America Leaves Afghanistan
I will not pretend to know anything about military strategy. I have, however, seen the photos of the refugees, the burned cities, and the chaos that has ensued since the US began pulling troops from the Middle East.
From what I understand, the United States was positioned in the Middle East to seek "justice" for 9/11. They wanted to kill Osama Bin Laden and make sure that Afghanistan was not used as a base against the United States. While we were there, though, the military presence deterred other militant groups from attacking each other and in essence serving as a mediator of sorts.
It makes sense that the United States would leave Afghanistan. It's been almost 20 years of conflict, and we seem to have accomplished our original goals. With this, enough Americans have died fighting that battle, and given that we seem to have accomplished our goals, those men and women deserve to come home. Biden defended his decision with similar points.
Yet, as American planes leave and bases are vacated, local militant groups are attacking civilians and burning cities.
I agree that the war seemed to be dragging on. There did not seem to be anything left for America in the Middle East, especially not the things that we originally wanted. But, this chaos, a result of American troops leaving, could have been limited or perhaps avoided, if the United States had been more strategic about pulling troops.
I believe that if troops were evacuated at a slower rate, the aftermath would have been less disastrous. evacuating over a year's time, or even nine or ten months would have greatly helped the current refugee crisis. Countries would have been better equipped to deal with the displaced families and emerging militant groups.
Some even argue that the United States should leave a few troops in Afghanistan to help quell the conflict. After all, America's presence in the Middle East did threaten many groups, subsequently leading to less fighting (some would say).
It's all hypothetical and certainly up for debate. What is certain, however, is that the current situation in Afghanistan is nothing short of heartbreaking.
Jackie, I appreciate your acknowledgement of areas in which you know very little (military strategy). Yet you also do a good job of raising legitimate questions. The Taliban is a military organization and also an extremist Islamist political, military, social and legal movement. There appears to be an emerging schism between the Taliban and ISIS(-K) who are now at war because the latter argues the Taliban have become too compliant/cooperative with Western Powers. When the Taliban seized control over Kabul, they released 100s of prisoners... except 9 ISIS-K members who were summarily executed by the Taliban. A recent ex-Obama Secretary (Leon Panetta) argued that the US will have to actually re-enter Afghanistan in order to quell and locate terrorist threats tp the US.
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