“Kofi Luke”, director of the Center for Political Studies at the Heritage Foundation; In an article entitled “Biden left Afghanistan alone”; He spoke in support of the US Alliance, but said that maintaining some independence was not the answer. Last week, the Afghan government seemed to be slowly gaining ground. The Taliban offensive to capture the important city of Herat was halted. Ismail Khan led the defense of the city, which provoked thousands of Afghans across the country.
But when the Taliban captured the town of Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province in southwestern Afghanistan, last week without firing a single shot, other provincial capitals fell to the Taliban one after another, and even Herat finally fell after Ismail Khan joined.
“Biden is ignoring the developments in Afghanistan and has even recently said that he does not regret his decision to withdraw US troops from the country,” he said. It should be noted that Trump and Biden are not very similar, but they agreed to leave Afghanistan. The main difference was how this decision was implemented.
“In 2017, Trump instructed his National Security Group to review the situation in Afghanistan, and only after the completion of the investigation did he implement a step-by-step exit strategy while pursuing a peace plan with the Taliban, and only 2,000,” he added. Left American forces to maintain stability in Afghanistan. But when Biden entered the White House, he decided to withdraw the remaining American troops without regard to the consequences, and did so without any evaluation or review.
“Biden denies the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan,” wrote the director of the Center for Political Studies at the Heritage Foundation. In the absence of American leadership, the Europeans must act. There are three suggestions that European policymakers should consider immediately:
First, a European member of NATO must invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Recourse to this article is when a member feels that there is a significant security threat to the union that should be discussed at the highest level. The threat of instability in Europe is real. Not only are there terrorist threats, but large numbers of Afghan refugees could destabilize Europe.
Second, European NATO members should consider redeploying troops in Afghanistan, or at least over a large area.
* In some cases, small groups of special forces may be deployed to assist Afghans. The redeployment of limited military forces will not cause much practical problems. The Europeans must also put pressure on Biden to refine its approach.
“The coming weeks will be sensitive,” the analyst concludes. From 2001 to last week, the Taliban controlled only two provincial capitals and controlled them for only a few days.
According to Kofi Luke, it is not clear why Biden decided to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan because Afghanistan was not a political problem for him and there were almost no casualties for the United States; But due to the limited US military presence, conditions were relatively stable. If the United States does not take action, Europe must.
