It's finally over.
At 3:29 p.m. eastern daylight savings time, August 30, 2021, one full day ahead of the deadline set by President Biden, the last C-17 took off from Kabul, Afghanistan, bringing to an end the longest war in U.S. history.
The total number of fatalities, while not as large as Vietnam, were nevertheless considerable: 2,461 American service men and women, including the 13 killed in the suicide attack last week; 3,846 government contractors; 66,000 Afghan military and police; 1,144 Allied and NATO forces; 47,245 civilians; 444 aid workers; and 72 journalists.
Along with the human cost, the financial cost of this two decades-long war was equally daunting: $800 billion in direct military engagement; $85 billon in training; $750 million per year to fund the government; $300 billion to care for U.S. wounded. With interest, the final nut comes out to over $2 trillion. And keep in mind, since this war was financed on the nation's credit card, the real number will likely be considerably higher.
Any objective analysis of this war would have to conclude that it was one of the worst foreign policy blunders of the last half century. And yet, as strange as it might seem, some are still defending it. They argue it was possible to keep a modest military presence in Afghanistan just like we do in countries like Germany; that withdrawing makes us less safe; that we owed it to the millions of Afghan people who will now have to endure unspeakable suffering at the hands of the Taliban; that pulling out makes us look weak; that we abandoned American citizens in a hostile country.
Let's address each of these objections:
There was no way to keep a modest force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. The choice was whether to withdraw completely or to stay and deploy tens of thousands of additional troops. Consider that Biden had to send in 5,800 troops just to secure the perimeter of the Kabul airport. Imagine how many more troops would've been needed to defend Kabul and Bagram Air Force Base. Face it, once Trump signed the deal with the Taliban, we were committed to leaving. Had Biden reneged on the deal, U.S. forces most certainly would've come under heavy attack, resulting in substantially heavier losses. And the Germany analogy is weak at best. Our forces aren't subjected to attack from local citizens in Germany the way they would've been in Afghanistan.
There is no way to tell for certain whether leaving Afghanistan makes us less safe or not. To speculate on "what if" scenarios is irresponsible and the sort of thing the military industrial complex has excelled at for decades. However, I find it hard to believe that in the third decade of the 21st century, the only way to keep America safe from terrorist attack is to maintain a large footprint throughout the Middle East. The cost of doing so is untenable and will eventually bankrupt the nation, much to the delight of the very people we went there to defeat.
I know this is difficult for some to hear, but we owe nothing to the Afghan people. For twenty years we spent hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars propping up their government, training their military and building their roads and buildings. It was the responsibility of the Afghan government to protect and defend its people from the Taliban. They failed, and now the blood of the civilian population is on their hands.
Two countries tried unsuccessfully to conquer and tame Afghanistan: the British three times and the Soviet Union once. The reason they failed was because the country is ungovernable and has been for most of its history. Getting out wasn't a sign of weakness; it was an acknowledgment - albeit a bit late - that continuing to throw good money after bad was a fool's errand. It is time to spend our treasure where it belongs: at home on our infrastructure, our healthcare system and the creation of millions of high-paying jobs that will help create the 21st century economy we've been dreaming about for years and Europe already enjoys.
Let's get something straight: The United States did NOT abandon American citizens in a hostile country. To imply that is insulting. Two American presidents over the last year and a half repeatedly said that the U.S. was pulling out of Afghanistan. What were they looking for, an engraved invitation? Waiting till the last moment to evacuate was irresponsible on their part and created an unnecessary risk not only to themselves but to the service members whose job it was to safely escort them through the Taliban check points into the Kabul airport. Shame on them for being that stupid. Now the State Department will have to go through diplomatic channels to secure their release.
The bottom line is the U.S. military evacuated over 120,000 people from Afghanistan, including 5,500 Americans. The hope here is that our leaders will learn what they can and can't do. The Bush Doctrine - as it was known - destabilized the entire Middle East, cost trillions of dollars to carry out, resulted in the loss of life of tens of thousands of U.S. service men and women and over a hundred thousand civilians, and led to the creation of ISIS, the most radical and deadly terrorist organization the world has ever known. That's quite a legacy!
It's time for a new doctrine, one that makes sense. Perhaps it's time for a Biden Doctrine. It might go something like this: we keep a watchful eye on our surroundings, defend ourselves when called upon, but stay the hell out of other countries' business. How's that for a doctrine?
September 11, 2001 changed everything. It woke us up from our lethargy, but it caused us to overreact. If it's true that we weren't paying enough attention to the events that were going on halfway around the globe prior to 9/11, it is equally true that our response post 9/11 has been completely over the top. A hundred and eighty degrees from wrong is still wrong.
Look, the world is full of bad guys who mean us harm. No one should sugar coat the threat they pose to the nation. But the best way to protect ourselves from their evil intentions isn't to turn every country inside out looking for them. We haven't the right to impose our will or our democratic values upon a people who neither know what democracy looks like nor are capable of implementing it on their own. It is sheer hubris to even suggest we can.
Four U.S. presidents have presided over the Afghanistan War. Only one had the courage to finally end it.
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