Witcover: Will Withdrawal From Afghanistan End Our Endless War? | National Editorials

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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has set August 31 as the date for the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of America’s longest war. He did so despite advances by Taliban rebels who hold much of the country, threatening the faltering regime in Kabul.

Biden pledged continued military aid after handing over the massive Bagram Air Base to the regime last week and vowed to protect the safety or relocation of the many Afghan nationals who served as interpreters for the Americans, a difficult undertaking given the circumstances on the ground.

Biden acted in the wake of a civil war that claimed the lives of approximately 2,400 Americans at an additional cost of billions of dollars. These facts led him to attempt to avoid its collapse with a much smaller American footprint in the besieged country.

In defense of his decision, the president asked this question: “So let me ask those who wanted us to stay: how many more – how many thousands of American daughters and sons are you willing to risk?” How long would you keep them? … I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan without a reasonable expectation of achieving a different result.

At the same time, he argued that it was “not inevitable” that the country will fall into Taliban hands if President Ashraf Ghani’s regime in Kabul “comes together and heads for a future the Afghan people want. “. But U.S. intelligence officials have warned that could happen within six months to a year, leaving Biden in doubt regardless of his political affiliation in his country.

A fellow Democrat, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, said: “Sadly, this is following a trajectory I feared: a resurgence of the Taliban and direct threats against communities vulnerable to their violence and oppression. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina compared Biden’s Afghan decision to what he called the earlier “withdrawal from Iraq” and said it flies in the face of “sound military advice” .

But Biden noted of Afghanistan: “In 2011, Allies and NATO partners agreed that we would end our combat mission in 2014. In 2014, some argued,“ One more year . So we continued to fight and we continued to claim victims. In 2015, ditto. And so on. Nearly 20 years of experience have shown us that the current security situation only confirms that “just one more year” of fighting in Afghanistan is not a solution but a recipe for being there indefinitely.

He also dismissed criticism that he was leading the country into yet another debacle in Vietnam like it was in 1975, when the Americans were forced to abandon the US embassy in Saigon, calling the Afghan withdrawal “not at all comparable.”

As for the concern for the safety of Afghan nationals endangered after having served as interpreters for American forces in their country, he told them: “There is a home for you in the United States if you wish,” with flights planned here. He also said that up to a thousand US troops would remain to guard the US embassy and Kabul airport.

But facing the uncertainty of Afghanistan’s survival will be a distraction for the president as he struggles to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic at home and a return to normal government after the four years of chaos under Donald Trump.

Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice-Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at [email protected].


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