America’s time in Afghanistan is over. The repercussions have yet to be seen. It’s very likely that the country will again become a refuge for radical Islamic terrorism. They will begin anew. Yet, right now, we must worry about the hundreds of Americas we left behind. We left behind key Afghan allies and their families as well. The Biden administration supposedly thinks they have this leverage to ensure their safe evacuation. They don’t. There are no troops on the ground. They say they’re watching the Taliban. Okay, so how is that different than when they took over the first time back in 1996. We watched and did nothing. The world watched and did nothing. The Taliban is not going to run counterterror operations. They’re not going to have an inclusive government. Is the Biden team taking crazy pills?
NBC News’ Richard Engel had a brutal segment on the withdrawal, noting that it could be seen as a dark period in American history. It’s certainly a humiliating one. He called our withdrawal the “worst capitulation of western values in our lifetimes” (via Fox News) [emphasis mine]:
.@RichardEngel continues, calling Afghanistan withdrawal "worst capitulation of western values in our lifetimes" pic.twitter.com/g0M7CDrVRF
— Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) August 30, 2021
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Engel called the evacuation of over 100,000 people a "success" but noted that "there are many people who are being left behind" and began questioning the "legacy" of President Biden's decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
"Many people I'm speaking to say we are far worse off than we were from the beginning because within a few weeks of launching this war, the Taliban were overthrown, al-Qaeda was scattered," Engel said while reporting from Qatar on Monday. "Now, the U.S. is leaving after 20 years with the Taliban in power and the United States having been driven out. It's a tremendous legacy."
Engel questioned whether "we are going to see the next Usama bin Laden" in the fallout of the Afghan withdrawal, calling it a "profound moment" and how the Taliban has "filled a hole" in Central Asia.
"We are coming to the conclusion with the United States… leaving a legacy behind that I think- some have described it as the worst capitulation of western values in our lifetimes," Engel said. "I went to Afghanistan, I arrived a couple of weeks ago- it was a Republic backed by the United States, backed by the West! Now it's an emerging Islamic emirate trying to find its way."
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The future bin Laden question is the more pressing one. Look, this whole thing sucks. We can all agree on that. America lost a war. We wasted trillions of dollars and lost over 2,000 men to have the Taliban be replaced by…the Taliban. Women’s rights are dead. Brutality is coming for sure, but western values cannot survive in areas of the world where they have no historical ties. Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that American troops do not facilitate nor accelerate the speed in that awesome social project. That’s up to the people. And for 20 years, the US-backed government has been marred by election fraud from the outset. Afghanistan is a nation without an infrastructure, a national identity, or a largely literate population. In hindsight, maybe it’s easy to see why the government and the army fell apart in less than two weeks. Sure, the Taliban buying off Afghan national army commanders helped, but this was never going to last. It was a capitulation for sure but hopefully, this ends the nation-building and social engineering projects that bog us down in regions of the world that simply don’t understand these principles. We don’t have the patience, the manpower, or the resources to do these sorts of operations and we should forever end these ventures. When terrorists pop up, we should kill them. The problem is under Biden, he’s also haphazardly blowing up entire innocent families so we can’t even trust him to do that aspect of the job right.
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