It seems that Biden has a bit in common with the Trumpists who are enamored of the phrase "endless wars" and the Antiwar.com crowd who comes at it from a somewhat different angle - tying opposition to pretty much any use of force to a defense of the free market, something that still has me scratching my head after years of trying to see the connection.
He's set a date, and one fraught with symbolism at that, to bring every last troop home from Afghanistan. They'll be out by September 11.
He had to thumb his nose at top Pentagon leadership to do it:
As Biden weighed a full exit from the country this spring, top military leaders advocated for keeping a small U.S. presence on the ground made up primarily of special operations forces and paramilitary advisers, arguing that a force of a few thousand troops was needed to keep the Taliban in check and prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a haven for terrorists, according to nine former and current U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.
Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the four-star commanders of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, Central Command and Special Operations Command, were emphatic proponents of this strategy, the current and former officials said, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.
But in the end, Biden and his top national security deputies did what no previous president has done successfully — they overrode the brass.
“President Biden has made a judgment that those are manageable concerns and not as important as drawing American participation to an end, and so everybody shut up and did it,” said Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
Adam Kinzinger makes plain that the small contingent still there is a crucial force for stability:
Unlike Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, the Soviet Union and the British Empire, the United States finds itself in a unique position that no other nation has found themselves in before when it comes to having a presence in Afghanistan: America is welcome.
Through the stabilizing efforts of the United States military, the NATO mission, and the Afghan government, we have achieved so much. Over 9 million Afghan children are in school today, one-third of whom are young girls who were previously banned from accessing education by the Taliban.
Today, Afghan women are being empowered across society more than ever before, serving in high-level positions from government ministers to CEOs to generals. Preserving women’s rights was tied for the #1 policy priority in a peace deal among Afghans, signaling how important women’s empowerment has become to all of Afghan society.
David Petraeus has some deep concerns about the decision:
“I understand the frustrations very much that have led to the decision,” said Petraeus. “Nobody wants to see a war ended more than those who have actually fought it, and been privileged to command it and also write the letters of condolence home every night to America’s mothers and fathers. But I think we need to be really careful with our rhetoric, because ending U.S. involvement in an endless war doesn't end the endless war. It just ends our involvement. And I fear that this war is going to get worse.”
Petraeus said he worries the Taliban will go on the offensive, ungoverned spaces will grow, and the terrorist organizations that use them will flourish. “I don’t see how you withdraw and maintain the capabilities that one would like to have there still.”
Announcing a date months ahead of time, knowing that one of the grimmest groups in the world is licking its chops at the prospect of collapsing the Afghan government and reinstating the nightmare regime it had imposed circa 2000 is ill-advised in the extreme.
A major foreign-policy blunder on the Biden administration's part.
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