I have predicted several times that we would be leaving Afghanistan. It now looks like this will happen and we will be gone by September 11, 2021. Five comments:
First, I’m not surprised. Joe Biden was always going to leave. And he will get it done because his people want to leave, too,1 and because we are putting no conditions on what the Taliban, etc., have to done before we leave.
Third, even though we are abandoning the Afghan people who have relied on us (a not uncommon occurrence for people who rely on us), at least we are giving our NATO allies, who are in Afghanistan, too, enough notice so they can get out at the same time we do. Donald Trump wouldn’t have cared about this.
Fourth, we’ll see how well it works out. I don’t think it will be good. Also, while we can say we are retaining a counterterrorism capability in the area if we need it in Afghanistan, without intelligence from people on the ground, counterterrorism efforts will be harder and less effective. I hope the people in the Biden administration realize this.
Finally, I don’t know who came up with the idea of setting September 11 as a deadline for leaving Afghanistan. It’s appalling. When George H.W. Bush stopped the land operations in the Gulf War after 100 hours, it was a great symbol – because we had won. Setting September 11 as the date for leaving Afghanistan, when we have lost, is embarrassing.
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1 Many of President Trump’s people did not think we should leave in this kind of way, and he couldn’t get it done.
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