U.S. military completed their Afghan War today, evacuating remaining U.S. troops and citizens seeking to leave. Getting withering criticism from Democrats and Republicans, 67-year-old President Joe Biden deserves credit for ending the nearly 20- year conflict, where the mission morphed from preventing another Sept. 11 to rebuilding war-ravaged Afghanistan, after years of war with the old Soviet Union and the last 20 years with the United States. Former President George W. Bush tried to deal with a bad set of cards dealt to him by Osama bin Laden who masterminded the Sept. 11 attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, decimating the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon. But more than physical losses, Bin Laden undermined American confidence, blindsided by Bin Laden’s diabolical attacks, flying hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Bush never had the pleasure to getting Bin Laden, passing the baton to former President Barack Obama, after two terms in office. Bin Laden eluded the long arm of American justice until he was finally hunted down and killed by Navy Seal Team 6 May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan. When Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001, it was only three weeks after Sept.11 but designed to neutralize Bin Laden by toppling the Taliban regime. Bush, and his 84-year-old former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, gave Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar every chance to give information on Bin Laden. Omar did nothing and Bush toppled the Taliban Nov. 14, 2001, ending a five-year run in power, characterized by some of the worst atrocities in world history. It’s ironic that the Taliban’s return to power nearly 20 years after toppled by the U.S. military.
Watching the U.S. pull out of Afghanistan today raises some ambiguous emotions for both Democrats and Republican. Both sides preferred supporting the U.S.-puppet regime of former Afghan President Afghan Ghani. When it became clear to Biden that Ghani’s government collapsed along with its military, he realized there was nothing left to support in Afghanistan. Some Democrats and Republicans, like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.) would have preferred to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, nation-building. But former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden realized that there was nothing left for the U.S. mission. Leaving Afghanistn, the U.S. leaves some $8 billion in military equipment, including helicopters, planes, tanks, Humvees, guns, armaments and ammunition, something that irks Trump who thinks the equipment should have been removed or destroyed by Biden’s Pentagon.
Centcom Commander Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie acknowledged completion today of the Afghan mission. “Tonight’s withdrawal signified both the end of the military component or the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after Sept. 11, 2001,” McKensie said. “It’s a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end, along with many of his al-Qaeda conspirators,” misstating what happened over the last 20 years. McKenzie knows that the mission to get Bin Laden was began with Operation Enduring Freedom but quickly morphed into a nation-building exercise after U.S. forces toppled the Taliban Nov. 14, 2001. When Bin Laden escaped over the Khybar Pass into Pakistan Dec. 15, 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom changed into the nation-building exercise in Afghanistan, leaving U.S. intel and Special Forces to hunt down Bin Laden.
Bush hoped to execute a master plan to democratize the Middle East, eventually taking him, and his 80-year-old former Vice President Dick Cheney into Iraq March 20, 2003. Once Bush started the Iraq War, Afghanistan was put on the back-burner, while Bush focused his energy of Saddam Hussein, one of the greatest blunders in U.S. history. When you consider the thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars wasted on both wars, it’s hard to listen to McKenzie talk about the Afghan mission. Bush diverted most U.S. resources to Iraq, leaving the Taliban to redouble their 20-year guerrilla war, to eventually outlast the U.S. military. Well, today finally came, probably 20-years late after Bin Laden fled Afghanistan, taking 10 long years before, as McKenzie said, brought Bin Laden to justice. Biden continued the right course with the wrong exit strategy, finally getting out of Afghanistan.
McKenzie tried to put a happy ending to the Afghan War with debatable results. “The cost at 2,461 U.S. Service members and civilians, and more than 20,000 injured. Sadly, that included 13 U.S. service members who were killed last week by an ISIS-K suicide bomber,” McKenzie said. McKenzie said nothing about the helter-skelter nature of the U.S. withdrawal, starting the evacuation right after Ghani fled the country. Biden’s frenzied withdrawal left thousands of civilians and military aggregated outside the Hamid Karzai Airport. Had Joe spent the four months methodically evacuating U.S. and Afghan citizens, there wouldn’t have been the stampede on the airport that opened the door to an ISIS-K terrorist attack. Biden did the right thing ending the Afghan War but grossly mismanaged the exit plan causing unnecessary chaos, panic and death. Judging by the U.S. press, Joe won’t be held accountable.
