Biden's Afghanistan Abandonment -- The Obama-Biden Iraq Abandonment 2.0

 

Hostage advocates concerned by US pullout from Afghanistan

By Eric Tucker | AP June 9, 2021 at 1:54 p.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hostage-advocates-concerned-by-us-pullout-from-afghanistan/2021/06/09/d6ac911a-c8d9-11eb-8708-64991f2acf28_story.html?commentID=d62894e6-e07c-49bd-9d47-c2be5505178d

This Washington Post (WaPo)  article includes this passage: “The departure of all U.S. special operations forces from Afghanistan will make counterterrorism operations, including the collecting of intelligence on al-Qaida and other extremist groups, more difficult. The administration hopes to be able to compensate through the military’s wide geographic reach, which has only expanded with the advent of armed drones and other technologies. The administration has said it will retain a U.S. Embassy presence, but that will become more difficult if the military’s departure leads to a collapse of Afghan governance.”

 

Several recent WaPo articles have been very supportive of the Biden Afghanistan Abandonment while attempting to insulate Biden from the inevitable blame for the Afghan Government collapse and eventual reentry of US Troops similar to the Biden-Obama Iraq fiasco. The WaPo is doing this by misrepresenting the deal that the Trump administration ultimately signed with the Taliban in February 2020.   Although the Trump deal called for all U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan by May 2021, the withdrawal was dependent on conditions on the ground at the time so it is arguable that a pull out never would have happened.

Anyone that believes President Biden has a clue what he’s doing with his precipitous abandonment of Afghanistan should listen to the 2 June 21 C-SPAN interview with former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and LTG (Ret) H.R. McMaster when they labeled Biden Ignorant.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?512248-1/leon-panetta-hr-mcmaster-discuss-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan

Both agreed Biden’s recent presentation to Troops at JB Langley-Eustis was “misleading and disgraceful.” They ridiculed Biden’s Afghanistan plan as non-existent and his understanding of the situation as naive. This should scare all Americans.

We’ve been in Afghanistan for 20 years and have fewer killed then ONE month of losses in Vietnam. Hardly “huge.”  We are now negotiating with adjacent countries for basing rights to continue our operations in country from “over the horizon” when we have developed Bagram Airfield (BAF) with two 10,000 foot active runways capable of handling any aircraft flying and excellent accommodations for 20,000+ troops.  Keeping a small 2,000 residual force in Afghanistan would be the low cost solution to “keeping a lid” on the place.  It appears Biden learned nothing from the Biden-Obama desertion of Iraq only to have to reintroduce troops again. According to Panetta & McMaster, Biden is on track for a repeat.

Replacing BAF with “Over-the-Horizon” capabilities is a myth. Contrary to “Bug Out” Biden’s “Over-the-Horizon” comments we have NO UAV platforms or bases capable of sustaining an “Over/the-Horizon” campaign.  Doha to Bagram is 1500 miles and an Air Force MQ-1B Predator or an Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle cruising speed is <200 MPH so just to get “on station” with ~450 lbs of ordnance is a 15 hour round trip. If we still controlled BAF problem solved.

USAF Prepares for Over-the-Horizon Operations After Afghanistan Withdrawal

https://www.airforcemag.com/usaf-afghanistan-withdrawal-over-the-horizon-operations-funding/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%206.9.21&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief

I would add, look at BAF’s location in relation to Iran in case we ever had to conduct operations against them.  Maintaining a small presence and control of Bagram would be the “low cost” smart thing to do but no one has ever accuse Biden of being smart.