Leaving Americans behind

“Leaving Americans behind”, Submitted to the Monterey Herald 9-1-2021 unpublished

Was the US military withdrawal in Afghanistan highly successful?  Apparently, it was. President Biden proclaimed the evacuation from Afghanistan an “extraordinary success.” The Washington Post disagreed, and referred to this so-called success as a “moral disaster,” because of “mistakes, strategic and tactical.”

We left many Americans behind, including 24 American students from Sacramento, even though Biden promised to “leave nobody behind.” In fact, the Biden Administration estimated the number of Americans in Afghanistan at 10,000 to 15,000; yet only 6,000 Americans were airlifted out from Hamid Karzai airport. As for our Afghan allies, the numbers could be in the tens of thousands or more.

This debacle included the death of 13 U.S. service members, and 170 Afghans. We left behind at least $83 billion dollars of U.S. military equipment. Our credibility among America’s NATO allies has been damaged. And to top it off, almost 5,000 hardcore Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists were released after Taliban captured the U.S. Bagram airbase.

Yes, the American withdrawal from Afghanistan was a great success for the Taliban.

Lawrence Samuels, Carmel