I feel like I am ‘beating a dead horse’ — sorry PETA! — but this God-forsaken country seems to never go out of the news. Once again, the nation has managed to penetrate the interests of Americans with the latest announcement out of the Middle East.
China is going to build a military base for the nation of Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan on its northern border. Its location is on a small finger of that nation which juts down into Afghanistan a few miles, and it is being constructed for the Tajiks’ defense purposes.
However, the entire project is going to be under the control of the Chinese until it is ready to turn over to the Tajiks after it is completed. Since the Chinese have thrown the ruling Taliban a financial lifeline by agreeing to import some large amounts of Afghan raw material, one can be forgiven if they believe that military outpost will be subject to Chinese influence.
Why is Bejing doing this now? No other explanation can be given except that the United States now has NO military or diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, thanks to the botched withdrawal of American forces and (most? American citizens) orchestrated by Joe Biden at the end of August.
With the U. S. now unilaterally out of Afghanistan, what is left? For our nation, just over 2400 of our servicemen and women died. More than 20,000 were injured, to some extent or another. The Taliban, which we routed in weeks back in 2001, are now firmly in control of that war-torn country. And again, as it has been since the days of Alexander the Great, no outside force has been able to tame the Afghan people.
In the chaotic mess when we were leaving, thirteen U. S. military personnel were killed in a foreseeable and preventable suicide attack. We had vacated our most valuable position, the Bagram Air Base, to the Taliban, and declined the control of Kabul, which made it more difficult to evacuate our citizens and soldiers.
Although our administration touted the Taliban as ‘professional’ and helpful, what has happened to that country just adds to the frustration of many Americans with this administration. One report claims that two boys, aged nine and ten, were beheaded by the now rulers of Afghanistan, and one of their female athletes also met the same fate. Women are no longer able to attend the University there, and the Taliban have been going from door to door to find those who helped U. S. forces during our 20-year sojourn in that nation, and then torturing and murdering them.
How many were left behind, despite the assurances of President* that we would not leave any stranded there? First ‘estimates’ by our officials was about 100, but now the State Department admits to about 14,000 Americans and permanent U.S. residents still not able to get out. In addition, as many as sixty thousand who had been our allies are also trapped inside Afghanistan, and whether American or Afghan ally, none are safe from the depredations of the Taliban.
One good question from the above cannot be answered. Why have our leaders not been able to take responsibility for the messy withdrawal and the chaos we left behind? President* has blamed his predecessor for leaving the situation as it was, but Trump’s plan to exit Afghanistan was jettisoned by Biden. Trump’s plan was predicated on the Taliban meeting certain conditions, which Biden did not follow. In addition, no troops were left behind (which had been advised by our military brass), a condition in Trump’s withdrawal.
When it came to those stranded, the administration has vacillated on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan. Biden touted the total number of people evacuated, but the vast majority of those were not vetted properly; we still don’t know who many of those airlifted to the U. S. are, and in many cases, where they are. We have been informed that some of the Afghans are jihadists and some have been detained, but it is certain that others have slipped through the nets.
Getting out of Afghanistan was never a question. We should have been out long ago (see my earlier posts about that). But how we exited should have been much cleaner and we should have retained a military (small) and diplomatic presence there. Now we have neither, and are dependent on the good intentions of a terrorist regime to get our people out.
This is just one of the messes that have occurred during Joe Biden’s first nine months in office, but one crisis eminently preventable. With the other problems he has made, which include the border, inflation and loss of energy production, how many Biden voters are suffering from buyer remorse?