Winter training area - Camp Fuji Japan 1975 (my John Wayne phase)
What the US did in Afghanistan was to commit reverse colonization. Meaning we occupied a sovereign country by force. But instead of extracting wealth out of the “colony” we sent almost a trillion dollars into the hands of corrupt fools who took advantage of the US cadre of fools who sent the money. All of this was in the name of “nation building.” We could have left once Bin Laden was sent to his watery grave. We should have left.
Many in the media are lamenting the death toll in Afghanistan and hinting that those deaths will have been in vain if we “abandon” the country. If we stay the toll will only grow. At what point do they want to stop the sacrifice? I’ve seen this before. The political elites and the media can’t have it both ways. Leave and stop the bloodshed or stay and bleed while they complain about the cost.
At various points in the Vietnam War the public called for making peace in Vietnam. Members at each level of political life and media institutions cried out that, “if we get out now, then all of what we’ve lost will be in vain.” The call to leave Vietnam when there were 25,000 dead American soldiers was ignored. Then 35,000, then 45,000 and only until the toll had reached 55,000 dead Americans was there political will to “lose” in Vietnam.
The Viet Minh espoused a long view strategy of the war. So did the Taliban. They both knew eventually the American invaders would tire and go home. We did and we are.
I was on the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 as a very young marine. I remember the anxiety. I remember the South Vietnamese elite “escaping” to the USS Denver using helicopters and anything that would float to abandon their country.
They must not have thought democracy was worth fighting for. They didn’t fight. They ran away. The corruption there was also vast and many made millions during the war and took that money and lived lavishly in the US, France and other places that would accept them (there was a difference between the political elite and the average Vietnamese refugee).
The Pentagon Papers exposed the lies told to us that we were winning in Vietnam.
The reports coming out of Afghanistan are that the Taliban made deals with local governments, the police and military units to come over to their side. Police commanders report that they hadn’t been paid by the central government for 6-9 months and the Taliban offered them $150 which they took.
The Washington Post exposed the same sort of lies used to justify staying in Afghanistan as was used to justify remaining in Vietnam. It was exasperating and disheartening reading the Lessons Learned documents containing the verbatim transcripts of the observations of generals and ambassadors collected over 15 years in Afghanistan.
Like the truths exposed by the Pentagon Papers about the war in Vietnam, in Afghanistan the military and political leaders there and in Washington DC spent years telling the public we were winning. Simultaneously those generals and ambassadors were lamenting in recorded interviews there was no strategy, no purpose, no overarching goal, nothing.
Our leaders were also complicit in a level of corruption in Afghanistan that undermined the very purpose of what we were supposed to be doing there. Why, because it was easy and no one wanted to “lose” in Afghanistan.
We are witnessing history repeating itself.
You can blame President Biden if you want. Or you can blame Trump or Obama. The real perpetrators are Bush and the rat bastard Bin Laden.
I also have to say that I think the American people carry some of the blame. Afghanistan was pretty much forgotten by the public. This is one of the costs of an all volunteer military. The general public has/had no skin in the game. The US has a giant global footprint with important responsibilities and we’ve turned our military into a subset of America that is ignored by the rest of Americans. Yet the military further the geopolitical strategic goals that keep the US humming along. American leadership on the world stage is a real thing.
This will be a blip in our foreign policy like leaving Vietnam. Oh, the horror of leaving Vietnam. The predictions of what would happen to the US as a country were dire and they all turned out to be nonsense.
Except the part where we had to live with over 55,000 dead Americans, thousands more wounded, and the walking wounded that today we still treat medically and psychologically (I’m not overlooking the impact on Vietnam or its citizens once North Vietnamese took over — but that is another diary).
Can you imagine what would happen if there was the draft and draftees were sent to a war in Afghanistan with no real purpose and no real end date?
Yeah, it would have been over a long time ago.
