The Original Sin of the War in Afghanistan
How Biden viewed the start of America’s post-9/11 wars may inform his future decisions on the use of force.
By Jonah Blank
The Atlantic, 20 April, 2021
The original sin of the war in Iraq was going to war in Iraq. And the original sin of the war in Afghanistan was going to war in Iraq.
In September 2001, when Joe Biden was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I was the policy adviser for the stretch of Asia that included Afghanistan. By 9 a.m. on 9/11, I felt certain that al-Qaeda (which was based in Afghanistan) was behind the attacks—but that we’d end up invading Iraq anyway.
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In 2001, even the most ardent war hawks didn’t want to invade Afghanistan: They wanted to invade Iraq. Neoconservatives, such as the Pentagon officials Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith, had a grand vision of remaking the country in America’s image. Paleoconservatives, such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, wanted to oust Saddam Hussein, install a pliable puppet, and thereby deter any other would-be adversaries. Both camps saw Afghanistan as an unwelcome distraction from the main event, but they applied the same rationales there.
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The first choice U.S. policy makers had to make in 2001 was how to respond to an attack on American soil. Doing nothing wasn’t seen as an option. Many in Congress advocated for an air campaign alone, but serious strategists knew this would be futile: Al-Qaeda’s leadership was already in hiding, and the Taliban didn’t possess any infrastructure worth destroying.
On October 22 that year, Biden gave a speech insisting that U.S. goals—rooting out al-Qaeda and helping establish a friendly successor government to the Taliban—would require U.S. ground troops far beyond the small number of Special Forces already in place. He expressed concern about a campaign fought from 30,000 feet, which he felt would kill many civilians without achieving its aims; such action would make the U.S. look like a “high-tech bully,” he said, and potentially alienate Muslims around the globe. Republican congresspeople criticized Biden, but his prediction proved accurate. The tonnage of munitions dropped on Afghanistan has never been accurately tallied, but 7,423 bombs rained down in 2019 alone, and the Taliban are no closer to surrender.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/biden-iraq-invasion-america-afghanistan/618640/
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