The threat we face from radical Islamic terrorism will always be present, but we can at least not make it easier for them to attack us. That’s what Joe Biden’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan gave us. Was it time to leave? Sure—we were there for 20 years. There are a host of good arguments for withdrawing but do it right. Don’t set the date on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Also, when you do give the go-ahead to withdraw, don’t kowtow to the timeline set by the Taliban. I would have settled for a small contingent to remain mostly to man some bases to conduct drone strikes against terrorists, which was Biden’s alternate strategy to Obama’s 30,000 troop surge in 2009. Biden wanted counterterror. Obama wanted counterinsurgency. The latter won at the time, but now we have neither since we’re totally gone. We left scores of military equipment for the Taliban to use, by the way.
Biden allowed these terrorists to become the best equipped in the world. He also gave them a helluva propaganda win. This will pass. It was an ignominious exit for a failed war. Was it like Vietnam? The comparisons are there but we got every American out of the country before Saigon fell in 1975. We still have hundreds stranded in that terrorist hell hole.
And now, we have a timeline on when these ISIS-K guys can launch attacks against the homeland. It won’t take them long at all (via NY Post):
The ISIS terror group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-K, could develop the ability to carry out attacks against America within a year, a top Defense Department official told lawmakers Tuesday.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Jack Reed (D-RI), had asked Pentagon undersecretary for policy Colin Kahl if he agreed with a recent assessment by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that “there may be a resurgence of international terrorism emanating from the region within 12 to 36 months.”
Kahl responded: “I think the assessment depends on which group we’re talking about.”
“I think the intelligence community currently assesses that both ISIS-K and Al Qaeda have the intent to conduct external operations, including against the United States, but neither currently has the capability to do so,” Kahl explained.
“We could see ISIS-K generate that capability in somewhere between 6 or 12 months,” he went on. “I think the current assessments by the intelligence community is that Al Qaeda would take a year or two to reconstitute that capability, and … we have to remain vigilant against that possibility.”
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Oh, but we have ‘over-the-horizon' capabilities, right? We do and they can be effective, but not under this president who drone strikes an aid worker and his entire family. They won’t name which terrorists they did kill in another strike which raises suspicions that they were truly nobodies. What good is this capability if we can’t kill real terrorists? Also, what intelligence was used for the drone strike that wiped out that innocent family? Did the Taliban give that to Biden officials, and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker? Afghanistan will become another haven for terrorists, and it will suffer a massive humanitarian crisis. These were all forgone conclusions. Can Biden handle it? So far, he’s proven he can’t do much of anything.
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