President Joe Biden has done something his three predecessors could not accomplish. On July 6, AP reported that American troops had left the influential Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. The withdrawal marked the symbolic end of the United States’s two-decade presence in the country. Only a nominal group of 1,000 troops will remain to protect the U.S. embassy and the airport in Kabul. The Taliban has taken advantage. It quickly started to gain territory and has made it clear that it hopes to retake the entire country. Joe Biden has dismissed concerns about this troubling development, pointing to the failure of American nation-building up to this point.
There was a clear reason that the war in Afghanistan dragged on for as long as it did. The chances of victory remained slim. Afghanistan’s central government was always weak, and its main opponent, the Taliban, continued to grow in strength and occupy more territory. But Afghanistan was able to retain a single leader, Hamid Karzai, for thirteen years, which pointed to some stability. Even though he was corrupt, Karzai left office voluntarily like presidents do in a stable democracy. Obama held out hope that more troops and a different mission would change conditions on the ground. In addition, the possibility of a treaty between the central government and the Taliban kept hope alive for a resilient, non-Islamist Afghan state.
At the same time, both Obama and Trump knew that withdrawal from Afghanistan could lead to a tragic, total, and well-publicized defeat of the Afghan government. The fall would be interpreted, like the fall of Saigon or the rise of ISIS, as an ultimate failure of the American government and the American military. Like most other politicians, Obama and Trump decided to prioritize short-term considerations and extend the war indefinitely. They could always point to the possibility of either an eventual victory or a peace treaty to justify continued American involvement.
Joe Biden has rejected this mindset entirely. He has been a supporter of withdrawal from Afghanistan for years. With this decision, he is prioritizing the safety of American troops over his own political considerations. There would be no punishment for keeping American troops in the country for years with the vain hope of defeating the Taliban or forming a robust Afghan state. Instead, Biden is risking a Saigon moment. He is placing an ideal prized by the left over the considerations of the foreign policy establishment. In effect, Biden is taking the responsibility for ending America’s longest war entirely on himself. He is acting like we think every president should act.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan should be praised by the entirety of the American political media. Politicians on the right and the left have criticized what is known as the blob, the all-consuming group of bipartisan consultants and politicians who have thwarted any attempt at narrowing down American influence abroad. They have criticized the money spent on foreign wars, the worsening of America’s reputation abroad, and the human and social toll of decades of war. Those on the left frequently praise Barbara Lee as the only member of Congress to vote against the war in Afghanistan. They propelled Barack Obama to the presidency partially because of his opposition to the Iraq War. Joe Biden’s decision on withdrawal from Afghanistan is just as admirable as those previous actions and should be treated accordingly.
The nation is still locked to a certain degree in the War on Terror framework. There are regular drone strikes abroad. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is still open and holding detainees. Future interventions such as those in Yemen and Libya could happen any day and with the slightest provocation. There is still work to be done in drawing down America’s war presence from the early 2000s. Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was an important step. If he is punished politically for the move, it may be the last drawdown the nation has for the foreseeable future.
This piece first appeared in Medium
The next step, which will require even more bravery and leadership, is to wind down the war footing here at home and return to a peacetime society.
By “war footing” I mean the massive security state that was erected post 9-11 and the wartime mentality that supported it.
The TSA and the surveillance apparatus, the militarization of the police, all of this was erected in a climate of panic and fear, and sold to the public as being necessitated by the urgent threat of a looming enemy attack.
Just as no politician wants a Saigon moment of helicopters lifting off a roof, no politician wants to be the one who relaxes the security state and experiences an attack. So it will require that the citizens themselves demand this, and pressure the elected leaders to end the war at home, and return to a peacetime society.Report
I have thought for a long time that a candidate could make a respectable showing running on the single platform plank, “Let’s make air travel normal again.”Report
The raper scanners and security theater agents will be the last to go. That’s economic stimulus right there.Report
Nobody is arguing “abolish the TSA”.
They just want those funds redirected to other, more effective, security measures.Report
I suspect that TSA will be the first to be reformed, because it is the most visible and tangible face of security, and the one that inconveniences white upper class Americans who set the national agenda and fund campaigns.
The last prisoner in Gitmo will pass away of natural causes sometime in the 2160s and be a tiny footnote next to the story about a squirrel riding a hoverboard.Report
I imagine the defense of the TSA will include “white people only care about this because it affects them… that’s why we know that it’s working!”Report
See I actually don’t think it’s that inconvenient anymore after 20 years. Compared to pre 9/11, sure, but it’s not the cluster it was the first few years and now people just prepare for it. I did DCA to BOS for work just before the pandemic, there and back same day, and surprised myself by barely noticing.Report
When I was traveling a lot, I got good at it, but “Shoes off, belt off, keys out, wallet out, phone out, Kindle out, laptop out, all on conveyor, get scanned, put everything back together” is still a lot.Report
If you travel more than once every presidential term, get TSA preapproved. Shoes stay, laptop stays, it’s a breeze.Report
I remember meeting people at the gate.
This new normal sucks.Report
Relaxing air security in the US is a brutally difficult risk. The ratchet doesn’t turn that way. If a politician relaxes security requirements then the moment some nut slips an exacto knife onto a plane the blow up will be huge whereas if no security relaxation has occurred the reaction to the exact same nut and knife would be a collective shrug.Report
I know. That’s why it will have to become something like marijuana legalization, an issue that comes from a broad sea change in public opinion and makes it safe to follow.Report
Given the flight attendants union aggressively opposed allowing small pocket knives in the cabin, we got a ways to go.Report
The flight attendants are parroting the same thinking of most Americans when it comes to threats, but what is really astonishing is to look at how lucrative security industry is, and how much that distorts the incentives and decisions.
Everything from the Pentagon budget to Homeland Security, from state prisons to local police, from alarm companies to doorbell cameras, Fear Inc. is so deeply woven into our economy that it will take a long protracted effort to reduce it even by a little.
I even see it in the design of buildings, where the subject is raised of what sort of security system is needed, and every time a solution is proposed, there will be one person in the meeting who will raise an ever-more contrived scenario where it is defeated, leading to yet another layer of security devices added.
We can see it right now in the blaring headlines about “Skyrocketing Crime” even though crime has declined. Fear is an enduring growth industry.Report
If it bleeds it leads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHimia_FxzsReport
Oh I feel ya but I have an apprehension that public opinion isn’t going to move on this subject. For most people air travel is something they endure only on rare occasion. The grinding unpleasantness of the TSA is just baked into the crap sandwich at this point in the national psyche. Also the TSA employs a lot of people and that’s going to be a passionate constituency in favor of not relaxing the airport security theater. Believe me, I wish it was otherwise.Report
It’s the right move. Though apparently there were US airstrikes last night coming from bases outside the country.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/us-launched-overnight-airstrikes-on-the-taliban-to-support-afghan-forces.html
My guess is as long as we are willing to do that and the Afghan government isn’t more than average corrupt they will hold on for years, even if their writ doesn’t extend outside of the larger cities.Report
“Only a nominal group of 1,000 troops will remain to protect the U.S. embassy and the airport in Kabul.”
So, let’s say 250 soldiers to guard the embassy and people. That least 750 at the airport. Tell me how this meets any definition of “withdrawal” when there’s still 750 dudes at the airport, especially if we’re doing bombing flights in the country from air bases nearby? There’s a reason why our troops are at the airport–to deny it to the Taliban.Report
I wonder how many “contractors” will be there under the new system.
If we remove the military but increase the number of “contractors”… well, at least the military won’t be there, I guess.Report