It’s time to cut our losses in Afghanistan
The decision facing President Joe Biden in Afghanistan is complicated and difficult, but the stakes are clear. He can dramatically reduce the cost to the United States in lives and money by withdrawing U.S. troops by May 1 in accordance with an agreement reached last year with the Taliban. Or he could renege on that deal, which will assuredly lead to a resumption of violence, an open-ended American commitment to stay in Afghanistan costing tens of billions of dollars and many more American lives.
Most Americans do not want to see the country retreat into isolation, but they do want Washington to get its priorities straight. President Biden can start by bringing U.S. troops home.
America’s nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan has cost the U.S. taxpayer roughly $1 trillion in direct expenditures, hundreds of billions of dollars in additional interest on the debt incurred to fund the war effort, and likely an additional $1 trillion in costs to care for veterans of the war for the next several decades. Costs have come down over the last year as troop levels have dropped and attacks on U.S. soldiers paused. But those reductions were due to the agreement reached with the Taliban that U.S. and NATO troops would leave by May 1. If we blow past that deadline, troop numbers, casualties and costs are certain to go back up.
Do we really need to expend so much more blood and treasure in Afghanistan when Americans feel knee-capped from a pandemic that’s taken more than 500,000 lives and countless livelihoods? The most vulnerable populations face an inefficient vaccination process in the world’s only superpower. Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods are plagued by chronic underinvestment, New York is not sure how long it can keep its subway running, California faced the worst wildfire season in recent history, and middle America battles an exodus of jobs and an influx of drugs. Rather than tackle problems at home, an aloof Washington continues to look abroad. Remaining in Afghanistan is the epitome of this toxic habit.
Yet a recent, congressionally mandated report by the Afghanistan Study Group calls on President Biden to remain in Afghanistan, violating the terms of a U.S.-Taliban deal, and missing the opportunity to end America’s longest war. If President Biden unilaterally abrogates the deal, our soldiers will once again be in danger. But proponents of staying the course aver that combat deaths had been relatively low since 2014.
Here is snapshot of the “relatively low” number of lives — 26 to be exact — lost fighting an invisible enemy in the 12 months prior to the signing of the agreement:
In summer 2019, an Afghan soldier shot two U.S. soldiers in Kandahar, killing Specialist Michael Nance from Chicago and PFC Brandon Kreischer from Ohio, ages 24 and 20, respectively. Sgts. 1st Class Javier Gutierrez and Antonio Rodriguez were killed together in another insider attack in early 2020. Lt. Col. Paul Voss’s Air Force career began two months after 9/11 and ended when his Bombardier E-11A crashed in Ghazni province on Jan. 27, 2020. Staff Sgt. Ian McLaughlin was on his first deployment when he was killed in early 2020 in an IED attack claimed by the Taliban.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, hit the nail on the head when he tweeted about the Afghanistan Study Group report: “Those who had any part in getting us into this 20 year war should not be opining about keeping us mired in it. This is what makes people so angry about Washington being broken and a defense of the status quo.”
Troop levels will certainly need to rise, but keeping even 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan long-term will cost billions of taxpayer dollars for a low chance of success at an undefined goal. As Brookings’ Vanda FelbabBrown observes, money spent in Afghanistan is money “taken away from other imperatives, such as rebuilding a productive middle class in the United States.”
An open-ended troop commitment in Afghanistan will leave things at a violent simmer while it fades away into an afterthought only to be revisited after more lives and billions of dollars are lost. America cannot wait any longer. Adam Weinstein is a research fellow at the Quincy Institute. He served as a U.S. Marine and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as part of a detachment to the 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company where he served in Uruzgan Province in support of Australia’s 2nd Commando Regiment.