Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
Thus, what we are looking at is not only the end of America’s war in Afghanistan but the possible, if not probable, eventual victory of the Taliban.
With the Pentagon’s announcement that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be cut in half — to 2,500 — by inauguration day, after 19 years, it appears the end to America’s longest war may be in sight.
The Pentagon also announced a reduction of U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 by mid-January. In 2003, we invaded and occupied Iraq to remove a perceived threat from Saddam Hussein and to disarm that nation of weapons of mass destruction we discovered it did not have.
No WMD were ever found, and the war George W. Bush launched to find and destroy them has been called the greatest strategic blunder in U.S. history.
These two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, cost us some 7,000 dead, 50,000 wounded and trillions of dollars. And as they preoccupied us for two decades, China rose to become a strategic, military and economic superpower to rival the United States.
Iraq and Afghanistan were the longest wars in U.S. history, and the most costly of the Mideast wars we have fought there, but there were others.
In 2011, we attacked Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s army in the early days of Libya’s civil war. We intervened on the side of the rebels in Syria’s civil war. We assisted Saudi airstrikes in Yemen after Houthi rebels arose up in 2015 to dump over a Saudi-backed regime.
Over two decades, Arabs and Muslims have died in the hundreds of thousands from these wars. But what have any of these wars availed the USA?
Libya is split between a Turkish-backed government in Tripoli and Russian- and Egyptian-backed rebels under Gen. Khalifa Hifter in Benghazi and the east of the country.
The Syrian regime of Bashar Assad has largely won its civil war, thanks to timely and decisive intervention by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, which came to the regime’s rescue when it was on its last legs.
Today, Iran-backed militias in Iraq with ties to Tehran have far greater influence in Baghdad than Iran did before the Americans arrived in 2003.
And the Americans are now going home.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, Trump is terminating the U.S. presence. It is impossible to believe a President Joe Biden would emulate President Barack Obama and surge 100,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan in some new crisis to stave off a Taliban victory.
Thus, what we are looking at is not only the end of America’s war in Afghanistan but the possible, if not probable, eventual victory of the Taliban.
If the Afghan army and security forces could not put away the Taliban with 100,000 Americans fighting at their side in 2011, they are unlikely to do so when all of the Americans are gone.
The outcome of this war could well be a reenactment in Kabul of what happened in Saigon in 1975, two years after the Americans ended their role in the Vietnam War.
Yet, as Trump is halving U.S. forces in Afghanistan, The New York Times is reporting an Oval Office meeting with his national security inner circle to discuss a strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz.
According to the Times, Trump had to be persuaded not to order the attack by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley.
Why Trump would order an attack on Natanz seems on its face inexplicable. The facility is under regular U.N. inspection and has never enriched uranium to the 90% level needed for a bomb.
Even today it is enriching uranium only to 4.5%.
U.N. inspectors have regular access to the facility. While the small stockpile of low-enriched uranium Iran has produced is in violation of the nuclear deal, Trump walked away from that deal in 2018.
And Tehran could return to compliance easily by halting production and shipping its small stockpile out of the country.
As America exits from the seemingly endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, what strategic U.S. interest is imperiled by Iran’s enrichment of low-grade uranium to justify a new war with a nation larger, more populous and more powerful than any of those with which we have been involved in the last 20 years?
As Trump is mulling over an attack on Iran, the Israelis are carrying out strikes in Syria on Iranian-backed militias and boasting about it.
Thus, if the election of 2020 turns out the way most now expect, with Biden taking the oath on Jan. 20, the new president could be faced in his first days with a crisis with Iran and the prospect of a collapse of the Afghan regime in Kabul in his first year in office.
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Think about all the excuses to stay in Afghanistan by both Socialist and RINOs. It is the purest definition of insanity – doing the same ‘stuff’ over and over but expecting a different result.
There is no infrastructure in Afghanistan, the politicians don’t even run Kabul let alone the whole country.
But the money that goes out comes back through the backdoor. Remember Ukraine.
My niece piloted a KC-135 during the initial stages of the Afghanistan war and when I mentioned we needed to bomb them into the 6th century, she told me they never left the 6th century. We have been there for 2 decades to what purpose?
I was in Bagram bidding a job 10 years ago. The locals looked like pygmies. Obviously undernourished, they had scraggly, dirty hair and missing teeth. We had to include a given number of them in our bid. It didn’t take much effort to learn they didn’t have the mechanical talent to operate a can opener. They’d just be dead weight. It was just the military’s way of lying to the people back home on how sweetly they were being treated. I wonder what will happen to them when the Taliban takes back over. My guess is working with the invaders will be a death sentence. Poor bastards. I didn’t get the job, thank God
President Trump, my ass. It’s President Kushner.
more like lord Rothschild
The ONLY reason for war with Iran will be if Mad Dog suspects Generals who may turn on the Great Reset.
Those Generals will be put in charge overseas in a war of diversion.
on the contrary… eliminating faithful leadership in this country will be just another example of ‘not wasting a good crisis’. The actual reason? Because, Israel.
Pat, you retard, why would you believe anything in The NY Times?
We will be an Afghanistan, until the 700 military bases around the world, change to check points on China’s Belts and Roads project. After that, the CIA will be in Afghanistan, to ensure the Taliban do not mess with the opium crops.
Pat needs to retire. He’s lost it.
He’s trapped in a world that no longer exists – if it ever did.
As someone mentioned on here previously, he is the guy sitting at the bar waiting on someone to buy him a drink and discuss his glory days.
“Thus, what we are looking at is not only the end of America’s war in Afghanistan but the possible, if not probable, eventual victory of the Taliban.”
So what! Muslims have been fighting each other since the 7th century. Let them have at it. The busier they are over there the less they will be inclined to kill us here.
Further – Trump will not be attacking Iran.
The Afghans chased the Russians out and are now chasing us out. A bunch of horse riding rebels with AK’s and RPG’s have faced down 2 of the most formidable armies in the world due to their tenacity and knowledge of the area.
Should this give hope to the heavily armed citizens of another country that may soon face down the US government?
Please, the ‘wars’ in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc. were all part of the bankers wars and for control of resources. Oil and poppies. Go read the Wolfowitcz doctrine for an understanding of what all those ‘wars’ were about.
We are a conquered people, the conquest happened Nov. 4th when the election was stolen to place a placeholder in office. What we as individuals decide to do about that fact from here on out is key.
My girl – we are not a conquered country, but we are under attack & if we don’t stand up to them, we will go down the dustbin of history
Pat should have been president. Would that he were now! I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve yet to see a person wiser than he with respect to USA politics and their consequences. Any “heritage” America, by whch I mean pre-1968, should be able to see this clearly.
So if Iraq troops go down to 2500 will there be more state dept. employees in our largest embassy in the world? What a boondoggle.
Baghdad
The Embassy of the United States of America in Baghdad is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Republic of Iraq. Ambassador Matthew Tueller is currently the Chief of Mission. At 104 acres (42 ha), it is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, and is nearly as large as Vatican City.