Tag: Afghanistan withdrawal

Is Afghanistan a Failed Mission?

Guest Post by Pat Buchanan

Is Afghanistan a Failed Mission?

Truth be told, Afghanistan was never a vital interest of the United States but has always been the most priceless possession of the Afghan people… There never was a vital U.S. interest in Afghanistan worth a war of the cost in blood, treasure and time that we have just fought.

As in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973, the year our prisoners of war came home, America did not lose a major battle in Afghanistan.

Yet we did not win the war. South Vietnam was lost.

And contrary to the message awaiting President George W. Bush when he landed on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which was flaunting the banner “Mission Accomplished,” America did not accomplish its mission.

President Joe Biden said as much Thursday, when he responded to a reporter’s question, “The mission has not failed — yet.”

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Biden Bids Farewell to a ‘Forever War’

Guest Post by Pat Buchanan

Biden Bids Farewell to a 'Forever War'

Afghanistan is only one of the “forever wars” into which our interventionists plunged us that have proven so ruinous to the republic.

“It is time to end the forever war.”

So said President Joe Biden in his announcement that, as of Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, all U.S. troops will be gone from Afghanistan.

The longest war in our history, which cost 2,400 dead, 20,000 wounded and $2 trillion, is ending — but only for Americans, not Afghans.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured our NATO allies in Brussels that we are all leaving with our mission accomplished:

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Is Trump Exiting Afghanistan — to Attack Iran?

Guest Post by Pat Buchanan

Is Trump Exiting Afghanistan -- to Attack Iran?

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.

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Afghanistan, the Longest War in American History

Guest Post by Doug Bandow

The issue is not how much we invested and wasted in 17 years, but whether spending more in the future can be justified.

When President Donald Trump announced that he was withdrawing troops from Syria, shock and hysteria filled Washington. The screaming grew louder when it was reported that the president also intended to remove half of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the rest likely to come home at the end of 2019.

Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, outlasting the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Korean War combined. U.S. soldiers will soon be deploying to a war that started before they were born. Today the Taliban is advancing while the Kabul government is in disarray. Few believe that the latter, irrespective of who is president, can survive absent Washington’s support.

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Troops Out of Syria and Afghanistan? That’s a Good Start!

Guest Post by Ron Paul

We all had a big shock this week when, seemingly out of the blue, President Trump announced that he was removing US troops from Syria and would draw down half of the remaining US troops in Afghanistan. The president told us the troops were in Syria to fight ISIS and with ISIS nearly gone the Syrians and their allies could finish the job.

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