Afghanistan evacuation nightmare should be a wake-up call

The Biden Administration’s April 14th announcement of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan prior to the twentieth anniversary of September 11, 2001 should have been as much of a warning to planners at the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense as it was an inspiration to the global jihad movement, and particularly the Taliban.  Putting aside the emotional aspects of choosing such a date – in that the choice both demoralized many American servicemembers and provided spiritual inspiration to the Taliban – it was reckless to publicly announce it to America’s enemies.

Although the “withdrawal” of our forces from Afghanistan should have been well underway from the previous Trump Administration, it is now evident our own government’s planners and those of allied governments and humanitarian aid organizations needed much more than 5 months’ notice to work through the logistics of identifying and moving personnel safely out of the country.  For example, it takes longer than five months for a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to be trained and certified in its numerous missions, which includes embassy reinforcement and “Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations” (NEO)s.

Obviously, MEUs train for these missions constantly and prior to scheduled deployments, but the point is that it takes time for even America’s finest warriors to prepare for these types of complex missions.  A MEU is currently deployed in the Central Command Area of Operations and so presumably those Marines are part of the Biden Administration’s current deployment of troops to Afghanistan.  However, as of last Thursday, August 12^th, the Pentagon’s spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters that the deployment wasn’t a NEO.

“The purpose here is to help with the reduction of civilian personnel out of the embassy. That is not the same as a noncombatant evacuation operation, where you’re moving a massive amount of people who aren’t necessarily U.S. government employees. It’s a different operation altogether and we’re just not there,” Kirby said.

Just four days later, on Monday August 16^th, the operation was far more than a NEO.  It should be considered a full-fledged Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Response (HADR) mission. Except that most HADR missions are conducted in permissive environments after a disaster, and often with the goal of providing both humanitarian assistance and “shaping the world with civil military engagement.”

Now, American servicemembers are being placed in a nearly impossible and incredibly dangerous position of securing the Kabul International Airport and with little prospect of success in “shaping” the world’s view of the circumstances in a light that is positive toward the United States. This is not the fault of the Marines and Soldiers on the ground who are risking their lives.

Now that the world is watching the events in Afghanistan unfold, it’s time for our political and military leadership to wake up to the urgency of the situation in Afghanistan and what portends for American citizens there, the Afghan people, and Americans back home, in the wake of this withdrawal.

In the recklessly short timeline established for withdrawal, the U.S. Government likely never even had an opportunity to figure out how many Americans and deserving allies need to be evacuated.  Now, the Taliban is violently doing that research themselves, door to door.

As many as 15,000 American citizens reportedly remain in harm’s way, while the Biden Administration officials say they have no plans to evacuate Americans outside of the immediate environs of Kabul. Americans have been told the U.S. government cannot guarantee their safe travel to the airport for evacuation.

Those Afghans who served most loyally beside us in Afghanistan, and their families, are most at risk of Taliban retaliation, and special effort should be taken to insure their safe evacuation.  These people include hundreds of widows and orphans whose fathers and husbands died fighting alongside our own military personnel.

Vetting these people will be extremely difficult but we must be committed to ensuring that we don’t import the same type of jihadis that committed “green on blue” attacks on our own personnel in Afghanistan. Where possible we should arrange for safe third countries to take the majority of Afghan refugees to provide ample time for vetting.

This means allowing the military commanders closest to the fight to tell the nation’s leadership what they need and empowering them with both the resources and rules of engagement (ROE) to defend Hamid Karzai international airport, and possibly retake additional airports as points of departure for American citizens. It would be the opposite of what our political leaders did in the wake of the September 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi – telling the military to stand down when it was rapidly preparing to assist those under duress.

We must do all we can to re-capture airports and movement corridors for these people with as much force as necessary. This starts with ensuring the security of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and rapidly reinforcing the military presence there to man and defend the entry point(s) to enable our citizens and allies’ access to evacuation aircraft.

The effort should also include a rapid assessment to determine the feasibility of recapturing the airbase at Bagram which, was deemed “unnecessary” for our operations just two months ago by senior government leaders. It now may be necessary to own that terrain just to be able to get the thousands of citizens and allies out of the country.

Ultimately, once American citizens and the families of our interpreters and other close allies are out, we need to depart with a commitment to learning from our mistakes.