President Biden’s shoddy withdrawal from Afghanistan has irrevocably sullied America’s reputation. Even opponents of continued occupation have been horrified at the indefensible manner in which this extraction was done.
But it’s also worth stepping back from the immediate Biden-orchestrated debacle to focus on the broader lessons we can glean from this unceremonious end to America’s longest-ever war: To wit, America must put aside the hopeless project of nation-building once and for all.
The US-led war in Afghanistan — the earliest and, initially, highest-profile theater of the sprawling George W. Bush-era “War on Terror” — commenced in October 2001, less than a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The invasion was supported overwhelmingly in the aftermath of the Taliban’s harboring of al Qaeda and refusal to extradite 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, signed into law on Sept. 18, 2001, passed 98-0 in the Senate and 420-1 in the House. The AUMF granted Bush (and subsequent presidents) the authority to deploy “necessary and appropriate force” against those who “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Taliban government in Kabul fell in December 2001. Following its fall, Taliban-led insurgencies and allied forces-led counterinsurgencies began to intermittently coincide with the US-led effort to construct durable Afghan governing institutions, centered around President Hamid Karzai.
Good luck with that.
When will American Politicians EVER Learn ??? Fix OUR own Country for a change !!!!