Thoughts On Afghanistan Withdrawal

It Could Not Have Been Botched More

First of all, even though I am a boomer, I spent two years in Iraq and a year in Afghanistan post 911 as boots on the ground. Almost three years of my life. And I carry both the mental and physical scars of that. In Iraq, it was early on, my unit replaced units that had invaded and I was officially part of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) II, in 2004. In Afghanistan, I was part of the Obama surge in 2011. After that, I returned to Iraq as the troops were leaving and worked for the State Department at the consulate in al-Basrah and Umm Qasr.

At every point in all my tours was the obvious fact that we had zero idea what we were doing and all we were doing in reality was making more enemies and fucking everything up. This is how the US has rolled since the 1950s. My point is that I think I have some basis for my opinions on these matters. We killed more people than Saddam Hussein and the Taliban combined, especially civilians. We also lost many of our own in these places.

Chinook at Firebase Giro, Ghazni Province, 2011

I thought we should have gotten out of Afghanistan after a year or two. The minute George Bush and his pal Cheney turned it into nation building ala bringing American democracy in at the tip of a bayonet, we were done. The entire mission was sold as a mission to get bin Laden, not to reform the government of Afghanistan. As an aside, I was in Afghanistan when they finally got bin Laden IN PAKISTAN, he probably hadn't been in Afghanistan in years. Why we have never declared war on Pakistan is a story for another day.

A couple things that none of the pundits I have seen mention, no matter their take on the withdrawal debacle. Many of the warhawks want us to believe the Taliban are illegitimate and we should go back to war to oust them. Those pundits are the truly dangerous ones.

• At the time of our invasion in 2001, the sovereign government of Afghanistan was the Taliban. Not al-Qaeda, not Mickey Mouse, not an American puppet regime. That makes a huge difference that American neoliberal warmongers simply ignore. International law and pure decency, that the US has totally ignored since World War I, does not make what we do right. See colonialism for reference. For the US in particular, look up the United Fruit Company sometime. The list goes on.

• There were none, ZERO, nada, truly democratic elections in Afghanistan during the US occupation. All the regimes we installed and supported there would have lost any real election in Afghanistan. Guess who would have won all of them. Yes, the Taliban. The Taliban controlled over three-quarters of the country during our 20-year occupation. They never lost control. Everywhere I personally served was Taliban country.

Taliban Country, Ghazni Province, 2011

• The one thing about American backed democracy in other countries (and arguably at home, too) is that when election results give results that liberals do not like, they no longer count it as democracy. It is crazy how this works. The US made sure its puppets in Afghanistan got elected, which had nothing to do with real and fair elections. So, why was anyone surprised when the Taliban moved right back into control when we left in the dead of night? Of course they did, they were in charge the entire time across most of the country. And absolutely no one should have been surprised. If they say they were surprised, they are liars.

Please note that you do not have to like the Taliban to recognize these things. I personally think they suck, but what you or me think makes no difference.

So, what about the Afghanistan withdrawal mess, the most disastrous foreign policy debacle in US history. The fall of Saigon (that I remember clearly) doesn't even come close. Dunkirk doesn't come close (well, that was British, but whatever).

As I said, we should have withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2002 or 2003. I supported withdrawal completely. How we withdrew is another matter. Being in Afghanistan was always a waste of time except for all the money being made. So was Iraq, but it is instructive to see how we left that war vs Afghanistan.

We never left Iraq entirely, we didn't even take out 100% of the troops, although, for all intents and purposes, we did take combat troops out. What we did do, however, is leave the State Department embassy and consulate facilities behind in multiple locations, some that are still operating. I served at one of them after the troops left.

Yet, we did leave Afghanistan completely and BEFORE we got our people and allies out. That is the great crime here. I spent 40 years in the US military as a soldier and a civilian. The number one rule is, "Never Leave Anyone Behind." This wouldn't be the first time we abandoned allies, that is something the US has been routinely doing since Vietnam. But, we even left American citizens and green card holders behind and that is unheard of.

Now, obviously the buck is supposed to stop with the president, but his cognitive disabilities allow him to escape some responsibility because he isn't actually running anything and probably doesn't know what day it is. But, in his administration has been assembled the most incompetent group of advisors and cabinet members in history. And we have had some really bad ones in the past (see Madeline Albright for reference). But, look to Blinken, Austin, and Milley for pure incompetence. Biden without a teleprompter might actually be better.

The single biggest mistake made with the Biden administration withdrawal was abandoning Bagram Air Base in the dead of night in July, 2021. They didn't even tell the Afghan allies on the base they were leaving. They also left billions of dollars in military equipment behind, some of it classified and very sophisticated. I am sure the Chinese have already reversed engineered most of it.

Bagram was the key to an orderly withdrawal where we could have gotten everyone we care about out without bloodshed. How and why?

• For one, Bagram is huge, I mean really huge. Small city huge. Room for tens of thousands of people. I was there during the Obama surge and it was the biggest base I have probably ever been on. It was so crowded, I couldn't wait to leave, but it was the base I in-processed into the country and returned to as I out-processed. By the time July, 2021, came around, it was a ghost town with a small US military and contractor presence, and some Afghan allies, that could have housed tens of thousands.

• Bagram was defendable, far more defendable than the Kabul airport. It still is. But, we aren’t there now.

• Bagram was close to Kabul. Evacuees could have been brought in via helicopter from multiple places in Kabul or other locations in Afghanistan. They could have been brought in via fixed wing aircraft from Kabul and other airports and airfields in the country. Finally, if air travel was untenable, especially for fixed wing from Kabul, convoys would have worked. It was close enough to Kabul and the roads could have been protected by air power and troops out of Bagram itself.

• Bagram Air Base could handle any size aircraft, including commercial airliners and the largest Air Force transports, such as the Galaxy C-5. Thousands or tens of thousands could have been evacuated daily.

My biggest question is why did we give up Bagram before everyone had been evacuated? Were we that stupid? Or was it more nefarious than that? Biden should be impeached over it. Blinken, Austin, and Milley should all be fired or, more appropriately, brought up on charges and lose their pensions and go to prison as war criminals and for dereliction of duty. It is just so shameful.

And the Biden administration is doing nothing to get those left behind out. This kind of confirms the nefarious nature of the withdrawal. This infuriates an old veteran like myself where “no one left behind” has real meaning. I knew some of the folks left behind and have no idea what has happened to them.

Things weren’t all bad in Afghanistan, the dogs here in Ghazni Province were pretty cool. All dogs are cool.

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