This article is interesting because of what it represents. It appears in the Las Vegas Sun, and the writer is Brad Swanson. He's giving his opinion on Trump's Afghanistan policy, but it's not just his opinion. There is an agenda behind it, and not just his agenda. The paper published his opinion, that is, they re-published it from another source, because they like his opinion. They agree with him. Swanson doesn't like what Trump is doing in Afghanistan.
Instead of begging for a bit of power from a victorious Afghan government, as Trump envisaged, the resurgent Taliban has begun bargaining with the regime as a full partner — and may emerge with the upper hand.
No, Trump never thought that. If anything the opposite; hoping that the Taliban would accept some involvement of the current leadership in a new government run by Sharia Law.
The Taliban itself has no desire to export its harsh Islamic rule outside of Afghanistan. It promised to deny sanctuary to terrorist enemies of the United States as a condition of American military withdrawal. To its credit, it is fighting some of the many terrorist groups taking advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan to sink their roots. These include al-Qaida and ISIL-K, a branch of the Islamic State group that held sway in much of Syria and Iraq in 2014-17.
But the Taliban is protecting some other groups, according to reporting from the United Nations, including an offshoot of al-Qaida, called al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, and another group, called Khatiba Imam al-Bukhari, which seeks to use Afghanistan as a staging ground for attacks in other countries.
That is nonsense. The Taliban is not protecting groups bent on attacking other countries. Why would they do that? We know what their objectives are: they want a free Afghanistan, and not free the way you and I think of freedom, but free, as in, not occupied, not dominated by any other country. But, they have no interest in attacking other countries. They are only interested in shaping Afghanistan. They are completely Afghan-oriented. So, why would they support groups who are trying to antagonize the world? They wouldn't. They couldn't. They don't.
In reality, Afghanistan is a failed state where no authority, including the kleptocratic and corrupt national government, can effectively control the activity of cross-border terrorists.
This guy is an idiot. He actually believes that in order for you and I to be safe, that we need to control what groups are doing in Afghanistan. That from there, half a world away, they can threaten us; they can hurt us. Didn't they do it on 9/11? No, they didn't. Swanson is mired in the same sick, twisted mental rant that provoked the whole disastrous 19 year war in the first place.
The United States never had a chance of reforming Afghanistan in its own image. With our troops at long last gone, our policy will revert to what is should have been from the beginning — targeting terrorists who target us and taking them out, regardless of who rules in Kabul.
We don’t need regular army boots on the ground to accomplish this. We can work with any group that supports us — overtly or covertly or both. We will find willing partners among some of Afghanistan’s neighbors, who are more at risk from cross-border terrorism than we are.
Trump’s empty promises in Afghanistan are another sign of his incompetence and dishonesty as a leader. But if he wipes the slate clean for his successor, he will have done the country — finally —a service.
Wipes the slate clean? What does he mean by that? In one breath, he seems to be in favor of us getting out of Afghanistan. He says we don't need regular army boots on the ground there. But, I guess he means that we need Special Ops guys there, doing their thing, even in defiance of the Afghan government? Oh yeah, that could never go wrong.
What happened to Trump is very clear. At first, in the usual U.S. arrogance, he thought he could get the Taliban to agree to let us keep a residual force there. Then, he finally got it, that they meant it when they said we have to get out- completely and totally out.
Then Trump realized that it isn't worth it to lose even one more American life in Afghanistan, that he had two choices: to either get out, or for Americans to keep fighting and dying there, indefinitely; 10 years more, 20 years more; 50 years more; indefinitely.
Since those were his only two choices, he chose to get out.
Swanson ended by saying that if Trump "wipes the slate clean," that his successor will then be able to do what? Ramp up the war again? Proceed with a clandestine, unwelcome, and illegal incursion with our paramilitary?
Think back to Vietnam, 1973, when we finally quit fighting that war. Aren't you glad we stopped? Well, this war has been going on longer than that war. And we need to stop. We need to get out. We need to get out of Afghanistan to the same extent that we got out of Vietnam. No residual force. No counter-terrorist squads. Out! Out! Out!
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/sep/19/trumps-failure-in-afghanistan-presents-an-opportun/
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