First the criticism: You never announce the exact date of departure. You don’t even announce the year of departure. You leave all of that ambiguous. You leave the other side wondering: Will these guys ever leave? By setting a date, the other side can take a break, knowing they will be taking over by that set date.
Now the defense: Quitting a war is never easy, especially when the departure involves civilians. You can get your troops out, although the last few contingents may be a problem. On the other hand, getting out with hundreds of thousands of civilians is almost impossible.
Had the U.S. started to airlift civilians and supporters out of Afghanistan months ago, that would have been clear signal that we had no faith in the Afghan government to hold off the Taliban. You may say, who did have faith, but that country had an army the U.S. military had been training for years. I certainly was surprised at how quickly things fell apart.
I have no doubt that whenever we had started to airlift our civilian allies out of the country, panic would have ensued. As bad as things are, there was little we could have done better, especially since few countries have been willing to take large numbers of Afghans. Unfortunately, this includes the United States.
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