Any student of the Fall of Saigon would have known that airstrikes on the columns of NVA armor and troops (Massed targets!) moving south could have had the term "Highway of death" used long before Kuwait, the one time such strategy has been effectively used.
It wouldn't take a military genius to figure out that the Taliban, now holding the rest of the country, would be headed to Kabul in force. Hell, the locals figured it out, and hoped to get a plane ticket out if they wanted to leave--for any reason.
Once again, there was a rare opportunity to shred an enemy fought in insurgency style warfare using air power. To annihilate columns of massed insurgents and enemies who previously had to be rooted out of the terrain or fought door to door, from the air.
It should have been known that the Afghan air force would likely NOT be up to that task. Gee whiz, even NBC had an article about how the contractors that maintained their planes and other air assets were being pulled out on June 29.
Which meant if the opportunity was going to be seized, that fell on other forces ho would be capable. By demonstration, US air assets could have kept the Taliban at bay, if not severely reduced their number had they been given the order to strike.
But like when Saigon fell, the troops on the ground were left to their own devices, and for many, that meant one thing: escape, if at all possible. No doubt the NVA seized records, relied on spies, and enacted reprisals against those and their families who worked with the US government.
Not merely hillbilly hicks or the equivalent, the Taliban have demonstrated a sophisticated ability to ferret out who worked with who, to use records to hunt and kill those who have opposed them, and the determination to do so.
Biden's abdication to the bunker represents more than a failure of epic proportions, it represents the loss of an opportunity to seriously injure or destroy much of the very enemy we went to Afghanistan to fight. What could have been a crippling blow delivered as we exited was simply not done. Had it been delivered with the skill our aviators have demonstrated, leaving would have been done with our heads held high, the maneuver considered 'brilliant' and our enemies cowed. Not to mention the approval of every one and their family members of those who fought there.
Instead,they have been too focused on declaring Americans a threat in DC and the Pentagon to ensure a return on 20 years of blood and grief.
