Yesterday’s NYT contained an op-ed from an Afghan military commander which accuses Trump, Biden, and the Afghan government of betraying the army. That isn’t the interesting part. The significant information is hidden in the middle.
The op-ed tells us that the Afghan military was designed to be totally dependent on the support of the American military and American contractors. Once they were withdrawn, the end was quick and inevitable.
What this means is that the top levels of our military, either by design or negligence, committed us to stay in Afghanistan in perpetuity. While they were doing this without our knowledge and consent, they were lying to us about the success of their mission, while privately advising our political leaders to keep kicking the can.
They are the architects of our Afghan failure. No thanks for their service, indeed.