By Rick Manning
Today, August 15, 2022 marks the one year anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Afghanistan fell to the Taliban directly due to the Biden administration’s withdrawal of American air support against advancing Taliban troops in spring 2021. This was coupled with public assurances to the Afghan leaders that we would back them in the fight, even as we were working directly with the Taliban in their takeover of the country.
The two plus weeks following the fall of Kabul mark one of the darkest moments in U.S. history with images of desperate Afghans falling from airplanes trying to get out and murdered Afghan allies being hung from helicopters and showcased to the city and the world.
And finally, there are at least 84 American citizens who remain trapped in Afghanistan a year later as of last month, according to a House Republican report and finds that the Biden administration left behind hundreds more Americans and thousands more green-card holders in its speedy retreat than previously revealed, who have effectively become hostages of the Taliban or else they’d be home already.
During the second half of August, Americans for Limited Government will have a couple of exclusive interviews with people who worked to protect our nation’s honor and keep our commitments to those Afghan citizens who committed to freedom and were targeted to die as a result. We will also remember the 13 American service members who died on August 26th in a bombing attack by a terrorist released from the prison at Al Bagram Air Base when the Biden administration surrendered it with no apparent plan on how to deal with the fallout.”
It is our goal to highlight some of the many heroes who worked tirelessly to get legitimate allies amongst the Afghan people out of the country. There were some great successes and lives saved as a result. These stories are largely untold, and we will seek to tell a few of them so that America can see what true heroism looks like, even in the most dire circumstances.
Over the next couple of weeks, Americans for Limited Government will have a couple of exclusive interviews with people who worked to protect our nation’s honor and keep our commitments to those Afghan citizens who committed to freedom and were targeted to die as a result. We will also remember the 13 American service members who died on August 26th in a bombing attack by a terrorist released from the prison at Al Bagram Air Base when the Biden administration surrendered it with no apparent plan on how to deal with the fall out.
While the politics of the fall of Kabul and Afghanistan are important, the ramifications around the world as America lost face and standing as a reliable ally cannot be understated. Americans for Limited Government will also seek to examine how a year later, our nation’s position as a world leader in the aftermath of Afghanistan has been effected.
It is important that, as we remember the Biden administration failure that we don’t conflate that with a failure of those who served in Afghanistan. For twenty years, the people of Afghanistan were remarkably more-free than they are today. Girls attended school and were educated, women voted and served in all levels of society, and while in 2020 the poverty rate was 50 percent, recent reports tell us that the poverty rate is now approaching 95 percent in the country.
Afghanistan was a better place due to the sacrifice of America’s service members and others who dedicated themselves to that mission. And no one who served should feel as though it was in vain. The lives improved, and hope created as a result have sewn seeds that may grow into a new freedom in this war torn land. While the mission was not ultimately successful, that does not diminish the nobility of the sacrifice to lift others up so that they might taste freedom.
So it is not just with sorrow, but hope that we will embark on this ambitious project. I hope that you will find the journey interesting, enlightening and hopefully a little bit uplifting.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government. Original here. Reproduced with permission.
