What’s Happening in Afghanistan

United States citizens were just told to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. This is major news, because it’s been 20 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan. There have been calls to withdraw troops over the last decade and it’s now happening. In addition to the loss of thousands of lives, we have spent 2.26 trillion dollars over the last 20 years in Afghanistan. The time has come to withdraw.Show more

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst and retired Army Colonel Wes Smith explains the rationale behind leaving Afghanistan:

"For several hundred years, Afghanistan has been looked at as the graveyard of empires. We accomplished the mission that we went there initially to start. We went there . . . simply to defeat Al Qaeda, get rid of the terrorist training camps, and to find and kill Osama Bin Laden. That mission was accomplished years ago. The mission that is actually ending now and over the next few weeks is not that mission. That mission was successful. There was mission creep where we got into nation building and trying to defeat the Taliban – which in some ways is a fool’s errand. . . . I think the time had come for us to withdraw; the original mission was accomplished. This Afghanistan issue has dogged four U.S. Presidents and costs us billions of dollars . . . and thousands of lives. At some point you realize that the mission to eliminate the Taliban and make that into a western style civilized nation was simply not going to happen. . . . I think the time had come to say we did what we came to do and it’s time to back away."

Wes has an extensive military background and has spoken to many families whose sons, daughters, wives, and husbands served in Afghanistan. He summed it up best:

"I personally don’t think it is worth one more American life to prop up a corrupt government in Afghanistan to the tune of billions of dollars and to try to defeat the Taliban which is a part of the warp and woof of the Afghanistan society."

On the home front, at the ACLJ, our team has the expertise to assist in a broad range of issues. In a recent example, we helped a Rabbi who simply wanted to hold a prayer meeting at his house. ACLJ Senior Litigation Counsel Abigail Southerland joined Sekulow to discuss this case:

"The Rabbi just wanted to hold a private meeting of approximately 10 individuals on a weekly basis. No traffic, no parking was an issue. It was a private prayer gathering – just like a football watch party or a book club. He received a letter from the city informing him that he must cease and desist immediately all religious prayer gatherings and seek special permission from the city to continue those gatherings in the form of a special use zoning permit."

Abby added:

"ACLJ stepped in and issued a letter to the city outlining the various federal laws that applied . . . and we outlined for the city why they can’t single this Rabbi out and require him to obtain special permission to continue holding private prayer gatherings in his home. . . . He was able to immediately begin holding those prayer meetings again all summer long without further harassment from the city."

Regardless of if an issue is at the local level like this one or at the international level, we are able to help. You can go to ACLJ.org/help if you have any legal issues that are within the scope of our work.

In international news, our very own ACLJ Director of National Security and Foreign Policy Ric Grenell just got back from the Balkans. He explains his findings in his new article and what Balkan leaders are feeling under the Biden Administration:

"Look, I encourage everyone to go to aclj.org and look up this piece. I did spend the last 11 days in the Balkans, and I was able to hear from the people and from the leaders. And it's quite clear they miss U.S. leadership. If you remember that the Trump Administration had negotiated an historic agreement – four historic agreements that were really moving the region towards economic normalization. And we put in the last negotiation agreement a one-year reprieve on both sides fighting to derecognize each other."

"The way that this goes is that the Serbs try to get other countries to not recognize Kosovo, and Kosovo in turn tries to go to other countries and they are doing a recognition campaign. This recognition and derecognition campaign are really causing a lot of problems because it means they are fighting and not trying to move forward with some sort of agreement. We got a one-year reprieve. That one-year hold to not recognize or seek recognition or derecognition runs out on September 4th. We are looking at dialing back this whole progress after Sept. 4th simply because the Biden team hasn’t paid attention and hasn't been able to negotiate with either side and turned it over to the Europeans and no progress has been made. I think what we will see is a recognition and derecognition campaign on both sides that immediately inflames the progress that we have been moving towards."

Because of your support, we are able to focus on a host of issues both domestic and international. And we have a group of experts that are able to speak on a wide variety of subjects and provide guidance for those that need our help.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of the U.S. pulling citizens out of Afghanistan and our work at the ACLJ.