United States officials have told members of the media that President Joe Biden is planning on announcing his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks which caused the U.S. military to get involved in Afghanistan. A previous deadline was set by the Trump Administration to remove the last 2,500 troops by May.
The Taliban has agreed to not attack U.S. troops during the pullout phase.
Desi Walker, a junior and member of the University of North Georgia Corps of Cadets, says, “I like the idea of us leaving there because we have done nothing but drone strike civilians, kill the enemy, and die from a whole lot of IEDs. It’s very important to remove us from there, but the question comes of what will we be leaving those countries to do in the wake of us leaving after keeping the peace for so long over there? As a National Guard soldier, I think it’s a bittersweet thing but will probably lead to some problems in radical groups regrouping in the Middle East due to us not being there anymore. But it’s fine, can’t control the world.”
Clay Moore, a cadet who is a senior majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Health and Human Services, Natural Science, and Military Science and Leadership, says, “You can take the boys out of Afghanistan, but you can’t take Afghanistan out of the boys.”
Carson Hager, a cadet in his junior year majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies, says, “It’s time to come to terms with the fact that “The War on Terror” has been massively unsuccessful and done nothing but provoke Middle East terrorist organizations to attack us more frequently than they even did before. As someone who will serve in the military, it’s a relief seeing there is at least an effort to bring the troops home. This war has been pointless and it’s time to fully withdraw if we are to truly promote global peace.”
