Follow-Up on the Trump-Biden Withdrawal from Afghanistan; Trump’s Abandonment of Afghan Allies

The Trump-Biden Withdrawal: There is currently a debate between supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden over responsibility of the American abandonment of the Afghan government, which was an ally of the United States in the War on Terrorism, but both are to blame. Trump’s surrender agreement with the Taliban not only legitimized the terrorist sponsors and undermined the Afghan government, but provided political cover for Biden’s intention to withdraw, and it would have made it even more politically challenging for Biden to reject the agreement and retain some forces in Afghanistan, although he should have shown such leadership. Furthermore, after striking the Taliban by air a couple times, the Biden Administration cited the Trump agreement’s provisions on disallowing U.S. airstrikes, except for limited instances, in failing to provide adequate support to Afghan security forces. The Taliban were able to take over nearly all of Afghanistan. The Trumpist argument that Trump would have handled the withdrawal better than Biden, who obviously bungled it by not planning for the contingency of a rapid advance of the Taliban and the collapse of Afghan forces, which he had further undermined by reducing their military aid, is belied by Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds in Syria to the terrorist-sponsoring Assad regime. In either case, both Trump and Biden were wrong to concede to the Taliban and plan to withdraw and leave the Afghan government to have to defend themselves alone against the Taliban, instead of backing the Afghan government sufficiently to defeat the Taliban. The Trump-Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan is like the premature withdrawal from Iraq by Barack Obama that created a power vacuum filled in part by al-Qaeda’s offshoot, the Islamic State, which seized large swathes of northern Iraq and western Syria before the U.S. and allies had to return to help Iraqi forces to take away its territory. And the betrayal of America’s Afghan allies is reminiscent of Trump’s betrayal of the Syrian Kurds, who were allies against the Islamic State in Syria. Trump’s Abandonment of Afghan Allies: Trump’s policies also prevented many Afghan allies from escaping Afghanistan. Hundreds of Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. in the War on Terrorism were denied visas to America because of Donald Trump’s counterproductive policies, despite their eligibility, leaving them at risk of retaliation by the Taliban after the U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. Under Trump’s Muslim ban, the Administration implemented duplicative and unnecessary restrictions on visas for Iraqis and Afghans who worked with Americans. Despite minimal risk from refugees because of adequate protections, Trump had instituted the ban on the entry of refugees from entire States because of his demagogic anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric and support from nativists and White Nationalists, one of whom as directing anti-migrant policies in the Trump Administration. Therefore, the demagoguery that was supposedly based on protecting Americans from terrorists effectively undermined U.S. security by jeopardizing the lives of allies.