Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilots fly near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, April 5, 2017. U.S. Army photo via Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 16, 2021 | About our American troops in Afghanistan, President Biden cannot pull our troops out of there fast enough for me. Our country should have never been deployed sending American troops to that part of the world.
The British fought there first, and realized their mistake, and left in 1842. Russians came next fighting what is probably the same people we were trying to destroy. This war for Russia began in December 1979, and lasted until February 1989. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed, and about 35,000 were wounded.
After nine years of the battle, Russia recognized such a victory was impossible. And that was from a country that is bumped up right against Afghanistan, and had relatively short supply lines.
Contrast the Russian position with the American position: we had to provide our nation’s finest with supplies and equipment they needed from half a world distant. Such an endeavor was doomed from the start, and it’s taken 20 years and finally the fourth president (after Bush, Obama and Trump), Joe Biden is willing to risk his political and our nation’s future on bringing home our troops.
Hurrah for the so-called Sleepy Joe Biden. Some have even called him “Biden the divider,” but no telling how many moms and pops, especially of our troops actually deployed there now, or before, may think of him as “Joe the hero.”
The timeline:
Oct. 7, 2001: President George W. Bush said that U.S. and British troops began striking Afghanistan for “harboring the al-Qaeda terrorists” blamed for the 9/11 attacks.
December 2003: American troops now number 13,100 in the country.
December 2007: Americans in Afghanistan now number 25,000. By 2009, it is 67,000. President Obama plans to send in another 33,000 Americans.
May 2011: Osama Bin Laden is found hiding in neighboring Pakistan and is killed. There are still 100,000 U.S. troops in the country.
September 2012: Troop withdrawals means the number is down to 77,000 U.S. men in a slow withdrawal.
March 2014: American troops down to 34,000, and by December Obama cuts the forces to 16,100.
July 2016: Instead of dropping the American troops level to 5,500, Obama says it will be 8,400 by the end of his term in January, 2017.
August 2017: President Trump says more forces will be deployed, to about the 14,000 level.
September 2019: A total of 5,500 U.S. troops will be withdrawn within 135 days. Later that month, President Trump says a planned high-level meeting with the enemy camp has been cancelled.
All totaled, the Pentagon shows that more than 775,000 U.S. service members were deployed to Afghanistan at least once.
Killed in Afghanistan were 2,400 Americans, with 20,660 injured, and no telling how many with mind-wobbling nightmares. Add that the cost so far of fighting in Afghanistan is over $2 trillion. (Source: Department of Defense.) Those who did not come home are from all states, with California the home state of 755 troops killed. Georgia lost 220 of its people to death in Afghanistan.
The announcement this week from Joe Biden will be greeted with relief by most Americans, who just didn’t feel comfortable fighting a war for others.
As a proud military veteran myself (seven years, 3.5 in Germany) during the Cold War, I am relieved that the loved ones of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines personnel will come home from being deployed in this unwinnable fight in Afghanistan.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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