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5 September 2024

Please, End the Afghanistan Blame Game

Ivan Eland

The specter of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 is now hovering over the 2024 presidential campaign. Donald Trump, with some family members of the service members killed by the ISIS-K attack during the U.S. withdrawal, recently commemorated its third anniversary at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. In his new book, H.R. McMaster, the former Trump administration national security adviser, asserted that Trump bears some of the blame for the chaotic pull-out. Although that is correct, a blame game over who is culpable for the messy withdrawal distorts clear thinking about the legacy of the war.

McMaster, in an interview with CNN on his new book, criticized Trump for signing an agreement with the Taliban, pledging to withdraw U.S. forces by May 2021. After taking office, President Biden decided that such a rapid withdrawal was not feasible because it might endanger U.S. forces. Withdrawal under fire from any military operation is a risky action since troops are especially vulnerable to attack, and the adversary has an incentive to strike to showcase that its efforts and strength motivated their pull out. Therefore, Biden moved Trump’s agreed date of removal back from May to September 2021.

That doesn’t mean that mistakes weren’t made. However, the creaky Afghan government came crashing down more rapidly than even the Biden administration had anticipated. The Taliban, knowing that the United States was pulling out, negotiated with local governments and arranged in advance for their surrender, unbeknownst to U.S. intelligence. American plans for a more orderly and graceful withdrawal were thus shattered.

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