Thinkstock
Americans can argue endlessly over whether going to war is ever justified given the cost in blood and treasure. But one fact is clear. It’s a lot easier for the U.S. to get into wars than to get out of them.
President Joe Biden is finally ending America’s first seemingly “forever war” in Afghanistan withdrawing all U.S. troops by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attack on New York and Washington launched by Osama bin Laden from that country.
When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan a month after that attack with the support the American people and their NATO allies, the objective was clear—to pursue bin Laden and assure Afghanistan would never again serve as a base for terrorist attacks. The mission was accomplished a decade ago. A military operation by the Obama-Biden administration killed bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan in 2011. “I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats,” Biden said. “I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”
GOP Cries ‘Retreat’!
As expected, Republicans immediately attacked Biden with absurd claims he was leaving America wide open to terrorist attacks. “Precipitously withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan (After 20 years?) is a grave mistake,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said. “It is a retreat in the face of an enemy.” South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham was even more inflammatory. “It is insane to withdraw at this time given the conditions that exist on the ground in Afghanistan,” Graham said. He called the withdrawal “dumber than dirt,” adding Biden had “in essence, canceled an insurance policy against another 9/11.”
Funny, no one remembers Republicans warning of such apocalyptic consequences when President Trump reached an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 attempting to commit his successor to an even more precipitous troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021. It’s a good time to explain the difference between how a competent president like Biden determines U.S policies involving life and death compared with his incompetent predecessor.
|
|
Biden planned the final details of troop withdrawal after consulting with military leaders, independent experts and NATO allies who have 7,000 troops there along with the 2,500 remaining U.S. troops after Trump’s force reductions to make sure all troops can be withdrawn safely. Trump is contemptuous of consulting anyone who knows more than he does. He says all he has to do is consult his own ample gut, which he brags is smarter than the brains of all those so-called experts. Trump also has contempt for military leaders who don’t win wars and NATO. Trump’s ignorance and ego were serious risks to our national security. He’s a man who knows very little who believes he knows everything.
Vaguely Defined War
It was because of the dangers of such a flawed chief executive our Constitution gave the sole power to declare war to Congress. Unfortunately, for two decades Congress has abdicated its responsibility to update an open-ended authorization of military force to fight a vaguely defined war on terror passed in a panic after 9/11.
No U.S. war in any foreign land should ever again last 20 years as if frozen in time while the world changes around us. Neither of the two world wars involving all the great military powers of the 1940s lasted anywhere near that long. Even military veterans realize the war has far outlasted its intended purpose. A poll by the right-leaning Concerned Veterans for America showed 67% of veterans supported a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. A letter from a coalition of veterans’ groups urged Biden to end U.S. entanglement “in a conflict with no clear military mission or path to victory.”
That creates an alliance between politically conservative veterans’ groups and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Congressman Ro Khanna, national co-chair of Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign. Those two co-wrote a Washington Post op-ed endorsing Biden’s troop withdrawal urging him to refocus U.S. efforts in Afghanistan on diplomacy and humanitarian assistance promoting human rights including equal rights for women in Afghanistan.
After 20 years, the most dangerous threats to American democracy are not hiding in the mountains and caves of ungovernable Afghanistan. Many are closer to home with the rise of armed militias and violent extremists driven by hatred of their own elected representatives and democratic institutions.
We’ve known our most dangerous foreign adversaries for a long time. Russia is once again amassing military forces on the border with Ukraine. China remains a growing economic threat while increasing its military presence in the South China Sea. Iran is once again ramping up uranium enrichment after Trump withdrew from an international agreement preventing its development of nuclear weapons.
Come to think of it, every one of those serious threats to America grew worse over the last four years. It’s a good thing someone who knows what he’s doing is back in charge.
