Blood Trail – in Afghanistan

When the Biden Administration fled Afghanistan, leaving 100,000 allies formerly with the US military and diplomatic communities stranded, they sent a message: America’s word – under Biden – is worth nothing. The Taliban moved in, persecuting allies. That blood trail continues.  

No one likes bad news. We have too much. Hope is vital, even in Afghanistan. But for those who believed our promises, who worked with our military and diplomatic teams, for millions of women and girls who thought life could be different, times are hard. They are hunted and worse.

Someday things may change again. But what Biden did – the reprehensible nature of his cowardly retreat without honor, order, empathy, contrition, or accountability – remains a moral outrage.

How easy it is to forget, as the world spins and new headlines replace old, that yesterday’s events do not stop – even if the media stopped reporting. Putin deserves global condemnation. But what about the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan – lives shattered and allies who gave their all for us?

We must not forget. Every day or two, via a former US military intermediary, I get news and clips of what is happening. The news is horrifying, culpability Biden’s. 

Think about this:  For 20 years, the US did more than stabilize Afghanistan, more than pursue the Taliban and other terrorists, more than fight forces and sources of instability. 

We educated young girls and boys, who in that period, came to believe life could be equitable, knowledge mattered, moral fiber was real, and self-rule and respect in society were self-sustaining. These children became young women and men. They were nearly at the governing age. 

Then, we left. We did not just leave but left them to a band of medieval thugs, ruthless, brutal, immoral, corrupt, and ideologically distorted, who despise Western values and resolved to hunt, imprison, torture, and kill those who bought into freedom, equality, and self-rule.

This is the reality in Afghanistan today. It is as heartbreaking as it was avoidable. In the last five years, we lost fewer than five uniformed personnel per year. We lost more than twice that fleeing and 20,000 times that number of innocents now pay for Biden’s betrayal.

One begins to run out of words for writing about this continuing tragedy. With a focus on other events, Biden and his deflectors and handlers seem unmoved by their horrifying failures, unwilling even to talk about what they have done. But what they did is hardly forgotten.

On the geopolitical front, thinking big, Biden’s abandonment of mission, hope, promised safety, and 100,000 allies in Afghanistan was observed by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea – all our allies. We lost billions in equipment, but we hemorrhaged credibility and trust.

In some ways, Putin’s gamble – while revealing misjudgment and military weakness – reflects the notion that America is caught in irons, led by a weak, faltering, even frail leader. The decision China and Russia made to ally prior to the Olympics, says the same thing. 

On the ground, inside Afghanistan, the consequences of Biden’s failure continue to pile up; they have not stopped. Young people are tortured, homes turned upside down, looking for anything that might link them to America, a candy bar, MRE, gift, or article of clothing.

Today, emails with video clips of persecution and torture regularly bring me silence, sober, and seemingly helpless state in which I wonder how we – how leaders of this great and good country – could have been so inept, immoral, indifferent, stupid, and disinterested in downstream effects.

I have no answers. I do know those suffering at the hands of Biden’s missteps, enduring betrayal in Afghanistan and elsewhere, want the news to get out. 

The reality is this. Good leadership – the sort personified by our Founders, by the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and on many critical policies, Donald Trump – is identifiable by the outcome. The reverse is also true.

What we are seeing – better said, not seeing – in Afghanistan is emblematic of a broader political, military, diplomatic, and moral failure. The Biden team leaves a path of destruction, diplomatic failure, and poor judgment behind them – a path littered with missed opportunities.

In Afghanistan, they leave a trail of blood. No one is bothering to follow the story or say so, but it is true. Bad leadership, like good, is distinguished by results. And results are also predictive.