Opinion: Leaders failed us and those who trusted us

If you have turned on the news at some point in the last two weeks, odds are you have heard about the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. To put it lightly, the withdraw has created a
disaster. 

The United States entered an occupation of the country of Afghanistan after the attacks that occurred on 9/11 by radical terrorist group Al-Qaida. The Taliban was the Afghani regime that harbored these terrorists but the U.S. forces removed them from power. 

After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, President Biden decided to fully withdraw all troops from the country. The occupation served its purpose, but an exit was needed. After $2 trillion was spent and two decades of a seemingly endless war, the time was right to pull out.

The President reminded us of the original intent of the invasion — to defeat the terrorists responsible for September 11th and kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind those attacks. The purpose was not to build a nation.

President Biden began this effort by announcing an original withdrawal deadline of September 11 — the anniversary of the terrorist attack that killed thousands of Americans. This departure date itself reminds Taliban of their successful American massacre.

The United States cannot help a country that cannot help itself. The Afghan military and government officials were unwilling to fight off the incoming threat of the Taliban forces, despite the Afghan military outnumbering the Taliban 300,000 troops to 80,000 and being well-funded and trained.

The U.S. cannot solve every problem and defeat all evil. We cannot be the parent to every country in which a dictator or oppressive regime takes over. Terrorism has evolved in the last 20 years; we have new enemies to deter and modern obstacles to overcome.

We should not spend another trillion dollars in Afghanistan. Instead, we should turn our attention to countries who interfere with our country’s intelligence, like Russia and China. Sending troops into unstable countries creates a never-ending cycle. The U.S. cannot continue these “forever wars”; we have other priorities that require fixing.

Despite the need for removing troops, this exit has been a total catastrophe.

The Taliban has taken over the country in 11 days, much faster than anyone could have predicted, and people are being evacuated out of a frenzied airport in the capital of Kabul. The Taliban has released images of their troops holding tax-payer funded American weapons, captured from our leaders mismanagement.

Despite the White House denying that Americans are stranded, citizens from across the country flooded congressional offices with phone calls about citizens in Afghanistan that need help evacuating.

There should not be a single American trapped in that country.

The U.S. could have left on its own terms in an effective and controlled manner. Consequently, Americans are being beaten, the executive branch is not on the same page and the mission now relies on Taliban cooperation because they now control the capital and the country. 

The United States, seemingly the most powerful country in the world, needs the cooperation of a terrorist organization that disciplines women for wearing nail polish and punishes teens for wearing jeans.

The solution cannot be worse than the problem. The solution — withdrawing from Afghanistan — was necessary. However, the United States has shown incompetency at every stage of this mission. This failure spells disaster for the Biden administration’s foreign presence in Afghanistan as well as the surrounding region.

Keaton Browder is an opinion writer.