Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a veteran of the United States Army who served in the Iraq War, torched the nation’s ruling class for what she calls a “foolish, short-sighted mission to turn Afghanistan into a ‘democracy.'”
In a statement posted online, Gabbard laid into “the elite, the political leaders, the mainstream media, the military leaders, [and] the defense contractors” who helped get the U.S. into war in Afghanistan and keep American troops there for 20 years as President Joe Biden’s administration oversees a historically chaotic withdrawal from the country.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
A Taliban fighter mans a machinegun on top of a vehicle as they patrol along a street in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
“After al-Qaeda terrorists attacked us on 9/11, our brave warriors, special forces, they quickly deployed to defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan,” Gabbard said. “They accomplished their mission rapidly and effectively and that is when they should have returned home.”
Gabbard continued:
But the elite wanted to nation-build, getting us into a 20-year war with no clear mission or strategy, causing massive suffering and wasting trillions of taxpayer dollars. [Emphasis added]
Afghanistan. The question is this: Will we hold accountable the elite, the political leaders, the mainstream media, the military leaders, defense contractors, etc. who got us into and kept us in this foolish, short-sighted mission to turn Afghanistan into a “democracy” — costing over a trillion dollars and countless lives? Unlikely. [Emphasis added]
And will we blindly allow the elite to drag us into new, even more costly military adventures in the name of spreading or protecting “democracy?” Probably. Out of Aloha, we weep for the suffering that the elite have already caused. Out of Aloha, we must stop them from causing even more. [Emphasis added]
After the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, along with intervention in Pakistan. His post-9/11 wars have resulted in the deaths of between 480,000 and 507,000 people — including more than 2,400 American troops killed in Afghanistan and about 4,550 American troops killed in Iraq.
Similarly, Bush’s wars have left dead nearly 40,000 Afghan civilians and between 182,000 and 205,000 Iraqi civilians. For comparison, the Bush wars have left dead a population nearly four times that of Charleston, South Carolina.
As of 2020, the U.S. is estimated to have spent $2 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, all of which have been debt-financed with borrowed money. By 2050, estimates state that, with interest, the wars will have cost up to $6.5 trillion.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.