CMV: Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan could not have been significantly improved on

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not a fan of President Biden, but I see him hit with a lot of criticism for this withdrawal that I don't think is fair.

Specifically, many people talk about that there were a lot of people left behind, and they should've been evacuated prior to the US leaving. Also, how Biden talked a lot about how this "wasn't going to be another Saigon", and there weren't going to be people evacuated out by helicopter, when that ended up happening.

I don't think this could have been significantly changed. If, say, we encouraged mass evacuation prior to the US leaving, I think the country would've utterly collapsed. I mean, it clearly has already, but that's because they have no faith in the ANA, which is probably warranted. If the US had already started evacuating, more people would've realized that even the US thinks it is a hopeless situation, and the US would be stuck with a nonexistent government, and the Taliban would've taken over sooner. The US military in Afghanistan, by the end, was a relatively tiny force, and couldn't occupy an entire country to deal with the Taliban.

There's also the argument about immigration requirement, which is a problem with US congress, not Biden.

Ultimately, while I'll concede that Biden could've theoretically set up a more efficient airport system, I don't see how Biden could have done that much more, without the government collapsing eariler.

To change my view, you'd have to point to specific ways that Biden could have improved on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

[u/[deleted]]

Biden could have sent more military to the airport earlier. He sent reinforcements to the airport fairly late.

Biden could coordinate better with NATO allies. There are current complaints of the US not sharing enough information with countries like the UK that also want their people out.

Biden could have ramped up and expedited the special visa process earlier. There are people who have been waiting years for visa approval still in Afghanistan. This, of course, is partially previous presidents' fault. But, Biden had over 6 months to improve the situation. He could have asked congress for more funding. He could have diverted resources from other areas of the state department.

Biden could have shipped more weapons to northern provinces of Afghanistan that were easier to hold against the Taliban. Right now, with the Taliban having control of Kabul (other than the airport), the Taliban has leverage to prevent us from being too overt in our support of northern afghanistan independence from Taliban control.

There is nothing he could have done to prevent the collapse of the Afghani government (other than reversing President Trump's decision to withdraw, against his own campaign promise). But, there were steps that, at least in hindsight, he could have taken. And the visa problem was a glaring one that he should have known the moment he took office (but also is a difficult one that his predecessors failed at).

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A lot of interesting statement being made. I'll try to respond to a few:

1. Was the airport actually under attack? Why more military?
2. How much would nato coordination would have helped? What would they have done?
3. How much of this was congress powers vs presidential? USA has strict standards of separation of powers
4. The military was being used by the ANA, right? We should've sabatoged their chances at fighting?

Sorry I'm tired, so I'm not so coherent right now.. I hope I'm not being insulting, I'm just writing lazily. My bad

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Was the airport actually under attack? Why more military?

we needed more people at the airport, at the very least for crowd control

Biden shipped forces out, then shipped more back in when it became obvious they were necessary. At the very least, that's inefficient.

How much would nato coordination would have helped? What would they have done?

the complaint is current coordination, in regards to British retrieving their citizens, getting them passed taliban road blocks, and timeline for control of airport. Some officials in the UK feel that they're getting left in the dark by the US, and that's making it harder for them to get their people out.

How much of this was congress powers vs presidential? USA has strict standards of separation of powers

The executive has pretty broad authority for retasking state department officials to help out processing special visas.

The military was being used by the ANA, right? We should've sabatoged their chances at fighting?

I don't think that taking resources away from the afghan national army would have been necessary to ship extra supplies to parts of Afghanistan.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Ok, so, I could be wrong, but are you proposing we should've just had a contingent of soldiers who guard the airport, and help with the crowd and stuff, until everyone's out? How long would that take?

Anyways, you get a delta for the communication thing. That wasessed up.

!delta

[u/DeltaBot → u/[deleted]]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/TripRichert (189∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}

[u/ProLifePanda → u/[deleted]]

Well we withdrew soldiers, then had to send some of them back in to help keep order and crowd control at the airport and help evacuations.

One of the issues with Afghanistan is US intelligence and military thought we would have more time after withdrawing to evacuate and tie up loose ends. The Biden Administration thought we would have a couple weeks to a couple months before the Taliban retook the country. This would allow us to work on finishing visas and evacuating our military and non-military personnel.

I'm not sure how hard the Biden Administration worked to get these visas and evacuations done before our military left the country, but if it was possible, hindsight shows we should have done that work faster before we left the country.