EDITOR:

“We’ll have U S forces out by 9/11.” Biden to Taliban, May.

A Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is “highly unlikely.” Biden, July.

“We planned for every contingency.” Biden, August.

Let’s look at the plan.

1. Give the Taliban a date-certain for U.S. withdrawal, so they can plan their operations.

2. Pull out all the civilian contractors five weeks before the first final withdrawal (there will be a second final withdrawal). This is why Afghanistan was lost. The civilian contractors were there to keep the Afghani Air Force (AAF) aircraft flyable. Before the Taliban takeover, the AAF had 344 aircraft, of which 105 were ground attack aircraft. The Afghani army was trained by the U S to fight with air support. Without air support, they were helpless.

3. Pull out the U S military before American civilians and our Afghani comrades in arms.

4. Abandon Bagram Airbase. Do it at night, and do not notify the Afghans or any other allies. Bagram Airbase was quite defensible, and, in fact, it was heavily defended by U.S. and Afghani forces. It could have been an ideal place from which to extract U.S. civilians and vulnerable Afghanis.

5. Change your mind; send U S forces back to Afghanistan to try to get U.S. citizens out, and maybe some vulnerable Afghanis, too. Without Bagram Airbase, try to get them out from Hamid Karzai Airport. Hamid Karzai Airport has a secure perimeter, too, but instead of U.S. and allied forces, the perimeter is secured by the Taliban.

6. At the abandoned U.S. Embassy, leave the pay records of the Afghanis who helped us, including their names and addresses, for the Taliban to find and use.

This sounds like Monday morning quarterbacking, but the administration was on notice months before that a Taliban takeover was likely. An internal State Department cable dated July 13, signed by 23 staffers, warned that Kabul would likely collapse quickly after the Aug. 31 troop withdrawal. That message got all the way to Secretary of State, Blinken, but it is not clear if the message was shared with Biden, Wall Street Journal. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a warning that any premature withdrawal from Afghanistan could be dangerous. “The price for leaving too soon, or in an uncoordinated way, could be very high. Afghanistan risks becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homelands. And ISIS could rebuild in Afghanistan,” C N N.

We cannot blame Biden (nor Harris) for this tragedy. It is clear (certainly to me) that neither Biden nor Harris are making any decisions involved in running the United States. I have a reasonable guess as to who is actually running the country, but no smoking gun, and without evidence, I will not type the name (or names) here.

Ralph B Blasier

Escanaba