You know, maybe nation building wasn’t supposed to be one of America’s key roles in Afghanistan, but it sure was a damn nice side effect.  Listen, we get it.  There are many, many, many things that were handled horribly in Afghanistan, including unprecedented waste and corruption.  And, thanks to the Afghanistan Papers, we now know the American people were blatantly lied to, over and over.

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There will be plenty of time to sort all of this out as we muddle through court cases and congressional hearings, but none of this should diminish the incredibly great things that we achieved for Afghanistan and her people.

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We helped Afghanistan build schools and a health care system, a security force, infrastructure like roads and airports, and institutions like parliament and a justice system.  Albeit slowly, Afghanistan was becoming a civil society, finally on the right path in areas like education, health, communications, and improved living conditions. 

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Although, before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was still looking for sustainable sources of growth — and was still heavily dependent on foreign aid — the country’s GDP before the pandemic was $19.3 billion and the economy grew by 3.9 percent in 2019 according to the World Bank, an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.

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The World Bank alone had committed over $4.7 billion for development projects, and the bank administered the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund which had raised over $12.27 billion.

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Reflecting on the past few weeks, the loss of our 13 soldiers and innocent civilians and the betrayal of our steadfast Afghan partners have been crushing. But add to that the devastating future we have now solidified for the girls and women of Afghanistan. 

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Over the past two decades, the U.S. spent $780 million to promote the rights of Afghan females.  In 2006, First Lady Laura Bush was on hand to open the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF).  The AUAF — established by a $100 million grant from the United States — became the country’s only coeducational school of higher education.

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As a result of our efforts, 40 percent of all students were now female, and many had gone on to be government officials, doctors, lawyers, engineers, computer scientists, police officers, teachers, artists, small business owners and professional athletes.  There was an Afghan female soccer team and mountaineering team, not to mention the Afghan Girls Robotics Team — made up of 25 girls, ranging in age from 12 to 18, who had captured the hearts of entire countries around the world. These hopeful little girls, inspired teens and empowered women trusted us.  They all believed in America and the principles we convinced them we stood for. 

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All along the way, Afghan females fought hard for their freedom. On August 24, 2016, the Taliban, armed with guns and explosives, attacked the AUAF. The ten-hour attack killed 15 people, ten of them students. Just weeks earlier, the Taliban had kidnapped two of the school’s English teachers, one from America and one from Australia.  The teachers were finally released, in exchange for Taliban leaders, three years later.

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But the AUAF would not be denied!  The resilient students and staff refused to cower in the face of terror and reopened, better than ever, less than one year later.

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Now, we have stripped these girls, teens and women of their hope and freedom and sentenced them to a life of draconian rules and abject misery.  Already, the girls on the robotics team cannot leave their homes without a male escort, women’s health clinics are being forced to close, and females of all ages are being turned away from what was once their schools and universities. In some provinces, women were already back in head-to-toe burqas.

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The United States left at least 600 AUAF students behind. After several attempts were made to escape the country, their fates were sealed with a final email: “I regret to inform you that the high command at HKIA in the airport has announced there will be no more rescue flights.”

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After the students were told their names had been given to the Taliban, a 24-year-old sophomore named Hosay, who was studying business administration, told The New York Times, “We are all terrified. There is no evacuation, there is no getting out.”  Hosay’s plan before the Taliban took control of her life was to get an M.B.A. and start an all-female engineering firm.

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Statistically speaking, Hosay likely did not make it out of this alive, and we're not being overdramatic.  For obvious reasons, AUAF students were at the top of the Taliban’s death list.

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At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council right after the Taliban takeover, the UN secretary general António Guterres said he was already “receiving chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights” in Afghanistan and was “particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan.”

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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid didn’t make anyone feel better when he released a statement saying that women should stay at home at least for the time being because the Taliban “is worried our forces who are new and have not been yet trained very well may mistreat women.”  But don’t be fooled — according to Human Rights Watch, the “this is temporary” rap is a ploy the Taliban have used many times before — and years later nothing has changed.

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This entire thing is just surreal.  Have we really relinquished 20 years of admirable progress to the Taliban for them to destroy in an instant?  The realization that we have done exactly that is sickening.

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Biden remarked in his speech that “we have to be honest: our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps over the past two decades…I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference.”

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But the truth is, MORE TIME WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE.  A REALLY, REALLY BIG ONE.  We'll say again, the United States and the Afghan government have both made countless missteps over the past two decades.  Not many people, if any, deny that.

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However, we are JUST NOW arriving at the point where the first generation of Afghans who were born into a world with freedom and without fear are coming of age.  THEY are the ones who would have made all the difference.

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Think of this: The average Afghan is 18 years old and almost two-thirds of the country is under 25.  Living under the protection of the United States and NATO forces are all this generation has ever known.  Now, we have ripped the rug out from under them, never even giving them the chance to lead.