John J. Metzler

The collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban three years ago, on Aug. 15, signaled an inflection point on the geopolitical scene. While the appalling stupidity of the Biden/Harris administration's botched and humiliating withdrawal of American forces from this South Asian land stained and sullied the reputation of the United States, the fiasco equally opened the floodgates to the deluge of refugees fleeing the toppled Afghan government in Kabul.

The immediate disaster was the terrorist suicide bomb killing of 13 U.S. Marines and the injury of scores more at Kabul Airport as the frantic evacuation of more than a hundred thousand Afghan civilians unfolded.

As U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said following the harrowing debacle, "China, Russia, Iran look at this botched withdrawal, and they see incompetence that they could exploit, which may lead to miscalculation."

Afghanistan descended back into the darkness as the Taliban's new Islamic Emirate regime seized power and turned back the clock on a semi-secular society. The blood and treasure of the United States and many NATO allies such as Britain, Canada, France, Germany and many others had been spilled. But in vain? Billions of dollars had been spent trying to stabilize a tribal society and offer........

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