President Joe Biden has boldly gone where 3 other Presidents either could not go or would not go. It’s clear that 35 years as a U.S. Senator and 8 years as Vice President before he became President, has given Biden a deep well of wisdom and battle-tested resolve that enables him to do what no other President can. But now it appears that President Biden has decided to go where at least one other President has gone, and as a result, he will make 20 years of American treasure and life sacrifice WORTHLESS!!!
Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama wanted to bring the American troops home from Afghanistan, but the potential for creating a democracy where it never existed before was too tempting. Bush and Obama were optimistic about the potential of democracy in Afghanistan because of the ease in removing the Taliban from power in 2001. Even though the successful removal of the Taliban in 2001 is referred to as an American military victory technically the ground troops who fought the 2-month war to remove the Taliban were American-led but not American. The American military and allies provided air support from land-based B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bombers, carrier-based F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet fighters, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from both U.S. and British ships and submarines, but the successful fighting on the ground that drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan in only 2 months was done by the Northern Alliance, which had been fighting the Taliban since 1996.
The ease of removing the Taliban might have fooled Bush and Obama but not President Biden and his time-honed wisdom. Senator and Vice President Biden had seen this war game before in Vietnam. To Biden’s credit as Vice President, he privately warned former President Barack Obama to get out of Afghanistan 10 years ago. Biden learned from Vietnam that regardless of how much good democracy can bring to any society, a society has to want democracy bad enough to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve it.
But despite Biden’s deep well of experience wisdom on the dangers of democracy building and ideologically driven pre-emptive warmongering, he seems to be suffering from the adage of not being to see the forest because of the trees. President Biden has been able to go where Bush and Obama couldn’t because year after year he heard the military and hawkish politicians proclaim that democracy was within Afghanistan’s reach. With one final military push, democracy will be achieved throughout Afghanistan.
On the contrary, all Biden saw year after year was American treasure spent to build democracy in Afghanistan diverted to fatten the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials. Year after year of America’s sons and daughters being maimed or killed for a losing, corrupt and anti-democratic cause. Sons and daughters serving in combat were especially close to Biden’s heart since his eldest now-deceased son, Beau Biden, served with distinction in the Iraq War the sister war to the Afghan War.
The Vietnam War debacle and year after year of experiencing the Afghan War’s failure to create democracy in Afghanistan, have pushed President Biden so far into the trees of warfare that he can no longer see the forest of warfare. Every time President Biden has spoken about the Afghan War, and when he addressed the nation Monday to say he did not regret his military withdrawal from Afghanistan and that the buck stopped with him, his words have been laced with an undercurrent of harsh bordering on fanatical intent not to waste American treasure or life on a lost cause.
A President using all his or her might to prevent the waste of American treasure and life is a great thing, but as another adage says too much of anything is a bad thing. Based on his speech to the nation Monday President Biden appears to be letting a potential obsession create the very thing that he is trying to avoid, wasting American treasure and American life.
Since the day President Biden announced the Afghan military withdrawal well over 60% of the American people have agreed it’s the right thing to do. In May after President Biden made the withdrawal announcement polling data indicated a majority of Americans expressed no regret for going to war in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, based on what President Biden did not say and appears unwilling to say, Americans will not only start to regret the Afghanistan War but will start to feel like the whole 20 year Afghanistan effort was WORTHLESS!!! Since President Biden has lived amongst Afghan warfare trees for so long, it’s understandable that he has lost the vision of the Afghan warfare forest that the American people still have.
All President Biden can see being among Afghan war trees is the wasted American treasure, Afghanistan government corruption, and lost American lives. He lost sight of the democracy-building Afghan warfare forest long before the American people lost hope and opportunity for democracy-building in Afghanistan. America is constitutionally wired to be a democracy and to promote democracy to and for all people. The one thing America, China, and Russia all have in common is the quest to dominate the world, where they differ is China and Russia want to dominate the world with autocracy America wants to dominate the world with democracy.
For the last 10 years, President Biden has been deeply convicted in his belief that the war was wrong and deeply frustrated that he was powerless to stop it. When President Biden found himself in the powerful position to stop the war it was equivalent to throwing red meat to a starving lion. He jumped at the first opportunity to shut down the war having long lost warfare forest vision. When he announced the military withdrawal the American people agreed not because they lost the warfare forest vision of democracy-building, but because Americans figured we did our duty and gave democracy more than a fair shot to live and thrive.
Neither the American people nor any American Afghanistan War veterans started thinking wow we have just wasted 20 years because they remembered the very idea of America, the home of the free and the brave, is to fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people wherever democracy has a chance to plant roots. Plus for American citizens and Afghan war vets, there was an extra sweetener besides just feeling good about making a democracy-building attempt, a sweetener that President Biden is threatening to turn bitter and WORTHLESS.
The sweetener that makes the last 20 years well worth the effort for a majority of American citizens and American Afghan War vets are the thousands of Afghan women who gained FREEDOM for the first time in their life, the friendships veterans made with Afghan citizens who literally put their lives on the line to save the life of countless veterans, and the thousands of Afghans who have had the seeds of democracy embedded in their minds and soul that will sprout bushes of liberation wherever they end in the world IF THEY LIVE!!!
It wasn’t until American citizens and Afghan War vets heard President Biden, in his Monday speech, offer no words of gratitude to none of the Afghans who risked their lives to work with Americans. And he only seemed to guarantee that all American citizens would be evacuated and not those Afghans that America gave a guarantee of American citizenship or refugee status in America or a 3rd country. Immediately Afghan vets began raising the question of why did I risk my life to fight the Afghan War, American civilians began to ask why did I risk my life to build a democratic society in Afghanistan if America is going to leave the only tangible gain from my 20-year effort, new philosophical democracy advocates, behind to be killed by the Taliban.
For American citizens who never have been to Afghanistan, Afghanistan War veterans, and American citizen civilians who moved to Afghanistan to help build a free-market economy and a one-person-one-vote democratic society, knew from day 1 that a democratic Afghanistan was never a guarantee. This is why there is no regret over the failed 20 years Afghanistan democracy attempt. And there will not be unless President Biden allows American Afghan collaborators who were the lifesaver of many Americans and the life friend of many others, to be slaughtered by the Taliban.
Saying that America will only fly out the American Afghan collaborators who are already in Kabul is unacceptable. America might not be able to get all of the estimated 100,000 collaborators out of Afghanistan, but America must make every effort to do so for all collaborators wherever they are located in Afghanistan. This means President Biden must temporarily surge the military and push back the August 31st deadline a minimum of 3 months.
At this point Donald Trump and Afghanistan don’t belong in the same sentence, I only mentioned him because President Biden is misleadingly trying to blame Trump for things that he himself must take responsibility for. Trump has not been President for 8 months. For President Biden to insinuate that Trump is to blame for cutting a deal that tied Biden’s hands when the deal Trump cut called for a May withdrawal that Biden alone, with no agreement with the Taliban, decided to push back 3 months to August 31st is a real low point of ducking responsibility on Biden’s part.
President Biden EVERYONE understands how and why you did not know democracy would crumble so quickly in Afghanistan. NO ONE understands why you will not defend the honor of America’s word or go down trying to!!! Please return to the East Room, announce a military surge of 3-6 months for the sole purpose of flying out of Afghanistan as many collaborators as possible from WHEREVER they are located in Afghanistan. So that the world understands America’s word is not WORTHLESS, American citizens know that their taxes did not pay for a WORTHLESS war and American veterans don’t think they fought and died in a WORTHLESS war!!!