{"id":654563,"date":"2021-08-17T12:06:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T16:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=654563"},"modified":"2021-08-17T12:06:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T16:06:36","slug":"shapiro-heres-what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan-and-what-we-should-have-done-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shapiro-heres-what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan-and-what-we-should-have-done-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"SHAPIRO: Here\u2019s What Went Wrong In Afghanistan \u2014 And What We Should Have Done Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fshapiro-heres-what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan-and-what-we-should-have-done-differently%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=654563&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span class=\"s1\">We are currently watching one of the greatest and most horrible debacles in the history of the United States unfold in Afghanistan. This debacle has both causes and consequences. The causes range from mission creep to myopia, from foolishness to cowardice. The consequences will reverberate from Afghanistan to Taiwan to the United States itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">To understand just what has happened \u2014 and what comes next \u2014 we must examine the current collapse in Afghanistan from three different perspectives: the tactical; the geostrategic; and the moral.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><b>The Tactical Collapse Of The United States<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Put aside for the moment the American mission in Afghanistan \u2014 whether our full-scale invasion was the right idea, or whether it fell prey to mission creep, or whether indeed, the United States should have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely with a skeleton force costing a fraction of America\u2019s initial investment. We\u2019ll examine such questions presently.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Begin with a simple fact: President Biden\u2019s precipitous, contingency-free pullout from Afghanistan is one of the most extraordinarily idiotic moves in the history of military interventionism. It\u2019s not that Biden chose to pull out. It\u2019s <i>how<\/i> he chose to pull out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2021\/04\/14\/biden-announces-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-sept-11\/7219176002\/\">On April 14, 2021<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s1\">, Biden announced that the United States would begin a final pullout from Afghanistan. \u201cIt is time to end America\u2019s longest war,\u201d Biden stated. \u201cIt\u2019s time for American troops to come home.\u201d Biden stated that the terrorist threat from Afghanistan had been successfully neutralized, and explained that the country would not become a base for terror activities again. Biden made the announcement despite an intelligence report that same week predicting that the Taliban would be \u201clikely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support.\u201d By Biden\u2019s timeline, however, the troops would begin their withdrawal by May 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">At this point, there were fewer than 3,500 American troops in Afghanistan; it was no longer America\u2019s \u201clongest war\u201d in any technical sense, given that no combat troops had been killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, and that the number of American casualties in Afghanistan had dropped to 11 in 2015. The United States\u2019 military presence in Afghanistan had been reduced to its smallest footprint since 2001, and the job of the US military was to provide technical and air support for the Afghan military.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">So, how did things continue to operate? How did the Afghan military maintain even a semblance of control over any portion of the country? According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/afghanistan-army-collapse-taliban-11628958253\"><span class=\"s2\">The Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/a>, the Afghan military had built its entire mechanism around such support: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"14\">\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>The Afghan army fighting alongside American troops was molded to match the way the Americans operate. The U.S. military, the world\u2019s most advanced, relies heavily on combining ground operations with air power, using aircraft to resupply outposts, strike targets, ferry the wounded, and collect reconnaissance and intelligence.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">When it became clear that the United States would abandon its airbases in Afghanistan \u2014 and along with those airbases, the air support it directly provided to the Afghan military \u2014 the Afghans had literally no capacity to operate anymore, and everyone knew it. As The Wall Street Journal said, \u201cIn the wake of President Biden\u2019s withdrawal decision, the U.S. pulled its air support, intelligence and contractors servicing Afghanistan\u2019s planes and helicopters. That meant the Afghan military simply couldn\u2019t operate anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_278072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"32\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-278072\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-278072\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234722844-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"TOPSHOT - Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan&#039;s 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city&#039;s airport trying to flee the group&#039;s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar \/ AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234722844-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234722844-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234722844-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234722844-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-278072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WAKIL KOHSAR\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s even worse than, that according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/taliban-at-gates-of-kabul-as-afghanistan-collapses-without-us-support\"><span class=\"s2\">The Daily Beast<\/span><\/a>, the Afghan air force \u2014 the only force capable of supplementing their hundreds of firebases on the ground spread thin across Afghanistan \u2014 relied on foreign contractors for upkeep and maintenance. Biden withdrew them and refused to allow them to remain:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"10\">\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>The country\u2019s mostly U.S.-provided air fleet was dependent on foreign contractors to assist with maintenance. As the U.S. withdrawal took hold, the Biden administration refused to allow contractors into the country to service the aircraft, effectively grounding some of the Afghan Air Force at the same time as the U.S. had withdrawn direct air support to Afghan forces.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Furthermore, it is common military knowledge in Afghanistan that the Taliban have a fighting season \u2014 they only fight in the non-winter. Delaying the American pullout until the weather turned would have at least provided a natural barrier against the lightning invasion the Taliban pulled off; the Afghan government asked for just that, a delay until October. Biden refused:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"7\">\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>Afghan officials had hoped that a drawback timed with the beginning of winter could buy them more time to strengthen defenses against the Taliban. But the Biden administration pushed ahead with its own timeline.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The Biden administration had to know all of this was the case. They had removed every single element of support necessary for the Afghan military to even have a fighting chance of retaining any area of control in Afghanistan. And yet Biden continued to maintain the lie that the Taliban would not retake the country quickly and easily. In July, he lied that we would \u201censure they have the capacity to maintain their air force.\u201d At that same press conference, he infamously stated that there was \u201czero\u201d comparison between what was happening in Afghanistan and what had happened in Vietnam, when the Democratic Congress cut off all support for the South Vietnamese government, leading to the fall of Saigon: \u201cThe Taliban is not the south \u2014 the North Vietnamese army,\u201d the doddering commander-in-chief stated. \u201cThey\u2019re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There\u2019s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable\u2026The likelihood there\u2019s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">This was either a flat lie or the most addlebrained remark in the history of American foreign policy. In either case, it shows that President Biden is a disgrace to his office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><b>The Geostrategic Collapse Of The United States<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">All of this leads to the second major failure for the United States inherent in America\u2019s Afghanistan collapse: the geostrategic failure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The United States had two geostrategic goals in Afghanistan: the preservation of a base of operations from which to strike terrorist targets, and the continued maintenance of American credibility toward both our enemies and our allies.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_278074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-278074\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-278074\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-71267094-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"DEH AFGHAN, AFGHANISTAN - JUNE 22: American soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division deploy to fight Taliban fighters as part of Operation Mountain Thrust to a U.S. base near the village of Deh Afghan on June 22, 2006 in the Zabul province of Afghanistan. The US military announced today that four American soldiers were killed in fighting after coalition forces attacked enemy extremists in north-eastern Afghanistan. The anti-Taliban operation, mainly by American, British and Canadian forces, entered it&#039;s second week across a vast area in southern Afghanistan. (Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-71267094-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-71267094-864x576.jpg 864w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-71267094-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-71267094.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-278074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Moore\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">We have now failed on both fronts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Biden declared just last month that one of the primary goals in Afghanistan was to \u201ckeep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks could be continued against the United States.\u201d Now, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley has informed Congress that terror groups are likely to reconstitute in Afghanistan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/scoop-joint-chiefs-chairman-moves-up-terrorist-threat-afghanistan-19dfb5c9-eeb6-4e0b-a107-1186ff7c1189.html?utm_campaign=organic&amp;utm_medium=socialshare&amp;utm_source=twitter\"><span class=\"s2\">in the very near future<\/span><\/a>. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-58232041\"><span class=\"s2\">Dr. Sajjan Gohel of the Asia Pacific Foundation<\/span><\/a>, there are some 250-500 members of al Qaeda in Kunar, a heavily forested valley region of Afghanistan; Gohel says that number is likely to increase, and given the United States\u2019 lack of access to any intelligence network and its surrender of all airbases in Afghanistan \u2014 as well as Pakistan\u2019s newfound <i>quid pro quo<\/i> with Afghanistan to reject US bases on Pakistani territory \u2014 it\u2019s quite likely that terrorist groups will reconstitute quickly in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Then there is the question of American credibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The West\u2019s abandonment of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression last year; the West\u2019s continuing desire for a rapprochement with the Iranian mullahcracy; the West\u2019s routine appeasement of Russia all speak to the unwillingness of the West \u2014 and the West\u2019s leader, the United States \u2014 to stand up for allies anywhere on earth. Afghanistan is simply the latest, and by far the most stunning, example of abandonment of an American ally. The United States simply walked away from its allies in Afghanistan, leaving tens of thousands of them to meet their fate, with no viable opportunity to escape. That was a choice, and an obvious choice: the United States could have maintained a military presence long enough to ensure that those with whom we worked could preserve their lives, and that those who didn\u2019t wish to live under the auspices of a barbaric eighth-century regime could escape. We didn\u2019t, and we chose not to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Our enemies can see this. And they are moving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">China has <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/07\/21\/china-taliban-afghanistan-biden-troop-withdrawal-belt-road-geopolitics-strategy\/\"><span class=\"s2\">already signaled<\/span><\/a> that it will recognize the Taliban\u2019s rule, and will work with the Taliban to increase Chinese influence in the region via its Belt and Road Initiative; China hopes to get its hands on Afghanistan\u2019s possible trillion-dollar rare-earth metals. For their part, the Taliban has already signaled that it will work with China, and doesn\u2019t give a damn about Muslim Uyghurs being imprisoned in Xinjiang. China\u2019s embassy in Afghanistan remains open. China has also solidified relations with Pakistan, presenting a solid face against India.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">But that\u2019s just the beginning. China\u2019s <i>Global Times<\/i>, a Communist Party mouthpiece, <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/china-touts-u-s-humiliation-in-afghanistan-in-warning-to-taiwan\/\"><span class=\"s2\">chortled<\/span><\/a>, \u201cFrom what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island\u2019s defense will collapse in hours and U.S. military won\u2019t come to help. As a result, the [Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan] will quickly surrender.\u201d Indeed, given the window presented by the Biden Administration, it would be somewhat of a surprise if China <i>didn\u2019t<\/i> attempt some sort of action against Taiwan in the next few years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Foreign policy abhors vacuums, and the United States has now created one. That means that erstwhile American allies will begin to play footsie with countries like Russia and China, believing that American commitments mean little. They have reason for such suspicions, obviously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><b>The Moral Collapse Of The United States<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">We originally went to Afghanistan in order to root out al Qaeda and depose the Taliban in the aftermath of September 11. George W. Bush announced America\u2019s attack on Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, stating:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"12\">\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>The attack took place on American soil, but it was an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world. And the world has come together to fight a new and different war, the first, and we hope the only one, of the 21st century; a war against all those who seek to export terror and a war against those governments that support or shelter them.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">There was no mention of nation-building. But in order to prevent the Taliban from simply returning to power, some alternative had to be provided in Afghanistan. The United States chose to foster a nascent democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_278075\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"32\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-278075\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-278075\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-56971619-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"BAGRAM AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN - MARCH 1: In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Army, U.S. President George W. Bush shakes hands with Sgt. Derek Kessler of the 10th Mountain Division, during a surprise visit by the president and first lady Laura Bush to speak to U.S. soldiers March 1, 2006 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (Photo by Brian Schroeder\/U.S. Army via Getty Images)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-56971619-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-56971619-883x576.jpg 883w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-56971619-768x501.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-56971619.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-278075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Schroeder\/U.S. Army via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">This was a form of mission creep, to be sure. And many of the justifications for the war after its initial phase turned from ensuring a base for American operations against terror and continued degradation of Afghanistan\u2019s terror-housing capacity \u2014 the true purpose of the war \u2014 toward the humanistic. America\u2019s rhetorical approach shifted from <i>realpolitik<\/i> to Wilsonian democracy-building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">This was an enormous mistake by the Bush administration. By 2009, George W. Bush left office celebrating that \u201cAfghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school.\u201d While true and worth celebrating, this statement reflected an obvious shift in priorities: America would not have gone to war to allow Afghan women the opportunity to go to school alone. And this shift in priorities allowed opponents of the Afghanistan war to present it as an inherent and continuing mistake: as a quixotic, often-blundering offense against the human rights it supposedly sought to forward, as evidenced by Barack Obama in 2008 (\u201cAnd that requires us to have enough troops that we\u2019re not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there\u201d) and as a foolhardy errand in human rights by the quasi-isolationist right, as evidenced by Donald Trump in 2016 (\u201cWe made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place\u201d). Both Obama and Trump negotiated with the Taliban in an attempt to establish enough stability to end the war \u2014 a foolish strategy given the Taliban\u2019s obvious unwillingness to deal honestly. Both Obama and Trump recognized enough, however, to understand that abandoning Afghanistan without any strategy would result in mass carnage, and undermine the <i>true<\/i> mission in Afghanistan \u2014 and so neither precipitously pulled out, as Obama had done in Iraq leading to ISIS\u2019 rise. As Trump said in 2017, \u201cMy original instinct was to pull out, and historically, I like following my instincts\u2026[But] the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Joe Biden, however, would not allow his responsibilities as president overcome his commitment to his perverse ideas about Afghanistan. And so he pulled out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">And America\u2019s moral failure in Afghanistan has been fulfilled. We have failed ourselves by restoring the rule of precisely the same evil entity that presided over al Qaeda\u2019s September 11 attack; we have failed our allies by subjecting them to slaughter in the streets of Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The ghastly images speak for themselves:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">American helicopters evacuating the American embassy ahead of the onrushing eighth-century barbarian Taliban in images all-too-reminiscent of American helicopters leaving Saigon, Vietnam in 1975;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"12.446808510638\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Photo included in the article: &#8220;A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Helicopters are landing at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles leave the compound amid the Taliban advanced on the Afghan capital.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GFfmmqZoAK\">https:\/\/t.co\/GFfmmqZoAK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yDQpK6NrAm\">pic.twitter.com\/yDQpK6NrAm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealSaavedra\/status\/1426794025877573637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Afghans rushing the airport to escape the onrushing eighth-century barbarian Taliban.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"9.2786259541985\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">VIDEO:  Thousands flock to Kabul airport, trying to flee the Taliban as the group&#8217;s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule patrols Kabul after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan&#8217;s 20-year war <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M9TpTo1fKb\">pic.twitter.com\/M9TpTo1fKb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AFP News Agency (@AFP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFP\/status\/1427441790299250694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 17, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Afghans clinging to the wheels of American military aircraft at liftoff.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"4.5473684210526\">\n<p lang=\"in\" dir=\"ltr\">Kabul moment! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nj5WKiH9dM\">pic.twitter.com\/nj5WKiH9dM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lotfullah Najafizada (@LNajafizada) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LNajafizada\/status\/1427202290805575685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 16, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Afghans, attempting any measure to avoid the murderous theocratic tyranny of the Taliban, dropping thousands of feet to their deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"6.819587628866\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">People are reportedly falling from the US military transport plane near <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Kabul?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Kabul<\/a> airport. They were hanging on the plane tires. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SzGQ67YK7f\">pic.twitter.com\/SzGQ67YK7f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ali \u00d6zk\u00f6k (@Ozkok_A) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ozkok_A\/status\/1427194101066252297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 16, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The snippets of information emerging from Afghanistan are even worse:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BillKristol\/status\/1427039572693749762\">The Taliban apparently going house-to-house in Kabul<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s1\">, \u201ckilling pilots and SOFs [members of the Afghan Special Operations Forces], raping their families, and taking their houses\u201d;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/us-politics\/taliban-seizes-drones-humvees-mraps-b1902308.html\">The Taliban seizing control<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> of incredibly sophisticated caches of American military equipment, including drones, humvees, and MRAPs, as well as our $700 million embassy;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Vr1eZR6KYQ?amp=1\">Tens of thousands of American allies<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> stuck in Afghanistan, unable to escape, waiting for their imprisonment, torture, or death; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The Taliban painting over images of women in an attempt to restore theocratic cleansing of women from the public square;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"4.2727272727273\">\n<p lang=\"in\" dir=\"ltr\">Kabul. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RyZcA7pktj\">pic.twitter.com\/RyZcA7pktj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lotfullah Najafizada (@LNajafizada) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LNajafizada\/status\/1426852794175270915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Women locking themselves in their homes, in fear of a return to the Taliban\u2019s brutal rule, in which female education was forbidden, modesty rules were enforced with a whip, and young girls were married off as child brides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">America is not responsible for human rights everywhere. But we are certainly responsible for not abandoning those who have risked life and limb to help us fight terrorism, turning a country with at least a semblance of a chance into an irredeemable hellhole for some 38 million people, complete with massively restored terrorist threat to boot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">American surrender has consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><b>Biden\u2019s Insane Defense<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The utter disconnect between the Biden Administration and the reality on the ground in Afghanistan was crystal clear as this week\u2019s terrifying events unfolded. As the Taliban overran Kabul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced, \u201cThe US, the international community, and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhuman treatment by the Taliban.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>Everything we can<\/i>? We had just withdrawn the only protective force from Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The State Department issued a joint statement with dozens of other countries announcing, \u201cThe Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>Stand ready to assist them<\/i>? We had just abandoned them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Then there was Biden himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">As the tragedy unfolded, the White House tweeted out a picture of Biden sitting alone in the Situation Room, an extraordinarily feeble image of an extraordinarily feeble presidency:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"12.387640449438\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/U7IpK3Hyj8\">pic.twitter.com\/U7IpK3Hyj8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/1426975024750211074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Initially, the White House announced that Biden wouldn\u2019t speak about the situation for a few days; White House press secretary Jen Psaki similarly announced via automated email that she was on vacation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Then, slammed with the complete and utter collapse not only of Afghanistan but of his presidency, Biden rushed back to the White House to deliver a speech that could be best summed up as \u201cThe Buck Stops Everywhere Else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Sounding rambling and defensive, Biden began by explaining that his team was \u201cmoving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including \u2014 and contingency \u2014 including the rapid collapse we\u2019re seeing now.\u201d This was clearly untrue \u2014 as stated, tens of thousands of American allies remain on the ground, and will remain there either as prisoners or as corpses. Then Biden got into the excuse-making. First, he made the utterly specious argument that the only reason we remained in Afghanistan was for nation-building, blustering, \u201cit was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy.\u201d As for the renewed terror threat from Afghanistan, that threat had already been \u201cdegraded,\u201d and America\u2019s removal from the region would not hamper that effort \u2014 as we have seen, an extraordinarily dubious claim. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Biden then tried to use as examples of American counterterrorism \u201cal Shabaab in Somalia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Nusra in Syria, ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries in Africa and Asia.\u201d In each of these scenarios, the United States has military force on the ground in arena, at the very least, as in Somalia, assisting allied forces against terrorism. We just removed our capacity to do the same in Afghanistan, despite Biden\u2019s protestations to the contrary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Then Biden moved on to his second excuse: Trump. \u201cWhen I came into office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 \u2014 just a little over three months after I took office\u2026The choice I had to make, as your President, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.\u201d But, of course, the Trump administration\u2019s agreement to leave was <i>contingent<\/i> on the Taliban fulfilling certain preconditions which they had not and were not going to fulfill. Furthermore, Biden has had no problem abrogating any other death Trump made. Blaming Trump was sophistry. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Biden continued by attempting a false binary: it was either leave, or war: \u201cThere would have been no ceasefire after May 1. &nbsp;There was no agreement protecting our forces after May 1. &nbsp;There was no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1. There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into the third decade of conflict.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">This was patently untrue. The actual status quo, as explained, did not posit a full-scale war: NATO combat operations ended in 2014. And Biden\u2019s pathetic attempt to explain that simple fact away by posing a false binary \u2014 either endless war or withdrawal \u2014 ignored the actual status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Finally, Biden admitted the truth: \u201cI always promised the American people that I will be straight with you. &nbsp;The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.\u201d But in doing so, he chose to then cast the blame on the Afghan military he had abandoned, thousands of whom he had probably consigned to murder: \u201cSo what\u2019s happened? &nbsp;Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. &nbsp;The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight. If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_278096\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"32\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-278096\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-278096\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234724649-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the situation in Afghanistan in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, DC. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"719\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234724649-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234724649-820x576.jpg 820w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234724649-768x539.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234724649.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-278096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>The right decision<\/i>. This is somewhat like arguing that the descent of America\u2019s major cities into crippling murder rates over the past year simply underscores the correctness of defunding the police.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Yet Biden continued to double and triple down on this asinine point. \u201cWe gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThere\u2019s some very brave and capable Afghan special forces units and soldiers, but if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that 1 year \u2014 1 more year, 5 more years, or 20 more years of U.S. military boots on the ground would\u2019ve made any difference.\u201d This was yet another lie. The United States equipped the military with a particular strategy; we then undercut the strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">As Biden\u2019s speech continued, his excuses became ever-more-preposterous. He claimed, oddly, that \u201cour true strategic competitors \u2014 China and Russia \u2014 would love nothing more than the United States to continue to funnel billions of dollars in resources and attention into stabilizing Afghanistan indefinitely.\u201d As we have seen, both China and Russia have enthusiastically embraced America\u2019s humiliating withdrawal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Finally, Biden embraced the complete moral backwardness of his position: he was morally righteous for abandoning a status quo in which zero American troops were dying in favor of a new world in which the Taliban rule a country of 38 million people and provide the base for anti-Western terrorism again. In rhetoric reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War nonsense of that dark time, Biden said, \u201cSo I\u2019m left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: How many more generations of America\u2019s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans \u2014 Afghanistan\u2019s civil war when Afghan troops will not? &nbsp; How many more lives \u2014 American lives \u2014 is it worth? &nbsp;How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">There are no more rows of headstones thanks to Afghanistan. That part of the war ended years ago. But Biden wanted his photo op. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Now he\u2019ll get it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Only that photo op will be corpses in the streets; women raped; Afghans plummeting from American planes; burning American flags and dead American allies. And the disgusting spectacle of a cretinous president pleading to \u201csupport the Afghan people\u201d and \u201cspeak out for the basic rights of the Afghan people\u201d and make \u201chuman rights\u2026the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery\u201d as our erstwhile allies lock themselves in their homes, awaiting the brutality that awaits them when their doors open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me,\u201d Biden concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">If it does, he should bear the brunt of any American anger at our utter humiliation on the world stage, the dereliction of our duty, and the rise of our enemies. And if Americans can\u2019t muster such anger, then the American era ended years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are currently watching one of the greatest and most horrible debacles in the history of the United States unfold in Afghanistan. This debacle has both causes and consequences. The &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}