"After consulting closely with our Allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence professionals, with our diplomats and development experts, and with Congress and the Vice President, I have concluded that: It is time to end America's longest war. It is time for American troops to come home." - President Joe Biden on Wednesday
Every American should be aware of the details behind America's never-ending war, the Afghanistan conflict. We entered shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to retaliate against violent Islamic al-Qaeda extremists who had murdered 3,000 of our own in the Twin Towers in New York City. Almost all Americans, including me, strongly supported our subsequent actions against these people who were trained in Afghanistan, although not citizens of that land.
But that was 20 years and $3 trillion ago. And 2,400 troops have died.
In the last decade, we have reduced our troops overseas from about 350,000 to about 175,000. Most of this occurred in the Obama Administration, but Trump also reduced troops overseas significantly. Trump also pledged numerous times to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.
I opposed almost all of Trump's domestic policy. But on Afghanistan (and the Middle East in general) he was correct. It's past time to let the "good" Afghans defend themselves from the extremists in their midst. Certainly, by now the Taliban have learned their lesson and they will not be allowing foreign terrorists to once again attack us from their soil. Note - the men attacking the Twin Towers were Saudis, but we never attacked (or even censured) Saudi Arabia.
On Feb. 29, 2020, President Trump stated, "It's time to bring our people back home." Specifically, last February Trump agreed (as part of a bilateral Taliban peace deal) to begin troop withdrawals, reducing our presence from 12,000 to 8,600 in 135 days.
The Taliban agreed as part of the agreement that they would not allow al-Qaeda and/or like groups to operate in their areas. The allies also agreed that this would be the first step leading to a full withdrawal by May 2021. Although the Afghani president did not initially agree to release the Taliban prisoners demanded by the Taliban, he eventually did and entered into talks with the Taliban.
After Trump lost the election, Sen. Mitch McConnell suddenly got vocal on the matter of withdrawal. In late November 2020, the then-Senate Majority Leader stated to Congress that we were "defending American national security" by staying. He failed to mention that there was little public support for doing so or that he was relatively quiet when Trump was in power. Or that the Afghan war had already cost us $3 trillion - a billion dollars for every American murdered by the Saudi al-Qaeda adherents.
Biden has acknowledged that it will not be possible to meet the May deadline. However, he is stating that all troops will be withdrawn by Sept. 11, 2021.
After 20 years, isn't it about time?
Jack Bernard is the former director of health planning for the state of Georgia and a retired senior vice president with a national health care firm. He was also the chairman of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party.