[Hoot Gibson]

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ser...00389.html

I served in Afghanistan as a US Marine, twice. Here’s the truth in two sentences.

One: For 20 years, politicians, elites and D.C. military leaders lied to us about Afghanistan.

Two: What happened last week was inevitable, and anyone saying differently is still lying to you.

led a team of Marines training Iraqi security forces to defend their country. When I arrived I received a “stoplight” chart on their supposed capabilities in dozens of missions and responsibilities. Green meant they were good. Yellow was needed improvement; red said they couldn’t do it at all.

I was delighted to see how far along they were on paper — until I actually began working with them. I attempted to adjust the charts to reflect reality and was quickly shut down. The ratings could not go down. That was the deal. It was the kind of lie that kept the war going.

So when people ask me if we made the right call getting out of Afghanistan in 2021, I answer truthfully: Absolutely not. The right call was getting out in 2002. 2003. Every year we didn’t get out was another year the Taliban used to refine their skills and tactics against us — the best fighting force in the world. After two decades, $2 trillion and nearly 2,500 American lives lost, 2021 was way too late to make the right call.

I agree with much of what you said above but the chaotic way in which we are exiting Afghanistan was not inevitable. We have extracted American civilians from war zones before and in modern American history, the extraction was never as poorly planned and executed as this one has been. That was entirely avoidable. Joe Biden has a long history of lying to make himself look good. When multiple members of his own cabinet and military contradict him in public, I tend to believe that Biden is lying again.