Jacksonville veteran community terms Afghanistan situation 'a mess' and 'incomprehensible'

Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)

As the Taliban has taken over Afghanistan with the United States backing out, Jacksonville veterans are sounding off at what has happened there.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Len Loving called what's happening there "a mess." The head of Five Star Veterans Center spent multiple tours in Vietnam during his almost three decades of service. Now his agency helps returning soldiers and sailors ages 22 to 55 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and related mental health issues,

"I'm surprised that the current administration made such a decision to pull everybody out, and the way that it was conducted, which was in a very clandestine manner," Loving said. "I just can't believe that Afghan leadership did not know that we would be pulling our forces out. The current president of Afghanistan has already fled the country along with the rest of its supposed leadership."

Armed Taliban fighters took over key parts of the capital city of Kabul on Sunday after overrunning many other major Afghan cities last week.

The rebel takeover came as a frenzied exodus of Afghan citizens, many who have helped American forces, try to flee their homeland after the United States ended its 20-year-old campaign to bring peace and prosperity there. Some died as they tried to board departing planes Monday.

It is "incomprehensible" that U.S. officials could not have predicted the sudden demise of the Afghan government after the military began leaving, said Nancy Soderberg, former White House deputy national security adviser and United Nations ambassador. The Jacksonville Beach resident said she does not understand "what the rush" was to get the U.S. military and intelligence officers out after 20 years of working with them.

"When we invaded Iraq, we took our eye off the ball and never really did the deep building of a more stable democracy that we might have done. We will never know," Soderberg said. "It is just one tragedy after another if you look at the history of this 20-year conflict."

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Michael Fleming, a retired Florida Army National Guard general who helped Jacksonville University develop its veteran resource center, said it has been "difficult to watch" for many veterans and their families. As outreach director at Jacksonville's Steven A. Cohen Family Clinic at Centerstone, which helps military families and veterans deal with trauma, he said many Afghanistan veterans are feeling "disappointment, sadness and even anger" over the images of the U.S. departure.

"Their emotions are going to be very difficult to process and they will start wondering, was it worth it? Why was my son over there, my husband, my wife or daughter over there?" Fleming said. "For me as a veteran, my main concern is really the mental health of the individuals who served over there and the family and community members affected by that."

The United States and NATO spent two decades working to build up Afghan security forces after a U.S.-led invasion pushed the Taliban out following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Former President Donald Trump signed a deal in February 2020 that limited direct military action against the insurgents. Then with about 3,000 U.S. troops left in Afghanistan, new President Joe Biden ordered a withdrawal a few months ago, leaving about 650 to handle embassy and airport security.

As U.S. troops departed in advance of a Sept. 11 deadline, the Taliban quickly advanced last week and the U.S. Embassy suspended operations.

In an April YouTube video in response to the phased withdrawal, Wounded Warrior Project CEO Mike Linnington said it was hard to believe the United States has been at war for almost 20 years. And as the chaos in Afghanistan grew in the past week, Wounded Warrior spokeswoman Sherry Sandeford said no one at the Jacksonville-based agency wanted to comment yet. But she issued a statement about how the agency is available to help any veteran if battlefront memories surface.

"We understand these developments bring back some difficult memories from warriors' military experiences, and we are here for them," she said. "The mission of Wounded Warrior Project has not changed ... For us, it's about the warrior."

Loving said he believes the United States and its military did what it wanted to do after 9/11, getting rid of the terrorist threat. But after spending multiple tours in Vietnam in the 1960s, he wondered what the country accomplished in Afghanistan.

"I don't know why this country seems to have some reason where we want to nation build whenever we do anything, then ... it becomes a failure and we walk away from it, and I think that is what we did in Afghanistan this time," he said. "It was very similar to what happened in Vietnam."

Many have compared America's hasty evacuation of Kabul and the U.S. Embassy there to the April 1975 escape by embassy staff as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and the Vietnam War ended.

Back then, President Gerald Ford ordered evacuations, but military planes could not land as North Vietnamese troops awaited them and thousands of refugees clogged the runway. Finally, dozens of American helicopters landed at the embassy and an apartment complex roof nearby, evacuating thousands of U.S. government employees and their Vietnamese staff to American ships offshore.

As images of Afghan refugees swarming U.S. planes trying to leave the country were seen from Kabul's airport on Monday, Loving said it looks like the police and soldiers the U.S. trained there have done nothing to stop the Taliban's advance.

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"There's so many Afghan people on the runway, and the planes can't take off," Loving said. "... We started nation building and we supposedly trained their forces to be able to defend themselves, but obviously that's not happening right now. And the Taliban are paying the Afghan military to join them."

Soderberg pointed out there are U.S. troops in Germany, Korea and "all over the world" to help keep the peace, including two decades of presence in Kosovo.

"The question now is what was the rush to get them out without doing the due diligence that was so essential. There are so many questions left that we have," she said. "... It's not just the people being evacuated, our military and intelligence commanders who have been in this for 20 years — how could they miss this. It is just inconceivable."

Along with them, there is concern for the safety of the Afghan women and children who will have to live under strict Taliban rule, Soderberg said.

"How can we protect them," she said. "... We just have to make sure the international community tries to protect the women and girls. It is absolutely depressing and tragic."

Loving also points to all the military equipment, from drones and Humvees to missiles, that have been confiscated by the Taliban as the U.S. military left.

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549