Summary of Kabul By Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson: The Untold Story of Biden's Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End

By Willie M. Joseph

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Kabul By Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson: The Untold Story of Biden's Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End

 

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The book provides an in-depth account of the Biden administration's disastrous retreat from Afghanistan in 2021, detailing the horrors of the situation. It includes first-person interviews with investigative reporter Jerry Dunleavy and former Army Captain and Afghanistan veteran James Hasson, who provide an exclusive account of the events. The book also highlights the tragic politics and bureaucracy that contributed to the disaster, as well as the bravery and sacrifices of countless Americans on the ground. It argues that the retreat led to a dangerous new era that persists for decades, with enemies also paying close attention.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Aug 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223893004

Willie M. Joseph

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PROLOGUE

ABBEY GATE, HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN AUGUST 26, 2021

The crowd at Abbey Gate was filled with desperate souls waiting outside for days without anywhere to relieve themselves. Most of the crowd had no reason to be there, and most posed no active threat. They knew that Afghanistan's US-backed government was no longer and that sharia law enforced by the Taliban was on the horizon. Some showed up because they sincerely believed social media posts saying that the Americans would take anyone who wanted to leave. For men like Amir, the others' motives didn't matter. He had a right to be there, and he was trying to push through the throngs to take his wife and four children to safety.

Amir sent photos to his handlers in the US, who would relay them to the troops waiting for his family. The US-based operatives acknowledged his message and replied with further instructions. However, Amir's transmissions went silent.

A few minutes later, 3rd platoon of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines (known as 2/1) gathered 1,250 feet away for a group photo. By nightfall, military officials announced that thirteen US service members had been killed in action in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the airfield. At least 170 civilians were killed in the blast as well.

The deaths of the thirteen American heroes of Abbey Gate and those of the innocent civilians they were attempting to save were neither inevitable nor the product of good-faith decisions poorly executed. The same goes for the thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies left behind in Afghanistan on August 30, 2021. The wisdom of the overarching decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan is immaterial, and the consequences of the administration's failures in Afghanistan have not remained in Kabul; they've unleashed a dangerous new global dynamic that will be felt for some time to come.

ONE

WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., was first elected to the US Senate in 1972, following Richard Nixon's second term as president. Over the next half century, he has adopted various public personas, including an apologist for Dixiecrat segregation and a purportedly lifelong civil rights crusader. However, he has consistently been wrong on every major foreign policy issue he confronted, from Vietnam, Cambodia, China to Afghanistan and Russia. Biden's initial foray into foreign policy as a thirty-year-old senator foreshadowed the crisis that would unfold under his watch five decades later. In April 1975, the South Vietnamese government was collapsing under a sustained offensive by communist forces from the North. President Gerald Ford believed that the United States had a moral obligation to honor its commitment to its South Vietnamese allies, who had been very loyal to the United States until the bitter end.

Biden, a foreign policy novice, disdained Ford's moral concerns and dismissed the potential damage to the United States' relationships with her allies. He made his mark by becoming the Senate's most strident opponent of US assistance to South Vietnamese refugees. He strenuously opposed Ford's evacuation plan and request for refugee resettlement funds. Exactly forty-six years later, he would announce his Afghanistan withdrawal plan, which unfolded with similar, coldhearted indifference to our allies.

Biden's first foreign policy failure was Vietnam, but it was hardly his last. In 1979, the future commander in chief visited China, beginning a decadeslong campaign of arguing that the totalitarian nation's rise would be a plus for the United States. Over the next forty years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) showed little interest in cooperation and outright hostility to any notions of freedom and self-governance. Biden played apologist for the Chinese government on other occasions, extolling the virtues of the Chinese government and claiming they're not bad folks.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden's response to the 9/11 terror attacks and the Kabul fiasco twenty years later was marked by lying about his own foresight and projecting blame outwards. He falsely claimed to have predicted the attacks the day before and later sent a check for $200 million to Iran, believing that the unsolicited payment would buy the United States some goodwill in the Muslim world. The 9/11 Commission later concluded that the Iranian regime had facilitated the travel of several 9/11 hijackers and was protecting al-Qaeda leaders. Biden's career in public office has spanned eight presidents, five popes, and pop artists, and he has consistently voiced distrust of military leaders. He repeatedly urged Obama to reject the military's advice, harboring deep-seated grudges against the generals who rejected his positions.

Biden's foreign policy judgment has not improved over time and experience. He has argued that if al-Qaeda comes back into Afghanistan, it would be welcomed by the Taliban, but he has no basis for concluding that. He has also claimed that the Taliban per se is not our enemy, ignoring the fact that the group had happily provided al-Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan before 9/11, refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders after the attacks, and killed thousands of American soldiers in the years that followed.

Robert Gates, a highly respected secretary of defense who served under both President George W. Bush and President Obama, wrote in his autobiography Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War about Biden's involvement in the Obama administration's decision-making on Afghanistan. Gates reported that Biden seemed overly focused on the political fallout of the Afghanistan conflict, emphasizing the reaction of the Democratic base. Biden's judgment on Afghanistan was affected by political myopia and ignorance of the realities on the ground.

Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was a result of his ineptitude in foreign matters, including Russia. He refused to keep the United States' promises to foreign allies, including leaving a residual force in Afghanistan to train Afghan forces. Biden's ineptitude extended to Russia, as he opposed the idea of leaving a residual force in Afghanistan to train Afghan forces. Biden also mocked Republican candidate Mitt Romney's warnings that Russia and Putin posed a threat to US interests, claiming that Russia was a possible ally for the US' efforts against Iran but not a threat anymore.

Biden's decision to withdraw from Iraq was influenced by optics, not tactics, and taking credit for other people's work. He had privately encouraged Obama to approve Operation Neptune Spear, but by 2015, he had reconstructed his account, changing his advice from Don't go to Go. This revisionist history is contradicted by public accounts of Hillary Clinton, Secretary Gates, former CIA director Leon Panetta, Obama administration staffers, and even Obama himself.

Biden's decision-making was guided by optics, not tactics, and taking credit for other people's work. He also spearheaded the Obama administration's Iraq policy, which was dead wrong. The agreement with Iraq didn't materialize, and Obama pulled all US troops out of the country the following year. ISIS swiftly capitalized on the power vacuum and seized control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Biden's future defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, played