{"id":65762,"date":"2021-07-15T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T01:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=65762"},"modified":"2021-07-15T10:34:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T00:34:31","slug":"bidens-afghan-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/bidens-afghan-blunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Afghan blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Afghanistan is on the brink of catastrophe, and it is US President Joe Biden\u2019s fault. By overruling<\/a> America\u2019s top generals and ordering the hasty withdrawal of US troops, Biden opened the way for Taliban terrorists to capture more than a quarter<\/a> of Afghanistan\u2019s districts. Now, the Taliban are pushing towards Kabul, and the United States is looking weaker than ever.<\/p>\n

The US effectively ended its military operations in Afghanistan on 1 July when it handed over to the Afghan government the sprawling Bagram airbase, which long served as the staging ground for US operations in the country. In fact, \u2018handover\u2019 is too generous a description. In a sign of what\u2019s to come, US forces quietly slipped out<\/a> of the base overnight after shutting off the electricity. The resulting security lapse allowed looters to scavenge the facilities before Afghan troops arrived and gained control.<\/p>\n

Biden has vehemently defended<\/a> his decision to withdraw, arguing that the US \u2018did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build\u2019 and that \u2018staying would have meant US troops taking casualties\u2019. He has also stood by his rushed approach, insisting that \u2018speed is safety\u2019 in this context. \u2018How many thousands more of America\u2019s daughters and sons are you willing to risk?\u2019<\/p>\n

The implication was clear: questioning the wisdom of the US withdrawal is tantamount to supporting the endangerment of Americans. But it is Afghans who are really in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Recall the last time the US left a war unfinished: in 1973, it hastily abandoned its allies<\/a> in South Vietnam. The next year, 80,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were reportedly killed as a result of the conflict, making it the deadliest year<\/a> of the entire Vietnam War. It\u2019s also worth noting that in 1975, the US effectively handed Cambodia<\/a> to the China-backed ultra-communist Khmer Rouge, who went on to carry out unimaginable horrors.<\/p>\n

Now, the US is leaving Afghans at the mercy of a marauding Islamist force\u2014one with a long history of savage behaviour<\/a>. Already, the Taliban offensive has displaced tens of thousands of civilians. And while the Afghan government in Kabul teeters, the Taliban are seizing<\/a> American weapons from the Afghan military and showing them off as they march across the country.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s justification for rushing out of Afghanistan is much weaker than its reasoning for leaving Vietnam. Whereas 58,220<\/a> Americans (largely draftees) died in Vietnam, only 2,448<\/a> US soldiers (all volunteers) died over the course of 20 years in Afghanistan. Moreover, since it formally ended its combat mission on 1 January 2015, the US have suffered just 99 fatalities<\/a>, including in non-hostile incidents. During the same period, more than 28,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed.<\/p>\n

None of this is to minimise the blood and treasure the US has sacrificed in Afghanistan, let alone suggest that American troops should stay indefinitely. On the contrary, ending America\u2019s longest war is a worthy goal. But Biden\u2019s approach entails effectively admitting<\/a> that a terrorist militia has defeated the world\u2019s most powerful military, and then handing Afghanistan back to that militia. This undercuts global trust in the US, jeopardises<\/a> Afghan and regional security, and threatens to trigger a resurgence of terror worldwide.<\/p>\n

The Taliban\u2019s impending return to power will surely energise and embolden other terrorist groups in the larger global jihadist movement. Furthermore, the Taliban, a creature of Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, still receive significant aid from Pakistan\u2019s military. So, while Biden says that Afghanistan\u2019s future is now in its own hands<\/a>, it is actually mostly in Pakistani hands, as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among those facing the most acute risks is India. When the Taliban were last in power, from 1996 to 2001, they allowed<\/a> Pakistan to use Afghan territory to train terrorists for missions in India. The group\u2019s return to power could thus open a new front for terrorism against India, which would then have to shift its focus from the intensifying military standoffs<\/a> with China in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

The Taliban\u2019s resurgence in Afghanistan helps China in other ways, too. Given that Pakistan is a Chinese client, the US withdrawal paves the way for China to make strategic inroads into Afghanistan, with its substantial mineral wealth and strategic location between Pakistan and Iran.<\/p>\n

China would achieve this by offering the Taliban the two things<\/a> they desperately need: international recognition and economic aid. With Russia also likely to recognise the Taliban\u2019s leadership in Afghanistan, the group will have little incentive to moderate its violence, despite its current attempts to polish its image<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Biden had a better option: the US could have maintained a small residual force in Afghanistan, in order to provide critical air support and reassurance to Afghan forces. Yes, that would have violated the deal Biden\u2019s predecessor, Donald Trump, struck with the Taliban in February 2020. But the Taliban have already violated<\/a> that Faustian bargain. Biden was happy to overturn many of Trump\u2019s other actions, making his insistence on upholding this deal difficult to understand.<\/p>\n

Biden says<\/a> the US is \u2018developing a counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability\u2019 that doesn\u2019t require a physical presence in Afghanistan. But if Afghan security continues to unravel, over-the-horizon operations will make little difference. The more likely scenario will be an emergency evacuation of US embassy personnel and other American citizens from Kabul, much like the evacuation from Saigon in 1975. India, for one, has already begun<\/a> such an exodus, evacuating its consulate staff from Kandahar.<\/p>\n

Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defence under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, wrote<\/a> in 2014 that Biden \u2018has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades\u2019. The hurried US withdrawal from Afghanistan is set to extend that pattern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan is on the brink of catastrophe, and it is US President Joe Biden\u2019s fault. By overruling America\u2019s top generals and ordering the hasty withdrawal of US troops, Biden opened the way for Taliban terrorists …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":65763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[43,2825,1088],"class_list":["post-65762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-afghanistan","tag-joe-biden","tag-taliban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBiden\u2019s Afghan blunder | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/bidens-afghan-blunder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden\u2019s Afghan blunder | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Afghanistan is on the brink of catastrophe, and it is US President Joe Biden\u2019s fault. 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