Biden Is Doing the Right Thing by Withdrawing U.S. Troops From Afghanistan, But Should Go Further
By Elizabeth Beavers
For a long time, there’s been a narrative that the Iraq War was the bad war, while the Afghanistan War was the good one and worth investing in. Just a little more time, just a little more money, just a little more lost lives — if only we see it through, we were told, it will all be worthwhile.
But from the very beginning it’s been an open secret that the Afghanistan War was a disaster, too. People marched all over the country against invading, and were smeared as taking the side of terrorists or being insufficiently patriotic. Rep. Barbara Lee cast the only vote against the war and has received scorn ever since. But the voices of opposition have been proven right.
The Afghanistan War was launched on faulty premises, without any realistic definition of what winning would look like. Don’t forget: none of the 9/11 hijackers were Afghans, and the attacks were primarily planned in Germany, Spain, and inside the United States. It doesn’t take much expertise to see why a project to install a U.S.-handpicked government in Afghanistan in order to eradicate terrorism was doomed to fail.
Indeed, nearly 20 years later, after spending more than $2 trillion and counting, displacing 5 million people and counting, and killing 47,245 Afghan civilians, 2,442 U.S. service members, and 3,846 U.S. contractors and counting, the U.S.-backed Afghan government and security forces have collapsed, Afghanistan is even further away from a durable peace than ever, and no one has been made any safer.
Just last year, a major expose in the Washington Post spelled out in great detail the extent to which the U.S. military has been lying about its failures, the rampant corruption enabled by U.S. policies, and the scope of the destruction unleashed by U.S. militarism, including partnership with local abusive warlords and militias.
Ending the facade that victory could ever be in sight was the right thing to do. Five more years or fifty more years would have only delayed but not changed this outcome and caused even more lives to be lost in the meantime, because only an intra-Afghan political solution can truly bring the conflict to a close.
Let’s stop centering the United States as the benevolent actor that holds the solutions
Afghanistan was never “ours” to “win” or “lose.” Afghanistan’s future belongs to Afghans. The United States has always had limited leverage and tools it could use to help or harm, but not the ability to dictate specific outcomes. Things like women’s rights or a particular structure of government are generations-long political endeavors for Afghans to ultimately determine through inclusive political participation of Afghanistan’s women, youth, and civil society — not matters to be imposed by foreign powers.
The options were never full-scale regime change war or nothing. Yet from the moment it invaded Afghanistan and even as it withdraws, the United States has made clear that its top priority is to pursue global military dominance and its own interests at all costs, not to maximize its diplomatic power or peacebuilding tools in ways that center the Afghan people or facilitate a durable and lasting peace in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Thus, it is now time for the United States to engage in some truth and reconciliation about the horrors it unleashed in Afghanistan. It is also time for the U.S. government to get out of the way. The best role it can play is a supportive one, engaging with the United Nations and other neutral international organizations to work multilaterally to reduce the violence and do what is possible to address the humanitarian crisis the U.S. helped create.
Most immediately, we should throw our doors wide open to each and every Afghan seeking to flee from the nightmare we have unleashed. Too often, concerns about the rights of Afghans, especially Afghan women, are cynically weaponized in the service of endless warfare. It is time now to channel all concern about the people of Afghanistan into demanding that the United States and international community do all they can to evacuate and welcome Afghan refugees.
Let’s learn the right lessons from Afghanistan
The takeaway must not be that this is why we must maintain our sprawling military presence throughout the world. To the contrary — this should be evidence for why we must work quickly to dismantle ALL remaining relics of the failed “War on Terror,” and abandon the faulty foundation on which it is built.
Soon, the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001 will pass, as will the 20th anniversary of the ensuing post-9/11 wars. It’s a good opportunity to show what we’ve learned since then.
We know now that the challenge of transnational terrorism is not an existential threat to the United States and should not be the subject of a global endless war paradigm. This is because we also know that war paradigm has never and can never be successful and has only exacerbated the challenge of terrorism and the underlying conflicts internationally.
It has also long been clear that the very premise of the global war on terror rests on racist and xenophbic tropes and perpetuates anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment alongisde white supremacy, disproportionately causing Black and brown civilans all over the world to suffer as a result.
We also know that the actual existential security challenges that we face are not problems for the military to solve. Climate chaos, a raging pandemic, the scourge of white supremacy, crippling inequality, and rampant gun violence — each of these pose real, everyday dangers to Americans and we are wasting resources on a failed endless war instead of properly resourcing solutions to these urgent challenges.
Withdrawing from Afghanistan but shutting the door on Afghan refugees should not be an option. Withdrawing from Afghanistan but doubling down on militarized counterterrorism that is still taking place in at least 85 countries should not be an option.
Washington is hesitant to disrupt the status quo and there are very few easy options for changing course, but as Data for Progress polling shows, Americans support the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and want to see President Biden speed up the process of giving Afghans immigration opportunities in the United States. More broadly, Americans also clearly favor a broader foreign policy approach that actually addresses their most pressing concerns and stops the cycles of violence and chaos we continue to unleash around the world. Global solidarity means our security is interlinked and we can not make ourselves safer by putting others at greater risk.
Elizabeth Beavers (@_ElizabethRB) is an attorney, analyst, and advocate for peace and security. She is also a Senior Fellow with Data for Progress.