Image via AdrianHillman Getty Images/iStockphoto
131723828
The exit wounds of war are never pretty. President Barack Obama, one of the four American presidents presiding over the war in Afghanistan, was right when he said wars have become too easy for the U.S. to get into, but extremely difficult to get out of.
That’s been especially true of the losing war most Americans agree has gone on far too long after two decades of fighting for a hopeless cause. That doesn’t make it any less horrible to watch heartbreaking news footage of thousands of Afghans desperate to escape the Taliban takeover of their collapsing government, some recklessly grabbing the exteriors of departing planes.
But neither is it appropriate after a war that’s killed 2,448 American troops and wounded more than 20,000 others costing us more than $2 trillion to heap all the blame upon Biden, the president who’s finally bringing an end to U.S. involvement in that unwinnable war.
It’s true the administration and U.S. intelligence agencies seriously underestimated how rapidly the Taliban would achieve victory over the Afghanistan government. Biden admitted he was surprised how quickly Afghans laid down their arms and their president fled the country. He took personal responsibility for that. “I made the decision. The buck stops with me.” The consensus of advisors and intelligence was the U.S. would have nearly until the end of the year to get Americans and their Afghan allies out of the country.
Getting Home Safely
Now Biden says he’s concentrating on doing everything possible to fulfill his vow to get them all out safely. But he still refuses to apologize for ending U.S. involvement in a war that achieved the goal of killing Osama bin Laden and disrupting his terrorist network 10 years ago. Remaining would have required sending significantly more Americans into a seemingly endless war, Biden said. “Send your sons, your daughters, like my son was sent to Iraq to maybe die.”
|
|
Succeeding in extracting Americans and their allies will be dangerous and the outcome is not assured. But this country has a much better chance of success with a well-experienced president in the White House instead of his amateurish predecessor. One of the obstacles Biden had to overcome upon taking office to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was a one-sided deal President Trump signed with the Taliban.
Many Americans are still unaware Trump, with little knowledge of U.S. history in Afghanistan, invited the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to a secret meeting at Camp David in 2019 during the week of the 18th anniversary of 9/11 in hopes of pulling off a surprise peace deal. Trump called off the meeting at the last minute, possibly because leaks about inviting the Taliban to Camp David appalled leaders in both political parties.
The Trump Deal
Trump claimed he was cancelling all negotiations with the Taliban because of an attack several weeks earlier killing Afghans and a U.S. soldier. But talks never really stopped and in February 2020, a deal was reached in Dohar, Qatar. The Taliban would not attack U.S. forces if they were withdrawn by May 1, 2021. The U.S. also agreed to release 5,000 Taliban fighters taken as prisoners who immediately rejoined the Afghan offensive.
Biden extended U.S. withdrawal to Aug. 31 and is continuing contact with the Taliban to secure Americans and their allies safe passage to the airport. But one of the ugliest legacies of Trump’s presidency has returned to make it harder than it should be to provide safety for America’s Afghan allies in this country. Fox News is determined to reignite Trump’s racial and religious bigotry among Republicans by fanning fears of terrorism from brown-skinned, Muslim, Afghan immigrants.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and a growing number of Democratic governors have been joined by eight Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts and Utah in welcoming Afghan refugees to their states.
Fox Stirs Hatred
But can humanitarian decency among Republicans survive a full-time campaign by Fox News most popular white supremacists including Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham to inflame fears of an imaginary Democratic plot to racially replace white voters?
“If history is any guide—and it’s always a guide,” Carlson has said, “we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in the coming months, probably in your neighborhood. Over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions. So first we invade and then we’re invaded.”
Every decent American will continue to support our country’s attempt to bring its longest war to the safest possible conclusion. Unfortunately, in America today, that includes battling hateful propaganda from a rightwing disinformation network.
Biden added that to his already overloaded agenda Sunday by assuring the nation: “Once screened and cleared, we will welcome these Afghans who helped us in the war effort over the last 20 years to their new home in the United States of America. Because that’s who we are.”
