On April 14, 2021, President Joseph Biden said that America would withdraw its armed forces from Afghanistan by September 11, thus ending the nearly 20-year war.

“How many more, how many more thousands of American daughters and sons are you willing to risk?” Biden said to those calling for the United States to extend the military operation. 

Apparently, for Republicans, there is no limit to the number of Americans deserving to be killed on behalf of a barbaric people. 

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said: “No one has ever been held accountable” for the haphazard removal of American troops from Afghanistan.

The truth is: Republicans have two constituencies:

1. The 1% richest, who can be satisfied only with tax cuts and government subsidies; and
2. Poor and middle-class Fascists, who can be fobbed off with appeals to their hatred and prejudice.

Attacking Biden for not continuing to waste American lives and treasure on a barbarous “country” is aimed at appeasing the second group. 

House Republicans are expected to zero in on the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. 

“Why did it go so badly? Why were Americans left behind? Why were Afghan partners we promised to protect, 100,000 of them, left to the Taliban?” Michael McCaul (R-TX) demanded.

Michael McCaul

To answer his questions:

• If Americans were left behind, they had four months—May to September—to clear out.
• Afghans were content to let Americans fight—and die—for them.
• When the Taliban launched its final offensive on May 1, 2021, tens of thousands of cowardly Afghan “soldiers” fled to Kabul Airport—to seek asylum in the United States. 
• They left behind their wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters to face slavery and brutality.
• Withdrawals during a war usually prove chaotic, if not disastrous.

To put the consequences of America’s losses in human terms:

On December 21, 2015, a suicide-bomber rammed an explosives-laden motorcycle into a joint NATO-Afghan patrol.  Six American troops and an Afghan were killed.

One of the dead was Joseph Lemm, 45, a detective and 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department. A technical sergeant in the New York Air National Guard, he had been deployed three times—once to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan.

Joseph Lemm

Lemm left behind a daughter, Brook, 16, a son, Ryan, four, and his wife, Christine.

“He was just everything for our family. He was always my rock,” said his widow.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo ordered that flags on all state government buildings be flown at half-staff on December 23 in Lemm’s honor.

“Staff Sergeant Joe Lemm served this nation with the selflessness and bravery that embodies the U.S. Armed Forces and the NYPD,” Cuomo said in a statement. 

Lemm’s death was a double tragedy—that of a dedicated man who should not have died so needlessly. 

A total of 2,456 American military personnel in Afghanistan died and 20,752 were wounded since 2001. The cost of military operations is put at $2 trillion.

The history of American conflict in Afghanistan began on September 11, 2001.

Nineteen Islamic hijackers slammed two jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

The mastermind of the attacks was Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire then living in Afghanistan, under protection by its ruling thugocracy, the Taliban.

President George W. Bush demanded his immediate surrender to American justice.

The Taliban refused.

So, on October 7, 2011, American bombers began pounding Taliban positions.

In December, 2001, Bin Laden holed up in the mountains of Tora Bora—and then escaped into Pakistan.

Thus, there was no longer any point in pressuring the Taliban to surrender Bin Laden. Nor to stay in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden

Still, the United States continued to commit forces to Afghanistan—to turn a primitive, warlord-ruled country into a modern-day democracy.

Despite the Taliban’s horrific atrocities, the United States was not obligated to squander its citizens and treasure

In pursuing that goal, the Bush and Obama administrations repeatedly overlooked the following realities:

• Hamid Karzai, the “president” of Afghanistan (2001-2014) didn’t believe in democracy—despite American claims to support his efforts to bring this to Afghanistan.
• His authority didn’t extend beyond Kabul, and he was viewed by most Afghans as an illegitimate ruler, imposed by America.
• Ditto for his successor, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
• American soldiers in Afghanistan felt surrounded by enemies and hamstrung by unrealistic orders to win “hearts and minds” at the risk of their own lives.
• The Taliban poses no threat to the United States.
• Americans entered Afghanistan without an exit strategy.

All these truths applied to America’s failed misadventure in Vietnam.

American “grunts” felt about their so-called South Vietnamese allies as American troops felt about their Afghan “allies.”

According to Dr. Dennis Greenbaum, a former army medic:

“The highest [priority for medical treatment] was any U.S. person. The second highest was a U.S. dog from the canine corps. The third was NVA [North Vietnamese Army].

“The fourth was VC [Viet Cong]. And the fifth was ARVIN [Army of the Republic of South Vietnam], because they had no particular value. The only thing below them was the civilians,” said Greenbaum.

When you despise the “ally” you’re spending lives and treasure to defend, it’s time to pack up.