The images of helicopters taking off from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan invoke painful memories of the fall of Saigon in the closing days of the Vietnam War; a war which, like the one in Afghanistan, came to a swift and decisive end in large part because native forces simply didn't have the will to defend their own country.
It is all too apparent that the Biden Administration either relied on intelligence that painted a rosy picture of the capabilities of the Afghan army, or chose to ignore the intelligence that warned of an imminent collapse of it. Either scenario is worrisome. Based on the events of the last 72 hours, the Plan B they came up with clearly was insufficient. The administration is now faced with the daunting task of removing all American personnel and as many of our allies as possible by the end of the month. The former is imperative - not a single American must be left behind. The latter maybe considerably more difficult, as many of them are scattered throughout the country with no practical way of getting to Kabul. Regrettably, some will be trapped indefinitely.
But as the press and media continue to have a field day at the lack of preparedness of both the President and Pentagon officials, the real questions about the War are largely being ignored. Primarily because they haven't been asked. Some of that is predictable. Sadly, most of the main-stream press and media in this country act more like a dog chasing a squirrel than actual journalists. If that analogy doesn't work for you, try imagining a cat chasing after a laser pointer.
The sad truth is that Afghanistan, like so many wars before it, was symptomatic of a fatal malady that has infected American foreign policy ever since the end of World War II. Simply put, we're a war-like nation; it's what we do best. Astonishingly, over the last three quarters of a century, only one president - Jimmy Carter - has neither started a war nor involved the U.S. in one. Say what you want about the man: he kept the peace.
Since 9/11, the United States has invaded and occupied Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Northern Syria. The result has led to the destabilization of the entire Middle East and the formation of ISIS*. The Bush Doctrine, which was supposed to bring American-style democracy to the region, instead brought chaos, which led to a deep-seated resentment towards the West. And lest you think I'm piling on George Bush, Barak Obama was no better. His decision to invade Libya turned out to be an unmitigated disaster that yours truly celebrated at the time.
And while the neocons celebrate the prowess of America's might abroad, at home, its people suffer needlessly. The country that successfully landed several men on the moon and invented the microchip, by the end of the 20th century saw its roads, bridges and railways deteriorate to the point of third-world status; families went bankrupt paying ever-higher medical bills; and income disparity between the haves and the have-nots swelled to epic proportions. The richest nation on Earth is home to millions of people who literally live paycheck to paycheck.
The cost of these continued wars in both human and monetary capital is incalculable. In Afghanistan alone, we lost over 2,400 service men and women and shelled out over a trillion dollars. In Iraq, the numbers are even more staggering: 4,500 military casualties and $3 trillion. This is the reason we don't have high-speed rail, have to endure an electrical grid that was designed almost a century ago, and can't provide affordable healthcare to every person who needs it. If you want to know why Europe enjoys so many more perks than the U.S., this is why.
The fact is we have been bamboozled by the same military industrial complex that Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about in 1960 into believing that retreating from the world stage will put us at risk for attack. To quote Joe Biden, malarkey. Our intelligence community knew all about Osama bin Laden months before 9/11. The failure to act on that intelligence was what led to the attack; it had absolutely nothing to do with a lack of resources or a lack of a physical presence in a foreign country. If anything, we are more at risk of being attacked now than we were twenty years ago.
Four presidents presided over the war in Afghanistan: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Bush started it; Biden ended it. Yes, the exit was messy and, yes, there's still plenty that can go wrong between now and August 31. But the reality is that there was simply no logical reason to continue to throw good money after bad; especially since the Afghan army didn't even put up a fight on its own turf.
Look, don't get me wrong: I'm no dove. There are times when you have to stand your ground. Retreating from the world stage doesn't mean that America has to stick its head in the sand. One hundred eighty degrees from wrong is still wrong. We must always be on guard for those who mean us harm. And let's not delude ourselves; there are a lot of people out there who mean us harm.
But we have to stop these ridiculous proxy wars that consume our precious resources and damage our reputation around the world. It is time to rebuild at home; time to tend to domestic issues that for far too long have been ignored. Let's start filling some of those potholes and provide the economic relief so many of our fellow citizens badly need. If we can grieve over the plight of the Afghan people, we can surely do the same for our neighbors.
* An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated that al-Qaeda was formed as a result of American intervention in the Middle East immediately following the 9/11 terror attack. In reality, the terrorist group was already in existence before 9/11 and was principally responsible for the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. I have made the correction and apologize for the error.
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