Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
How many U.S. generals knew what was going on but declined to risk their careers by telling Congress or the country that the Afghan army and regime we had stood up would likely collapse like a house of cards once the Americans departed and they had to face the Taliban alone?
In April, President Joe Biden told the nation he would have all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever on the continental United States.
Given the turn of events of the past week, that 20th anniversary may be celebrated by a triumphant Taliban, now on the cusp of victory over the Americans and their Afghan allies, with gruesome public executions of their surrendered and captured enemies.
Sept. 11, 2021, could see U.S. Marines and diplomats fleeing Kabul to escape the retribution of the Taliban whom we ousted in 2001.
Consider. From Friday, a week ago, to today, the Taliban have overrun 10 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals.
Mazar-e-Sharif in the north is now surrounded. Kandahar and Herat, second and third largest cities, are under siege. The Kandahar-Kabul road has been cut. The defense minister escaped assassination in the capital. The government’s media director did not. The Taliban now control half of the 400 regions of Afghanistan and two-thirds of its territory.
Some Afghan soldiers have fought bravely. Others have retreated into their bases, surrendered, or fled into neighboring countries such as Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. An entire Afghan army corps with its U.S. weapons, equipment and vehicles was surrendered in Kunduz city.
U.S. military say the fall of Kabul could come within 90 days, with some saying privately the regime could fall to the Taliban within a month.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has summarized the situation:
“The complete, utter failure of the Afghan national army, absent our hand-holding, to defend their country is a blistering indictment of a failed 20-year strategy predicated on the belief that billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars could create an effective democratic central government in a nation that has never had one.”
The reality of that grim assessment raises many questions.
Who is responsible for the colossal U.S. failure in Afghanistan? Who is responsible for America’s impending defeat in her longest war?
Over the last 20 years, the U.S. lost 2,500 troops with 20,000 wounded and invested $1 trillion to create an Afghan army, only to see that army crumble and disintegrate as soon as we departed.
Wednesday, Biden conceded that truth:
“Look, we spent over $1 trillion over 20 years; we trained and equipped … over 300,000 Afghan forces. Afghan leaders have to come together. They’ve got to fight for themselves.”
We are facing in Afghanistan a wipeout of the investment of a generation to convert Afghanistan into a democracy with the ability to hold the allegiance of its people and to defend itself.
Why did we fail?
Did the U.S. generals, statesmen, politicians and journalists who went to Afghanistan during these last two decades, and came back to testify to our steady progress, delude themselves? Or did they deceive us?
How many U.S. generals knew what was going on but declined to risk their careers by telling Congress or the country that the Afghan army and regime we had stood up would likely collapse like a house of cards once the Americans departed and they had to face the Taliban alone?
Today, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is in Qatar threatening the Taliban that if they overrun the country and impose a victor’s peace, they risk being denied diplomatic recognition by the U.S. and its Western allies and a forfeiture of future foreign aid.
But to brand the Taliban terrorists and pariahs is not new to them. What they seek is something for which they have proven they are willing to die.
What is critical for them is to restore the Taliban to their previous dominance; to create an Islamic Emirate; to make themselves the moral, social and political arbiters of a more purely Islamic Afghanistan.
And to be rid of the outsiders and their alien values.
They want to be able to stand up and say to the Muslim world: “We have shown you how to do it. We fought America, the world superpower, for 20 years until we forced the Americans, tails between their legs, to get out of our land, and then put their puppets up against a wall.”
While our strategic defeat will leave Americans reluctant to attempt any such future imperial interventions, there needs to be an accounting.
The questions that need answering:
Was not the attempt to transplant Madisonian democracy into the soil of the Middle and Near East a fool’s errand from the beginning?
How many other U.S. allies field paper armies, which will collapse, if they do not have the Americans there to do the heavy lifting?
Is what we have on offer — one man-one vote democracy — truly appealing in a part of the world where democracy seems to have trouble, from the Maghreb to the Middle East to Central Asia, putting down any deep roots?
The Taliban’s God is Allah. The golden calf we had on offer was democracy. In the Hindu Kush, their god has proven stronger.
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The “terrorists” who pulled off 9-11 are living comfortably in Crawford, Texas, wherever Cheney is at, and elsewhere across the US and Israel. We went into Afghanistan for the opium poppy crop for the CIA and to provide cover for massive dollar transfers to Halliburton and others in the MIC and to justify domestic tyranny on an unprecedented scale. As always with US wars, the biggest losers were the citizens of the nation we invaded, destroyed, occupied, and exploited. Until Pat finally figures that out, he will continue to think that US foreign policy is about peace or some other bullshit.
Allah be praised; Pat is getting some religion.
THe B3RG* tools running Washington D.C. don’t give a shit or even a moments remorse about the blood and treasure wasted nor the optics and neither the humiliation of defeat by the Taliban. Taxpayers be DAMNED. It was most lucrative for them in any case with rich government contracts to friends and relatives and sweet profits from poppies helping the “black ops” revenue streams and slush funds. The Bringing Them Democracy© show is always rolled out to keep the imbeciles at the Pentagram and the morons inhabiting the State Department with the appearance of active employment.
The ‘Murkin citizenry is ultimately responsible for keeping the same terrible fucking politicians in power forever while putting up with the interminable incompetence and corruption of the career civil service*.
*Dr Falsi the paradigmatic exemplar.
The founding traitors provide no mechanism in the constitution for screening for psychopaths. In fact it creates a perfect ecosystem for them to thrive.
But the second amendment was supposed to provide a mechanism for addressing the problem too (even if a bit late).
In retrospect, Her Majesty is starting to look pretty benign.
Let’s ask Meghan Markle and spouse Harriet about that.
Posted this before, last few weeks prove it once again. I worked over there as a facilities maintenance contractor. I was never in the military.
(1) It was obvious the ANA soldier and Afghan security forces had no will to fight, none. They are undisciplined, just making money.
(2) Culture eats strategy for breakfast…Peter Drucker
From Bush to Biden, nothing but lies, 2 Trillion spent, and according to Wiki … As of July 27, 2018, there have been 2,372 U.S. military deaths, 20,320 American servicemembers wounded in action during the war.[1] In addition, there were 1,720 U.S. civilian contractor fatalities
Biden should be impeached for allowing our major bases in Kandahar and Bagram to be turned over to the ANA. Will never read a MSM article stating Biden surrendered.
Yesterday the NYT is reporting
Can’t make this stuff up!
“Biden should be impeached”
Huh? He’s not the pResident, how can he be impeached?
We had to leave the money pit eventually.
The Afghans know who they are…a tribal society with traditional Islamic values…And are ready to fight for that traditional society…Can’t say the same for Americans…
Yep. Afghan FIGHT to save their country. We surrender.
This was not a “war”.
This last time the US declared war was WW II.
We won that war the way most wars are won, killing as many of the enemy as fast as you can and willing to sacrifice multitudes of innocent non-combatants to achieve a greater good (allegedly).
Walking around until you draw fire and call in artillery/airstrike and driving around in Humvees until you eventually run over an IED and then go “knock on doors” trying to find those responsible is not a winning strategy.
What a waste of fake money and real lives.
Pathetic propaganda to frame in peoples minds that war is like some kind of sportsball game. Pat is determined to shill into the grave. I am sure the grave won’t slow down his columns, though.
“U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad” The problem in one sentence.
Saudis attacked on 911, so we attacked Afghanistan. it was all very stupid from the start. A money-making thing for many for years. Criminal.
I don’t think it was Saudis. From the same part of the world though.
Posted without further comment about our corrupt and incompetent military “leaders” and politicians:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/11/turning-the-corner-in-afghanistan.html
Same as Nam. Mel gibson even made a movie about it, running dope and guns.
“Air America” for those that are to young to have seen it.
The war was never meant to be won, it was meant to be continuous.
The CIA has had 20 years of the obscene profits from the dope business, and they will NOT be giving that up without a helluva fight / deception to stay as peace keepers, or whatever.
>>>The war was never meant to be won, it was meant to be continuous.
As per Orwell’s 1984: the purpose of war is not victory.
Aah, They just move the show to South America.
If push comes to shove, I am confident that the Latvian Army can tie down the Russian military for a solid six months, at least. They can trade territory for time and make the Russkies pay dearly for every inch!
I’m waiting for the first asshat who doesn’t get your sarcasm.
The problem is, with this withdrawal, the United States of America has finally been shown to the entire World to be what they always have been.
Yes it is so shameful, so wasteful, so arrogant, so presumptuous, so confused, so misused, so misdirected …. I can go on but to do so inflames and embarrasses and there is nowhere to Hide from it.
It is an abject failure so bad that the Nation will become a perennially marked and mocked.
You elected the leadership failures and you continue to reward them.
The Current leadership is Infamous and a disgrace.
I tend to go with Buchanan on “some” of this points but it always grates on me when someone asks “who lost (fill in the blanks, Afghan, iraq, syria, vietnam, china,libya) as if it was the empire’s country to lose. The arrogance behind such a question is nauseating.
And to state at the end, that the empire was offering democracy is simply laughable!