Tom Cotton, Mariannette Miller-Meeks: Americans wanted Biden to end the war, not lose it

The past month has been full of heartbreak, disappointment, and anger for thousands of veterans and Gold Star families. Through his actions, our commander-in-chief has disrespected 20 years of selfless American sacrifice in Afghanistan and has shown more interest in a photo-op than in honorably completing the mission our service members gave so much to accomplish. We are now more vulnerable to a terrorist attack planned in Afghanistan than we were on Sept. 11, 2001. 

Many in public life have been wrong about the war in Afghanistan, but few have been more consistently wrong than the president. Under the Obama administration, Joe Biden was wrong in opposing a counterinsurgency strategy to combat the Taliban, wrong about drawing down troops without a plan, and even wrong about killing Osama bin Laden. Joe Biden also stood by his boss when President Barack Obama, in exchange for an American traitor named Bowe Bergdahl, released five high-value Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay — four of whom now serve as senior officials in the Taliban “government” in Kabul. 

Obama’s former secretary of defense Robert Gates described then-Vice President Biden and his national security adviser, Antony Blinken, as paranoid, ill-informed, and untrusting of our commanders in Afghanistan.

Clearly both men failed to learn from or admit their mistakes. They should not have been trusted with higher office.    

As president, Biden has tragically continued to stumble from one failure in Afghanistan to another. He started by announcing that all U.S. forces would leave Afghanistan in the middle of this year’s fighting season and would be out of the country by Sept. 11, solely for a cheap political talking point and photo-op. He ordered the midnight evacuation of Bagram airbase, leaving our military without a multi-runway airport near Kabul and without essential air assets to support the Afghan military. He removed essential U.S. contractors who helped maintain the Afghan Air Force, which was central to the Afghan military’s strategy that relied on air supremacy. 

As our military withdrew, the president failed to plan an orderly exit of thousands of American citizens residing in Afghanistan. When the Taliban started conquering regional capitals, he told the American public that the Afghan government would not collapse, even though members of the U.S. State Department and military repeatedly warned his administration that it would occur. He also pressured the president of Afghanistan to lie to the world and say that all was well in his country “whether it is true or not.” 

All of these actions led to the rapid implosion of the Afghan government and military after the expenditure of two decades of American blood, sweat, and treasure. Yet, even as Kabul fell to the Taliban, the president refused to take firm action to save American lives. When the Taliban, according to the Washington Post, offered the administration temporary control of Kabul to evacuate our citizens and allies, Biden told them that all we needed was access to the single-runway Afghan airport. He then trusted the Taliban with maintaining security outside of the airport. 

This had predictable consequences. American citizens were brutally beaten at Taliban checkpoints, U.S. officials said. Kabul devolved into chaos. Terrorists murdered 13 U.S. service members in the deadliest attack on Americans in Afghanistan in a decade. The Taliban, whom the president trusted, also started going house-to-house in search of U.S. and NATO allies. Journalists and women have been tortured, and the world watched in horror as terrified Afghans clung to the side of a C-17 and dropped to their death on the tarmac. 

The Biden administration’s avalanche of incompetence has damaged our international reputation and humiliated the United States on the world stage. Yet, our president and secretary of state continue to pretend that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a historic success. This breathtaking lie is an insult to the intelligence of every American and the sacrifice of every Afghan war veteran. Our troops have performed heroically, but the Biden administration has done nothing but fail in Afghanistan. 

The president’s much vaunted “airlift” stranded hundreds of American citizens in a terrorist-run country and left behind more than half of our Afghan allies who hold special immigrant visas. In many cases, this administration evacuated initially unvetted Afghans who are totally unconnected to our war effort in the country. Numerous individuals Biden was working to bring to this country have been flagged for their ties to terrorists and are being investigated.  

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban, which still actively partner with al-Qaida, possess billions of dollars of advanced U.S. military equipment and are stronger than ever before. There is absolutely no reason to believe that they won’t use these weapons to spread terror in their country and around the world. 

The American people wanted Joe Biden to end the war in Afghanistan — not lose it. There is no honor or dignity in what he has done, and history will judge him harshly for it. It is time for him to apologize to the nation and remove those in his administration that led him down this destructive path. 

Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, are both veterans of the U.S. Army. Senator Cotton served in Afghanistan in 2008-09.