Catching a lot of flack from the U.S. and foreign press over the chaotic evacuation in Kabul, Afghanistan, 78-year-old President Joe Biden blamed former President Donald for his Feb. 29, 2020 deal with the Taliban, requiring the U.S. military out of the country by May 1. When Biden took office Jan. 20, he reaffirmed his commitment to end the Afghan War but pushed back the date to Sept. 1, giving the U.S. military more time to plan the end of U.S. military involvement. Biden and Trump agreed that the time to leave Afghanistan was long overdue, only differed by a few months. What’s most ironic that the agreement Trump made with the Taliban last year involved 70-year-old Zalmay Khalilzad and the soon-to-be 53-year-old Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. “When I came into office, I inheritied a deal that President Trump had negotiated with the Taliban,” Biden told the press.
No one in the press has a problem with the U.S. leaving Afghanistan. What they have a problem with is the utter panic-and-chaos, leaving hoards of Afghans trying to flee the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. “The choice I had to make as your president was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fight the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season,” Biden said, hoping to quiet the maelstrom over the chaotic end of U.S. involvement. Again, Biden wants to divert attention away from how the current evacuation became so frenzied. Again, few disagree that the drop- dead date for U.S. withdrawal was long overdue. Biden knows there’s no stomach in the U.S. to continue the Afghan War after nearly 20 years. When 75-year-old former President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001, it was only five weeks after Sept. 11.
Bush made clear in going to Afghanistan that he wanted to get Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and stop future terrorists attacks on U.S. soil. Bush said he didn’t go to Afghanistan to nation-build, something apparently NATO and the European Union [EU] see as worthy goals, as long as they’re not spending blood-and-treasure. Yet it’s clear the U.S. and Western press would continue the war as long as it promoted human rights for women living under Taliban rule. Reports from the Western press recount the horrors for women under the Taliban, preventing young women from education and social standing. “There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreements to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands of more American troops into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into a third decade of conflict,” Biden said.
Biden’s upset at the panic-and-chaos seen in TV news footage, making his transition process look chaotic and dangerous. Had Biden planned the transition more carefully, he would have commissioned more U.S. troops to Kabul and his the international airport. Dispatching more troops to Kabul now should help allay concerns that anyone that wants asylum and to get out can do so without fear that they’ll be massacred by the Taliban. Taliban Chief Baradar, who signed the Feb. 29, 2020 agreement with Trump, assured that U.S. forces and diplomatic personnel would get safe passage out of Afghanistan. There’s nothing that contradicts Baradar’s commitment, only the hoards of people looking to get out. Leaving more U.S. troops in place could have prevented the mob scene that resulted in al least seven deaths yesterday from panicked Afghans clinging to U.S. C-17 transport planes.
Biden administration officials, including 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, blamed the sudden collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government of 72-year-old Ashraf Ghani on the military’s refusal to fight. Biden said if the Afghan military refused to fight, why should the U.S. military continue the war? Biden naively assumed that the Afghan military backed Ghani’s government rather than the Taliban. It turns out the U.S.-backed government was a paper tiger with no real conviction other than placating U.S. officials. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan’s provincial capitals then encircled Kabul, the panic set in that Ghani’s government had collapses. Ghani fled Aug. 16 to Doha, Qatar reportedly by helicopter with oodles of cash, showing his loyalty to the U.S.-backed government. Ghani knew he’d be tried-and-executed for treason under the new Taliban regime.
Western governments and their friends in the press have to stop hyping the Taliban’s past human rights abuses or denying civil rights to women, knowing that the new regime is likely to resume the work of the late Mullah Mohammed Omar, the founder of the Taliban. When you consider how fiercely the Taliban fought Soviet occupation between Dec. 24, 1979 and Feb,15, 1989, they’ve shown great tenacity waiting out the U.S. and coalition. Biden wants to take a cheap political shot at Trump but the chaos-and-panic observed in the transition directly relates to Biden’s lack of planning. Returning 3,500 troops to Kabul or the international airport reveals the abysmal planning, knowing that the Taliban would take over power. Biden has no one to blame but himself for miscalculating the numbers of troops needed to bring about a safe-and-orderly transition.
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