Afghanistan: What Must They Be Thinking?

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My thoughts are with the hundreds of active duty troops, military families and veterans I’ve interviewed over the last two decades.

What are they thinking after learning of President Biden’s plan to withdraw all United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021?

We already have service members doing their duty in Afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war. We have service members who were not yet born when our nation was attacked on 9/11. War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multi-generational undertaking. We were attacked. We went to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives. Bin Laden is dead, and al Qaeda is degraded in Iraq – in Afghanistan. And it’s time to end the forever war.

Remarks by President Biden on the Way Forward in Afghanistan whitehouse.gov

If I were not retired, I would be reaching out to all those generous military families, soldiers, airmen and sailors who talked with me, shared their stories and opened their lives over two decades.

What I am thinking with this announcement?

I am forever grateful. And I continue to be enlightened with a deeper understanding of the U.S. military culture, the tradition and the pride that military members and their families carry in their hearts.