Like it or not, the U.S. must stay involved in world affairs
OPINION | COLUMN | THE BROADSIDE REVIEW
Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban in a stunningly fast fashion after President Biden blundered his way through a disgraceful U.S. retreat that saw 20-years of effort crumble in a week.
This horror was always predictable, avoidable, and unnecessary, as the giveaway came a month ago during what may go down as the most prescient response to a reporter’s question in history.
When asked if he saw any similarities between the American withdrawal in Iraq and the country’s defeat in Vietnam, Biden responded, “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” And that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”
Cut to last weekend, as the world watched thousands of U.S. troops get dispatched to assist helicopters in the evacuation of American embassy personnel, while Afghanistan’s president flees the country, and Islamic terrorism has become free to impose its will on the citizens of a country where many have grown into adulthood never knowing a reality other than the modicum of stability provided by western involvement.
This travesty was allowed to play out because of the bipartisan populist belief that America should not have a troop presence in the Middle East. This is wrong. The United States has military bases in hundreds of countries across the world. U.S. troops are still to this day based in countries such as Vietnam, Japan, and Germany, yet we do not consider ourselves in an “endless war” with any of them.
And despite Biden’s attempts to deflect, the wrongness of this affair falls directly on him. While Trump was also mistaken in his plans to bring all the troops home, Biden followed his plan even though negotiations with the Taliban fell apart due to their refusal to abide by any terms. President Biden has wontly reversed Trump on pretty much everything. The Afghanistan retreat could have been no different. Unfortunately, that is not how things shook out, and all of our progress and sacrifice will be lost alongside countless innocent lives.
Because of U.S.’s involvement, Afghanistan was able to produce a Democratic country where girls could go to school, police could enforce laws, and terrorists lacked a place to grow and plot future attacks. It is exactly the opposite now. And terror is exactly what will be in our future, for it is a tale as old as time.
Prior to getting involved in WWII, the U.S. was reluctant to get involved in the fight against Nazis. What happened? The fight came to American soil. In the 90s, the Clinton administration advocated for international diplomatic action to stem the growing tide of terror — an idea that you hear being born anew by Biden. This worked until it didn’t, and planes slammed into American skyscrapers.
Loss of life and attacks on America will always occur when the U.S. abdicates its role as a global good, and rogue entities step in to fill the void.
In the case of Afghanistan, though, the results will be even more deadly, as Biden’s hasty exit has allowed left-behind armaments such as Humvees and attack helicopters to fall Taliban control.
These same weapons — bought and paid for to keep our citizens safe, will now be used to suppress the human rights of others and possibly attack the very people they intended to keep safe.
All of this so that Joe Biden could say he brought the troops home for the 20th anniversary of September 11, for there is no other reason. The cost of keeping U.S. troops and contractors in the country pales in comparison to the enormity of a run-of-the-mill Progressive spending bill, and not a single U.S. troop has died in there in over a year. People will fall from planes as they flee the country; women will not be allowed to walk unaccompanied by a man; and the Taliban will be free to enact 20-years’ worth of revenge, all for nothing.
No one will ever be able to trust America not to abandon them. Our presence on the global stage was embarrassed by a man who believes the biggest threat to the American way of life is its own citizens. He should resign as the failure he is.
The Broadside Review is a substack column and content partner of The New Jersey Editorial Report. Please subscribe to them or check out their column here.
