Afghanistan: The Fault of Many, Not One

Afghanistan: The Fault of Many, Not One

Edward D Arroyo

Staff Writer

On September 8, House Republicans released a report regarding their investigation into the U.S.’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, blaming the catastrophic end of the Afghanistan war on President Joe Biden’s administration. They also denied that the timing of their accusation has anything to do with how close the election is, reports The Associated Press.

The war in Afghanistan came to an end in 2021 when President Joe Biden declared that by September 11 of that year, the U.S. would have completely withdrawn all remaining U.S. forces from Afghanistan. According to icasualties.org, the 20-year war claimed 3,590 U.S. lives and cost a staggering $2.313 trillion, according to a report by Brown University.

Following the U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban swiftly took back control over Afghanistan, reversing all of the progress that was made in the 20 years of the U.S. occupation, reports The Associated Press. This leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of the many involved in the war: parents who had to watch as their children were sent away to either die or come back as shells of their former selves, soldiers who were wounded both physically and mentally, the thousands of Afghan citizens who hoped for a better future, and U.S. citizens who feel as if their tax money was wasted in a war that essentially accomplished little.

The accusation that the outcome of the war is entirely the Biden Administration’s fault is a slight exaggeration on part of the House Republicans. While yes, the Biden Administration could have done a great deal more to prevent what happened in Afghanistan, it does not overshadow the entire history of the war, which was already a colossal failure even before it ended. From excessive civilian casualties to civilian abuse by private security companies hired by the U.S., to the mismanagement of funds by U.S. officials, the war was plagued by failures. One such instance included a company called Supreme group, that was contracted to feed troops in Afghanistan, realized that due to the lack of government oversight when it came to wartime spending, they could not only maliciously overcharge for food but also create fake subcontracting companies to essentially steal millions of taxpayer dollars. This led to a Senate hearing called “Contracting to feed the U.S. troops in Afghanistan: How did the Defense Department end up in a multi-billion dollar billing dispute?” The amount of money that was wasted according to one senator could have provided nearly 100,000 children access to a Head Start program.

 A report by SIGAR blames Trump’s 2020 deal to withdraw and both Biden and Trump’s efforts to pull out despite the Taliban breaking several of the stipulations of the agreement. Both Former President Trump and President Joe Biden are to blame for the end of the war considering they are the last two Presidents to have the responsibility of managing the remains of the war. But, it was the collective failure of the past four presidential administrations that really led to the disastrous ending of the war in Afghanistan.

The reconstruction efforts by the U.S. were nowhere near effective as shown by how fast the Afghanistan government fell to the Taliban. Preventing this would likely have required another decade or two, and another trillion dollars, to fully prop up the Afghan government in maintaining power. But, that would not have been a very popular decision considering how long and costly the war had already been. After 20 years, the U.S. has exhausted its pursuit for revenge for the September 11 attacks and has left empty-handed with neither its original goal of stopping terrorism nor its goal of bringing stability to Afghanistan. All the U.S. got out of the war was a bill of blood and money.

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