This post is not about the last 20 years in Afghanistan and all the wrong policies that have been implemented. Nor is it about the fact that the Taliban wanted to surrender after several months of American bombing in 2001, but the Bush administration said that the U.S. does not negotiate surrender. That is, the Taliban would have to surrender; no terms. Nor is it about Trump's terrible decision to negotiate our withdrawal with the Taliban.
This is about what could/should have happened in the last month or two leading up to the departure of U.S. troops. Everyone, including The New York Times, says that regardless what Biden would have done, the pullout would have been a mess. I respectfully disagree.
While our forces did not have the advantage in the wilds of Afghanistan - it never has the advantage in a guerrilla war - it still had the advantage in the plains around Kabul. What the President should have done, before the collapse of Kabul security, was announce that he has ordered the military to redeploy in order to:
- secure the airport,
- secure the road to the airport
- secure Kabul until all Americans and Afghans [situated in Kabul] who helped our effort and wanted to leave were evacuated.
Only then, would U.S forces withdraw and leave.
This last phase should not have been left to the Afghan security forces. Yes, American intelligence thought they would hold on for a few months, but that wasn't a chance they should have taken
This would have been a conditioned withdrawal, rather than time-certain, which Biden has rejected. But it would have been a pullout in which the U.S. would have been in control and it would have been orderly. No repeat of Saigon.
Instead, it appears to the world as if the Taliban is in control, which they are, and the greatest military force in the world is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, depending on the Taliban to protect them from ISIS. Not pretty.
