Opinion

Opinion: Afghan war a mistake from the start

August 27, 2021

Dr. Rashad Richey (Opinion Contributor)

Afghanistan war mistake

All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.

Democrats and Republicans seem to agree that the situation in Afghanistan is a catastrophe, but only one party got us into this mess.

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All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.

Let me talk about the war in Afghanistan and America’s withdrawal. I actually agreed that America should withdraw from Afghanistan, but I also agreed that it never should have been a war in the first place. Now here’s what’s happening. Don’t fall for this political chaos that Democrats and Republicans are trying to paint here. Let’s be very clear.

Progressives, true Progressives never wanted America to invade Afghanistan.

Who started the war because it seems as if Republicans are having convenient amnesia, as it relates to who started the war, the neoconservatives started this war and who led that effort for them?

None other than George W. Bush.

Let’s also be clear about American involvement in Afghanistan during the cold war, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union sought to gain footholds in Afghanistan first through infrastructure investment, and then through military intervention, once they withdrew in the late 1980s, the country entered a civil war, but let’s be very clear.

At one point, the United States government literally trained Afghan fighters in order to defeat the Soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan.

And then they promised to rebuild or help rebuild Afghanistan. They did nothing of the sort. They abandoned Afghanistan after they helped them defeat the Soviet and the country went into a massive civil war.

So let’s fast forward to 9/11. 9/11, we utilized a false pretext to go to war with individuals who were not involved in 9/11. That’s what we did.

We decided to invade Iraq. We decided to go to war with Afghanistan. We decided to launch a true, never ending war.

Even Donald Rumsfeld said he needed no plan. And there was no plan.

Here’s the reality. They are exiting Afghanistan just as they entered. There was no plan going in.

There was no plan coming out.

Now here’s the sad reality. Afghanistan is not a one-off. Afghanistan is really a significant personification of what happens when the United States government gets involved in imperialism in this way.

And that’s why many nations, they don’t want the United States of America to come there because of how things like this have happened. Okay.

Should we withdraw?

Yes, but the right way,

I don’t completely agree with how Joe Biden is doing it. The president of the United States, however, is following a design, laid out even by Donald Trump. So when Republicans tell you that they would have done something differently, I want to remind you that it was Donald J. Trump who took troops down from over 40,000 to 2,500. It was Donald J. Trump who said, we should not be in Afghanistan and we will be down to zero soon. He just didn’t do it quick enough.

So the philosophy of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as it relates to Afghanistan is a mirror image. And so when Democrats are blaming Republicans and Republicans are blaming Democrats, none of them are being authentic to the truth, neither one of them.

So I don’t want you to fall for the political back and forth. The truth is between Republican and Democratic presidents, we have held a very similar sentiment in this country, as it relates to Afghanistan.

Here’s the reality. We do need to make sure that those who would like to seek refuge can, and that America is here to help.

We need to help evacuate those members of the country that sided with the American occupation, because they are in danger. I know that the Taliban government is saying that they are going to grant immunity, but how long will that hold?

And also let’s not forget. It was the United States of America under the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who secretly met with the Taliban. Even though the Taliban is responsible for deaths of Americans, even though the Taliban is responsible for dead soldiers, they met with them, even though they are listed still as a terrorist organization, it was the Trump administration that decided to negotiate, to violate every protocol that American government has stood for for decades and meet with a terrorist group and violate their own rules.

So let’s not play this game that somehow Joe Biden is the great evil and Donald Trump would have done it correctly because the way I see it, both of these gentlemen are following the same design, contrary to the design of Progressive’s, who said, this is the wrong way to go.

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