When Stupidity Kills.

The sudden U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was dumb. People died. Let it be a lesson.

(Evan Vucci / AP)

Sometimes, being stupid can get a lot of people killed.

We’re seeing that play out in real time in Afghanistan.

There are credible reports that the Taliban have begun beheading people, raping women, and selling them into sex slavery. It’s grotesque. Meanwhile, Afghans cling onto U.S. Air Force planes taking off from Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul and then fall to their deaths. Afghan women plead with U.S. soldiers to save them from the Taliban. 

Meanwhile, over 10,000 American citizens are stranded in Afghanistan, along with 80,000 Afghans who had allied with us during the war as translators, soldiers, etc. And The Dispatch reports that the U.S. Government cannot bring itself to secure safe passage—even to American citizens—to the only American-controlled area left, the airport. They write:

“Below a security alert urging trapped Americans to ‘consider’ making their way past Taliban checkpoints and to the airport, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad affixed a bold disclaimer: ‘THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT ENSURE SAFE PASSAGE TO THE HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.’”

The reasonable reaction to that statement is: What the hell?

Whatever one thinks of the United States’ 20-year-long involvement in Afghanistan, the manner in which the U.S. left was stupid, plain and simple.

The stupidity began with the Trump administration agreeing to an asinine peace deal with the Taliban. Just saying that phrase out loud (“peace deal with the Taliban”) should make your eyes bug out of your head.

Now, as Afghanistan descends into chaos while Joe Biden fecklessly carries out the withdrawal that Trump set in motion, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—eyeing his 2024 presidential bid—is seeking to revise history by claiming the Trump administration never trusted the Taliban. The reporting from The Dispatch’s Thomas Joscelyn at the time of the Trump-Taliban deal (February 2020) makes clear why Pompeo’s claims are a load of crap:

“On February 29, 2020, the United States of America capitulated to the Taliban. President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad now want Americans to believe that the Taliban is our counterterrorism partner. Secretary Pompeo insists that after nearly 25 years of fighting side-by-side with al-Qaeda, the Taliban is finally going to betray its jihadi brethren. The Taliban is even going to ‘work alongside of us to destroy’ al-Qaeda, Pompeo claims. There is no good reason to believe this is true.”

Pompeo and Trump didn’t trust the Taliban? Then why were they trusting them to be counter-terrorism partners? 

Terrorists aren’t counter-terrorism partners. They’re terrorists.

But all because Trump’s dumb isolationist impulses detached from geopolitical realities made him want to end the “endless war” didn’t mean Joe Biden had to follow through on it—and it sure as heck didn’t mean that Joe Biden had to follow through on it in the most inept manner imaginable.

If we were going to get out of Afghanistan, then we should have sucked it up and sent in the resources—including additional troops—to do it properly: To ensure the safe passage home of all American citizens and all of our former Afghan allies.

We should have done that for the simple, moral reason that it’s the right thing to do, and for a second reason: That it shows we’re not a feckless great power. It would have shown the world—allies and adversaries alike—that even amidst withdrawal, we honor our commitments to our allies and that we act competently on the world stage.

Instead, people are being killed and stranded in what is fast becoming an 8th-century hell pit of Sharia law (and a terrorist haven).

The incompetence and the lack of planning are truly astounding. I shudder at how our more powerful adversaries—ahem, China—are going to react to our fecklessness and stupidity. If I were living in Taiwan, I’d be … scared.

There is much more to say, but I’ll end with this: Right now is very much a time for finger pointing. Accountability is important. While the Trump administration set this disastrous process in motion with their mind-bogglingly stupid “peace deal,” the Biden administration—President Biden, his diplomatic and national security teams, and the generals—are ultimately responsible for this shameful mess. They didn’t have to do this, but they did. Shame on them.

As important as the finger-pointing is, though, let’s also not lose touch with the deeper takeaway: Despite all of our stupid partisan politicking, domestic political infighting, and acting like children in the political sphere here at home, the world is still a dangerous place. There is a rising, techno-authoritarian superpower bent on challenging our hegemony (China). There is a nation ruled by a mob boss-esque thug who’s tampering with our political processes and social peace here at home (Russia). There is an emergent terrorist haven, coming back stronger than it’s been since prior to 9/11 (Taliban-controlled Afghanistan). 

If you spend ten minutes reviewing human history, you’ll find that peaceful, liberal, capitalist democracy isn’t the norm. That’s a very new thing, and it’s primarily a product of American power, competence, and responsibility. Tribalism, war, genocide, and famine have been the age-old norm. And many hostile powers are intent on bringing those sorts of things back—including to America’s shores.

So, maybe, for God’s sake and our own, we could use the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle to take just a moment to reflect on the incompetence and imbecility of our government—and ourselves. And maybe—just maybe—each of us can resolve to be a little less stupid going forward. Maybe our collective commitment to not being stupid could bubble up into the halls of power. Maybe.

We can either get ourselves together, start acting like adults, and focus on these real threats; or we can keep having domestic political slug fests, shielding our gazes away from real problems, harping on partisan talking points, tossing common sense and truth to the side, getting behind conspiracy theories, and being ignorant.

It’s our choice. Let’s choose wisely. Because if we don’t, the consequences could be dire. Just ask the Afghans.