The end of our turn

Afghanistan: The graveyard of empires is busy shoveling dirt on the latest burial. As they cover the final resting place of U.S. military adventurism with Taliban occupied Afghan soil, a continent-sized stage version of the old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” is playing out before all eyes on the planet. Could the blatant ineptitude of an exiting occupying power be any more apparent? Before we pile on and condemn those currently in charge in a haughtily indignant rush to judgement and demand they all be held accountable, let’s take it back to the beginning. Looking back we can see that there are plenty worthy of blame over the past two decades, and some are more worthy of blame than others. Any American in elected or appointed office in the autumn 2001 who advised, authorized and signed off on the execution of the initial mission to enter that nation to apprehend and/or otherwise neutralize the Al-Qaeda element responsible for the 9/11 attacks deserves to bear the brunt of responsibility for this end result. Once the initial mission objective was achieved, extending it in an open-ended fashion by committing greater forces beyond advisory roles without delineating and installing any discernible exit strategy as a matter of policy could only spell disaster down the road…and here we are…twenty years later…down the road!

Those of us who were around and lived through the life-changing events that happened on 9.11.2001 cannot forget how the entire World came rushing to America’s aid. All traditional allies of the United States were assembled four square in our corner and all agreed that pursuit, capture and/or elimination of those responsible for the worst act of terrorism on American soil was in fact the right course of action. It had few critics as I recall in the quest to track down bin Laden and others involved with 9/11. I remember the question going up at the time from several voices of reason though, “What about exit strategy?” With all the focus on diving headlong into the “War on Terror” however, nobody ever bothered to attempt to answer. Regardless of who did or didn’t do whatever all those years ago, we have been confronted with another rushed exit from a country where we have again failed in a nation-building mission. The chaos generated by the rapid collapse of that nation’s military and government that we invested so many lives and so much treasure building and supporting makes our slipshod evacuation appear especially disgraceful. The rapid seizure of power by a hostile armed force that we so tenaciously opposed for two decades underscores that disgrace.

Read this now and believe it later: The humanitarian crisis created by this uglier-than-thou transition will last for a period of several years. As a Navy veteran who had to deal up close and personal with rescuing some of those left behind after the last one we lost, I can speak from personal history.

The above images represent some of the worst memories of where we have been. They are reminders of the cringeworthy specter of the rushed evacuation of U.S. personnel, a chosen few vanquished government and military officials and their families along with however many fleeing nationals that could find room on the last aircraft out at the end of a lengthy failed conflict. These scenes are forever emblazoned in the memories of those who survived it and those who watched it happen in real time. As was noted above, this was only the beginning of a humanitarian crisis that lasted from 1975 until the early 1990s. The plight of the Vietnamese Boat People has been well documented. Sadly, more people who attempted escape from Communist Vietnam by way of the sea perished than were rescued. The greatest hope of those souls seeking freedom from the extreme oppression from a hostile government was to be rescued by a U.S. Navy warship. In December 1980, fate shined brightly on two boats of refugees fleeing Vietnam when they crossed the path of USS Robison, the ship Yours Truly was serving aboard. This ordeal has been written about on this blog previously as a personal experience with refugees and a watershed event of my life. In the coming months and years, whenever an Afghan refugee success story finds its way into the news cycle, the images below will not far from center stage in the archives of my memory.

With the end of any lengthy endeavor particularly of the military variety, it is appropriate to acknowledge the cost statistics. The only thing that could possibly worse than the $2.4 trillion financial cost of a twenty year failed adventure paid for mostly with the credit card of John & Jane Q. Taxpayer is the human cost all the way around. The real losers in the prolongation of Operation Enduring Freedom are those whose lives ended as a result of hostile action and those who were wounded, permanently maimed or who became psychological casualties. The 2461 dead U.S. military, the 1144 dead allied service members, the 3846 dead contractors, the 66K dead Afghan military and police, the 47K+ Afghan civilians, the 444 dead aid workers and the 72 dead journalists are not coming back. As bad as it is that so many Americans and Afghans had to die for a mistake, I am still trying to wrap my head around the financial debt created by this failed nation-building exercise. It is very sobering to think that the grandchildren of all Americans born tomorrow may very well still be paying on this note well into their retirement years.

The winners of this cash cow conflagration have not escaped notice. Five defense contractors have netted exorbitant profits in the past two decades. Other government contractors have also scored huge from OEF, but the top five are Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. Rest assured that the Military Industrial Complex is alive and well and doing its thing: availing itself to step up and sustain U.S. military adventurism. Don’t forget, we were duly warned of this over sixty years ago by a man who knew what he was talking about.

As the Afghan nation devolves into chaos in the wake of U.S. forces leaving the place and the rush of all Afghan nationals seeking exit to escape the forthcoming wrath of the Taliban, President Biden and his administration have become a convenient target of criticism from not only the usual quarters but from many in his own party. While much of the criticism for the things that have gone wrong in the exit from Afghanistan is well deserved, it is refreshing to see a Commander-In-Chief step up and assume accountability. The full picture of this story is still evolving and new details are being learned daily. While there is plenty to criticize the Biden Administration for, it is becoming glaringly apparent that the Trump Administration committed plenty of blunders of its own. Was it truly a great move to agree to freeing 5000 Taliban criminals from prison, one of whom is the one in charge of the regime that has seized power? Was it a smart thing to exclude the existing Afghan government from the negotiations with the Taliban? It is a valid criticism to draw down troop strength from some 30K to a mere 2500 then complain about exit chaos? It is apparent that a lot of the intelligence was not credible as the withdrawal deadline approached. Not that it would have necessarily made a difference in the outcome, but could have a professional transition of power from the previous U.S. Presidential administration to the current one made this exit process less chaotic and disjointed? Inquiring minds and hopefully Congressional committee investigations are going to want to know.

History has taught us that history teaches us nothing. If we are unable to learn from history and the mistakes of others, nothing can help us and we are doomed to make the same errors over and over. The nation of Afghanistan can be likened to a wild mustang mare that could never be corralled, tamed or ridden. Genghis Khan could not hold it. Alexander the Great could not hold it. Great Britain could not hold it despite two attempts. The Soviet Union could not hold it and the place was right on their southern border. The United States is but the latest occupier to concede failure. Afghanistan was not and could never be ours. We were only taking our turn, and our turn is at an end.