America Deserves Answers on Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal

Viewing the chaos, death, and destruction accompanying the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Americans have many unanswered questions.

In the coming days, for Americans to fully understand the answers that will hopefully be forthcoming, we also need to understand the associated timing and authorities under which the U.S. military was operating.

The military options for Afghanistan that were available in April, when President Joe Biden first announced the 100% withdrawal of U.S. forces, narrowed every day until mid-August, when the Taliban overran Kabul and disaster arrived.

Even on July 2, when the U.S. abandoned Bagram in the middle of the night, there were already signs that the Taliban were making unexpected progress in their campaign to take over Afghanistan and that things were going to get messy.

To hold Bagram would have required additional forces and a delay in the U.S. withdrawal date.

Biden responded: "No. No one said that to me, that I can recall." But The New York Times has repeatedly reported that Biden's top military advisers consistently recommended keeping a small U.S. presence in Afghanistan to conduct counterterrorism operations and bolster the Afghan army.

What has unfolded over the past weeks has been a tragedy on many levels, from the families who lost loved ones to the descent of Afghanistan into the hands of the barbaric Taliban and other terrorists to the incalculable damage done to U.S. credibility.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/08/30/america-deserves-answers-on-botched-afghanistan-withdrawal/