Readers respond to last week’s Feedback Friday topic, which was:
Afghanistan
Do you agree or not with President Biden’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from Afghanistan?
What are your thoughts on the U.S.’ 20-year war in Afghanistan?
Here’s what you said:
Biden should have waited until the Taliban went back to Pakistan. He hates Trump so much he did not want to follow his exit plan. My heart aches for the Afghanistan people, and those who worked side by side with Americans and are now left to die. It is Vietnam all over again.
Robyn Affron, Chestertown
We had no business being there in the first place. The invasion there and then 2 years later of Iraq helped to completely destabilize the world. Thanks to W for a legacy of increased global tension.
Eric Peltosalo, Annapolis
Why were we in Afghanistan in the first place? Why did we invade Iraq? Why did the previous administration negotiate with known terrorists (the Taliban} and not the Afghanistan government? What did the U.S. get in return for those negotiations? We know Trump negotiated the release of 500 Taliban fighters (against the wishes of the Afghan government and he withdrew our troops down from 15,000 to 2,500. Why? And, what the the U.S. government get? These are the questions we need answered. We should have never been there after Bin Laden was killed in retaliation for 9/11. President Biden is left holding the bag and taking the brunt for something that should have never happened and should have been handled by the same Cheney/Rumsfeld war monger team, all of the way back when they were involved with the Vietnam war under Nixon. No wonder the optics in Afghanistan are so similar to the fall of Saigon. It looks horrible. I feel so bad for the people. But, how long were we going to stay? When I listened to President Biden's speech the other day, something really stood out to me that no pundits are talking about. He said there are things that are happening in the world that demand our attention and we have to shift our resources. That is what has me concerned. I am afraid there are more pressing issues in the world that are going to be even more challenging. I pray for this country and for the world in hopes that something isn't happening that we don't even know about, yet.
Cynthia Herrick, Annapolis
George W Bush, who avoided Vietnam, pushed this invasion ignoring history of Vietnam or Russia or Afghanistan. He wanted to impose " Democracy" on a country and people who did not understand or want it. The major difference from Vietnam is that all of our troops were NOT DRAFTED. Those who profited should be punished and stripped of all assets and the Afghan president should return the money he took. All presidents since Bush should be ashamed (including Biden. We spent over 3000 American lives and 83 billion dollars for a country that could not defend a takeover in less than a week. A total waste which would have never stopped. sad the American taxpayers and soldiers paid dearly for this fiasco - all government employees both past and present should reimburse the taxpayers or go to jail.
William Hunt, Lancaster
I don't think Mr. Biden had much choice when it came to withdrawing from Afghanistan. Mr. Trump had negotiated a deal with the Taliban and troop withdrawals were well under way when Mr. Biden took office. His choices were to halt the drawdown (in which case the Taliban no doubt would have ended their cease fire), send in more troops (to keep the Taliban at bay), or continue the withdrawal. The real question, though, was did Mr. Biden do enough to evacuate US citizens and at-risk Afghanis who had helped us during the war. The answer to that is obviously “no”. I suspect he was receiving conflicting intelligence re: the speed and inevitably of the Taliban takeover, but prudence and common sense said plan for the worst. There is no excuse for our leaving of our Afghani supporters to their likely fate at the hands on the Taliban.
Mark Knapp, Annapolis
Agree we should have been out of there years ago, but not this way. We should have taken our military equipment out or at least destroyed it so the Taliban could not get use of it.
Edward Stratton, Severn
