Posted on 08/14/2021 5:23:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
Whichever way you look at it, President Biden’s pullout of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has become nothing short of a full meltdown this week.In what one prominent observer called “a stunning demonstration of battlefield momentum” that “echoes of the fall of Saigon in 1975,” Taliban militants late this week took the second and third largest Afghan cities, and now control half of the country’s 34 regional capitals as they prepare for an all-out assault on Kabul.The AP called the week’s developments “a stunning collapse of Afghan forces after the United States spent nearly two decades and $830 billion trying to establish a functioning state.”
The Biden Administration’s response to the fast-moving situation signaled nothing but weakness and lack of planning. Thursday afternoon, Biden left it to his spokespeople at the departments of State and Defense toconvey two huge pieces of news– first, that we are all but evacuating our embassy in Afghanistan, and second, that we are deploying some 3,000 troops to the international airport in Kabul to get that done. In any other administration, the secretaries of state and defense would make such big announcements directly, if not President Biden himself, not department flacks.Yet it was radio silence from Secretaries Blinken and Austin Thursday afternoon, and minutes later President Biden refused to answer questions from the White House press corps as he ambled to his helicopter en route to his home in Wilmington, Delaware.So much for clear communications from our leaders in a time of crisis and shifting plans on arguably the biggest issue of the past six months.
Former secretary of State Mike Pompeo perhaps said it best: “It appears Team Biden may not have planned adequately. They look panicked. This will embolden the Taliban and encourage Al Qaeda. The Biden administration’s sending of over 3,000 American troops back into Afghanistan is a result of poor planning and poor leadership in attempting to execute an operation that had been set up for success by the Trump administration.”
Faced with this public relations nightmare telegraphing their lack of planning for the bipartisan, planned exit from Afghanistan, what should President Biden do now? (And the answer is not, as Biden did with China earlier this year in his administration’s first visit to that country’s leaders, to send climate-change czar John Kerry to talk global warming with the Taliban.)
The way forward is clear, and two-fold.First, Biden needs to convey clearly and personally to the Taliban leadership that any move against Kabul between now and our designated departure date of August 31will be met with severe and unacceptable consequences to them, militarily, diplomatically and economically.And this goes for retribution to Afghan forces that surrender to the Taliban, as well.In President Trump’s words late this week, “I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable.” President Biden needs to do the same, and make Taliban leaders understand the heavy and personal cost they will bear for any move on Kabul by August 31, and any mistreatment of surrendering Afghan forces between now and then.
Second, Biden must provide for the swift and organized departure from the country of all remaining Afghan and third-country personnel and contractors who worked with U.S. forces over the last twenty years.Much of this work has been underway for months, with several thousand such contractors already out of country, primarily through the special immigrant visa (SIV) program, but the need is far greater. In an urgent cable made public late this week, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson made the case that the current program is leaving tens of thousands of contractors and their families unable to depart the country by our scheduled withdrawal date of August 31.These brave families are “under threat because of their work with the U.S. government ... but cannot get out,” he noted.
Biden needs to let the Taliban know that we are going to get our contractors out over the next two-and-a-half weeks, and once again, that any move to prevent us from doing so will result in severe consequences.T hen, Biden needs to make clear that we will devote the additional airlift resources to get them out of country. To his credit, the administration has been surging our provision of visas for this group, but the results are unfortunately too little, too late at this stage.We need to continue ramping up ways to get them out of country, and including as many of them as we can on departure flights.If we can let hundreds of thousands cross our southern border each month with little to no documentation, we can surely err on the side of extracting as many Afghans as we can without finalized visas.
There is no doubt – proper planning would have prevented the situation in which we find ourselves now in Afghanistan. Yet the Biden team can still right this ship with an unequivocal message of strength to Taliban leaders, and rapid and smart adjustments to our exit plan for both U.S. personnel and our Afghan friends.Above all, though, we need to hear directly from President Biden and his senior team – not leaving it to spokesmen to deliver an uncertain call.
No.
Not only No, but Hell No!! No more military on the ground after withdrawal, no air strikes. Just leave and let then fight each other.
Nobody saw this coming, nope nobody.
“Biden needs to convey clearly and personally to the Taliban leadership that any move against Kabul between now and our designated departure date of August 31will be met with severe and unacceptable consequences to them, militarily, diplomatically and economically.”
He should send them a stern email. Yep. Show his strength.
No more nation building and we shouldn’t have been there in the first place!!!
Well, the US gave the Afghan a taste of freedom and, obviously, it meant nothing to them. I do feel sorry for the women of Afghanistan as they return to a state of slavery - mere chattel property of their master/husband.
If the Democrats hadn’t insisted on showing weakness, there wouldn’t be a need to make a show of strength.
I mentioned the recent murder of surrendering special forces by the Taliban to my Marine buddy who spent several tours there. He said that the Taliban isn’t like any army or movement we have studied. It’s called the “Taliban” but it’s a bunch of criminal (by our standards) gangs or militias. They don’t really have a central structure that issues orders. Their guidelines are religious and those allow for anything. It is the opposite of the rule of law. If you went to a meeting under (I’ll call it flag of truce, but that isn’t the correct word) then any group he’d dealt with would honor your trip their and home by leaving you completely alone. But if you surrendered, they consider you a slave and they can do anything they want to you...rape, murder and mutilation are all options. What they do depends entirely on the mood, background and situation of the people with the guns.
Any Afghani with half a brain knew this day was coming. The feminzed west against guys who have the courage of their insane convictions .
Well, it seems likely that China is about to have a big problem on their border, and while they claim (falsely) to have a policy of non-interference, the Taliban has no such policy.
They had better get our people out
It would have been better for the United States to have used the time, money, and American lives to eradicate islamic ideology.
The assumption that we're dealing with sane human beings here is going to cost lives. "International community"... [spitontheground].
We should have been there for the punitive expedition. Out in 2-3 years, max. Really 18 months. And damn sure no so-called “nation building.”
This retired officer says NO!!!
If we must send folks to be killed there, let it be DemocRAT congresscritters. No loss to us.
You just summarized the satanic religion of Islam.
Goodbye Saigon, its over, Afghan govt paper army threw down their weapons and went home.
Evacuate everyone immediately, dont wait for the last helicopter leaving.
Another failed nation building attempt, we will never learn.
Ah, the neocons are heard from. Time to do the opposite.
Let China have Afghanistan.
We should have gone in fast, wiped them out [that’s what we did] and then employ my emBASEeee strategy. From my home page
I have been advocating for several years a policy I call ‘embaseees’. Embassy + AirBase —> EmBASEeees. We go into a terrorist country, clear out their taliban equivalent, then withdraw to very large Embassies, perhaps 3 of them. Have them big enough to encompass a military airbase where we can use it for decades on end to conduct anti-terrorism operations. As long as the ‘host’ country aint killing Americans then we let them have self-sovereignty. Kind of like how we operated in the Phillipines for decades. We could even have an intermediate zone that we patrol but it would be autonomous. Let them have their taste of freedom. A referendum every 10 years to see how large the boundaries of the intermediate autonomous zone should be.
___________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.