We Hear You: America’s Retreat From Afghanistan

[Valin]

The Daily Signal

Ken McIntyre

August 29, 2021

Editor’s note: The Biden administration’s execution of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan provoked a variety of responses from The Daily Signal’s audience, as illustrated by these examples in the mailbag at letters@dailysignal.com., most of which arrived before news of the loss Thursday of 13 U.S. service members in Kabul.—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: While I am largely sympathetic with James Carafano’s point of view that the Obama-Biden foreign policy of appeasement and “cut and run” remains disastrous for this country, I disagree that President Trump was blameless for the imminent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan (“Don’t Blame Trump for Afghanistan’s Collapse. Blame Obama.”). 

Carafano writes: “Trump was negotiating with the Taliban, but there was nothing wrong with that. The negotiations were conditions-based, and Trump made clear the Taliban would be held accountable for its actions.” 

My view: There was plenty wrong with negotiating with the Taliban without the Afghan government in the room. This delegitimization of the Afghan government sent the Taliban a clear message that the U.S. was pulling out and would not defend this nascent country.

 

This is not to say that the U.S. should have put up with Afghan corruption and incompetence, but better to work with and improve that over time than to bear witness to the slaughter of thousands of Afghans who thought they were our friends.

Murderers of nonbelievers is what the Taliban has been and will continue to be. Same with Iran’s current regime. You don’t negotiate with these kinds of people. You defeat them soundly, just as we did with the ISIS caliphate in Iraq and, before that, Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.

Where there is evil in the world and outright repression, free democracies have the obligation to work together to convincingly defeat such regimes. Freedom is never free. And when free democracies forget that, their own freedom is at risk.—Barry E. Stern

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Dear Daily Signal: I have a somewhat different take than James Carafano on this fiasco. Many respected analysts have mentioned the pattern, including Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, and back to Haiti and Cuba, of the U.S. consistently backing a corrupt strongman, an incompetent, or a combination of the two. Our blind naïveté concerning the local culture and norms has been blamed.

Germany had a bit of history as more or less a democracy; at least it was a Western culture with many cultural and linguistic similarities to the U.S. and U.K. Japan, of course, had none of these. What assured their rebuilding was their utter destruction during World War II, and long-term occupation by U.S. forces.

Yes, they rebuilt themselves industrially, but under our direct and multigenerational military supervision, which is still there. They also had prewar industrial bases from which they could rebuild. Afghanistan had sheep herding, opium cultivation, exactly zero history of anything except tribal infighting, and a long-term history of resisting all foreign, invading cultures, e.g. the U.K., the Soviet Union, and then the U.S.

Added to Carafano’s point about needing a secure border with Pakistan and the massive troop commitment to enforce it, this failure is not surprising. The sad thing is that, in a future generation, we will have learned nothing and yet again will repeat the mistakes.—Paul Levy, Carolina Beach, N.C.

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Can The Daily Signal do an article discussing what is the right balance in Afghanistan? I’m confused by the mixed messages.

The Trump administration wanted to get out too, correct? What would have been Trump’s plan and how would these alignments between countries and powers be different?

I’m not arguing, I’m just trying to understand. I get that the way Biden left is chaotic and left so many U.S. resources. But on these global issues, how would a Trump exit leave the U.S. in a different position?—Joyce Webb

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