Reporters rush to Biden's defense as military generals contradict the president over Afghanistan...

LTC Joe Anderson (Taz or Joe Retired Now in Contract Compliance) - he answers to voters

For what is worth sir, I am in complete agreement with this. I believe it was a mistake to pull out of Afghanistan after we had invested so much, not only money, but time, and the cost of human life, ours and theirs... I have always thought this... I apologize if I smarted off earlier in a heated reply to Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin's letter above. There is a lot of tension floating around and heads are hot, but it is a complete and utter shame what we have done to a complete nation of free Afghans, especially Afghan women. I have always been a big fan of equality for all, and this is even suppose to one of Joe's strong points. I completely understand what you mean by it taking generations to let the nature of freedom ring in the hearts of the Afghan people.

We were so close, and what you said really made sense, we had reached a Plato, a stalemate if you will, where the cost had fallen to a minimum and the Taliban had started to accept defeat, I believe, coming to this understanding is much more your specialty than mine, with you seeming to have an inside knowledge of what is happening in Afghanistan.

The question now I suppose is should the government rectify the mistake by going back full force now and once again maintaining control, or now that we are out, call it a day, let Joe take the political hit, and value the money we will save in the next 60 years more than the freedom of the Afghan people. I wish we had not pulled out, and I personally would be in favor of going back because to me, money is useless if not used to help people move forward into a better world. On the other hand, I see the importance of becoming physically responsible. I don't think there is any doubt that we should have stayed, and I also admit that I hate to admit this because I do believe that otherwise Joe has us on a solid plan moving foreword, which will be hard to sell after admitting to such an enormous mistake in Afghanistan. I'll close now with a thank your well thought our and patient debate, especially after my last reply which I wrote angrily wrote after reading Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin's letter above.

Have a good day sir!

Dave

PFC David Foster - I get it. We were there for 20 years. A better part of my career was center on deploying for or supporting OEF. I spent a lot of time away from my family for this effort. I also served as on of the military advisors, providing the road map to get better as far back as 2014. President Obama ignored our plan and started pulling advisors out back then, which set things in motion for ensuring the ANA would not have an acceptable air operations capability without our help.

Next you highlight the fact that the Taliban was not responsible for the attack on the 13 servicemen and women. So what? They also were not directly responsible for Al Qaeda's attack on 9/11. However, the Haqqani network (like Al Qaeda) has deep ties to the Taliban, thus making them responsible. After all, they assumed control in Kabul and this is a perfect example of why we should not have left. They cannot and/or will not control the international terrorist factions existing in their country.

While we're on the subject of the Taliban, you need to also note, that with the new democratically elected government, the Taliban were be given a path to be a part of the elections and the process. But that's not how they want to rule is it?

You asked if I had some inside information. In a way I did, up until I retired in 2014 (shortly after redeploying from a year long tour as an Air Advisor). As my tour came close to an end, we were tasked to build a roadmap to making the AFA (Afghan Air Force) better. There were a lot of challenges to overcome (mostly the illiteracy rates in the country/AFA). AFA Airmen were faced with maintaining and operating very complex equipment, necessary to running airfields and air operations. Our own leadership had not yet recognized that you can rely simply on training pilots, but you must also train the AFA to maintain and run an air base. All those supporting elements you find at an Air Force base must be carried out by the Afghan if they were ever going to reach a self sustaining capability. Comm, CE, Contracting, finance, Air Tower, Security Forces, aircraft maintenance, and then some... They all have a part to play and we were only giving them lip service up until my team of advisors started making light of it. The road map we were tasked to build was to be breifed directly to Gen Dunford himself (US/NATO forces Commander in Afghanistan, follow by the CJCS to Obama). Gen Dunford agreed with our 3 year plan detailing the training objectives required to get them prepared to run their own air operations independently. He took this plan and stamped his recommendation on it to the President. Shortly after I redeployed, the word got out that the Air Advisors would be pulling out of all locations, save a handful in Kabul. This essentially ended any hope the AFA would be able to operate independently from US/coalition support.

Now think about the impact of this. Ever since the creation of the Afghan National Army (ANA), they have relied upon US/Coalition air support for their ground engagements against the Taliban, as well as the Haqqani and Al Qaeda factions. They trained this way and depended on the support. One of the first things we stopped doing in our withdraw from Afghanistan was to cease all joint ANA/US air support operations. While they did have a significant number of aircraft and even trained pilots, few were trained sufficiently for CAS, and the rest performed mostly transport, logistical, and MEDIVAC support. Even our own Army would be hard pressed if we suddenly removed the combat air support component from the equation. So this isn't entirely a will of the Afghan people to fight issue, we essentially set them up for failure by pulling out in the manner we did. We should have left the residual force of SOF and Air Support indefinitely until we were sure they could do it themselves. Exactly what the Military Advisors to Biden were suggesting.

Right now his talking heads are trying to suggest Afghanistan offers no strategic value. I disagree. They also echo the sentiment that 20 years is too long. Do they not realize we are still in Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and even Korea (where we technically have not ended that war). In my opinion, this is what happens when politicians trying to score points against the other more popular politician. President Bush was highly lauded for his actions after 9/11. After he moved the war into Iraq, that popularity started to decrease as his opponents (most of which agreed with going into Iraq) tried to play ignorant of what led to it and criticize him instead. Not to get into a debate about Iraq, but the point of it was, the criticism started seeping into why we were in Afghanistan too. But first it started with, why are we taking the focus off Afghanistan (which we weren't). They insisted all our troops were being directed to Iraq instead of Afghanistan (despite the fact troops number continued to increase in Afghanistan too). Eventually the dialog turned into why we were there still. Again, my opinion, but rhetoric like that needs to be countered quick and effectively when we are fighting a war. All we did was give the Taliban a light at the end of the tunnel to continue their efforts and wait us out.

Finally, you speak of propaganda in the media and I wholeheartedly agree. Much of it is even flat out lies, and even a conscious action of biased media to not report certain aspects of the news which might change the narrative against their bias. As a former information operations expert, I have recognized the trends and it is getting worse. I find that I have to read more and look for more sources before I am able to believe anything to good or too bad to be true. I have to read into the articles and cut the biased portions to find the facts, sometimes to wonder why some articles would neglect adding known facts while instead pushing opinions contrary to the facts into the report. Not all of the American people recognize this or take the time to research the information (to include many of the "journalists"). I used to think it was all about getting the news out to be the first one and earn viewership (i.e. make money). Not so much anymore. I see collaboration between the media and politicians, censorship of alternate factual information, and a gaining movement to silence those who offer that information if it does not agree with the running narrative (regardless of whether it might be true or not). Yes, the Russians and Chinese are behind some of these activities. But we also have an all to willing media too.

Anyway, I hope this provides food for thought. I can't help but recognize I was in Afghanistan at a critical time, which set things in motion for the likely demise of the Afghan Military and Government. I didn't know it fully then as I figured we are moving toward and endless cycle of deploying just enough troops to maintain the status quo and allow the Afghan people to become accustom to a relative peace, certainly more progress, and by attrition, they would see the Taliban fade away. Now we're back to square one, thanks to, in my opinion, the worst President in my lifetime. All to make good on an ill-conceived campaign promise. How's that working out for him?

Thank you sir for your well thought out, patient, and highly informative intelligent response. I agree wholeheartedly that pulling out of Afghanistan was a strategic nightmare, and if it were up to me, we'd go back to Afghanistan, but to sell that to the American citizens, IMO, it would practically take another 9/11. As much as I hate what Biden did in Afghanistan, I agree with his economic strategy to give the middle and lower class a higher quality of life while at the same time balancing the budget. By creating a higher quality of life for lower and middle income families, this will in turn lower crime rates. Thank you for your service and I sincerely hope you can enjoy your retirement.

Who cares what Trump was going to do/not do? Biden is President now and using your own word, it is his “prerogative” to execute sound decisions. He failed. Had Trump pulled the troops out in a similar manner, I’d say the same thing. I’m more curious why Biden felt the need to lie about it in the end.

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin Well constructed responses!