The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan and the events unfolding are hard to watch. What is even harder to contemplate are the things we will not see on television. At times like these, imagination is a curse because it is what is not allowed to be broadcast, what is not allowed to be shown, that is most disturbing and disgusting.
In the plight of Afghanistan, we have a familiar script from which to read. Another war, another intervention, and another cataclysmic failure on the part of decision-making in Washington, D.C. This time the embarrassing blunder arises from a seemingly unsuspecting source in President Joe Biden. Hailed by those on the left as a clear-eyed practical and tactical decision maker with a knack for foreign policy, he has made an appreciable mistake that is sure to tarnish any legacy he planned on cementing.
The mistake Biden has made is not the one that most mainstream media outlets are perseverating on. The mistake is not the way in which he miscalculated the exit strategy itself. Let us be crystal clear in stating that the mistake was entertaining the idea of leaving Afghanistan in the first place. The facts do not lie in this case, and they are unsettling. The facts come down to precedent, resources, and ethics.
First, when it comes to precedent, the American military has a strong track record with residual forces in post-war or post-conflict scenarios. From 20th century Germany to the present-day middle east in both Iraq and Syria, residual forces have been a cornerstone of American foreign policy for decades. The idea of a residual force staying behind in Afghanistan, however unforgiving the hyper-left leaning political winds are at home, is not onerous and it would be far from novel. Further, history provides wisdom along the lines of residual forces and premature drawdowns. Barack Obama’s cowardly and political decision to drawdown in Iraq mirrors Biden’s. In the case of Iraq, a line can be drawn from Obama’s misstep and the subsequent rise of ISIS in the region.
Second, we must consider the resources involved in maintaining a residual force. The numbers when faced squarely speak for themselves. Most recently, a very small military investment held things together in Afghanistan. In total, 2,500 noncombatant troops, 1,000 combatant troops and around 7,000 NATO forces, was the investment needed to maintain peace and relative order. Focusing on the American military alone, this amounts to around 0.20% of active duty members operating around the world.
These are small absolute numbers in comparison to other deployments. The US current has nearly 40,000 troops stationed in Germany as part of its NATO commitments. Thousands of troops remain in Iraq and Syria. And in many of these cases, soldiers rotate through commitments, further lessoning the human burden of deployment.
Given Trump’s commitment to leave, some have argued that the Taliban have been patiently waiting in the wings, hesitant to escalate conflict when time was on their side. While worth considering, this logic is not compelling, given what a doubling or tripling of troops and resources would amount to in relation to what was being secured and defended in Afghanistan.
Finally, the decision to leave is an egregious moral lapse, and adds meaningfully to a pattern of the same in Washington. Abandoning Afghanistan and handing over control to the Taliban is a deeply unethical act we must acknowledge. It would be an easier pill to swallow had this been a close question. The facts dictate that this question was not close. The Taliban is a brutal and extremist regime, however some on the left now wish to paint it as merely a political force. Despite the horrors they represent, the Taliban harbor no nuclear weapons, and next to no tangible political power outside of the vacuum we have chosen to leave. Unlike unhinged psychopaths in places like North Korea, these psychopaths can be extinguished without catastrophic human losses.
Whatever one wants to say about the intervention in Afghanistan, tangible gains in a part of the world so well known for its mistreatment of people and freedom really does matter. Tens of thousands of young girls and women, their aspirations, their dreams, and their ambitions have been destroyed with the stroke of a political pen.
Circling back to the things you won’t see on the television. You will not see the forced sex slavery or the punishment for reading books. You will not see the stoning for adulty or the street side decapitations, and you will not see the torture and the murder that is now and will continue to overtake what was a relatively stable and increasingly flourishing country.
To pull out now, to hand this win to the enemy and to leave so many of the innocent behind in such a disgraceful way is shameful. On the debacle in Iraq, writer Christopher Hitchens summarized the failure by saying that for those onlooking the key take away was this: “It will become evident that it's more dangerous in that region to be a friend of ours than to be an enemy. And that's a pretty final judgment, I think.” Your mind need not wander far to understand why this is not an outcome or precedent worth preserving or repeating.
And yet, preserve and repeat it we have. With this decision, Biden has disgraced any semblance of ethical leadership in politics. If he had any political specialty, it would have been identified by most as existing within the realm of foreign policy. His relationships with world leaders as Vice President, and his work in the Senate at home and abroad were all major selling points to his candidacy and helped paint a picture of practicality. Despite being capable of serious thought at times, he has dropped the ball in Afghanistan.
Biden and his spokespeople, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, have pumped out the talking points on this issue in such a repetitive and utterly imbecilic way as to undue an identification with practicality. The logic of the administration is that the sole point of entering Afghanistan was to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and end any terrorist threat emanating from within the country. They also tell us of more important threats elsewhere, of changing times, and of the importance of marshalling resources. They take this line of argument in an other-worldly way, as if goals and self-interested and ethical aims cannot or should not change over time. It is as it seems - cheap, dirty, and immoral.
On the topic of threats, there is no sense to be made of the decision to abandon Afghanistan. The administration acts as if the country stands no chance of becoming a tangible hotbed for extremism in the future. Of course, it does. History shows us that the Taliban have an affinity for supporting and harboring more serious terrorists and more deadly extremism within their borders. Al-Qaeda exists in Afghanistan, and this decision will strengthen the resolve of jihadists already there and serve as a magnet for those intent on joining their ranks. The delusion of the administration is viewing the Taliban as anything other than the metastatic cancer that it is.
This delusion is subtlety being shared by the media as well, with some floating the idea that the Taliban’s reassurance of a free press and of the empowerment of women may just be an open question after all. This is a gesture to the fantastical. We have every reason to believe that in abandoning Afghanistan, we have made a rod not just for our own backs but for the backs of the innocent within the country. Things will devolve quickly and there is no certainty we will even be able to monitor events on the ground as they unfold.
On the question of Afghanistan, how low our politics have sunk. How tribal we have become. How bent our perspective currently is that we turn our back on these people and the investments we have made in securing their peace and security and opportunity. An entire generation of young Afghanis, sheltered in large part from the way things were for so many years, because of our choice to intervene, are about to be launched into the hellish reality of old because of our choice to leave. On this occasion, with this decision, Biden has embarrassed not only the United States and its armed forces and citizens, but those of every country who partook in the efforts to better Afghanistan and its citizenry. For shame, he makes this decision. For shame.
Morality and ethics and decency must be agile in the face of changing circumstances. A cursory review of the government’s response and of most media headlines today tell us about ‘The War in Afghanistan’ or ‘The 20 Year War’, as if that is somehow a convincing argument for withdrawal.
These terms have been vomited across airwaves for the better part of a week, but the truth is that there has not been an American war in Afghanistan in a decade. This is, and has been, a peace keeping and humanitarian mission for many years. By walking away from that mission, by abandoning our allies and comrades in Afghanistan, and by doing so in such a defiantly obtuse way, Biden does the awful work of bloodying his own hands and holding them up for all to see.
*An earlier version of this article was written in August 2021 following the Fall of Kabul.