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Exit strategy anyone?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The chaos and confusion surrounding our exit from the battlefield in Afghanistan prompts a question or two.

One of them is this: When we decide to go to war, would it serve everyone well if we crafted an exit strategy going in knowing that the end would arrive one day?

I ask the question because of the pounding that President Biden is receiving over his withdrawal of troops and the shoddy lack of preparation for the end game.

I say this trying to spread the responsibility around through three previous presidential administrations, namely the George W. Bush administration, which took us to war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The question keeps rolling around. Why didn’t President Bush’s team come up with an exit strategy from the get-go? Did he not have some wished-for notion that our war against terrorists would find a conclusion? The same thing can be said of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the two men who followed Bush into the Oval Office. Did either of them foresee an end? If so, why didn’t they develop an exit strategy that our troops could follow?

Now the whole thing has fallen on President Biden’s lap. He did what he had to do, what he pledged to, which was to bring our troops home from the longest war in our nation’s history. Yes, he should have had an evacuation plan on which to draw when he issued the order. He didn’t. Neither did any of the men who preceded him.

So, who deserves the blame? Does it fall entirely on President Biden? No. It’s a shared consequence.

4 thoughts on “Exit strategy anyone?”

  1. 1. Evacuate all civilian and Afghan people working with the United States
    2. Evacuate all embassy staff
    3. Military would be the last to leave. Might even add a few during the evacuation.

    Iā€™m sure I left something off. But we now have 10,000+ thousand Americans trapped and no one seems to have a plan on how to get them home. All Biden says is ā€œget to the airportā€. How the hell do they get to the airport when itā€™s surrounded by Taliban?

    No one disagrees we needed out of there. But trying to blame the withdrawal on anyone but Bidenā€™s administration is ridiculous. With all the minds in D.C. they couldnā€™t prioritize???? Itā€™s like they didnā€™t try.

    1. You keep trying to be an a**hole. I have said all along that President Biden has fluffed the exit. I get that. I just believe that the setup for the withdrawal could have been mapped out long ago through the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. There was no plan when Joe Biden decided to act.

  2. Not being an asshole. You squarely put the blame elsewhere.

    ā€œ So, who deserves the blame? Does it fall entirely on President Biden? No. Itā€™s a shared consequence.ā€

    Simple question: If there was no plan, why didnā€™t his administration develop one before withdrawing. Based on that alone, heā€™s fully responsible for the method of the withdrawal. Itā€™s not shared by anyone else. Well, it is shared IF his administration didnā€™t advise him properly.

  3. There was a plan. The Afghan army stepped aside and let the Taliban thru. End of a terrible mission that should have never happened and seldom had ā€œthingsā€ go as planned.

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