There are three immediate “takeaways” from the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
When I think back to Vietnam, Afghanistan is déjà vu all over again. It has sucked the oxygen out of the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation news, much to the relief of most Republicans.We have once again ignored what Republican president Dwight Eisenhower said in his 1961 farewell address; “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex…” “We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes…” “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Nick Turse, in The Intercept, quoted the president as saying “We, of course, are saddened indeed by the events.… But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world.”
But that president wasn’t Biden. It was Gerald Ford on April 23, 1975, as North Vietnamese forces rolled toward Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam.
“A two-decade American effort to turn South Vietnam into a noncommunist bulwark in Southeast Asia had failed” Turse wrote. “A million-man army long advised, financed, trained, and equipped by the United States was crumbling as South Vietnamese soldiers fled the front lines. They stripped off their uniforms and attempted to disappear into the civilian population.”
“We can and we should help others to help themselves,” said Ford. “But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands, not in ours.”
Last month, Biden echoed Ford, putting the fate of Afghanistan squarely on the shoulders of the Afghan government and military. It is, he said, “the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.”
Enter 90-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev who, Andrew Osborn said on Reuter’s, “regarded the Soviet presence in Afghanistan as a political mistake that was sapping precious resources at a time when the Soviet Union was living through what turned out to be the twilight of its own existence.” The Soviet-backed authorities in Afghanistan had survived for three years after the withdrawal by Moscow of its main forces but never recovered from the Russian decision to cut aid to them after the Soviet collapse in January 1992 and fell later that year.”
Gorbachev said “They (NATO and the United States) should have admitted failure earlier. The important thing now is to draw the lessons from what happened and make sure that similar mistakes are not repeated.”
These “lessons” for America must include a complete reevaluation of U.S. foreign policy and a rejection of the reckless foreign interventions. Since the end of World War II, the United States has been involved in five major conflicts requiring massive deployment of troops and equipment — Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Good news for the military-industrial complex. But none of these conflicts were openly declared wars as was World War II. None ended with the kind of victory achieved in World War II. None allowed America to reshape the regions in any manner as they did after World War II. And these “conflicts” are no longer fought in the same way.
Nick Turse wrote “…the United States and its allies had propped up the Afghan government for the better part of two decades and had spent at least $83 billion to build, advise, train, and equip its faltering armed forces.”
Like Vietnam, the United States had provided billions in high-tech weapons, but it hardly mattered as North Vietnamese forces rolled toward Saigon. The U.S.-backed “puppet troops,” as they were called by the North, melted away.
President Biden recently said “We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools — let me emphasize: all the tools, training, and equipment of any modern military. We provided advanced weaponry.” But the Taliban et al have learned how to fight in ways that can avoid advanced weaponry.
See what I mean by déjà vu?
To his credit, President Biden has followed through on his campaign pledge to extract the U.S. from its longest ever war. That the exit strategy is a disaster, is also on his desk.
Ike was right. “…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military–industrial complex.…”
This Connecting the Dots column by Greenfield resident John Bos appears every other Saturday in the Recorder. Bos is also a contributing writer for Green Energy Times and the editor of a new children’s book “After the Race” available on Amazon. Comments and questions are invited at john01370@gmail.com.