Joe Biden Has Shown How To Be Right Now He Must Show How To Be Wrong
When President Joe Biden refused to duck crisis time responsibility, like his predecessor Donald Trump did, and instead provided crisis time leadership to face head-on and successfully fight the Covid-19 virus war, he demonstrated how to be right. Now with America’s integrity, creditability, and resolve correctly being questioned President Biden must demonstrate how to be wrong!!!
The one thing President Biden, Donald Trump, and a majority of all Americans have in common, is the belief that the time has come for a complete military withdrawal from Afghanistan. President Biden, against the advice of both Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, issued an order to the Pentagon last April 6 that specified that the date for all U.S. troops to be completely out of Afghanistan is August 31st. But by August 14th the Taliban had captured over half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, a development President Biden just said last month was unlikely to happen. Such a rapid military occupation of so many Afghan cities by the Taliban logically raises questions about Biden’s military withdrawal date deadline.
President Biden is 100% correct in why he is withdrawing 20 years of nurturing democracy in Afghanistan is enough. If principles of democracy have not sprouted strong enough roots in Afghan society to survive without a U.S. military presence by now, then the fact that Afghan society is either culturally, religiously, or both not suited for democracy must be acknowledged and accepted. Acknowledgment and acceptance dictate a U.S. military withdrawal. Also, future countries who are fortunate enough to receive the same American generosity of military support and economic aid to build a democratic infrastructure within their society, need an example that demonstrates to them that American generosity is not unlimited even if it’s for democracy building. Afghanistan’s failed democracy attempt also demonstrates and will remind America in the future that even after spending 83 billion dollars in military and economic aid, democracy can’t be forced on any society, the society itself must want democracy enough to make the necessary sacrifices to make democracy a reality.
But what’s abundantly clear is that President Biden is 100% wrong, albeit with good reason, in how he is withdrawing from Afghanistan. Biden’s answers to news reporter’s questions during his White House briefing about the withdrawal illustrate how he can be 100% wrong with good reason. The reporter asked if a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was inevitable Biden replied: “ No it is not because the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban.”
When another reporter asked Biden if didn’t trust the Taliban why was he withdrawing from Afghanistan he replied: “ It’s a — it’s a silly question. Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re- — more competent in terms of conducting war.”
And to the question of whether the 20 years of American treasure and lives lost was worth it, Biden firmly replied: “ You know my record. I can tell by the way you asked the question. I opposed permanently having American forces in Afghanistan. I argued, from the beginning, as you may recall — it came to light after the administration was over, last — our administration — no nation has ever unified Afghanistan. No nation. Empires have gone there and not done it. The focus we had — and I strongly support it — and you may remember I physically went to Afghanistan. I was up in that pass where Osama bin Laden was — allegedly escaped or — out of harm’s way. We went for two reasons: one, to bring Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, as I said at the time. The second reason was to eliminate al Qaeda’s capacity to deal with more attacks on the United States from that territory. We accomplished both of those objectives — period. That’s what I believed, from the beginning, why we should be and why we should have gone to Afghanistan. That job had been over for some time. And that’s why I believe that this is the right decision and, quite frankly, overdue.”
In other words, President Biden logically thought that even after providing Afghanistan with an air force and 300,000 well-equipped and well-trained troops, a democratic society had less than a 50/50 chance to survive long term, but he wrongly calculated, with good logical reasoning, that with a newly minted Afghan air force and 300,000 well-equipped and well-trained Afghan troops, it would take the Taliban at least 6 months to reoccupy the 15 cities they recaptured in only a week with no Afghan military resistance. Some attribute Afghanistan’s lack of military resistance to the fact that in planning for the withdrawal, the Pentagon failed to develop a plan to replace the technical support, ammunition, food, and water that enables the 300,000 Afghan troops to defend themselves when the American private contractors, who had been providing the tech support, ammunition, food, and water, left with departing American troops.
If this is true the Pentagon’s planning miscalculation, like President Biden’s wrong withdrawal miscalculation, was with good reason and also a small price to pay for America’s peace and security. America is blessed with the most victorious and most technologically advanced military in human history and of the 12 major wars America has fought: The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, The Mexican War, The Civil War, The Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Persian Gulf War, The Afghanistan War, and The Iraq War the American military has lost only 1 war, Vietnam, the only war in American history where the American military had to retreat under hostile circumstances and America fought to a draw in the Korean War, which is why 71 years later a military retreat is still not necessary and 28,500 American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines remain in South Korea to guarantee peace between North and South Korea, the American military establishment never has needed to develop military retreat muscles.
America simply doesn’t know how to properly conduct a military retreat under hostile circumstances because America doesn’t lose wars we WIN them!!! Nations don’t ask the United States to leave they beg us to stay, and if they do hate or fear the United States enough to ask us to leave, they maintain a modicum of democracy in their government and grants at least a minimum degree of internationally recognized Human Rights to its citizens to keep us away. A country with a military establishment like America’s that incompetently withdraws from military conflicts, because it competently wins all its military conflicts is the best national security problem any country could wish or pray for!!!
Up to this point in his administration President Biden has conducted a master class on how a President should confront and handle a crisis, he also has done an excellent job of honoring his campaign pledge to the American people that he would always be straight with them and he would frequently do so in person. But it’s easy for Biden to personally conduct briefings with the media and public to provide leadership, comfort, and to pontificate, on problems, he did not create. Now President Biden must show the hard part of leadership, how to lead when WRONG. How to conduct a briefing with the media and public providing leadership, comfort, and pontificate on why, albeit with good reasoning, he was dead wrong on how U.S. troops should withdraw from Afghanistan but not dead wrong on the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.
After taking the 1st step of showing how to lead when wrong by publically taking responsibility for the crisis, Biden must take the 2nd and concluding step of leading when wrong by taking corrective actions to mitigate or correct the crisis he created, especially in this case since Biden’s wrong miscalculation could have very serious future negative national security implications for the United States. For President Biden to correct his wrong and prevent the potential future serious harm to America’s national security his miscalculation has inadvertently set in motion, Biden must take a note from the playbook of his former boss Barack Obama, and announce a military surge of a minimum of 7500 to a maximum of 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, for a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 6 months.
The purpose of the military surge is to maintain a temporary sufficient military infrastructure that guarantees the thousands of Afghans and their families whose lives are at risk, for working for or with the American government, safe passage from WHEREVER they are located within Afghanistan to America or a friendly 3rd country. Biden knew from experience that because of the necessary security protocols there was no way a withdrawal of all eligible Afghans and their families could be completed before the August 31st troop withdrawal deadline, but his miscalculation that it would take a minimum of 6 months for the Taliban to recapture most of Afghanistan after a complete U.S. troop withdrawal, allowed him to wrongly but logically believe that the withdrawal of eligible Afghans could be completed before the return of the Taliban. President Biden is legally, morally, and philosophically obligated to order the military surge for the following 3 strategic reasons:
American Integrity — the American government gave its word to thousands of Afghans, who literally at the risk of their lives helped the United States build and administrate an infrastructure for a new democratic Afghan society, that the United States would do everything possible to protect them and the lives of their families even if that meant granting safe passage for citizenship or refugee status in America. America’s word must represent to the world the same full faith credit, reliability, and integrity that the American greenback represents to the world. If President Biden does not honor America’s word by surging the military to provide the safe passage out for all eligible Afghan American collaborators the integrity of America, the full faith credit and reliability of America’s word will be permanently tarnished.
American Creditability- Just as the world’s financial system operates on the principle that America never defaults on its debt, the world’s societies must operate on the principle that wherever America shows up America leaves that society in better shape than it was in before America arrived. That’s why Germany, Japan, South Korea all panicked when former President Donald Trump threatened a military withdrawal from their countries. It’s why former Russian-controlled countries like Ukraine are begging for an American military presence in their country.
If President Biden does not surge the military and leaves the Afghan American collaborators to be slaughtered wholesale by the Taliban, it will be setting the dangerous precedent of America leaving a country for the 1st time in worst shape than it was before America’s arrival. While it’s true democracy was non-existent and Afghan women had no recognized rights in Afghanistan before America arrived, there also was not the wholesale slaughtering of thousands of Afghans, which is guaranteed to occur in the absence of a military surge, simply because America’s arrival in Afghanistan exposed Afghans to American Christian and democratic principles. For Biden to withdraw with no military surge will be equivalent to arriving at a restaurant and convincing the waiter to convince the chef to prepare a special meal not listed on the menu, then eat the meal and disappear without paying the check leaving the waiter to bear the wrath of the chef and to pay the cost of the special meal himself.
There is no creditable source who would deny that America’s preemptive war in Iraq was a HUGE mistake, but there is also no creditable source who can deny that Iraq is a much better off country after the war even though America was dead wrong to militarily invade it. America broke Iraq, so therefore America remains committed to fixing Iraq, which is why a small number of American troops remain there even though the war ended 10 years ago. America never leaves anyplace it goes worst off, America always leaves a place better off. President Biden must honor and respect this great American tradition by ordering a military surge. So America can at least leave Afghanistan in the same non-wholesale slaughtering of Afghans shape that it was in before America arrived 20 years ago.
American Resolve- President Biden’s miscalculation has created a withdrawal optics disaster!!! It reinforced what many claims give the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Isis, and the like the strongest will and greatest inspiration to fight America. The idea is that they can prevail over America because they have an infinite amount of time to wait for America’s technologically advanced but mechanically finite watches to wear out. In other words, you can eventually defeat America simply by waiting them out because the American people nor the American government have the strength of resolve to stick it out. Biden has to order the military surge to send the message that whenever and wherever America shows up John Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural maxim “ we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty “ still stands in 2021 60 years later.
Biden must order a military surge to say to any American foe who thinks they have an infinite amount of time to wait for technologically advanced but mechanically finite American watches to wear out, don’t get it twisted whenever the true need arises America has the small d democratic philosophical resolve and the economic might, which gives America the INFINITE capacity to produce technologically advanced but mechanically finite American replacement watches into INFINITY.
President Biden please proceed to the East Room, admit to the media and the general public your wrong miscalculation and why it occurred, announce the military surge and explain its terms and conditions, immediately return to the Oval Office and focus like a laser beam on defeating the number one domestic threat to America, the American Taliban Republicans who are doing everything they can to obliterate one-person-one-vote-counted American democracy!!!
Isaac Newton Farris Jr. is the nephew of Martin Luther King, Jr. and serves as Senior Fellow at the King Center. Growing up in one of the most socially and politically active families has given him a unique perspective on current events. Drop by his website for straight talk free of one-sided political spin.
Originally published at https://isaacnewtonfarris.com on August 16, 2021.
