The execution of the US departure has been woeful. He didn't even put a perimeter around Kabul! If he'd prepared, he'd have had manpower available to make the evacuation safe. I think Biden has to cop responsibility for that.
It has damaged not only Afghanistan, but the trust of the US' NATO allies who were not consulted, nor were they given advanced warning. This will undoubtedly have knock-on effects for the US in future engagements. The exit wasn't what leadership looks like.
But, as I've said, it's clear the US was blindsided by the scale of the corruption of Afghanistan's leaders and the speed of the collapse. They clearly sold out. So I give Biden a bit of a pass on that.
I do understand the US wish to leave and that it feels it has discharged its responsibilities to the Afghan people. That it didn't want to be there forever. It didn't feel obliged to build a nation.
But the original reason you were there was to stop terrorism of the 9/11 sort in the US. That was a success. And it has been thrown away.
The $2 trillion number is designed to shock Americans. It was spent over 20 years and includes the initial war. The bulk of the cost was long ago. The current annual cost is tiny to a country the size of the US.
Let us suppose in five years, there's another 9/11 launched from Afhanistan by AQ. What then?
Many more American lives lost than would have been lost by maintaining a small force there. A far greater cost. No allies to support you in responding, because they know their interests are disregarded.
Now that they have seen that the Dems don't have any commitment to their military engagements (remember Obama's red line), China will think now is a good time to seize Taiwan and Putin will be emboldened in his ambitions to restore the Old Soviet Union. A more dangerous world. Pax Americana is sorta over.
Maintaining a small force was probably the least bad option. But if the US was determined to leave, then do it well. The military people should have been the last to leave. Leaving thousands of civilians from many allied countries (who were there to support the NATO nation-building effort) scattered around Kabul unable to get to the airport was a terrible thing to do.
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