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DAMAGE CONTROL
here are difficult decisions, and then there is damage control. And for US President Joseph R. Biden’s recent choice to withdraw all US troops, intelligence, and support from Afghanistan it was both. Making up for the malice accumulated in the drawnout death chamber known as the Afghanistan Conflict. To fully understand how the conflict became the powder keg it is, we must first understand the origins of this international diplomacy qualm. The Council of Foreign Relations outlines the issue chronologically. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Close to three thousand people die in the attacks. Although Afghanistan is the base for al-Qaeda, none of the nineteen hijackers were Afghan nationals. Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian, led the group, and fifteen of the hijackers originated from Saudi Arabia. Quickly, President George W. Bush vows to “win the war against terrorism,” and later zeros in on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bush eventually calls on the Taliban regime to “deliver to the United States authorities all the leaders of al-Qaeda who hide in your land,” or share in their fate. While Biden is the face of the issue in 2021, it must be noted that his position on the conflict has not changed since 2009. During his vice presidency, Biden was consistently one of the biggest skeptics of the chosen solution to the conflict. His biggest critique: The military strategy would be unlikely to yield victory and would delay what could be calculated success. “We have not thought through our strategic goals!” He exclaimed during the Obama Administration’s first meeting on the topic. And with no surprise, America found itself in a 20-year war with unsatisfactory results.
So his decision to exit is understandable. Now, we must not ignore the Taliban’s swift responsiveness to the exit of American troops, but researchers assert that the expansive Taliban takeovers were amongst us regardless. We must stop applying the non-unique argument that the exit was the catalyst for the Taliban Takeover. Associated Press, an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting states, “The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war.” Yes, the exit accelerated the impending doom but it saved American lives from a harsh reality that would have stopped for no one. International involvement has been the breath of American politics since the deconstruction of American isolationism. Sympathy is due to all Afghan families and citizens who fear for the future, but fear is nothing in the face of action. Actions that would have ensued despite American presence or not. Joe Biden is not the Afghan president. America is not the only country in the United Nations. The Afghan conflict is a global issue. We will not berate Joe Biden for having his priorities correct as of the American President. His concern is with American blood, first. The Watson Institute asserts that in 2019 alone 7,000 American soldiers dies in the conflict. 7,000 families were devastated in one year because we waged a war where there should have been global counter-terrorism initiatives launched, the same initiatives Biden advocated for in 2009. He has not dismissed the aiding to the conflict but he recognized the coexistence of American safety and foreign aid. According to Brown University’s Cost of War Project, The war in Afghanistan has cost $2.3 trillion so far. BBC reports, Between 2010 to 2012, when the US for a time had more than 100,000 soldiers in the country, the cost of the war grew to more than $100bn a year. That is the equivalent of 300 million dollars a day. And of course, America had 300 million dollars a day laying around, false. CBS reports, “From the American Civil
