Pentagon offers little detail on support for Afghanistan after U.S. pullout

The Pentagon is offering few details on how the U.S. will support Afghanistan’s government once the last American soldier leaves by Sept. 11, beyond insisting it will help from “over the horizon,” drawing criticism from former Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

“There frankly hasn’t been very good planning — probably no planning that I saw — by the [Department of Defense] to establish those ‘over the horizon’ operations that need to take place,” Mr. Panetta said this week. “What you have right now is a very clear signal to the Taliban: ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind.’”

Military officials have cited aircraft maintenance assistance to the Afghan air force as the kind of “over the horizon” help they envision following the U.S. pullout. But they are offering few specifics on how that will happen and if any nearby countries have offered to host American trainers.

“We just are still working our way through that right now,” chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week. “The focus right now is on logistical support, mostly aircraft maintenance, and on financial support.”

President Biden said in April he will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to the United States’ longest war.

The Pentagon will maintain a robust ability to launch strikes into Afghanistan if necessary. That includes sufficient “over the horizon” counterterrorism capabilities to prevent any future threats originating from there, Mr. Kirby said.

“There’s not a place on earth that we can’t hit if we need to,” he said.

Mr. Panetta said Taliban fighters have already taken over at least 26 Afghan military bases and likely will accelerate their plan to take the entire country back once the last U.S. combat troops leave.

“The Taliban is going in and using the warlords to tell the government forces: “If you don’t get out, you’re going to die,’” Mr. Panetta said. “They’re dropping their weapons and getting the hell out of there.”

In the discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, former President Trump’s national security adviser, predicted a colossal humanitarian catastrophe if the U.S. exit plan in Afghanistan doesn’t change.

“It won’t be like Rwanda, where we decided not to intervene. It will be worse,” he said. “We could have prevented it with a very small number of troops and with a sustainable level of commitment, financially, and with Afghans bearing the brunt of the fight. But we didn’t do that.”

A U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan without maintaining at least a token military presence could result in a situation similar to Iraq, where the U.S. was forced to return to take on the then-growing threat from the Islamic State terrorist group, Mr. Panetta said.

“All that needs to happen is one attack on this country as a result of” the withdrawal, he said. “There would be no question we would be going back to war in Afghanistan.”