AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
For President Joe Biden and his administration it was “mission accomplished” last week as the U.S. officially exited Afghanistan. After having a strong military presence in that country for the last 20 years during which time an estimated 2,300 American soldiers were killed and thousands more injured, it was time for our troops to come home.
For those too young to remember, America and the rest of the free world took up arms in Afghanistan 20 years ago to fight terrorism threats in retaliation following the 9-11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
It was a worthy fight. In the end, Afghanistan was as stable as it probably could have been. But more importantly, for the past 18 months none of our military personnel had been killed after then-President Trump and the Taliban came to an agreement on America’s withdrawal in 2021.