has suffered since its founding,” Laschet said, not understanding the U.S. position. German and the EU play only a minor role in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was equally critical of Biden’s decision. “Of course, Al-Qaeda will probably come back,” Maas said. Maas knows that al-Qaeda has been as shell of itself since Osama bin Laden was killed May 2, 2011. Terrorist attacks in Europe were attributable the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], not al-Qaeda. Bin Laden’s replacement 70-year-old Ayman al-Zawahri has done almost nothing in Western countries since Bin Laden’s death. Leaving Afghanistan should have little impact on global terror groups.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, 51, has harsh words for the U.S. and coalition partners for leaving Afghanistan. “I felt that that was a mistake to have done it that way, that we’ll all, as an international community, probably pay the consequences on that,” referring to the Doha agreement that specified a withdrawal date for U.S. troops. Trrump’s agreement guaranteed safe passage for U.S. and coalition diplomats and staff once the withdrawal began. U.K. and EU leaders claim they were surprised by the Taliban’s blitzkrieg around the country, not realizing that Afghan security forces were heavily infiltrated by Taliban fighters. Whatever the criticism of Biden, the U.S. military could have done a better job of assuring a safe-and-orderly transition. Regardless of the decision to end the Afghan War, Biden said there was never a good time to pull out forces ahead of the Sept. 11 20-year anniversary.
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