Afghanistan...A Folly That Should Never Have Happened

As one of the early writers on our entrance into Afghanistan, it was obvious to me from th4 beginning that this was a huge mistake for a number of reasons. There was absolutely no reason for us to go there, just as there was no reason to go into Iraq. Unfortunately, George W. Bush felt the need to do something even I could see was sheer folly…just as Joe Biden’s mistake in ‘removing’  us from the place the way he did has already cost more American lives plus billions of dollars in US tax payer dollars.

Any fool should have seen that going into a land locked country with an army after weakening them with ridiculous ‘rules of engagement’ their grandfathers who on WWII would have been shocked by was ridiculous…imagine this, some terrorist shoots at you, but as long as he either drops his weapon or simply stops shooting at you,  you have to stop shooting to defend yourself or your fellow soldiers!

Not only that, but Bush never understood that going into a land locked country via a hostile country like Pakistan was absolutely the wrong thing to do. The Pakistanis took us for billions in bribe money  to allow us to dock at their harbor and then bring supplies and arms for our troops in trucks over the one road they were allowed to travel. And whenever the Pakis were annoyed with us or simply wanted more money, they would shut down that road, which left the trucks as sitting ducks for the Taliban to ambush*.

The excuse we’re hearing now is that going into Afghanistan   was to’get Bin Laden.’ And frankly, that was sheer nonsense. Remember where we found him? In Pakistan, right near Pakistan’s military academy. The truth is that the Taliban was on the point of getting rid of him and Al Qaeda, and before we even got there, most of them had fled via Iran, where they were welcome…while Bin Laden went to Pakistan, where he was also quite welcomed by our ‘allies.’ So there was no reason except the usual Bush mentality about ‘nation building.’

If we really wanted to damage the Taliban (and why, I don’t know) we could have done it by bankrupting them. Much of their finance comes from ‘taxes’ to the villages who grow the poppies and the sale of opium, after it’s  manufactured in labs in Pakistan. Or we could have left them alone, which was what they wanted. And if we had done that, 2,400 + US servicemen plus a large number of wounded and maimed troops would have been alive and well, plus another 1100 or so from the countries who decided to help us out.

So let’s look at the current situation. Thanks to Joe Biden’s worrying about how the polls showed that the  American people were getting wise to him, he made a thing of not just exiting, but running away from Afghanistan with zero preparations. He figured getting out of AfPack would help him politically.

Now think about that. just a sudden exit with no real plans.  Aside from 300 American military and citizens who are still there with no way of getting to the Kabul airport because they were told to wait until they got orders to do so, which they still haven’t received. How they’ll get out is a mystery. Heck today there was a suicide bombing attack at the airport. According to the pentagon 11 Marines,, a Navy  corpsman, and a U.S. Army soldier were killed by the suicide bombing and at least another 18 service members were wounded. And that’s just the beginning.

We spent 88 billion taxpayer dollars on the ‘Afghan Army’ which did nothing to defend much. And tat doesn’t include the taxpayer dollars spent on ‘nation building; which are also down the toilet now.  Some of you may remember all the ‘green on green killing’ when Afghani soldiers we were training turned on our troops. And the equipment we gave them? The Taliban now has billions of dollars worth of state of the art US military equipment, including rocket launchers, Blackhawk  helicopters, and other goodies. 

Here’s another thing to reflect on. The Taliban has no love for Pakistan..neither do what’s left of ISIS or Al Quaeda. Believe it or not they actually think of Pakistan as not devout enough to Islam. With all these new weapons they now have, imagine what would happen if they decide to attack Pakistan, a country with an air force and nuclear weapons! 

Since the Taliban now have  an arrangement with the Chinese, rest assured that all of this equipment will also get a look see by them, as well perhaps of some reverse engineering so they can copy it and learn it’s weak points. Of course, Joe Biden has his own connection with them so I suppose it’s not something he’s worried about.

There’s no reason this equipment couldn’t have been destroyed or removed before we announced our departure.* There’s also no reason we couldn’t have had our people in Kabul beforehand either, so we could get them out safely….except that Joe Biden wanted some credit. He’ll definitely get some credit.  What he’s working on now is getting lots of Afghanis into the US. This also gives us a clue on who’s calling the shots, and it isn’t Joe Biden. 

There’s no reason these people couldn’t have gone to some other Muslim majority nation, where they would be far more at home, with a culture and laws familiar to them.

If you’d like to know why, do some research about the problems countries in Europe who let Afghanis in have had with them. They tend to stay on welfare, rape women and young girls and cause other problems. I’d advise you to do a search  on your own on that one. I guarantee you’ll be shocked.

The only good to come out of this is that I hope we have learned a lesson. No more ‘nation building’ and no more large scale wars unless Congress votes for it. As for the two presidents , Bush and Barack Obama who were so insistent about getting us into Afghanistan, spending billions on it (and I’m certain a lot of the money we spent went into Afghan politician’s pockets) I hope the American will be a lot more open about voicing their disrespect for this kind of activity. 

*A brief note While President Trump was in office, we had a lot  less causalities than when his predecessors were running things. For one thing he removed the idiotic ‘rules of engagement our troops were forced to obey. He also made an agreement with countries we were on good terms with like Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan  to deliver supplies to our troops via the Caspian see and a short route through Turkmenistan. So no more bribes for Pakistan, and o more trucks sitting there like sitting ducks. While we can’t be sure, I have a feeling he would have handled our exit a lot better.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.