AFPI, America First Policy Institute

Dear Friend,Like all of you, I am watching with shock and disbelief what is taking place right now with the clumsy and calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan. What is happening right now was entirely predictable and preventable, and reflects gross negligence and an absence of presidential leadership.That the United States needed to withdraw from Afghanistan was clear, but equally important was how that withdrawal was to take place. We left a plan in place for the Biden Administration, and I’m not sure what he did with it. The Trump administration developed a conditions-based withdrawal. According to this plan, no final withdrawal would have occurred until final successful peace negotiations took place between the Taliban and the Ghani government. Read my op-ed today in Newsweek, where I discuss some of the lessons learned from our twenty year engagement in Afghanistan, and my op-ed in The Hill earlier this year warning of the consequences of Biden’s arbitrary approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal.I also appeared on Fox & Friends today to discuss these difficult developments.Yours Sincerely, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg Co-Chairman, Center for American Security America First Policy Institute P.S. Be sure to read my just published Newsweek op-ed on lessons learned from our twenty year engagement in Afghanistan now.