There is one thing that must be said about President Biden -- he's not afraid to take bold action!. He demonstrated that with his COVID aid package, with his all-out vaccination program, and again with his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. Now he has announced that he is withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September.
Since his intentions were known, many in the media and in Congress have come out opposes the withdrawal. They are wrong -- the president is right! I support President Biden's decision to withdraw the troops. Here is why:
We should never have been conducting war in that country for nearly the last 20 years. President Bush started the war to get Osama bin-Laden. Afghanistan had offered to turn bin-Laden over to the International Court, but that wasn't good enough for Bush.
After it proved difficult to find bin-Laden, Bush changed the purpose of the war. It was then an effort to establish a western-style democracy in Afghanistan. That was ridiculous! You can't impose a democracy on another country at the point of a gun. The people of a country get the government they want. If they do not want a western-style democracy, or are not ready for it, it will fail.
President Obama completed Bush's original plan by sending Seal Team 6 to get bin-Laden in Pakistan, resulting in his death. Sadly though, Obama then continued the war -- supposedly to protect the fragile and corrupt democracy in Afghanistan and "fight terrorism".
The truth is that since the death of bin-Laden, nothing has really been accomplished in Afghanistan. The Taliban still exists and the war continues at a low level. But there is no assurance of any kind that things there will get better if we stay another year, or five years, or twenty years. The war has gone on longer than any war the U.S. has ever engaged in, and there is absolutely no prospect of "winning" it (whatever that means).
Opponents say if we leave the Taliban will take over again. I think that will probably happen. But it is not our task to impose a government on another nation. The people of Afghanistan must decide that for themselves. If they don't want the Taliban, or tire of them in the future, they will kick them out of power -- and they'll do it without anyone's help!
As Boris Yeltsin once said -- You can build a throne out of bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long. We must allow the Afghans to determine their own future -- and they can't do that until we are gone.
President Biden is doing the right thing!
