What questions need to be asked about Afghanistan?

in #afghanistan3 years ago

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The complete hash made of our withdrawal from Afghanistan is evidence of something very seriously wrong with how America’s political and military leaders make decisions and then implement them. This is not about Democratic or Republican administrations. I doubt that party affiliation makes the difference between stupid and smart decisions.

Somehow we seem to have got it very wrong about the type and level of ongoing support the Afghan government and military would need after our withdrawal. Indeed, what was the reason for the decision to withdraw ALL our troops? World War II ended more than 75 years ago, and the U.S. still has bases and troops in Germany and Japan. 55,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Japan and 35,000 in Germany. Why couldn’t we have permanently stationed a few thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan?

Here are a few additional questions, the answers to which might shed some light on the current reliability or dysfunctionality of American governmental decision-making, at least with regards to Afghanistan:

Do our intelligence services have an appreciative understanding of what Taliban leaders and followers value, how they think, and the actions they are likely to take? The speed with which the Taliban has taken over many provinces of Afghanistan suggests that they should not be thought of as primitive or barbarian.

Why did the U.S. abandon Bagram Air Force base prior to withdrawing all our military and civilian personnel from Afghanistan?

Before our withdrawal, did the U.S. and our international allies formulate any common vision and strategy or reach any common understanding regarding Afghanistan’s future once all our troops and planes left the country?

Was the timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan based on conditions on the ground or was it driven by a commitment to the symbolic date of 9/11, i.e., of shutting down the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan before the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attack?

Were contingency plans developed in case the withdrawal did not go as scheduled and as planned? If so, have those plans been activated?

Certainly more questions can and should be asked about the basis for our calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan and how it played out – questions about our knowledge base, our planning acumen, our commitment to communication with international allies and with the Afghani government, military, and those civilians who worked with us.

It’s too easy to blame only Biden and/or Trump for this debacle. Many more Americans, both military and civilian, bear some responsibility for this massive failure of American foreign policy and for the physical danger faced by tens of thousands of people as long as they remain in Afghanistan.

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The leadership of the American Empire is so much rotten corruption it's shocking. This was the inevitable outcome of Afghanistan and we all knew it since about 2007. The fact that the generals, admirals, state department officials, and CIA station chiefs just kept letting the money flow to themselves, the military contractors, and even the Taliban despite admitting privately that it was entirely futile (see The Afghanistan Papers) proves that America is ruled by corrupt evil dirtbags. I'm also 100% confident that nobody, NOBODY responsible for this debacle will EVER face anything remotely resembling accountability.