Afghanistan Collapse

When George W. Bush took us into Afghanistan after 9/11, we did the right thing. We crushed Al Qaeda and many of their co-conspirators. But as time passed, we went down a rabbit hole seeking an impossible goal. 

For nearly 20 years we tried to turn Afghanistan into a functioning democracy. Nation-building became the goal, even though we did not have the moral courage to completely crush the jihadist enemy.

Donald Trump ran in 2016 promising to get us out of the Afghanistan quagmire. He recognized the futility of a policy followed under multiple administrations that sacrificed our brave warriors and spent hundreds of billions of dollars, while never unleashing our full military power. It was time to leave Afghanistan, but not like this fiasco.

President Trump directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to negotiate a phased withdrawal. He told the Taliban that any attacks on our forces would be met with an overwhelming military response. No U.S. soldier died in Afghanistan over the last 12 months as a result.

When Joe Biden took office, he was given a carefully constructed plan put together by Trump, Pence and Pompeo. He either did not know about it or chose not to implement it. Instead, he completely botched it. He couldn't even retreat competently. 

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in the Obama Administration, wrote in his memoir that Joe Biden has "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Biden has kept his streak alive.

He was massively wrong when he said just a few weeks ago that it was "highly unlikely" that the Taliban would quickly take over Afghanistan. He and the Pentagon leadership were caught completely flat-footed.

This fiasco is a colossal defeat for the United States. Massive amounts of U.S. weaponry are falling into the hands of our enemies. Some Afghan security forces are reportedly fleeing to Iran with U.S. equipment. Every U.S. ally from Israel to Taiwan has to wonder about the will of America under a weak, failing president.