The Pentagon Is Also Responsible for the Afghanistan Debacle
Virtually every basic principle of evacuation operations was violated in Afghanistan.
by Gary Anderson
August 24, 2021, 12:23 AM
President Biden indeed owns the debacle that was the fall of Afghanistan, but he had plenty of help. The State Department was slow to process visas for Afghan interpreters and their families even though it had plenty of notice of the planned withdrawal. American intelligence services failed to pick up the warning signs of the imminent collapse, or if they did, those signals were ignored in Washington. However, the incredible incompetence with which the U.S. military executed the withdrawal is both astounding and inexplicable.
The rapidity of the collapse of the Afghan Security Forces in the first weeks of August may have come as a surprise to U.S. military planners, but the roots of military failure stretch back to July when the Americans snuck out of Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night with virtually no coordination with their Afghan allies. Every U.S. general now on active duty has attended some command and staff college (C&SC). Withdrawal under pressure and Noncombatant Evacuation Operations (NEOs) are a core part of any C&SC curriculum. Virtually every basic principle of such operations was violated in Afghanistan.
The first step in executing a NEO is to secure a port or an airfield from which to safely evacuate the civilians, both U.S. and local nationals. Bagram was the most logical airfield as it was the main military hub in the nation. It is defensible and has access routes from Kabul that could have remained secure. Instead of making the airbase the hub of the withdrawal plan, it became the first major installation to be abandoned. This left Kabul’s Karzai airport as the only port of embarkation. Kabul is dominated by mountainous suburban terrain. Even if the Taliban fighters had not entered the city proper as quickly as they did, they could have rained down mortar fire to disrupt the operation, and still can if they decide to do so. Many observers have likened the situation in Kabul to the fall of Saigon, but the U.S. military has put itself in the position more analogous to that of the French at Dien Bien Phu. Any further evacuation will be at the sufferance of the Taliban. Our president has become the Supplicant-in-Chief.
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https://spectator.org/the-pentagon-is-also-responsible-for-the-afghanistan-debacle/
