The horrifying explosion at the Kabul airport on 8/26/21 took the lives of 13 American servicemen and hundreds of Afghan citizens. Those of us living in the United States of America are viewing the evacuation of Afghanistan more like an abandonment. However, the politicians advising the president have publicly stated that they’re not worried at all, because “people don’t vote on foreign policy.” When several Afghanistan men fell to their death from an airplane while trying to escape, Biden shrugged and said , “that happened yesterday.” They’re betting that voters care more about the size of their 40lKs than the misguided evacuation of Afghanistan as we exit the war. But you have to wonder. Will Americans really forget?
The president’s advisors are comparing the Afghan withdrawal to the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. However the two events cannot be compared.
According to Wikipedia ” the capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the Republic of Vietnam. A few Americans chose not to be evacuated. United States ground combat units had left South Vietnam more than two years prior to the fall of Saigon and were not available to assist with either the defense of Saigon or the evacuation. The evacuation was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and the institution of new rules by the communists contributed to a decline in the city’s population.”
There was no Operation Frequent Wind when Biden announced we were withdrawing from the Afghanistan War by August 31. In fact, he turned over the names of Americans and Afghan helpers to the Taliban, actually believing that would insure the safety of those fleeing the country. It’s hard to believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would be so gullible. Much less the President of the United States and his Generals.
Biden has threatened : “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” But how is he going to do that without continuing the war in Afghanistan? They launched a drone strike Friday night against some Isis stronghold, but it seems like a tepid move than doesn’t compensate for the horrific loss of life at the Kabul airport.
What will happen in the next election? Consumer sentiment has dropped to its lowest point since 2011. Will Americans really forget the administration’s bungled evacuation plan when exiting the Afghan War? Will we care more about the size of our bank accounts, than the tragedy of August 26? Are we really that materialistic and shallow? It remains to be seen.