Biden and the Taliban

Let’s correct this distortion. When soldiers deploy, they don’t leave their weapons behind at the supply depot. They take their weapons with them. The Afghan Army was no exception.

The weapons we gifted the Afghan Army (not the Taliban) over 20 years were scattered all over Afghanistan, wherever their army deployed. As their soldiers surrendered to the Taliban (too often without a fight), of course they had to surrender their weapons, too.

Although Trump negotiated the withdrawal and wanted to start seven months sooner, he made no effort to disarm the Afghan Army and return their weapons to the U.S. If President Biden had done so, today we’d be blaming him for the Afghan Army’s sudden collapse.

Instead, their army collapsed on its own. Their fault, not ours. They outnumbered the Taliban and were far better equipped. To recover their surrendered weapons, Biden would have had to restart the war using our own troops, hunt down the Taliban, defeat them, recapture the weapons, transport them back to Kabul, and fly them back home.

Critics say Biden should have done all that in just a few weeks during our withdrawal. It would have taken a miracle! Given recent events, it’s ironic that those critics expect Joe Biden to have the powers of Jesus Christ.

Tom R. Halfhill