America’s 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal – Lessons Not Learned?

Today, when most people think of Afghanistan, they recall the Biden administration’s calamitous withdrawal in the summer of 2021 and the end of what many have termed a ‘forever war.’ Tragically, the Taliban’s victory reversed two decades of effort to establish liberal institutions and women’s rights in the war-ravaged country. Many commentators have compared America’s retreat from Afghanistan to the country’s hasty evacuation of Vietnam in 1975. Indeed, there are similarities in the chaotic nature of the two withdrawals and the resulting tragic effects for the people of Afghanistan and Vietnam, respectively.

Brian Morra looks at the lessons the Biden Administration could have taken from earlier Soviet and American wars in Afghanistan.

Soviet troops atop a tank in Kabul in 1986.

Regarding Afghanistan, Americans are less likely to remember the Soviet Union’s war there and Moscow’s own rather ignominious pull out. This is unfortunate because there are lessons to be learned from the USSR’s ill-fated foray into Afghanistan that US policymakers ought to have heeded during our own twenty-year war. My latest historical novel, The Righteous Arrows (Amazon US | Amazon UK), published by Koehler Books, devotes a good deal of ink to the missteps made by Washington and Moscow in that long-ago war. My intention with The Righteous Arrows is to entertain while providing the reader with a sense of what should have been learned from the Soviets’ failed adventure in Afghanistan.

What was Moscow’s war in Afghanistan all about?

Like many wars, it began with what seemed to be good intentions. The Kremlin leaders who made the decision to go to war thought that it would not really be a war at all but a ‘police action’ or a ‘special military operation’ if you like. The Kremlin leadership expected their engagement in Afghanistan to be sharp and quick. Instead, it turned into a decade-long, bloody slog that contributed to the later implosion of the USSR itself. Talk about unintended consequences!

How did the Soviet foray into Afghanistan start?

It began over the Christmas season in 1979 when the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was convinced to come to the aid of a weak, pro-Russian socialist regime in Kabul. The initial operation was led by the KGB with support from the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) and Army Airborne units. After initial success, the Kremlin quickly became embroiled in a war with tribal militias who did not like either the socialist puppet regime that Moscow was propping up or the Soviet occupation.

What was supposed to be a quick operation became a ferocious guerrilla war that lasted most of the 1980s and killed some 16,000 Soviet troops. The war sapped the strength of the Soviet armed forces and exposed to anyone who was paying attention just how weak the USSR had become. By 1986, the reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had decided to get out of the bloody quagmire in Afghanistan. He found it was not that easy to leave and the last Russian forces did not depart Afghanistan until February 1989.

United States’ involvement

Beginning with the Jimmy Carter administration, the United States provided arms to the Afghan Islamic rebels fighting the Soviets. Military support from the US grew exponentially under President Ronald Reagan and by 1986 Washington was arming the Mujaheddin with advanced weapons, including the Stinger surface-to-air missiles that decimated Soviet airpower. America’s weapons turned the tide against the Soviet occupiers, but Washington also rolled the dice by arming Islamic rebels that it could not control.

Not only did the Afghan Islamic fighters become radicalized, but they were also joined by idealistic jihadis from all over the world. The Soviets’ ten-year occupation of Afghanistan became a magnet for recruiting jihadis, as did NATO’s two-decades long occupation some years later. The founder of al Qaeda, Usama bin Laden, brought together and funded Arab fighters in Afghanistan, ostensibly to fight the Russians, but mainly to build his own power base. Although Washington never armed bin Laden’s fighters, he used his presence in Afghanistan during the Soviet war and occupation as a propaganda bonanza. He trumpeted the military prowess of al Qaeda, which was largely a myth of bin Laden’s own creation, and claimed that he brought down the Soviet bear. His propaganda machine claimed that if al Qaeda could defeat one superpower (the USSR), then it also could beat the other one (the USA).

During the 1980s, Washington officials downplayed the danger of arming radical Islamic fighters. It was far more important for the White House to bring down the Soviet Union than to worry about a handful of Mujaheddin. One must admit that the Americans’ proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan was the most successful one it conducted during the entire Cold War. On the other hand, Washington opened a virtual Pandora’s box of militarized jihadism and has been dealing with the consequences ever since.

The aftermath

The Soviet occupation encouraged most of Afghanistan’s middle class to flee the country, leaving an increasingly radicalized and militarized society in its wake. This was the Afghanistan the United States invaded in the fall of 2001, shortly after bin Laden’s 9/11 attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Policymakers in Washington failed to grasp just how radically Afghan society had changed because of the Soviet occupation.

There was discussion in Washington’s national security circles in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, warning of the dangers of fighting in Afghanistan. Bromides were offered, calling the country the ‘graveyard of empires’, but none of it had much impact on policy. Most officials in the George W. Bush administration did not understand how radicalized Afghan society had become and how severe the costs of fighting a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan might turn out to be.

The CIA-led operation to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s with small numbers of Americans was the game plan Washington also used in the fall of 2001 to defeat al Qaeda and bring down the ruling Taliban regime. The playbook worked brilliantly in both cases. Unfortunately, for the United States and our NATO allies, the initial defeat of the Taliban did not make for a lasting victory or an enduring peace.

For twenty years, the United States fought two different wars in Afghanistan. One was a counter-terror war, the fight to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates and to prevent them from reconstituting. The other war was a counterinsurgency against the Taliban and their allies. The reason the United States and NATO went into Afghanistan was to prosecute the first war – the anti-terror war. We fell into a counterinsurgency conflict as the Taliban reconstituted with help from Pakistan and others. This was a classic case of ‘mission creep’ and it required large combat forces to be deployed, in contrast to the light footprint of the counter-terror operation. The first war – the counter-terror war – prevented another 9/11 style major attack on the United States, while the second one required the US and NATO to deploy massive force and – ultimately – depended on the soundness of the Afghan government we supported.

The sad fact is that the successful campaign against the Taliban and the routing of al Qaeda in 2001 and 2002 led to an unfocused twenty-year war that ended with the Taliban back in charge and a humiliated United States leaving hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghan allies behind. In sworn Congressional testimony, General Milley, who in 2021 was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and General Mackenzie, who was Commander of Central Command, have stated that they forcefully advised President Biden to leave a small footprint of US forces and contractors in Afghanistan to prosecute the counter-terror war. Our NATO allies were willing to stay and in fact increased their forces in Afghanistan shortly after Biden was inaugurated. Not only did President Biden not heed his military advisors, but he also later denied that they ever counseled him to keep a small force in Afghanistan. Some have described Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan as ‘pulling defeat from the jaws of victory’.

President Biden further asserted that, by withdrawing, he was merely honoring the agreement President Trump had made earlier with the Taliban. This claim does not stand up to objective scrutiny because the Taliban repeatedly violated the terms of the Trump agreement, which gave the White House ample opportunity to declare it null and void.

What are the lessons the United States should have learned from the Soviet and American wars in Afghanistan?

1. Keep your war aims limited and crystal clear.

2. Fight mission creep and do not allow it to warp the original war aims or plans for a light footprint of forces.

3. Beware of the law of unintended consequences. Consider the downside risks of arming the enemy of one’s enemy.

4. Be willing to invest for the long-term or do not get involved. The United States still has forces in Germany, Italy, and Japan nearly eighty years after the end of World War II. Some victories are worth protecting.

5. Ensure that the Washington tendency toward ‘group think’ does not hijack critical thinking. Senior policymakers must think and act strategically, so that ‘hope’ does not become the plan.

Footnote on Ukraine

I will close with a footnote about the Russian war in Ukraine. The Soviet war in Afghanistan has dire similarities with Russia’s ‘special military operation’ underway today in Ukraine. In Afghanistan, Soviet forces killed indiscriminately and almost certainly committed numerous war crimes. The war also militarized Afghan society – a condition that persists to this day, and one that had a profound impact on America’s war in Afghanistan. In Ukraine, Russia’s invasion has been characterized by war crimes, mass emigration, and the militarization of Ukrainian society.

Much as in Iraq and Afghanistan, senior US policy in Ukraine is failing to identify clear strategic outcomes. It is the role of our most senior policy officials to focus on strategic outcomes and an exit strategy (if one is warranted) beforecommitting American forces or treasure to foreign wars. Too often, platitudes have masqueraded as strategy. When one thinks of great wartime presidents like Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, the trait they shared was a singular focus on strategic outcomes and on how to shape the post-war environment. The Soviets failed to do so in their war in Afghanistan. The US also fell short in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the banalities that pass for foreign policy strategy we hear in Washington today indicate that we have not learned from the past.

Brian J. Morra is the author of two historical novels: “The Able Archers” (Amazon US | Amazon UK) and the recently-published “The Righteous Arrows” (Amazon US | Amazon UK).

More about Brian:

Brian a former U.S. intelligence officer and a retired senior aerospace executive. He helped lead the American intelligence team in Japan that uncovered the true story behind the Soviet Union's shootdown of Korean Airlines flight 007 in September 1983. He also served on the Air Staff at the Pentagon while on active duty. As an aerospace executive he worked on many important national security programs. Morra earned a BA from William and Mary, an MPA from the University of Oklahoma, an MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He has provided commentary for CBS, Netflix and the BBC. Learn more at: www.brianjmorra.com

The Reality of the American Intervention in Afghanistan

In this article Brian McNash offers his hard-hitting perspective on the recent Afghanistan War. It also includes the context of the Iraq War and discusses the failures of successive US governments.

US soldiers march to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Daychopan district, Afghanistan in September 2003. Picture by Staff Sgt. Kyle Davis, US Army.

Let’s call it what it is. George Bush lied to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We were doing well in Afghanistan. Gaining some traction and what we wanted most, control. Then, he siphoned troops and added more to fight an endless war on nothing. Our job was supposed to be to go get the Taliban, destroy them, capture the top people, if possible, punish them, and get out. Instead, we stayed for 20 years and played offense in Iraq to a fault while playing defense in Afghanistan. Our troops have been left to dry by every president since this war started including Bush, Obama, Trump, and even Biden. Afghans have been senselessly murdered under all these presidents. We need to acknowledge and take accountability for these truths.

We captured the top people and kept fighting a war that could never be won. We tried to destroy the threat to our homeland and emboldened a hate towards America because of our tactics, missions, and things we did over there. Our soldiers were on the receiving end of the blame, the trauma, and the effects. They were the face of America while the government officials who never stepped in Iraq or Afghanistan played chess. Those government officials include our Congress, Defense Secretaries, Vice Presidents, Speakers of the House, and President, among others. The officials who called the shots, paid out defense contractors, ran up our budget, and sent our deficit into free-fall in space. We left so much of our budget and deficit in Afghanistan and Iraq when we abandoned military vehicles, equipment, and so much more. No purpose for it anymore? Too expensive to get rid of. Not worth it? Whatever it was, we left more than just that behind.

Who failed?

Our government failed our troops, lied to everyday Americans, cost us lives, money, and years of sacrifices when it comes to our troops. Leaving behind pain and abandoning the Afghani people who helped us, only furthering a hate for America. Leaving behind equipment just gives an opportunity for terrorists to advance on their fellow people who don’t want to be ruled by them. By getting involved, America chose to take on their problems. We got too heavily involved and now the blame is on us. The troops just carried out orders. Orders from people who put contracts, lobbying efforts, lining their own pockets, and a war hungry mindset over the mission and point of going over there. The troops had to pay for it with their bodies, mental health, and sometimes their lives. We got caught slipping on 9/11 while indirectly funding the same people for years who attacked this country. Do you see why conspiracy theorists feel like they are on to something here? Our government hurt fellow Americans and our troops by waging a large offensive with big goals but a scattered plan. Talk to vets from WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and any other conflict we have been involved in. They can tell you about the toll, the empty promises, the trauma they endured, and the lies that have been told to them by the country they served and would die for. We let down our troops. We let down the American people. By choosing to try to be the Superman of the world for our own economic benefit, we let down the Afghani people. We let down the Iraqi people. We should have never dug our feet in. We should have finished the initial mission and gotten out. 

Faults

Fault falls on Bush and his administration for lying throughout his presidency starting with the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lie. Fault falls on Bush for letting Dick Cheney insert his war crazed policies into his Presidency and have way too much power. I have not seen a Vice President with that much power in a long time. This falls on Obama and his administration for not pulling enough troops out and deciding to half ass it, basically sending a message of “we will still have a presence”. When they captured Bin Laden in a massive estate near a Pakistani military base that should have told us all we need to know. Get the hell out because everyone in this area could be corrupt and complicit in one way or another. We tried to play the “it’s okay we still want to help” game and locked ourselves in for the next 10 years. The fault lays with Trump and his administration, who turned on the Kurds, our most intelligent, swiftest ally out there. Instead of them being an asset to us, we stopped funding them. Then, we ended up attacking them because they retaliated after we turned our backs on them. They helped our offensive and we cut them off because we were trying to save money. There is rarely any real justification for violence. But how would you feel if somebody did that to you? Trump advanced and signed into law the largest military budget for other operations. Within all of those billions of dollars, we could not provide funding to a much-needed ally. The shift was swift and that was his fault in this. Trump also brokered a peace deal with the Taliban that was good in some respects but mostly bad. 5,000 prisoners from camps, black site prisons, and Guantanamo Bay were released, including the Taliban leader. Some of those same prisoners are back in command of the Taliban now. Others are fighting against the very troops who put them in prison the first time. Imagine how you would feel seeing this cycle happen as a soldier from any country fighting against the Taliban.

Lastly, Biden and his administration left behind vehicles, equipment, and allowed looters to get their hands on it. He basically left the terrorists bits and pieces to put back together to use on their own people and advance their own evil interests. The helicopters might not work fully but the guns do whenever there is ammo left lying around for them. Not to mention, Biden supported these wars in Congress, voted on military budget bills for the past 40 years, and his own son paid the price of his actions later in life. He knows that. He has had to face the consequences of his actions every day then and now as President. He is pulling the US out of a situation he voted for as Senator. Every President has been complicit and barely helped this endless, hopeless situation. The troops have paid the price literally, emotionally, and mentally. Some have paid the ultimate price. We the people (everyday citizens) have paid the price and it has fostered into a distrust for the government. It has also resulted in war being the new normal. If you are 20 or younger, for your whole life America has been in war. Let that sink in. There are other generations before us who have had a similar experience. But, with the help of technology and media, we see war at its worst more than ever now. Through photos, videos, reports, and more, it has been engrained in our heads that war is a constant presence in our lives.

Capitalism

Moreover, we did not just come the Middle East to get back at the people responsible for 9/11. To bring democracy to Afghanistan. Or to capture Saddam Hussein and restore democracy in Iraq. We have a capitalist economy. You do not think our government is not smart enough to capitalize on what a country has to offer. Afghanistan has rare earth mineral fields under it and the most opium fields in the world (mostly used to make heroin). They lacked weapons but we do not. There were weapons deals done between us, corporations like General Electric, and different groups or countries. Some were allies, sometimes we sought control or to take inventory, and others we wanted to outright take advantage of. The Pentagon lost billions of dollars and Presidents weren’t even aware. Congress was in the dark. There was no trail leading back to wherever that money went. To connect this all, many soldiers knew back in 2008-13 that once they left the Taliban would take Afghanistan back. Most citizens of those countries did not want Americans there. The fight over the opium fields went a couple of ways: The farmers got shaken down by Taliban and Taliban sold opium, the Farmers field got carpet bombed by the US and then they joined Taliban, or US would give farmers fertilizer who used it to make more opium or sold it to Taliban who used it to make explosives. Who did they use those explosives against? It gets worse when it comes to resources though. Soldiers couldn’t throw batteries away because people would go through the trash, wire dead batteries together so they could make an IED, and detonate it. One soldier’s story I saw talked about a female soldier coming back after getting bodies out of vehicles that suffered an IED blast. He couldn’t help but think that was the fertilizer and batteries from the US that were put together to blow us up. We were fighting a (mostly) losing battle from all sides for so long. 

One more factor in all of this: Salt Pit, other black sites, and underground prisons. Mostly controlled and ran by the CIA, we took random Afghans and tortured them for information they never had.  Many detained Afghans had things like Bollywood films of women dancing in their possession. Most soldiers will tell you that they never found incriminating data on the phones of Afghan citizens, not even porn. Yes, some were associated with the Taliban or extremism, tortured for valuable information, and rightfully held in black sites. But, for those ones who were swooped up and brought in, how do you think that makes Afghanis feel? Afghans trusted us, we used them for their resources, for control, and then threw them away. The irony is if you are Team “Get out of the Middle East”, you are indirectly Team Taliban, ISIS, etc.  But the alternative is Team Stay Forever. We can’t do that. Every soldier can tell you this was a war of resources just as much (or more) as to get back for 9/11. Every soldier knew this was a lost war 10-15 years ago. We should have listened to the ones on the ground then and we should listen to them now.

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More about Brian:

A writer of mostly nonfiction poems, short stories, articles, and more who explores a wide range of topics. Like many writers, I have a blog called Good To You (doogotouy.com) and write for part therapy and part enjoyment.