On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced that he will withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan before Sept. 11. This decision comes just in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001.
COURTESY // US MARINES MARJAH
Biden explained that the war in Afghanistan has been going on too long and no longer aligns with U.S. priorities. “We were attacked. We went to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives… Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda is degraded in Afghanistan and it’s time to end the forever war,” Biden said during his remarks from the White House Treaty Room.
On Sept. 11, 2001, a terrorist group named al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed them into the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 American civilians. On Feb. 17, 2009, Barack Obama announced that he would send 17,000 troops to the war zone, which was mainly in Afghanistan at the time. In January 2009, there were a total of 37,000 troops in Afghanistan. By Dec. 1, 2009, Obama committed 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 68,000 total American and NATO soldiers already there. In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed. After his death, Obama committed to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Obama initially planned to withdrawal all troops by 2014 but was hesitant because he was not sure if Afghanistan could secure its own government. Unfortunately, U.S. forces have left a lot of unnecessary damage emotionally and physically for families in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The war in Afghanistan has also cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2008, at the height of the Iraq war, taxpayers shelled out a total of 162 billion in total to support the U.S. in Iraq. In 2012, at the height of the Afghanistan war, taxpayers paid the government $113 billion in that year alone.
After the United States killed Osama bin Laden, the war was mostly over, according to the objectives first identified by Bush when the U.S. first decided to join the fight. The war against terrorism in Afghanistan was noble at first but turned into an unneeded long-term stay. During this war, countless innocent Afghan civilians and American soldiers were killed unnecessarily. Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars to the military for this war, which could have been used for something more productive. Instead of tearing down other countries, the U.S. could strengthen the infrastructure on our home ground.
Biden made an intelligent decision to remove all troops from Afghanistan. 68,000 troops deployed in a country with a mediocre terrorist group are overkill by a longshot. Prolonging this conflict would mean more lives lost and more money going to an unworthy cause. It’s time for us to leave Afghanistan.
