United States withdrawal disaster from Afghanistan in 2021

 

Exerpt:

In August of 2021, the Biden Administration executed its hasty plan to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan in an attempt to end our presence there after approximately 20 years. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration failed to continue in the footsteps of President Trump, who already started a well thought out withdrawal plan during his term as president. The Biden Administration instead came up with its own plan, that not only cost 13 American lives on August 26, 2021, it also started an additional series of events by surrendering to terrorists, that will negatively affect the United States' ongoing war against terrorism, for many years to come.

 

Background:

It's hard to believe that almost 20 years have gone by since the attacks on American soil by the terrorist group Al-qaeda. This forever changed the mentality of America in modern times and was a wakeup call that borders to the United States had been allowed to become weak enough for terrorists to enter and train for a mass scale event. For those that have or had not experienced terrorism from participating in foreign affairs or service members, the events that took place on September 11, 2001 were probably very shocking. Immediately after the attacks, President George Bush vowed to seek out and disable the terrorists involved in these attacks. Part of this effort involved strategically seeking out and bombing areas of Al-Qaeda members in Middle East countries. And part of this effort also involved putting American troops on foot in areas of Afghanistan and other surrounding countries. This started a long and tough war against terrorism in the Middle East, but the stance of the United States was that it was necessary to destroy any future threats, and to never allow an attack again on American soil from terrorists.

Taliban occupation of Afghanistan in 2019 during President Trump's term.

 

Taliban occupation of Afghanistan in 2021 during President Biden's term after evacuating (it is expected the Taliban will have 100% control of Afghanistan). Source: BBC

 

 

Fast Forward to 2021

The United States kept a presence in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years to help Afghanistan build up its own government, armed forces, and establish law and order. And even more importantly, weed out the terrorists and keep them at bay as much as possible. For many years since stepping foot in Afghanistan, the United States knew it must eventually withdraw its troops as it could not stay indefinitely. Most recently, during President Trump's term in office, the Trump Administration started to discuss on how to withdraw more American troops but yet sustain stability in Afghanistan in order not to throw out 20 years of effort to establish law and order there. Extensive talks and effort were put in place, including a first ever peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, who at the time was the most powerful terrorist organization in Afghanistan that seemed to have control of a few areas but was in constant battle with the Afghanistan government. It is thought that around the time of the talks, the Taliban had partial control of close to 1/5 of the country, while the Afghanistan government retaining control of the remaining 4/5. The Trump Administration came up with a plan to safely and effectively withdraw most American troops and equipment from Afghanistan, and at the same time force the Taliban to stop its attacks on the Afghanistan government. This was a win for all parties involved and would maintain stability for the Afghanistan government against the Taliban while allowing withdrawal of troops. During President Trump's term, 15,000 American troops was reduced to 2,500, while maintaining the same amount of law and order in the country. When the Taliban failed to uphold their end of the bargain, they were punished, and so this went on. The goal was to have all American troops out by May 1, 2021.

 

When President Biden took over in office in early 2021, the plan that President Trump had put in place was extended to August 31, 2021, for all American troops to be removed from Afghanistan. During Trump's term, he made it clear that if the Taliban did not uphold the agreement, that the United States would counteract appropriately. However, Biden did not uphold this firm stance, and the posture of the United States in Afghanistan was allowed to weaken, which started a downward spiral of control. In fact, it has been discovered that the Biden administration refused to follow the Trump plan that was given to them, and has lied stating that they never received a plan. [2] The situation was allowed to fester and eventually as August rolled around, the Biden Administration finally executed a plan to abruptly exit out of Afghanistan in order to comply with the August 31, 2021 deadline, but at a very costly price. In the process, the abrupt evacuation of American troops left behind defenseless citizens and American military equipment including vehicles, helicopters, rifles, ammunition, money, uniforms, and more. Immediately after the number of American troops was low enough, the Taliban instantly took to action and reclaimed almost all of the 4/5 of Afghanistan that was previously controlled by the Afghanistan government that had been formed with the aid of the United States.

Turning over all of this American equipment to the Taliban terrorists will have multiple serious problems that will extend in to our future. To put the amount of equipment given to the Taliban in to perspective, the chart below shows the inventory of equipment in Afghanistan before the Biden Administration pulled out American troops.

 

It has been said the total value of all of this equipment is close to $85 billion. Some of this equipment immediately started to show up in Iran, and it has been said by members of our military, that China will soon get access to this equipment to reverse engineer it and further their strength against the United States.

The Taliban celebrating with a parade of the left US equipment in Afghanistan. Source: The Gateway Pundit

 

The Taliban flying a United States blackhawk helicopter. Source: The Gateway Pundit

Unfortunately, not only did the United States suffer the loss of $85 billion in military equipment, it gave it to the Taliban which then aided the swift takeover of the Afghanistan government. This further increased the power of the Taliban. But, the series of problems only started with the loss of equipment. Immediately after, the United States government ordered commercial American airlines to step in and help transport these evacuees along with military transports. Unfortunately, since this evacuation was done in haste, it seems that the Biden Administration sent out blank visas to the citizens left in Afghanistan in order to speed up the evacuation process, and in some cases it has been reported that requirements were dropped completely. This further created problems by bringing these thousands of evacuees from Afghanistan to the United States, as the bill for housing, food, and shelter has put extra strain on funds from US taxpayers, that could have been avoided. In addition, and an even more serious problem, was that it has been said that terrorists also came in to the United States at the same time by hiding among the evacuees.

And, last but not least, the hasty withdrawal by the United States has allowed Afghanistan to return to a country without law and order that it once was prior to 9/11, housing terrorists. 20 years of American lives were lost, up to the most recent on August 26, 2021 where a suicide bomber killed 13 American service members, all for a cause that was flushed down the drain, like it never happened. The Taliban, Al-qaeda, and ISIS now claim victory over the United States.

 

Summary:

The evacuation of Afghanistan in August 2021 by the Biden Administration has not only caused additional financial stress on the United States, but it has dramatically decreased leverage over terrorists in Afghanistan and has greatly reduced the safety on American homeland as well. Some will say that this has put the United States back to the position it was in, prior to September 11, 2001. Knowing this, a future terrorist attack against the United States, even on home turf, is extremely likely due to all of the above issues from this withdrawal. What does the future of the United States look like, now that the thread of terrorism is again rising up? Only time will tell, but unfortunately it is inevitable that American lives will be lost in the process, just like they were on September 11, 2001. Maybe not to this scale, yet, but if the terrorists can outsmart the United States government such as how they have in the past, the future may contain more tragic events.

 

Sources:

[1] Breitbart News - Exclusive — Pompeo on Biden’s ‘Tragic’ Afghan Disaster: ‘It Didn’t Have to Be this Way'

[2] Fact Check: Secretary of State Antony Blinken Claims Trump Admin Did Not Leave an Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan