It is really tricky trying to assign blame for the Afghanistan debacle.

The current mess actually began in late 1979, when Brezhnev of the USSR invaded the country to prop up a puppet Marxist regime.

In the ensuing years the U.S., principally under the Cold War policies of the Reagan regime, armed and supported anyone opposing the Russians, particularly bloodthirsty religious fanatics who became the Taliban and al-Qaida. In the end, Russia withdrew, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Afghan rule fell to those fanatics, now well equipped and with no goal but domination through terror.

The U.S. paid the price on 9/11. So the Bush/Cheney regime invaded, ostensibly to capture Osama bin Laden. They failed. The Taliban remained powerful, because we more or less forgot about them in our haste to invade Iraq on phony WMD “intelligence.” So we never left, although our goal was never clearly defined.

So who to blame? Brezhnev, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump or Biden? All are responsible, but we can expect a rush to blame the current president. Like Charlie Brown making the last out in a game that was already 10-0 against us, it will be said that he lost the game.

Going forward, our policy should include finding out which of our “allies” have been supplying these terrorists with arms, which they have a surfeit of. They get their equipment from somewhere, and we have always been reluctant to press that point.

Howard Schmitt

Green Tree

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)