LETTER: Afghanistan was a hopeless cause
Afghanistan was a hopeless cause
Contrary to the editorial “Afghan Exit Plan Botched” on Thursday, I don’t believe that the exit plan failure in Afghanistan is President Biden’s fault. Sometimes when the fire department responds to a house fire and attempts to rescue the residents, but the floors and walls are caving in, the fire fighters have to withdraw. It is not their fault that they cannot save people in that situation.
There have been reports recently, including one in the Washington Post, in which former military members described how the public and presumably even the presidents, have been misled by unrealistic predictions about the military situation. One solder talked about Afghan recruits so uneducated that they could not count to four, and so undisciplined that they broke into brawls during training.
The speed at which the Afghan government and army walked away from the fight with the Taliban shows that the floors of the burning building were already collapsing and there was no sense in risking the lives of more firefighters on a hopeless cause.
Kenneth Hanawalt
McMurray