Another Chapter "The Fall of Afghanistan" Not the Last Chapter Just Filling-in Gaps

 

Startling World Headlines: Back to Square One

(The Taliban Wins the War: August 15, 2021)

Now under the “watchful eye” of the Taliban

(What happens next is anyone's guess)

Starting to fill in the blanks and putting together the full story.

Here from NPR - a fine article. I have posted the most-educational parts in light of the ongoing “blame game” with this headline:

“Withdrawing From Afghanistan May Be the One Thing Biden and Trump Agree On”

Trump’s Actions: He was frustrated in his initial efforts to truncate the U.S. mission, so he then bypassed the Afghan government to negotiate directly with the Taliban. He signed a deal with them on February 29, 2020 promising to pull U.S. forces troops out by May 1, 2021.

Biden’s Actions: He did not reverse the course that Trump had signed on to and committed the U.S. to follow, even when he took office. He simply pushed back the pull-out date to September vice May because he wanted more time to remove U.S. forces and, if necessary, evacuate U.S. civilians, Afghan interpreters, and others who had helped the U.S. in the war effort. He was advised he would have a period of weeks or months to do this after September.

As it turned out, the Taliban had their own schedule. The facts:

1. The Afghan Army was built by the U.S., well-trained by the U.S., well-equipped by the U.S. with the most-modern weapons, but in the final analysis they were largely abandoned by their own government.

2. Many were left without food and other supplies.

3. Many were not paid in months.

4. They lost faith and morale in their own government as they ceded the battlefield to the Taliban from day one, first in the hinterlands, then in the towns, the cities, and finally the Capital of Kabul.

5. There seemed to be little or no loyalty to the elected Afghan government, whose leader Ashraf Ghani fled the country before the Taliban entered the capital and took over his palace.

NOTE: Reports now say that Afghan President Ghani is in the UAE, also with an undisclosed amount of U.S. money he took out of Afghanistan when he fled.

Related stories – first here from the AP in part (August 17):

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. built and U.S. trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters, and more.

The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centers.

Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, the Capital of Kabul.

A DOD official confirmed that the Taliban’s sudden accumulation of U.S supplies and equipment is enormous. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The reversal is an embarrassing consequence of misjudging the viability of Afghan government forces by the U.S. military as well as intelligence agencies, which in some cases they chose to surrender their vehicles and weapons rather than fight.

Then this radio interview from a man speaking in NPR (On-Point show) broadcast from WBUR in Boston (August 19) with this headline:

“First Person: Afghan Translator Reflects on the Collapse of the Afghan Military”

Key parts from man being interviewed: Ali Rasouly spent four years working with the Marines to help rebuild his country. 

Between 2008 and 2012, he worked as an interpreter for the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. In 2017, he was approved for a special immigrant visa.

Rasouly now lives in San Diego, but he still has relatives in Afghanistan, and he's deeply worried about them because they are Hazaras (an ethnic and religious minority that the Taliban has violently persecuted in the past).

Rasouly also responded to what President Biden said about the Afghans - that they did not have the will to fight against the Taliban.

NOTE: The show played then played a tape clip from PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN saying: “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.” 

To listen click on the PLAY button at WBUR story link here (it's about 5-minutes long).

Rasouly’s said in his introduction to his interview about the Taliban: “They hate us, and that's unbelievable. That right now, everything's under their control. They can easily kill 1,000 people in a day and they don't care.” 

After he heard the tape, Rasouly said: “That is wrong, totally wrong. I reject that. But my question is, did the U.S. government ... really want to find and remove Taliban or not?  It wasn't only our fight, it wasn't only Afghans fight. It was U.S. fight as well. So he says that the Afghan government has that capability, has their weapon. They have the equipment, they have the trained soldiers.”

Rasouly later in the interview listed four key parts about the Afghan army failing – posted above and here again – worth keeping in mind:

1. The Afghan Army was built by the U.S., well-trained, well-equipped, but they were abandoned by their own government.

2. Many were left without food and other supplies.

3. Many were not paid in months.

4. They lost faith in their government. They ceded the battles to the Taliban from the hinterlands, to the towns and cities, and then Kabul the Capital. They asked: “Who are we fighting for?”

So when the U.S. basically at levels thought we had months to get out – we only had weeks. Then when we thought we had weeks, we only had days. Then when we thought we had a days, we ended up only having hours. The Taliban didn’t even fight their way into Kabul – they drove in waving their flags and cheering to the people.

My 2 Cents: Reality proves that no one foresaw this happening the way it did and as fast. 

That is the reality that most of us refuse to admit – thus, the blame game is alive and well all across Talk Radio, all major networks, social media, and double time via GOP-friendly sources.

I think I have laid out the key elements and facts of this sad even in history. 

Now it’s up to the readers to pick and choose the version they want to hear and tick to and pass around the version of events.

It all seems pretty clear to me – hopefully it does to you, too.

Thanks for stopping by.