Anyone with a fair knowledge of Afghanistan should have known a few things prior to September 11, 2001. These were: that the Russians attempted to occupy the country and were unable to maintain their presence there; the group called the Taliban took control of the country; that group introduced a harsh form of Islamic law that arbitrarily stole the rights from the Afghans especially the women; that the Taliban outlawed music, schools for girls, and the like. They also harbored terrorists like Osama bin Laden and his group.
After September 11, President Bush after asking the Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leaders having received no satisfactory answer had the U.S. invade Afghanistan. We had no plan on how we should leave. So we stayed there during the presidencies of Bush, Obama, and Trump. It was long after we achieved our goal of chasing Al Qaeda from there and even after Osama bin Laden was killed in May 2011.
We spent over two trillions dollars, lost almost 2,500 lives, and had over 20,000 wounded. We trained the Afghan army. We brought a little peace to parts of the country. The Taliban slowly reared its ugly head. Many of its present members had not been born at the time of our invasion.
When Biden said on Thursday, “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build” I was caught by surprise. What have we been doing there over the last ten or more years?
When he said: “No nation has ever unified Afghanistan. No nation. Empires have gone there and not done it.” True that is so why did we stay so long. Did not Bush, Obama or Trump know of this? Did not Biden when he was vice president?
I assume they did. None had the courage to admit that we too, the United States, were in the same position as those others. It reminded me of the Vietnam War. It continued long after we decided we could not win. No president wanted to admit it. Those faux patriots with their “these colors do not run” flags ensconced safely at home intimidated each president into continuing the war.
Nixon used Kissenger to try to negotiate a way out of Vietnam; Trump also unable to cut and run decided in February 2020 to make a peace deal with the Taliban which was his way to avoid dealing with the real issue. Dealing with the Taliban reminds me of the deals between the Native American Tribes and U.S. government. The U.S. government had no more intention of sticking to any deal than the Taliban does.
Biden recalling Vietnam and apparently believing this makes a difference said: “There is going to be no circumstance in which you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.’’ Not an encouraging statement. In other words we will get out of there as the Taliban closes in.
He said: “I intend to maintain our diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, and we’re coordinating closely with our international partners in order to continue to secure the international airport.” Are we to keep here will be 650 American troops there to do that. I suggest they are in a very precarious position.
Biden went on, “And we’re going to engage the determined diplomacy to pursue peace and a peace agreement that will end this senseless violence.” The last time the Taliban came to power we severed diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. Are we now going to recognize them now? As far as a peace agreement, I thought that was what we already had and the Taliban have violated it. Now, it seems elementary that the Taliban who are winning on the battlefield are not going to pursue another peace agreement that does not leave it in control of the Afghanistan government.
Biden should have said: “We entered Afghanistan to drive out Al Qaeda and to help the Afghans build their country into a more civil and equitable society. We failed to accomplish that. The reasons for that are many. There is no reason to believe that by staying we can ever achieve our goals. It is time to leave.”
Maybe I’m being too picky. The writing is on the wall that Afghanistan has no future as it descends into a black hole of Islamic Radical control. It is a pity that we did not fight the war full out and try to win or did not leave much earlier, At least Biden made the decision others were afraid to make. Give him credit for that.
Matt
In the spring of 2001 we brought LAPD narcotics
Detective Mike Ruppert to speak at Bates College
about the CIA bringing heroin and cocaine into
our cities with the help of local police.
He focused on how the CIA laundered the drug money
on Wall Street.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Mike+Ruppert+truth+lies+of+911+YouTube&view=detail&mid=C68A92404C92D9C69D44C68A92404C92D9C69D44&FORM=VIRE
Also see
https://ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html
Narco-Dollars for Beginners
“How the Money Works” in the Illicit Drug Trade
by Catherine Austin Fitts
Special to the Narco News Bulletin
2001
Paulie
But they did win….
https://archive.org/details/ctc
In other laughter
Matt
We both know the questions are more important
than the answers,
Down here in the whisper stream we ask
what role does Afghanistan opium poppies play in
destabilizing black communities by the Deep State;
What role does laundering drug money on Wall Street play
in artificially propping up Wall Street stock markets;
OH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-3BeZ6DnGQ
In other unanswered questions
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/09/head-of-haitis-palace-guard-subject-of-us-law-enforcement-investigation-into-arms-trafficking/
JULY 9, 2021
Head of Haiti’s Palace Guard Subject of US Law Enforcement Investigation into Arms Trafficking
BY JAKE JOHNSTON
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article252681813.html
Biden sends FBI to Haiti to destroy any evidence linking assassins of Haiti
President to US Government
FBI, DHS agents headed to Haiti as U.S. citizens are accused in assassination plot
MS:
If Afghanistan opium is important to destabilizing black communities by the Deep State and laundering drug money on Wall Street play
in artificially propping up Wall Street stock markets then doesn’t it follow we would not be leaving Afghanistan?
As far as Haiti goes, we should stay as far away from that place as possible. It is not that we have not spent lives and much money trying to help the Haitian people but we have seen most of that money goes into the pockets of a very few. Yes, two Haitian Americans involved in the killing of the Haitian president but that does not mean the U.S. government was. The evidence seems to point the other way because the guy killed was our guy.
“Down here in the whisper stream we ask
what role does Afghanistan opium poppies play in
destabilizing black communities by the Deep State;”
What role do Afghanistan opium poppies play in the percentage of Black children in Chicago with only one parent?
Trump tried but our delegation was silent!
The Fitzgerald Family
President Donald J. Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
September 11, 2019
Dear President Trump:
My oldest friend, a retired Navy Commander, advised me that his son, an officer in the Marine Reserves, has been activated. He expects to be returned to Afghanistan for his third tour there in the spring. As he has always answered his call to duty, he will report leaving his wife and children home, to serve again with courage and honor. He truly is one of our finest.
On this sad anniversary on the horrible attacks on our nation in 2001, I share my concerns about his deployment along with another 8,499 soldiers who will be stationed in Afghanistan. My own limited military service had been as an Army Reservist in the 1970’s. I claim no expertise in things military. However, as an old man who had spent a career in law enforcement and investigations, I have researched a little about our presence in Afghanistan.
I understand that we have lost 2,400 soldiers there. Some 20,320 others have been wounded and another 1,720 civilian contractors killed since 2001. Despite my many years as a financial investigator, I cannot begin to comprehend the monies spent in this effort since FY 2001 through FY 2018 . Is $ 737,529,000,000 even a number?
Placing life far above dollars, and still mourning the five men killed in the last couple of weeks, my concern is that this war may very well be unwinnable. After 18 years, it is troubling to read in the Military Times, August 18, 2019 edition, that “Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that any U.S. deal with the Taliban will be based on security conditions on the ground and that Afghan forces aren’t yet able to secure the country without help from allied forces.”
There are several obvious, yet unanswered, questions.
Is the insurgency diminished after so many years of military effort? Apparently not based on General Dunford’s recent statement.
What are our objectives and tactics? I rely on the president’s pledge as a candidate: “I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital ‘V.
Would our withdrawal allow the Taliban to harbor international jihadists? The Taliban appears intent in regaining their hold in Afghanistan in this civil war rather than crafting a worldwide war.
What humanitarian catastrophe might our withdrawal create? President Trump has pledged not to send our military to intervene in civil wars, using humanitarian grounds to justify their deployment.
Mr. President, you have inherited this dilemma from previous administrations. Your goal, to reduce our presence from 14,000 to 8,500 troops, appears to be a move in the right direction. However that reduction does not assuage my concern for those remaining troops that will shortly include my old friend’s son: the 8,499 and ONE!
My senators, Markey and Warren, and my congressman, Keating, have held federal elective offices for a combined total of almost 60 years. Both senators indicate that they support ending this war. The congressman, who serves on the Committee on Armed Services, certainly understands the toll it has taken on our servicemen, many of whom have endured multiple tours there.
I have not, however, heard them offer their bipartisan support to you, as Commander-In-Chief, to end this endless conflict. Petty politics must never override national interests or the safety of our servicemen.
On this anniversary of the infamous attacks on 9/11, work together and resolve this conflict. Bring our soldiers home from that graveyard that is Afghanistan.
Sincerely,
William F. Fitzgerald
CC: Senators Markey and Warren
Congressman Keating
William:
Nice letter. I think back to Vietnam where no president wanted to take the responsibility for admitting we could not win. Neither Bush, Obama, or Trump would do it either. The idea of Trump to negotiate a way out was similar to Nixon’s. But he, and I assume Nixon, knew that you cannot negotiate with snakes but pretending you can gave you a reason for doing what you should do in the first place. You correctly point out that drawing down is not equivalent to leaving; you also note that you would have kept your peace other than a person you knew was going to be put in harm’s way because of our refusal to leave. That is the problem with most in America, like myself, that we do not have any skin in the game and are more cavalier about the danger these troops face in Afghanistan.
Biden has finally pulled the plug. Despite all his assurances otherwise it is going to send the women in Afghanistan back to the dark ages. Should that be our concern to the extent we send troops there? It is a difficult question to answer. One thing I know for sure is that Biden had pledged to bring out of Afghanistan those folk who helped us during the war. Yet, I hear there is bickering between the State Department and Homeland Security as to how it should be done while the window of doing it slowly closes. Biden better get his act together and bring out those folks sooner than later. I do not understand how he can let his agencies bicker over this. Tell them to do it.
Good to hear from you. Hope you and you family are well.
Matt
After twenty years it’s clear we weren’t in it to win it.We should have left when we took out Bin Laden.
Instead of defending that part of the world we better be prepared to defend our own country in
a war that will not leave us untouched as inWW1,WW2,Korea and Vietnam.
Paul:
The Powell Doctrine was that before going into a country know how you are going to get out. We forgot that. We definitely tried to build Afghanistan into a functioning democracy by pouring over two trillion dollars into it – much I’m sure went into the wrong pockets as we’ve seen with Haiti which now wants us to give it more money and help so its leaders can enrich themselves – but despite that we are no further ahead than we were a dozen years ago. We did at least give some women a chance to see a better life but it will soon be taken from them by the Taliban. I believe though that we gave the Afghans a shot at survival and they failed to bring it about. Clearly when Bin Laden was executed in Pakistan was the time to go if not even before that when we had driven Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan. The world’s a mess. You are right we did not enter Afghanistan to win but only to dip our toes in. Had we wanted to win we would have had to defeat the Taliban. We had them on the run for years but apparently tired of that and let them build up again slowly over the years. Who made those decisions is lost in the fog. We do have to decide what purpose we have our armed forces. Are there things we are willing to defend with the lives of American soldiers? What are those things? Will we be willing to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion? Will we be willing to defend Estonia from Russia’s green men moving in? Are we willing to defend our infrastructure from Russian attacks by doing more than talk? Lots of things to consider but in our nation today how do we ever come to a consensus on anything?