Unless you've been living under a rock, by now you've heard that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete. And it was quite a spectacle, wasn't it?
The sharks who swim through the cesspool of Reich Wing misinformation and propaganda have been circling President Biden in the last few days, waiting for a chance to inflict a fatal bite.
That's been a tough undertaking as the terms and timeline for the US withdrawal were put together by the trump Administration back in February of 2020 in the Doha Agreement. As so many have forgotten, the Afghan Government that we put into place was not allowed to be a part of those negotiations.
The main criticism that's being laid at Biden's feet as the house of cards crumbles is that he should have waited until we were perfectly ready to get out all Americans and our friends and allies before the withdrawal was completed.
That criticism is warranted in no small measure but it ignores the fact that Biden hit the pause button on trump's withdrawal timeline in order to get a handle on what was needed to get this massive undertaking completed. And that one delay for more deliberation and planning was all he was willing to add.
Airlifting 122,000 troops, citizens and allies from Afghanistan was no small feat. It could and should have been done better. But we are -- at long last -- out of the longest war in the history of the USA.
And for that, we should all be grateful.
"Bulldog Ben" Basile
© 2021 Ben Lawrence Basile
