What Biden must do in Afghanistan

OPINION:

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following the botched withdrawal of American forces from that war-torn nation, President Joe Biden has been consistent in his handling of the crisis: consistently wrong.

His misunderstanding, miscalculation, and missteps around the nature of the Taliban threat in Afghanistan—as well as the continued presence of al-Qaeda and ISIS in the country—have harmed U.S. national security interests around the globe.  Despite his denials to the contrary, our allies are bewildered over Mr. Biden’s irresponsible handling of the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the evacuation of our embassy, American citizens, and those who supported our forces fighting terror in Afghanistan.  Mr. Biden declared to our NATO allies after his election that “America is back.”  However, his fumbling actions in Afghanistan sent them a new and unwelcomed message; “America doesn’t have your back.”

Mr. Biden’s plan to end this long war was devoid of comprehensive thinking beyond declaring “We’re leaving, have a wonderful day.”  He disregarded the warning that a failure to plan is planning to fail.  The proof of that is tragically unfolding before the watchful eyes of the world.  Consequently, he is ham-handedly dismantling American credibility.  Our enemies are gleeful with Mr. Biden’s display of ineptitude. Our allies are woeful.  And American citizens, allies, and Afghans who fought terror with us are trapped and imperiled inside a cordon of Taliban checkpoints and roving assassination squads.  All of this is occurring while Mr. Biden consistently stands by a misguided strategy that reveals his glaring incapacity to lead in a time of crisis where our national security is threatened.  

Mr. Biden seems impervious to the folly of his actions.  He suffers from the delusional idea that if one persists in doing that which is failing, things will get better.  This is partly hubris.  Mr. Biden—despite his consistently failed record on foreign policy matters—thinks himself as diplomatically gifted as a modern-day Talleyrand.  In reality, Mr. Biden is simply stubborn.  The instinct that has guided him during the Afghanistan crisis is “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind has made up.”  

We have seen this in the past two weeks during Mr. Biden’s three updates to the nation.  In each of them, he has consistently held to his view that his approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal is right.  It is wrong and it requires an immediate change of course.  Here is what he should do:

• Declare that the withdrawal is now a conditions-based one and that all timelines are no longer in force.  
• Order Bagram Air Base be retaken along with other strategic and tactical facilities necessary to facilitate near-term U.S. operations in Afghanistan to complete the mission in good order.  
• Authorize the military to deploy whatever force is needed to stabilize the situation, including a full complement of intelligence units and airpower to place punishing strikes on recalcitrant Taliban or al-Qaeda forces.  
• Direct the Pentagon to begin rescue operations for any U.S. citizen stranded in Afghanistan like the British and French are doing for their citizens.  
• Make clear that the killing of civilians by the Taliban will be considered a war crime and America will hold them directly accountable.
• Demand that the Taliban dismantle its checkpoints and assassination squads in Kabul within 24 hours, before the U.S. compels them to do so with military action.  
• Finally, Mr. Biden should call for an immediate NATO summit to reestablish an allied stabilization force in Afghanistan with the focused mission of denying terrorists use of the country to again launch attacks on America or its allies.

Unfortunately, Mr. Biden’s predisposition is to pretend that his failing plan is working. He will continue to cite a litany of numbers, both aircraft flights and people evacuated, to suggest that the situation is well in hand.  It is not.  It is careening toward a cataclysm that is solely of Mr. Biden’s making.  He has been consistently wrong on foreign policy issues for his entire adult life.  His doleful record remains splendidly intact.

It is time for his senior advisors to press for an immediate change in strategy.  If they do not, then Congress must act to demand a stabilization plan of action to pursue an orderly withdrawal of American citizens, allies, and Afghan friends and supporters.  And that should include positioning an allied coalition anti-terror force in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.  A complete withdrawal in the face of a Taliban takeover was never a wise strategy.  Especially now with Mr. Biden’s irresponsible and unjustified hardheadedness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”  He could have been writing about Joe Biden’s foolish and illogical consistency in Afghanistan.  But Mr. Biden’s hobgoblin is no playful spirit.  Rather it is a malevolent ghoul of foolish consistency.

• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and combat veteran, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and author of Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War (University Press of Kentucky).