The Ashraf Amscray

I kinda hate this cartoon because it’s a cliché, and I HATE using clichés in cartoons even though I know it’s necessary sometimes. And this situation is a cliché from the president of Afghanistan leaving the country to another foreign invader losing Afghanistan. I drew this over the past hour and I’m still beating myself up over using this trope.

Let’s face facts. President Joe Biden has to eat this. He said it was highly unlikely the Taliban would regain control over Afghanistan after U.S. forces left. It only took about four weeks. The common belief was that it was impossible for the Taliban to take the nation as Afghan forces greatly outnumbered them and they were American trained. Again, four weeks.

Strength in numbers doesn’t always guarantee victory. In World War II, the British with a force of over 85,000 lost Singapore to a Japanese invasion of 35,000 soldiers on bicycles.

Today, Kabul, the capital, fell to the Taliban. The flag over the U.S. embassy has been lowered. The president, Ashraf Ghani, has fled his nation. Taliban troops are in the presidential palace and the fleeing government wants to negotiate how the nation will be governed. Good luck with those negotiations.

This is on President Biden’s watch, so he can be blamed for how we withdrew our troops, but he can’t be blamed for withdrawing our troops. Today, Republicans are saying the “buck stops here” with President Biden. But people who refused to say the buck stops with the presidency while Donald Trump was in the Oval Office do not have the right to say it now.

Donald Trump negotiated a U.S. withdrawal by May of 2021. President Biden extended that to July. Donald Trump said the Taliban was going to fight terrorism. Keep in mind that during the four years Donald Trump was president (sic), he didn’t defeat the Taliban. The only thing he did with the Taliban was invite them to Camp David for a photo-op which they pulled out of because they realized they could not trust Donald Trump. How bad is it when the Taliban doesn’t trust you? Donald Trump even echoed Vladimir Putin’s lying talking point and gaslighting that the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was because Afghanistan attacked the Soviet Union. Donald Trump also asked about pulling all our troops off the Korean peninsula.

Also, keep in mind this a war started by a Republican president…20 years ago.

At the very least, the fall of Afghanistan proves we were there too long and it wouldn’t have mattered how long we had stayed. You can argue about how we pulled out troops out, but pulling our troops out was the right thing to do. After 20 years, how much more are we to give? After spending over $80 billion, how much more are we to spend? We lost over 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan with over 20,000 wounded. How much more American blood has to be spilled for Afghanistan. We’ve been in Afghanistan so long, this cartoonist doesn’t have to look up or double-check how to spell it. I still have to at least double check Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

I think it was right to invade Afghanistan, but not stay 20 years. The entire point of attacking Afghanistan was to remove a government that allowed a terrorist organization use it as a base to attack us. Before we invaded Afghanistan, we gave the Taliban a chance to round up al Qaeda in the country and deliver to us Osama bin Laden. They refused. We invaded that nation to protect us. We should have to occupy that nation forever to keep terrorists from flying planes into our buildings.

Blame Biden for getting it wrong with his prediction. Blame him for ignoring U.S. intelligence. But if you’re a Republican, shut up. You didn’t blame Trump for getting covid wrong repeatedly. In case you’re bad at math, 600,000 dead is a little bit more than 2,300. It’s like Cuomo all over again. He should be criticized, but not by you.

What should we do about Afghanistan falling to the Taliban? Right now, make sure we have every American out of there. Let’s do all we can to rescue Afghans who helped U.S. troops and were promised they could leave with us. After that, let’s not go back. Will we have to hit the Taliban again at some point? Probably and I’ll probably be OK with that. But I’m not down with nation building again. Why should we fight for Afghanistan when Afghanistan doesn’t want to fight for Afghanistan?

Colin Powell said of Iraq, “You break it, you buy it.” I’m tired of the United States breaking and buying lost causes.

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