Two years since the debacle in Afghanistan; have we learned anything?
In August 2021, President Joe Biden made the decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan after a 20-year presence following the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
The president’s August 31, 2021 statement after the ill-fated attack reads like a spin-sheet, replete with messages that skirted reality and attempted to produce an early revision of history.
He should have said his decision, against the advice of nearly all commanders in the chain (another history he chose to revise to make it seem no one objected), veered off-course or that we unnecessarily lost troops due to faulty planning. Or he could have said it was a bad call.
Instead, he chose to paint the picture of a rousing success.
“We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety,” Biden said. “That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible. No nation — no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today.”
He went on to highlight the high percentage of Americans successfully evacuated while faintly blaming his predecessor for the timeframe for the evacuation.
His decision was attributed in part to the money spent over 20 years of the operation, and even the death of his son Beau (who served in Iraq, not Afghanistan).
He barely mentioned the 13 U.S. military servicemembers who died during the attack and the 10 Afghans who died in a follow-up U.S. operation after being misidentified as terrorists involved in the airport attack. The 10 Afghans included seven children.
While his predecessor, and many others, thought that a withdrawal was something we should – even must – aim for, that how-to on such a venture was an important facet to the end-state of the 20-year effort, President Biden sought evacuation at any cost.
He even said, the selection of a deadline of August 31, 2021 was, “designed to save American lives.”
President Biden went on to say that his decision would help the U.S. compete with Russia and China.
The reality is that the demonstration of confusion and weakness toward the Taliban in Afghanistan emboldened not only China and Russia, but also Iran and North Korea.
China saw fit to reignite its claim to Taiwan and made bold statements that suggest that taking Taiwan is a near-term project.
The Chinese military had no fear of attack when it launched a spy balloon across the U.S. and even complained when it was shot down after traveling thousands of miles through U.S. airspace.
Russia, of course, saw fit to engage in an unprovoked attack on Ukraine, slaughtering tens of thousands of Ukrainians and losing tens of thousands of Russian troops all for the glory of Vladimir Putin’s ego.
Putin is also unafraid of harassing U.S. aircraft, in equally unprovoked encounters, with multiple efforts at buzzing U.S. military drones.
Iran is suddenly more engaged with its Navy, intimidating neighbors and menacing even U.S. commercial ships.
North Korea has shown little hesitance in launching missiles throughout 2023. Tests have included short range and long-range missiles which could threaten the U.S. and allied positions.
It is difficult to imagine that relations with China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea would be worse or put our troops in any additional jeopardy if the U.S. still had a small number of troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
In more recent days, the administration has not backed off the original assessment that the decision was the right one.
One August 9, 2023 State Department, spokesman Matthew Miller said, “we believe it was the correct policy choice,” in response to a question from reporter about the Afghanistan withdrawal before hastily moving away from the subject.
President Biden, and members of his administration, will never change this position even considering clear evidence to the contrary.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby, a retired Navy two-star admiral, went as far as to say, “For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it. Not from my perch.” His perch of course is in Washington D.C.
There you have it.
According to Biden’s team no one in the administration made mistakes, not even good faith mistakes. They even trotted out an apparently very willing retired military officer to state their case.
The administration’s other retired military officer, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (a retired 4-star Army officer), remained scarce.
There are reasons President Biden’s approval rankings plummeted and never recovered.
He told Americans not to believe their lying eyes in the face of overwhelming evidence he lied to them about grave matters. Unfortunately, he has continued that pattern.
Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Guardians always do their level best. Their leaders’ role is to support them with training, equipment and good decisions at crucial moments.
President Biden let them, their families and the nation down. He was tested and he failed.
James Hutton is a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Follow him on Twitter @jehutton
James Hutton continues to tell the unvarnished truth exactly as he has done since we were teammates when he was an Army captain. Proud to know him. Proud that we were Army teammates and Army Strong!
Korea... Vietnam... Iraq... we continue to try to use our military to "squeeze" democracy into places where people do not want it. The last time we won a war was WWII -- and that was done by obliterating and burying the adversary. If we aren't ready to do that, we need to stay home.