Another Conservative Think Tank Criticizes the Disastrous Trump-Biden Afghan Withdrawal

In my post about Afghanistan last month, Conservative Think Tank Calls for American Support of the Anti-Taliban Afghan Resistance, https://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2023/07/conservative-think-tank-calls-for.html, I focused on the call by the Hudson Institute for support of the National Resistance Front, the main Afghan resistance movement against the Islamist Taliban militia that seized power in Afghanistan again in 2020. The Taliban had been overthrown in 2002 by an international coalition led by the United States, and which included the recognized Afghan Government, which had retained de facto control of northeast Afghanistan, where their successors, the National Resistance Front, are also based. The Taliban were overthrown after hosting the Islamist al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2011 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed a record nearly 3,000 people. But I write to note also that as I did and as the Center for the Foundation for Democracy and other conservatives also have, the Hudson Institute criticized the disastrous Trump-Biden withdrawal for the return of power of the Taliban. They observed that Donald Trump’s negotiations with the Taliban that legitimized the Islamist militia and undermined the elected coalition Afghan Government the U.S. had been supporting, who were excluded from negotiations. Trump’s inartful deal with the Taliban forced an American withdrawal, in exchange for a promise from the terrorist sponsors intertwined with al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorists not to host al-Qaeda again. After taking power, the Taliban hosted al-Qaeda’s leader in Kabul. Trump’s deal barred the Americans from combat against the Taliban and enabled his presidential successor, Joe Biden, who, like Trump, opposed the continued non-combat training mission of a few thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to have an excuse to give up, instead of rejecting Trump’s deal and implementing a policy to defeat the Taliban. Furthermore, Biden had no plan to address the rapid takeover of Afghanistan, which happened despite some American support for the Afghan Government and some valiant efforts by some Afghan forces. His plan to continue to strike terrorists without having a base in Afghanistan did allow the U.S. to kill al-Qaeda’s leader through a missile strike, but only after he had been able to communicate better with his forces and the Taliban for months because of his presence in Afghanistan, and without being able to exploit intelligence from his hideout, as in previous raids, such as the one that killed al-Qaeda’s previous leader. Meanwhile, the Taliban oppress religious and ethnic minorities, do not tolerate basic freedoms, especially for women, and have killed many Afghans who had worked for the Afghan Government.