EDITORIAL: Afghanistan exit plan botched
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan cannot be laid entirely at President Joe Biden’s feet.
The lack of a coherent exit plan with contingencies that could have addressed what we witnessed over the weekend, however, is entirely Biden’s fault.
And the loss of American credibility and leadership and the blood of Afghans who have died and will die because of this exit failure is on his hands.
From failing to clearly define mission objectives, overlooking corruption from supposed Afghan officials and allies and misleading the public by a lack of honesty on the challenges we faced, multiple administrations have mishandled the Afghanistan mission.
Our brave men and women on the front lines in uniform faithfully and courageously fulfilled their duties with far too many suffering devastating injuries and far too many paying the ultimate sacrifice. They bear no fault for the debacle now unfolding and deserve our continued praise and thanks.
Americans should be far less charitable to Pentagon leaders and officials in multiple administrations – Republican and Democrat – who stumbled along, propping up the corruption and failing to develop an exit plan.
Biden and officials in his administration now are trying to lay the blame of what’s happening in Afghanistan at the feet of their favorite fall guy, former President Donald Trump.
Biden on Monday said he was hamstrung by a deal struck by Trump that called for American troops to leave that country in May. But Biden has not been hemmed in by any other Trump policies and decisions.
Instead, they relish tearing them up.
And while Trump deserves a share of the blame for the mishandling of Afghanistan during his time in office, it was not Trump who determined the parameters of the withdrawal over the past months, the lack of urgency to get those Afghans who worked with us to safety, the decision to withdraw intelligence and air support to the Afghan army over the past weeks and the middle of the night abandonment of the Baghram air base.
And, finally, as we learned over the weekend, leaving thousands of Afghan and Taliban prisoners to be freed to rejoin the fight against the United States.
That’s squarely on Biden and his team.
Biden is right that the American public wanted an end to our Afghanistan involvement. We had grown weary of the fight, and we believe most Americans had come to the realization that promises of a successful, democratic Afghanistan offered by administrations were pipe dreams.
But it is equally clear that Americans didn’t want the botched withdrawal orchestrated by Biden and his administration.
As a result, Afghanistan is a far more dangerous place and will again be a breeding ground for terrorists.
And that will be Biden’s legacy for which we fear future generations will pay an awful price.