There are moments in a country’s existence when a leader is so inept that he is able to undo the efforts of previous leaders and citizens who gave their sweat and blood to see the country prosper. The US is facing such a problem currently, with the President and Vice President in a competition to outshine each other in committing suicidal mistakes for the country. While we at TFI have already covered how disastrous it is geopolitically for the USA, let us try to gauge the political impact of Biden’s Afghanistan blunder.
The country is already reeling with multiple disasters, be it the uncontrolled entry of illegal immigrants from the southern borders, the forced steamrolling of legislations, changing the curriculum to the will and wish of the socialists and extreme left, jeopardizing the country’s future. However, the botched exit from Afghanistan and the accompanying mess has made it hard for even the most loyal Democrats and their sympathisers in media and Hollywood to defend the Biden administration. Public opinion is swaying away from the democrats even faster as now even the veterans and their near and dear ones feel that they have been wronged by Joe Biden.
The haphazard exit is in a way a mockery of the people who have served in the Armed Forces and who have had their share of hardships while serving the USA in Afghanistan. As the Taliban swept into Kabul unopposed, veterans around the United States reacted by reaching out to one another for support and remembrances of fallen comrades. Many people are questioning what they were fighting for, why their comrades died, and whether it was all for nothing. Afghans alongside whom they fought are now at risk of Taliban retaliation killings and attacks.
As reported, the news that the Taliban has seized the Afghan capital on Sunday, made the Army veteran, Kim Enderle, start to grieve. “I’m sad for the people who lost their lives,” said Enderle, who served in the military for 25 years before going to Afghanistan as a contractor. “I’m sad for the people that continue to live there, that have had a taste for 20 years, what a difference they could experience, perhaps under a democracy similar to ours.” “Especially the women.”
Some veterans believe the Taliban’s return was unavoidable, but they are frustrated that the government fell apart with little to no opposition and that the US did not do more to assist Afghans in fleeing. And now as we know, Joe Biden might have done it intentionally as an earlier TFI report has mentioned that he did not care at all.
As per recent reports, the US has extracted only 2,000 Afghans who are eligible for Special Immigration Visas. An estimated 86,000 Afghans who ought to be evacuated by the US are still stuck in Afghanistan. Also, the Biden administration has no plans for ensuring the security and evacuation of US citizens in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban is taking control of American weapons worth billions of Dollars and biometric devices containing information about the vulnerable Afghans.
This is not to add to their worries, Americans did give a huge cache of arms and ammunition to the Afghan forces. Over the past twenty years of its presence in the war-torn country, the United States has spent a whopping $83 billion in training and equipping the Afghan security forces. However, when the Biden administration decided to pull troops out of Afghanistan, it presumably failed to make any provisions for destroying or transporting the weapons and equipment left behind. So, the Taliban has suddenly become a major beneficiary of American weapons and military equipment supplied to Afghanistan.
Read more: Biden administration has left lethal weapons and biometric machines with data for the Taliban to use
Just to give you an idea of the kind of weapon troves Taliban has got its hands-on, the US had supplied six A-29 light attack aircraft, 174 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees), about 10,000 2.75 inch high-explosive rockets, 61,000 40-mm high explosive rounds, 900,000 rounds of .50 calibre ammo, and 2,015,600 rounds of 7.62 mm bullets to the Afghan security forces between April and July 2021.
Since 2001, more than 700,000 American troops have served in Afghanistan. And many are heartbroken when they watch footage from Kabul of the Taliban seizing power and Afghans dying as they evacuate the nation. In a war that cost upwards of $2 trillion and one too many soldiers now believe was mainly a failure, the US lost 2,448 servicemen and servicewomen and 3,846 contractors. More than 20,000 US soldiers were injured as a result of the attack.
While the media houses may not help in shedding the light on where exactly the problems lie, one cannot ignore the sheer frustration and anger the veterans feel regarding the Biden Administration.