The dishonorable and disastrous end of the First Afghanistan War is something that will be hard for grassroots Patriots to deal with. For one thing, there will be a mix of emotions.

The Taliban, who were accessories to 9/11, are back in power. Afghan girls who competed in robotics competitions not so long ago will now be “brides” for thugs. The sacrifices of those who were killed, maimed, or who suffered the invisible wounds of war were thrown away by Joe Biden, whose depraved indifference to the consequences of the reckless pullout is sickening.

On the other hand, there was no will to win. We didn’t even have an idea of what victory looked like, and the difficulty had been greatly underestimated. There were other mistakes, some made early on, others made later on.

The big question, is where does America go from here? What do we do about Afghanistan? Are there things we need to do in the Middle East? How do we deal with the larger geopolitical implications? Finally, what needs to be done here in America to make sure that we don’t see something like this again?

Afghanistan

There is no escaping the dishonor or the human tragedy that will befall 38 million Afghans resulting from Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan. People will die. People have already died. However, we can mitigate that dishonor and tragedy, and America has a moral obligation to do so. After all, in one sense, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was correct that Afghanistan was going to require much more than 20 years to turn around. While the neoconservatives botched the execution of Afghanistan and opened the door for Barack Obama to mismanage the War on Terror for eight years, we must acknowledge that their warnings over the years about what a precipitous pullout would result in were accurate.

For starters, every Afghan who sided with us over the last 20 years needs to be evacuated. This includes the interpreters who worked alongside our troops, as well as those who attempted to work to govern Afghanistan, women and girls who fear what Taliban rule means to them, and those who fought alongside us. Allies have made some incredible efforts to extract personnel to bring them to safety, but American commanders have reportedly blocked further operations of that nature.

America also needs to work to make life as difficult for the Taliban as possible. This includes supporting the revived Northern Alliance — if, that is, they (or anyone in Afghanistan) will be willing to trust America again after Biden’s betrayal. At some point, resistance to the Taliban will emerge, and America must be ready to support it.

The message also needs to be sent to the Taliban that there will be zero tolerance of harboring terrorists or terrorist activity. They should not be allowed to use the mineral wealth in Afghanistan and every effort needs to be made to keep it out of the hands of China, Russia, and Iran.

Finally, we will need to accept that the Second Afghanistan War is going to be inevitable. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. That is to be laid at the feet of Joe Biden.

The Middle East

This region will also require some reality checks. America needs to take an honest look at every country in the region, and determine which ones are serious about addressing the jihadist threat, which ones are trying to play both sides, which ones are actively sponsoring terrorism, and which countries are hot messes.

Dealing with outright enemies, like Iran, will be triply difficult in the wake of the First Afghanistan War. They rightly see Biden as unwilling to use American power to respond. We will pay a price in blood, treasure, honor, and tragedy for that. So will countries who are trying to address jihadist threats.

Countries who played both sides, like Qatar and Pakistan, need to be put on notice. In the case of Qatar, it may be time to relocate all American troops and forces to countries that are serious about fighting jihadists. Canceling the deal for 72 F-15s and handing them over to Israel or using them to bolster the United States Air Force might not be a bad idea.

As for Pakistan, we need to investigate to find out whether it was incompetence or malfeasance that led to al-Qaida and the Taliban having safe haven. If the former, they get one chance to clean up their act. If the latter, then the United States needs to make Pakistan’s economy crater, at the very least. If America has to return, both countries — and others — need to be told that double-dealing will not be tolerated.

At the same time, we will need to restore trust with those countries in the region who are fighting jihadists or Iranian stooges in places like Yemen. Backing them up, both with weapons sales, closer economic ties, and other means of support will be crucial. But once trust is gone, it is never regained without paying a serious price.

One last item on that list: There are some terrorists who have found a form of safe harbor for attacks like the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Israel. The intelligence community and Special Operations Command should be permitted to take those suspects out. Similar operations should go after terrorist leaders. The Global War on Terror needs to be continued on all fronts — after all, our enemies aren’t quitting.

The Global Geopolitical Situation

Why do we discuss what we have to do in terms of the global situation after Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan? Because, contrary to the claims of isolationists, what is happening in Afghanistan is going to have consequences all over the world. Don’t take our word for it; just look at our most powerful geopolitical adversary, China.

China is already trying to exploit the dishonorable Biden betrayal of Afghanistan in its propaganda outlets. That regime celebrated the Taliban takeover and seeks to exploit trillions of dollars of strategically vital rare-earth metals.

China’s threats to Taiwan will also be serious as well, as they will have every reason to believe the United States will cut and run. It will take a lot to bolster Taiwan, especially because Biden has a track record of wanting to quit when the going gets tough. Taiwan needs to be given an open shopping list and allowed to build up the type of military that can hold off China.

But the Far East won’t be the only place where Biden’s betrayal will have consequences. The precipitous pullout will also reverberate in Europe, particularly within NATO. Biden has already allowed Russia to get geopolitical kompromat on Germany via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. NATO has every right to be worried that Biden would be unable or unwilling to aid them against Russia. It may be time to move some heavy armor units to Poland on a more permanent basis to reassure our allies. It might also be necessary to put tripwire-type forces in the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

There is no doubt that China and Russia, who already were reaping the benefits at Biden undid what Trump was doing to contain and hamstring our geopolitical foes, will be huge winners from this. That does not mean America is powerless to act. We’ve covered how to handle Russia and China, and action must be taken quickly. But it will be dependent on addressing matters at home.

America

Much of what has to happen is dependent on the conditions in the United States of America. The first step is to accept the following about Afghanistan:

• After 9/11, it was painfully obvious that treating terrorism as a law-enforcement issue was not working. While George W. Bush got a lot right as he started the Global War on Terror, he made mistakes of omission early on that ultimately sowed the seeds of discontent that eventually created this situation.

• Barack Obama allowed the Global War on Terror to go badly off track. Obama tied our troops’ hands with absurd rules of engagement. Worse, Obama began the process of betraying those Patriots who stepped up to get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to talk, and who deserve to be honored for saving lives. Obama’s eight years did untold damage to our efforts to defeat jihadist terror, and he should not be allowed to duck responsibility for his role in making Afghanistan unwinnable.

• Even though Trump pardoned troops like Clint Lorance and Mat Golsteyn, who were victims of second-guessing by bureaucrats far removed from the realities of battle, their cases, as well as others, convinced America that the establishment was not serious about winning, and that left Trump no good options.

• Trump and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the best deal they could. There was a risk with the pullback, but Trump was not likely to allow for a complete debacle like Biden has presided over.

• The present debacle is squarely on the shoulders of Joe Biden, and just as the case was with Iraq, American troops could very well be forced to return. Conflicts will be likely elsewhere around the world.

What must be done? There will be a number of steps, many of which we have discussed before.

• The immediate priority has to be to be there for friends, family, neighbors, and members of our communities who have seen their sacrifices thrown away by Biden’s betrayal. Dana Loesch published an excellent list of resources that grassroots Patriots should keep available, and Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter offered needed advice and encouragement.

• We must hold the Biden-Harris regime accountable. This is a must, given that this happened on the watch of Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Impeachment should be on the table should Republicans take the House in 2022. The Left went after Trump for far less, and Biden’s betrayal deserves to be placed front and center.

• We also need to have hard conversations with our military leaders. How did they allow the war to not be taken seriously? Did political correctness, like the case of Matthew Dooley, cloud the judgement of our military planners or worse, wreck the careers of those who planners needed to listened to most? Once we finish the hard conversations, many of which will end with, “You’re fired,” we need to find military leadership that will have the troops’ backs and clean out any notion of political correctness, including Critical Race Theory so that our troops are ready for actual wars instead of culture wars.

• Following that, we need to rebuild and reform our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force. While it might seem odd to increase the defense budget given the failures of military leaders and the insubordination from bureaucrats, keep in mind that if our military readiness goes south, the price will be paid in the blood of those who volunteered to serve, especially among our geopolitical first responders. A massive military buildup will mitigate losses, and combined with getting our troops in shape, will help restore deterrence, particularly once reforms are instituted to clear out political correctness and critical race theory.

• After the obvious priority of bringing home every single American from Afghanistan, we should work to rescue as many allies as we can from the Taliban’s clutches, even supporting private efforts to do so, and then help them try to build new lives here. Helping those who fought alongside us is the least we can do, to mitigate the dishonor brought by Biden’s betrayal.

• We must not let those who claimed Biden would provide competence and unity get away with it, particularly those who played politics instead of doing their duty.

• Finally, we urge grassroots Patriots make our national security — including the recovery from Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan — a primary issue in primaries and ask candidates who they would nominate for crucial positions, including cabinet secretaries and White House advisers.

We cannot undo the harm that Joe Biden has done with his precipitous pullout from Afghanistan. We cannot save our country from the shame of having betrayed our allies and those who tasted freedom and are now having it ripped from them. But moving forward, we can work to mitigate the consequences and dishonor stemming from this disaster, and grassroots Patriots will have much to do.