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It was a graduation gift from his mother, a chance to skydive.

Quinn Johnson-Harris of Milwaukee made that first jump anddeclared: "I'm going to live in the sky."

And he did, joining the U.S. Air Force after graduating from Homestead High School, carving out a career and a calling, visiting 17 countries as he served his nation,just like his brothers and grandfather.

On Oct. 2, 2015, Johnson-Harris, an aircraft loadmaster,was ona C-130J Super Hercules plane that took offfrom Jalalabad Airfield, Afghanistan.

The flight lasted 28 seconds. There was a stall. The plane crashed, killing all 11 people on board, and three otherson the ground.

Quinn was 21.

A photo of Quinn Johnson-Harris, who was killed in Afghanistan on Oct. 2, 2015, is seen at his fathers house on Monday, May 24, 2021 in Milwaukee.(Photo: Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Think of Quinn Johnson-Harris and his family on this Memorial Day weekend, as we mark a holiday suffused with sadness and reverence.

We remember those in the military who gave their lives defending the country. And this yearespecially,we recall sacrifices made in Afghanistan.

More than 3,100 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan since 2001, including more than than 30 Wisconsinites.

"It's time to end America's longest war,"President Joe Biden declared in April when he orderedthe withdrawal of all remaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021.

"We went to Afghanistan in 2001 to root out al Qaeda, to prevent future terrorist attacks against the United States planned from Afghanistan," Biden said. "Our objective was clear.The cause was just."

Families of the fallen, and veterans of the war, are left with their own reflections on their sacrifice and their service.

Yvette and LaMar HarrisSr. remember their son Quinn every day. His laugh, his smile and his exuberance. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Yvette is raising his daughter and says the little girl looks just like him.

Yvette, a nurse, wears a button that shows her son's smiling face. LaMar, a retired operating engineer, has a tattoo on his left arm that honors his son.

They're divorced. But they retain a strongbond.

The military ties run deep in the family.

LaMar Harris, the father of Quinn Johnson-Harris who was killed in Afghanistan, holds a framed photo of the other airmen who were killed in the aircraft with his son on Oct. 2, 2015.(Photo: Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Yvette's father was a Marine. When he died, her sons stood, saluted his casket and promised to serve in his honor.

There was Jeremy, who served in the Marines and passed away in a motorcycle accident in Indianapolis shortly before the first anniversary of his brother's death.

LaMar Jr. is a West Point graduate who is a U.S. Army captain in the Special Forces.

LaMar's stepson, Christopher Schaffer, just graduated from U.S. Army Ranger School.

And, of course, there was Quinn.

Yvette and LaMar wrestle with the war in Afghanistan.

LaMar said he agreed with the war's aims to help Afghanistan and the Afghan people.

"You don't want to lose loved ones, but any war you're going to lose loved ones," he said. "And they know when they sign that paper to defend the country, there's a possibility they may not come home."

"Our kids don't go in there and say, 'I want to fight and die,'" Yvette said. "Our kids go in there and say I want to serve this country. And because we are America and we're free and we have rights that so many people don't have, when we see suppressed people in the world, we go to help rescue them.

"Our purpose was to keep the Taliban at bay," she added. "And we did that, we did that very well."

The family suffered terrible loss.

"We just wake up every morning, knowing your child gave all he wanted to give to help other people," LaMarsaid.

"My heart as a mother, yeah, I wish we would have pulled out sooner," Yvette said. "But if this is your job, I actually put it on Facebook the day my kid left, anybody who wants a yellow ribbon to tie around a tree, come get it from me. You never think it's going to be you, people knocking on the door (to deliver news from overseas) but what keeps us free are the people who are selfless and serving.

"We gave," she added. "I've given a lot. And what I wish is that people in America don't forget. I don't want anybody to forget what my son did for us. I don't want them to forget his sacrifice for our nation."

Chris Kolenda, a retired U.S. Army colonel now living in Milwaukee, served fourcombat tours in Afghanistan. In 2008, Biden, then a U.S. senator, visited Kolenda's main outpost in the Kunar River Valley in eastern Afghanistan.

Chris Kolenda poses for a portrait Wednesday, May 19, 2021, at his home in Milwaukee. Kolenda is a retired colonel who did several tours in Afghanistan. Kolenda has received many awards and medals during his time.(Photo: Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

After the visit, Kolenda received a letter from Biden that said: "No matter how many PowerPoints one may view, there is no substitute for being able to get out to a Forward Operating Base and get some ground-truth."

Kolenda's memories of Afghanistan are vivid.

"The absolute beauty of the country, the kindness of the people, the joy on kids' faces," he said.

But there are other, darker memories. During his tour, six soldiers he commanded died in combat.

"I think of my six soldiers, their faces, their families," he said.

Next summer, he plans a bicycle trip to honor those men in the places where they are buried, a journey that will take him from Nebraska to Arlington, Virginia.

He can still hear the boom of a rocket-propelled grenade that took the life of Maj. Tom Bostick, July 27, 2007. For his actions, putting himself between enemy fighters and his troops, Bostick received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest medal for combat valor.

Chris Kolenda points to Afghanistan on a map Wednesday, May 19, 2021, in Milwaukee. That is the location where his captain died.(Photo: Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Ask Kolenda what he would tell families who lost loved ones in the long war, and he said: "The question you ask is very difficult because you don't have the sort of war that ends with a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York, or with a big surrender ceremony. That's not how these wars typically end."

There may be a lack of closure, he said, but at the same time, "soldiers were fighting alongside the people that they trained with, that they were friends with, and ultimately when you get in a firefight soldiers are fighting for one another, to protect one another. They all did that."

Kolenda agreed with the decision to end American involvement in the war. There are many ways the future may play out as the Afghan government and Taliban struggle for power and control.

"My thinking has evolved on this over the last 10 years," he said. "I think our presence at 2,500 soldiers, it was doing very little good and it was encouraging the worst behavior on the part of the key actors. So, peace hasn't been possible with our troops present. It might be possible with our troops no longer there and creating these perverse incentives."

Kolenda, who has authored a book called "Zero-Sum Victory: What We're Getting Wrong About War," said the U.S. is in need of national security reform.

"A war that goes on inconclusively for 20 years is not acceptable," he said. "We need to fix it."

In Beloit, a family remembers Tyler Kreinz.

Tyler was in middle school when the Twin Towers collapsed and the Pentagon was attacked.

He was upset, determined, andtold his mom that fateful day, Sept. 11, 2001: "I want to join the Army."

Tyler loved the outdoors and plannedto go to college and become a conservation warden. But first, hemade good on that youthful pledge, enlisting in the U.S. Army after he graduated from Beloit Memorial High School.

On June 18, 2011, in Uruzgan province of Afghanistan, Tyler was on a night patrol when the MRAP vehicle he was riding in overturned while crossing a river.

There was a desperate rescue attempt but Tyler and three others perished.

The next day, Father's Day, soldiers came to the Kreinz home to break the terrible news.

Tyler was gone. He was just 21.

U.S. Army Specialist Tyler Kreinz, of Beloit, died June 18, 2011, in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered during a vehicle crash.(Photo: Kreinz family photo.)

"His friends are in their 30s now and getting married and having children," said Tyler's mother, Mary Kreinz.

She and her husband, David, holdtight to the letters their sonsent home from training, and Germany and Afghanistan.

"I remember him feeling horrible for the women and children there," she said of his tour in Afghanistan. "I remember going to Goodwill to pick up Happy Meal toys that he could then give to the kids."

Her son shielded the family from his combat role in Afghanistan, telling them he mostly handled calls and did paperwork. Only later, after his death, did they learn he was on dangerous night patrols.

Mary Kreinz said she was glad that the war is now ending.

"It's been too long," she said. "9/11 made us realize there are some vicious people out there in the world."

She said she understood why American soldiers were sent to Afghanistan that al Qaeda needed to be disbanded but she is at a loss to make much sense of what occurred.

"We can't be fighting everyone's wars," she said. "They're fighting about religion, fighting about things we don't understand, we don't have business in."

Mary and her husband keep their son's memory alive through a memorial scholarship through the Wisconsin Conservation Warden Association.

"I would love everybody to know what a gentleman he was," Mary Kreinz said of her son. "And how strong he was."

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Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2021/05/28/memorial-day-our-afghanistan-war-losses-weigh-especially-heavy/5186255001/

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This Memorial Day, remember those who died in Afghanistan, and the loved ones they left behind - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

BELDING, Mich. On Monday, Memorial Day, a new statue was unveiled at the Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park honoring the men and women who served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new monument was just recently installed, and will eventually include a list of names and maps of both countries so those visiting can point out to others where they served. On Monday, the monument was revealed, with those etchings coming soon.

Theyve come up with a gorgeous monument for us, it's phenomenal," said Holly Noble.

"And it's hitting home for us because these are the guys that are here now. Were losing a lot of our other Veterans, Vietnam, and everyday it's another person thats passing.

Noble, whose father was Denny Craycraft, wants to make sure that Veterans who are still with us know just how much they are appreciated by the country they sacrificed everything to defend.

Patten Monument Co in Comstock Park created the new statue.

The park has been able to add monuments highlighting Michigan soldiers involvement in different military conflicts through the years. Many of the updates possible through the work done by the park's namesake, Denny Craycraft.

Craycraft told FOX 17 in 2017, before his passing, "One thing that I know all of us Vietnam Veterans have done... weve made commitments to ourselves that we would never ever let any Veteran be treated, coming out of a war zone, like we were treated. And I think weve done very well at that."

Noble says she feels blessed to continue her father's work.

I dont even know the word for it.. its peaceful, maybe, to know that he worked so hard because they were treated so badly when they came back, and we dont ever want that to happen again, she told FOX 17 Monday.

We dont want to be just another Veterans park, we want to be a park that has their names in it, has their faces here.

Denny's efforts also carried on by friends of his like Craig Gregory.

The last time I came home I didnt even wear a uniform. I threw my military gear in a dumpster, because we were treated so bad," Gregory said Monday.

He has lots of wonderful memories of his friend Denny, and these days puts a lot of his energy into keeping the park in beautiful shape.

They gave up a part of their life to serve in the war, or they paid a part of their life to serve in the service," Gregory said.

"I don't care if they never left the United States... They took 2 or 3 or 5 or 8 years out of their life to serve our country. They should be honored.

You can find more information on the Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom park at their website. They are always looking for donations and volunteers.

They are also in the process of trying to locate a tank and a "Huey" Helicopter to place in the park. If you have any leads on where they might find either, you are encouraged to reach out.

You can do that at their website or by calling (616) 894-5488.

A Look at the New Monument

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

Denny Craycraft Veteran's Freedom Park

The new monument unveiled Monday honoring those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

Scripps

READ MORE: 102-year-old WWII veteran receives special honor

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READ MORE: Memorial Day: Family remembers fallen son, Navy Seal David Warsen

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Monument to those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan unveiled at Belding Freedom Park - Fox17

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday stressed the need for improving defence relations with Tajikistan after the two countries signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) for cooperation in various sectors, including sale of Pakistan-manufactured arms to Tajikistan.

The prime minister was addressing a joint press conference with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon who earlier arrived here on a two-day official visit. He was received at the PM House, where he was given a guard of honour. They had a one-on-one meeting and attended a ceremony where various MoUs were signed. Delegation level talks were also held.

The prime minister also reiterated that Pakistan could not normalise relations with India until it revoked its actions, taken on August 05, 2019 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and emphasised that if the relations did not improve, then India, Pakistan and the whole region will continue to suffer.

He continued that the potential, this region offered, could only be harnessed, if there is regional peace. The prime minister said on one side, there was Afghanistan while on the other, unfortunately India had taken unilateral actions on August 5 in disregard to the international laws and the UNSC resolutions and now it was very difficult to have normalised relations with it including trade. It will be tantamount to betraying the sacrifices of Kashmiris. It will be a treachery with them. Unless India reverses its unilateral steps, our relations cant normalise and the region cant be connected. Strategically, the Central Asian Republics can have access through Gwadar, but if relations with India normalise, then Pakistan is at a pivotal place to connect the entire region. But this is dependent on India to reverse its actions of August 05, he argued.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that in the realm of common challenges faced by Pakistan and Tajikistan, both sides agreed that peace in Afghanistan was a priority. If the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan is similar to what Russia did in 1989, we both are concerned about the security to our trade and connectivity, he said.

The premier emphasised that trade between Pakistan and Tajikistan was very important and it would tremendously increase through Gwadars connectivity. Speaking on Afghanistan, Imran said that peace in Afghanistan was very important for trade and connectivity with Tajikistan to increase. He added both countries shared concern over Afghanistan sliding back into instability with no political settlement after the withdrawal of the US forces. He emphasised, Our trade will be affected because we fear with the spread of anarchy terrorism will also increase, threatening stability and we both have decided to push for a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan. We both share this concern and want that when the US leaves, there is a political settlement and a government of consensus is installed there, which can check anarchy, he noted. Imran said they discussed and agreed on how to take along other countries of the world on the critical issue of political settlement in Afghanistan.

The second major issue, he explained, they had discussed was of climate change and global warming since they posed a common threat to Tajikistan and Pakistan as the two countries depend on glaciers for their water supply. He added if the world doesnt act sooner on global warming then the next generations of both the countries will live under constant threat so we have decided to further play our role on climate change.

The Tajik president also talked about the measures taken by his country to overcome climate change and preserve glaciers such as calling for declaring 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers Preservation to which Prime Minister Imran Khan also affirmed Pakistans support.

The two leaders also discussed issues with reference to Islamophobia and the reasons why it continues to spread. Prime Minister Imran Khan said that blasphemy against the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) and linking Islam with terrorism were the main reasons for its spread.

Imran termed the MOU signed between the NAB and Tajikistans corruption bureaus as very significant because he said there was a need to take action against money laundering and illicit financial flows from countries like Pakistan and Tajikistan.

The Tajik president said that talks were held in a very friendly atmosphere and Tajikistan was satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations. Emomali Rahmon remarked, Tajikistan recognises the friendly country of Pakistan as a reliable and trustworthy partner on the international stage.

He said that the signed MOUs would strengthen the legal framework of bilateral relations between the two countries and they discussed how cooperation could be increased in investment, trade, agriculture, connectivity and healthcare.

While noting satisfaction over the high level exchanges between the two countries, the Tajik president said, We have also highlighted significant role of Joint Inter governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. He said the two sides have agreed to resume business council as well as the joint working groups on energy and infrastructure as soon as the situation improves after Covid-19.

Rahmon expressed his countrys special interest in continuing fruitful cooperation of the two countries in implementation of energy related projects including CASA-1000.

The Tajik president also expressed his countrys interest in joining regional transport corridor projects. He said, We have also discussed Tajikistans access to Karachi and Gwadar seaports. He noted the cooperation between the two countries in agriculture and food security will also help supply the region organic agriculture products. He reaffirmed his countrys unwavering support to Pakistans continuous efforts in ensuring peace in the region and countering the international terrorism.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday stressed upon proper tapping of immense potential and resources of the ten-member Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) for the collective regional progress and prosperity.

Addressing a concluding ceremony of 2nd conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (PAECO) countries, the ECO countries were blessed with diverse resources and potentials and their proper utilisation would be beneficial for all.

The prime minister observed that according to estimates, the combined population of these countries stood around 450 million making this region a powerhouse. He said all the ECO 10 member-countries were blessed with diverse resources and potentials and their proper utilisation would be beneficial for all.

The prime minister observed that it is not the countries but the regions which make progress. After the formation of European Union, the economic and trade activities cooperation was enhanced bringing economic prosperity to the EU countries, he concluded.

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Regional progress depends on India and Afghanistan - The News International

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan A gray American transport plane taxied down the runway, carrying munitions, a giant flat screen television from a C.I.A. base, pallets of equipment and departing troops. It was one of several aircraft that night removing what remained of the American war from this sprawling military base in the countrys south.

President Biden has said that the United States will withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, ending the countrys longest war on foreign soil but the pullout has already begun.

The United States and its NATO allies spent decades building Kandahar Airfield into a wartime city, filled with tents, operations centers, barracks, basketball courts, ammunition storage sites, aircraft hangars and at least one post office.

Once the base is stripped of everything deemed sensitive by its American and NATO landlords, its skeleton will be handed over to the Afghan security forces.

And the message will be clear: They are on their own in the fight against the Taliban.

The scenes over the weekend were almost as if a multitrillion-dollar war machine had morphed into a garage sale. At the airfields peak in 2010 and 2011, its famous and much derided boardwalk housed snack shops, chain restaurants, a hockey rink and trinket stores. Tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops were based here, and many more passed through as it became the main installation for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistans south. It stood beside rural villages from which the Taliban emerged; throughout it all, the province has remained an insurgent stronghold.

Now, half-demolished outdoor gyms and empty hangars were filled with nearly 20 years worth of matriel. The passenger terminal, where service members once transited between different parts of the war, was pitch black and filled with empty, dust-covered chairs. A fire alarm detector its batteries weak chirped incessantly. The mess halls were shuttered.

The boardwalk was nothing more than a few remaining boards.

On the other side of the base that morning, an Afghan transport aircraft arrived from Kabul. It was loaded with mortar shells, small-arms cartridges and 250-pound bombs to supply Afghan troops under frequent attack by the Taliban in the countryside.

The American withdrawal, almost quiet, and with a veneer of orderliness, belies the desperate circumstances just beyond the bases wall. On one end of Kandahar Airfield that day, Maj. Mohammed Bashir Zahid, an officer in charge of a small Afghan air command center, sat in his office, a phone to each ear and a third in his hands as he typed messages on WhatsApp, trying to get air support for Afghan security forces on the ground and in nearby outposts threatened by Taliban fighters.

Yesterday, you wouldnt have been able to sit down because things were so chaotic, he said. I fell asleep with my boots on and my gun in my holster.

Sitting in his U.S.-built air-conditioned office, Major Zahid said he expected that one day soon his requests for help from the Americans would be met with silence. On Saturday, he didnt even ask. He concentrated instead on what Afghan helicopters and bombers he could reach.

His anger at the U.S. departure was not about the lack of air support but rather, pointing to pictures on his phone, about the sport utility vehicles that he said the Americans had destroyed at the airfield because they couldnt leave with them.

Now, this is what really upsets me, Major Zahid said, looking exhausted and encapsulating the sense of desperation of most Afghan soldiers. The Americans most likely destroyed the vehicles to prevent them from being sold off, given the rampant corruption in much of the ranks.

Major Zahid thought that the Americans were destroying more of those vehicles when an explosion echoed across the runway at around 2 p.m.

The blast was a rocket, fired from somewhere outside the base and landing somewhere inside, killing no one. The announcement from the base loudspeaker was distant and practically indecipherable in the can-shaped building that housed Major Zahids operations center. Nobody moved, phones rang, work continued.

Even though the rockets landed on the Afghan side, the Americans viewed it as a Taliban attack on them. The Trump administration had agreed to fully withdraw all forces from Afghanistan by May 1 in a deal with the Taliban signed in February 2020. In recent weeks, the Taliban said that any American presence in the country on or beyond that date would be considered a breach of the deal.

The U.S. military had been expecting some kind of assault as it left despite the diplomatic overtures from American negotiators in Doha, Qatar, who had tried to convey to the Taliban that the military was in fact leaving, and that attacking American troops was a fools errand.

The American response was not subtle.

A flight of F/A-18 fighter jets, stationed aboard the U.S.S. Eisenhower, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, were in the air, making their way toward Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea a roughly two-hour flight up what is called the boulevard, a corridor of airspace in western Pakistan that serves as an air transit route.

Having received approval to strike, the jets swooped in, dropping a GPS-guided munition a bomb that costs well over $10,000 on the additional rockets that were somewhere in Kandahar, mounted on rudimentary rails and aimed at the airfield.

Inside the American headquarters building at the airfield, two Green Berets part of the shrinking contingent who work there now pulled up the video of the afternoon airstrike on one of their phones.

Make sure that goes in the nightly brief, one of them said. The Special Forces soldiers, bearded and clad in T-shirts, ball caps and tattoos, looked out of place among what was left of the cubicles and office furniture around them, much of which was being torn apart.

Televisions had been removed from walls, office printers sat on the curb, the insignia once plastered on the stone wall that heralded who was in charge of the headquarters, long gone. Even though there would soon be fewer and fewer service members around each day, one soldier noted that the flow of care packages from random Americans had not slowed down. He now possessed what seemed like an infinite supply of Pop-Tarts.

A group of American soldiers, tasked with loading an incoming cargo flight didnt know when they were going home. Tomorrow? Sept. 11? Their job was to close Kandahar before moving on to the next U.S. base, but there were only so many installations left to dismantle. A trio of them played Nintendo while they waited. One talked about the dirt bike he was going to buy when he got home. Another traded cryptocurrency on his iPhone.

When asked about Maiwand, a district only about 50 miles away where Afghan forces were trying to fend off a Taliban offensive and Major Zahid was desperately trying to send air support, a U.S. soldier responded, Whos Maiwand?

In the evening, the base loudspeaker chimed as one of the transport planes departed. Attention, someone out of view said. There will be outgoing for the next 15 minutes. The dull thud of mortar fire began. At what was unclear.

The end of the war looked nothing like the beginning of it. What started as an operation to topple the Taliban and kill the terrorists responsible for the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, had swelled over 20 years into a multitrillion-dollar military-industrial undertaking, infused with so much money that for years it seemed impossible to ever conclude or dismantle.

Until now.

The Talibans often-repeated adage loomed over the day: You have the watches, we have the time.

In one of the many trash bags littering the base, there was a discarded wall clock, its second hand still ticking.

Najim Rahim and Jim Huylebroek contributed reporting.

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Day 1 of the End of the U.S. War in Afghanistan - The New York Times

Americas withdrawal from Afghanistan should be cause for rejoicing. But conditions in the country today, and the historical record of past U.S. withdrawals from similar conflicts, suggest that it will only create more problems. By leaving, Washington is vindicating an aphorism attributed to a captured Taliban fighter over a decade ago: You have the watches. We have the time.

Proving the Taliban wrong is not a politically unaffordable extravagance. It merely requires retaining a couple of thousand elite special operations, intelligence, and support personnel in Afghanistan. Otherwise, the risk is that this will be the fourth time in as many decades that a U.S. military withdrawal encourages terrorists by showing the weakness of U.S. resolve. When America left Beirut in 1983, Mogadishu a decade later, and Iraq in 2011, the result was more terrorism, not less.

Indeed, no one understood the significance of Americas past retreats better than Osama bin Laden. In a 1997 interview, he recalled how the deaths of 241 U.S. marines in the Beirut barracks bombing had compelled President Ronald Reagan to order a withdrawal from Lebanon within five months. This led to the collapse of the multinational force in Lebanon of which the Marines were the lynchpin and plunged Lebanon into further chaos. The main beneficiary was Hizballah, the shadowy terrorist group responsible for the attack. In the decades since, Hizballahs success influenced other terrorist leaders and groups, including bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

By 1993, the U.S. military was deeply involved in a United Nations mission to restore stability in Somalia and feed starving citizens enmeshed in civil war. But that October, a plan to arrest a local warlords paymaster and chief lieutenant went disastrously awry. Fifteen U.S. Army Rangers and three Delta Force commandos were killed in an uncontrolled spiral of urban combat depicted in the book and film Black Hawk Down. In some of the most gripping footage ever broadcast live on television, an injured U.S. Army helicopter pilot was seen being paraded through the streets of Mogadishu by a chanting, gun-wielding mob. President Bill Clinton reacted quickly to the incident. Scrambling to preempt criticism from Congress, the media, and the American public, he set March 31, 1994, as the firm date for the withdrawal of all American forces there regardless of whether the multinational, U.N.-led humanitarian aid mission had been successfully completed or not.

Members of the al-Qaeda movement had both trained and fought alongside the Somali militiamen that fateful day in Mogadishu. To bin Ladens thinking, it had taken the deaths of 241 U.S. marines to get the U.S. out of Lebanon in 1983. A decade later, the loss of less than a tenth of that number had prompted an identical reaction. As bin Laden explained in his 1996 declaration of war on the United States:

[W]hen dozens of your troops were killed in minor battles, and one American pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu, you left the area defeated, carrying your dead in disappointment and humiliation. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge. But these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. God has dishonored you when you withdrew, and it clearly showed your weaknesses and powerlessness.

Bin Laden was emboldened to believe that if U.S. foreign policy could be influenced by a score of military deaths in an East African backwater, it could be changed fundamentally by thousands of civilian deaths in the United States itself. Thus, the road to 9/11 started in Beirut, led a decade later to Mogadishu, then wound its way through Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Aden before arriving in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. No one could have anticipated the exact chain of events. But the retreats from both Beirut and Mogadishu nonetheless set those events in motion by feeding a dangerous perception of American weakness.

Some analysts have argued that the situation is different now precisely because of the 9/11 attacks. Washington did not take terrorism sufficiently seriously in the 1990s, but since then, the country has built up a huge counter-terrorism bureaucracy that makes staying in Afghanistan unnecessary. Now Washington can protect the homeland by using enhanced intelligence, special operations forces, and precision-guided, stand-off munitions. With these resources, over-the-horizon military and intelligence assets will be able to quickly identify and address any new threats.

This also was the logic behind the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. But the disastrous consequences were soon felt with the rise of the Islamic State. Washington was overconfident in its counter-terrorism capabilities and underestimated the new terrorist variant it faced. As with Hizballah in the 1980s and al-Qaeda in the 1990s, the results proved tragic. Once again the desire to disengage when confronted by stubborn, resilient non-state adversaries created conditions ripe for terrorist exploitation. The vacuum in Iraq was rapidly filled by new extremist groups. President Barack Obamas curt dismissal of the embryonic Islamic State as a jayvee team would come to haunt him less than six months later, after the terrorist blitzkrieg that conquered western Iraq and stormed across the border into Syria. The Islamic State soon inspired a series of domestic attacks in multiple Western countries. Within months, it had dragged an international coalition that would eventually involve 83 countries back into maw of Middle Eastern conflict.

Today in Afghanistan, the United States is similarly understating and underestimating the threat posed by the Taliban. If anything, the situation in Afghanistan is more dangerous. When America withdrew from Iraq, there was no single terrorist adversary capable of toppling democratically elected Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in Baghdad. The Taliban, however, has that potential and makes no secret of its intention to re-impose theocratic rule over Afghanistan. It therefore poses an existential threat to the democratically elected government of President Ashraf Ghani in a way that no contender had in Iraq a decade ago. Moreover, the Talibans longstanding, close alliances with al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network, and Pakistans Tehrik-i-Taliban endow it with additional attack capabilities that did not exist in Iraq at the time of 2011 U.S. withdrawal.

Against this backdrop, there are two specific risks associated with Americas withdrawal from Afghanistan. First, the international terrorist threat that necessitated invading that country following the 9/11 attacks remains. Al-Qaeda is undefeated. Its intimate, longstanding relationship with the Taliban suggests that al-Qaeda will be the beneficiary of the territorial and political gains its Afghan partners are poised to achieve in a post-U.S. Afghanistan. In 2019, in fact, as negotiations with the United States were underway, Taliban leaders reportedly sought to personally reassure Hamza bin Laden, Osama bin Ladens son and the al-Qaeda heir apparent, that the Islamic Emirate would not break its historical ties with al-Qaeda for any price. Indeed, two al-Qaeda operatives recently praised the Taliban for its support. Thanks to Afghans for the protection of comrades-in-arms, a spokesman for the group gushed. Even if the Taliban makes good on its promise to restrain al-Qaeda from attacking the United States and the West from an Afghan base, this does not preclude al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan to destabilize this already highly volatile region. In 2008, a series of coordinated suicide attacks in Mumbai by Lashkar-e-Taiba another close al-Qaeda ally brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war. It is worth recalling, too, that both of al-Qaedas most recent new franchises are focused on South Asia generally and on Kashmir specifically.

Americas counter-terror resources are also likely to be stretched particularly thin going forward, making managing the threat from afar even less plausible. Afghanistan is now only one of many terrorist hotspots around the globe, which seem to be multiplying. Security conditions are deteriorating in Mozambique and the Sahel, for instance, while sectarian clashes in Northern Ireland raise fears of The Troubles returning. At home, far-right terrorism runs rampant. Even if U.S. intelligence agencies find ways to effectively manage terrorist safe havens without soldiers on the ground, their attention and vigilance will necessarily be spread thin.

The second risk is that withdrawal from Afghanistan will weaken, rather than strengthen, Washington against peer competitors. The United States, rightly or wrongly, is shifting from prioritizing counter-terrorism toward a great-power competition posture. But thinking of the two as zero sum is a mistake. China has prioritized embedding itself in local contexts for years; Russia and Iran have been practicing their irregular warfare strategies in Ukraine, in Yemen, and, most aggressively, in Syria. Indeed, at least one Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq has already drawn inspiration from the Talibans success. Qais al Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous), observed just the other day that the Afghan way is the only way to make [the United States] leave [Iraq]. Every military setback whether in Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, or Afghanistan illuminates a path by which great-power adversaries see they can defeat the United States. It is no coincidence that Russia has provided support to the Taliban, likely aiming to help sap Americas energy and spirit and encourage Americas withdrawal from the region.

Yet rather than heed present risks or past warnings, President Joe Biden, like President Trump before him, seems more concerned with the political capital to be milked from ending Americas longest war. As in Beirut and Mogadishu, Washington appears largely satisfied that our military personnel will no longer be in harms way. But a responsible strategy need not involve gratuitously exposing troops to harm. In fact, the last American combat fatality in Afghanistan was more than a year ago. The current troop level there, approximately 3,500 personnel, accounts for 0.27 percent of Americas active duty forces hardly a drain on the resources of even a declining superpower. Maintaining this small contingent would have a significant force-multiplying effect. It would provide an immediate trip wire to deal with any serious terrorist threat while also bolstering the Afghan government and improving its security forces. Moreover, maintaining a limited, elite presence in a country sharing a border with China might well be in Americas strategic interests as the new cold war heats up. Simply abandoning Afghanistan will not help the counter-terrorism fight and it is unlikely to help with great-power competition either.

There are no perfect options. But instead of turning its back on Afghanistan, the United States should shift its rhetoric in the Global War on Terror away from winning and losing and toward managing and accepting. This would facilitate an ongoing but limited troop presence with a clear homeland security, not nation-building, brief. Keeping a small number of elite troops in Afghanistan, while unlikely to elicit roars of approval at campaign rallies in the 2024 presidential race, would likely keep both the Taliban and al-Qaeda at bay in the country while protecting a forward operating base on Chinas and Russias doorstep. Withdrawal, by contrast, will be universally seen as defeat. As with bin Laden 25 years ago, it will give a rhetorical victory to terrorists the world over. And it will boost the morale of state adversaries that benefit from the perception of U.S. weakness.

Bruce Hoffman is the senior fellow for counterterrorism & homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University. Jacob Ware is a research associate for counterterrorism at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Image: U.S. Air Force (Photo by Staff Sgt. Kylee Gardner)

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Leaving Afghanistan Will Make America Less Safe - War on the Rocks