So this is what a superpower looks like?
We, and the Afghan army we trained and funded for warfare in the 21st Century, are defeated by a ragtag army propelled by the primitive principles of the 6th Century.
The dominion we dominate is down to a single airport.
We have no control outside its eight-foot concrete blast wall.
On one day, Americans still stranded on the wrong side of the wall are sent the message, “Please make your way to Hamid Karzai Airport International Airport at this time,” although it is accompanied by a warning in all caps, “THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SECURITY AS YOU MAKE THIS TRIP.”
Then the next day they’re told, don’t even try. It’s too dangerous.
For those who do get through, we’re lifting them over the wall by their armpits.
But how many haven’t gotten that far? We don’t know. Estimates vary. Maybe 5,000. Maybe 40,000.
This is what a superpower looks like right now.
The president tells us we planned for every contingency, as a superpower should and as the United States has long prided itself in doing, but one contingency had to be that everything would come crashing down as it has. We planned for every contingency? Really? We’re in this fix because we didn’t.
We should have given our Afghan allies in far-flung corners of the country— interpreters, drivers, journalistic aides— time to put themselves in a position to evacuate. We didn’t.
We should have cut the red tape with the visa process to authorize their evacuation. We didn’t.
We should have tried negotiating safe passage to the airport before the fact, not after. But we didn’t. Now we are the vanquished, and need the permission of the victorious to get people into the one patch of land we still control.
We should have had sufficient transit airports for evacuation flights, and host countries for evacuated refugees, lined up in advance so there wouldn’t be traffic jams that delay more flights out. We didn’t.
We should have given warnings to our international allies that we were shutting down our embassy and focusing on pulling out our people, and maybe they should too. We didn’t. They were there because as NATO members we asked them to be, but then we bailed and barely told them.
We should have let our diplomats dismantle the embassy, with all its sensitive documents and high tech equipment, in an orderly way instead of in a panic. We didn’t.
We should have had our military fully and forcefully secure or destroy the tanks and aircraft and weapons and ammunition we’d given the Afghan army, to keep them out of the Taliban’s hands. We didn’t.
We should have restrained ourselves from making promises we couldn’t keep. We didn’t.
Today, this is what a superpower looks like.
Intelligence analyst George Friedman, author of “The Storm Before The Calm,” wrote this week seemingly in defense of the chaos, “I was shocked that people didn’t understand that this is what defeat looks like.”
But here’s what he’s missing. The lightning speed of the Taliban’s triumph was a surprise, but whether it would come in a week or a month, we knew it was coming. When you see defeat and retreat on the horizon, you plan for it in the safest— translation: least dangerous— way you can. We didn’t. President Biden bragged in his Friday address that “We’ve secured the airport.” What he failed to broach was, it never should have been insecure.
A superpower today looks like superpowers have looked before. In a piece titled “America’s Afghan War: A Defeat Foretold?”, New York Times Kabul bureau chief Adam Nossiter argues that the U.S. intervention was almost certainly doomed from the start. Citing every loss from the Soviets’ Afghan misadventure in the 1980s to the U.S. and Vietnam in the ‘70s to the Portuguese in Africa in the ‘60s to the French in Algeria in the ‘50s, he wrote, “The same unholy trinity of realities— boastful generals, an unbowed enemy, a feeble ally— could have been observed at all points during the U.S. engagement in Afghanistan.”
It reminded me of America’s ill-fated undertaking under President Jimmy Carter to rescue our hostages in Iran. Delta soldiers, Rangers, Special Forces, eight helicopters and a C-130 joined together on an improvised landing strip isolated in the desert. But three of the helicopters didn’t arrive fit to fight, and when the mission was aborted and the forces were scrambling to get out, a fourth crashed into the C-130. Eight American servicemen died.
At that same moment, I was in Tehran, awash in rumors of a rescue attempt, spending day after day at the gates of our besieged embassy. Every journalist I knew felt the same way I did: there was no way in except by helicopter, but helicopters would be too noisy to sneak up on the embassy. Any attempt would be a calamity. The hostages would be slaughtered, possibly along with those of us just outside the gates.
Years later, I interviewed Jimmy Carter about his presidency and asked about the desert disaster. His explanation was a classic case of hubris: “If we had had one more helicopter, we’d have gotten the hostages out, without violence,” he told me. “And so I’ve always wished I’d sent one more helicopter.” I asked him, does it really come down to something that small? His answer: “Absolutely.”
We were a superpower then and we are a superpower now. But a superpower has to be measured by more than just the size of its nuclear arsenal.
It has to be measured by its compassion. By its judgment. By its foresight. By its reliability.
I love my country and hate to say it but right now, if that is what a superpower looks like, we don’t measure up.
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For almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks, a political columnist for The Denver Post, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies and politics at home and international crises around the globe. He won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.
When I see foreign correspondents like Clairissa Ward of CNN and Richard Engel of NBC News report from the most dangerous places on earth, I am amazed by their bravery to bring us the real story. Through reading your column and hearing about all your journalistic experiences in dangerous foreign lands and remembering seeing you report on ABC nightly newscasts 40 years ago, I have come to the conclusion that you were a pioneer in your craft and set the example for today's premier foreign correspondents. And to think I was honored to share the dugout bench with you and follow you around the bases on Evergreen Softball Fields. It's like calling Willy Mays or Mickey Mantle your personal friend. I really learn from your insight. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and knowledge.
Like so many others, I have been watching the events here and in Afghanistan in amazement and horror. When I was serving in S.E. Asia in 1968-69, I learned the acronym FUBAR. I saw plenty of operations and decisions that were "FUBAR" but nothing, ever to the magnitude of the Afghan operation of the past few days. No plan, no preparation, apparently no basic THINKING regarding the results of a pre-announced withdrawal from one of the most historically difficult and complicated operational fields on the planet. Did they think the Talliban/ISIS wouldn't notice?
The flurry of bulletins and disclaimers and disagreements between the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs, the White House and, most important, the President would have been laughable if not so very disheartening. I was, and am, embarrassed by the actions of my country and its leaders. It is clear that there is no cohesive governing going on and it has become clear that President Biden apparently has little more regard for facts and honesty than his predecessor - a terrible thing to say about anyone - but his actions speak for themselves. At this point, it really doesn't matter if his untruths are intentional or not.
Like Greg, I love my country and will continue to fly the flag every day at my home. I do so, however, with a heavy heart as I think about our citizens, our friends, and our allies who have been mistreated by America's mismanagement and duplicity in Afghanistan.