Is Biden actually withdrawing from Afghanistan? As usual, it’s a question of how you define “withdrawing”.
Biden declared that, “it’s time to end the forever war” and that “it’s time for American troops to come home.” Obama said things like that too when he was announcing withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan that didn’t turn out to be actual withdrawals.
“While we will not stay involved in Afghanistan militarily, our diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue. We’ll continue to support the government of Afghanistan. We will keep providing assistance to the Afghan National Defenses and Security Forces,” Biden said in his big speech.
What does any of that actually mean?
In March, we learned that there are 1,000 more special ops people in Afghanistan than are officially on the books.
Now the military is talking about exactly how many American troops will be remaining on the ground.
As early as this week, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. Frank McKenzie, will give Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin a range of military options for securing the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan and providing counterterrorism support from outside the country once the withdrawal is complete, officials said. The number of American troops needed for the overall security missions inside Afghanistan will depend on a variety of requirements, and could range from roughly a couple hundred to a bit less than 1,000, officials said.
1,000 is quite a lot of soldiers.
Especially since there were only between 2,500 and 3,500 to begin with at the start of Biden’s withdrawal. Announcing a withdrawal that takes troop numbers from a few thousand to a thousand is a joke.
And typical of Obama’s fake withdrawals.
If we’re withdrawing, we should do so. The Taliban and their Al Qaeda affiliate allies will take over. No American personnel, military or civilian, should be there in harm’s way. I’m sure there’s nothing Al Qaeda will love more than repeating Benghazi in Kabul.
Either win or leave. The halfway stuff doesn’t work.
Biden doesn’t want to win, and he wants credit for leaving without actually doing it.
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