All Eyes on Afghanistan As Our Troops Prepare to Head Home

Breaking News: President Biden has said he is planning to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 – the 20th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks. Previous administrations have favored bringing our soldiers home, but there are many moving parts to such an endeavor, and it can’t happen too quickly. If you pull out and leave a completely destabilized government, it becomes easy for the next terrorist or dictator to swoop in, abuse its people, and become a new problem to be dealt with.

But at the ACLJ, we support withdrawing and getting our troops home to their loved ones and not losing any more American lives in Afghanistan. At the same time, we believe that how the withdrawal is done can be critical in ensuring our national security.

As our own Senior Military Analyst Colonel Wes Smith put it:

“It is long overdue. The mission was accomplished there when we killed Osama Bin Laden ten years ago. We went in for two reasons, and that is to defeat Al Qaeda and to kill Osama Bin Laden. You’ll never really totally get rid of Al Qaeda, they’re like ISIS or any other terror group. There are cells around the world. But we basically accomplished both of those missions. Meanwhile, we’ve had over 4,500 troops killed, over 20,000 wounded. But the objective has been achieved. It’s time to come home.”
The reaction in Congress to the news of withdrawal has been surprisingly mixed. Some of which looks like a little more than political posturing. Senator Tim Kane stated that “the Middle East is no longer a top priority.” We would strongly disagree, especially when, as we told you yesterday that Iran has drastically increased its nuclear weapons program.

And while this is happening, we have China seemingly threatening to invade Taiwan. And Russia seems poised to attack Ukraine, amassing some 80,000 troops along the Ukrainian border. And at the same time, both China and Russia are directly engaged with Iran, offering assistance, both economically and militarily. Any leverage President Biden may have thought he had over Iran seems to be a moot point now, as they’ve made powerful friends.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who we greatly respect and actually disagrees with completely withdrawing our forces from Afghanistan, called President Biden a “destabilizing” leader:

“Joe Biden’s become an incredibly destabilizing American President . . . . The Mid East had been transformed under [President] Trump’s watch where the Arabs were working with the Israelis, and had Iran in a box. He’s taken Iran and let them out of the box. They’re talking about enriching uranium at 60% which is a direct threat to the existence of the State of Israel. The Russians are challenging him in the Ukraine.”
As Col. Wes Smith put it:

“I don’t remember the last time our adversaries – perhaps you should call them enemies – have aligned with each other against the United States in just this same way . . . we’re in an awkward and a weak strategic position.”
The full broadcast is complete with much more analysis of President Biden’s announcement regarding Afghanistan, as well as the current tensions in Taiwan and Ukraine, as China and Russia saber rattle, and the response around the Middle East to Iran’s increased uranium enrichment.