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The volunteer US military & America's shame post-Afghanistan
For Elliot Ackerman, leaving no man behind was part of his code of honor when he was first a US marine and later a CIA officer. But the US military principle was not followed when American troops departed Afghanistan a year ago.
"There was no process to get our allies out," he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Ackerman laments how US forces were forced to turn their back on Afghans they'd cultivated personal relationships with for 20 years — when they most needed help.
He also shares his thoughts on whether an all-volunteer military is what America needs amid deeply dysfunctional domestic politics.
Watch the GZERO World episode: The fallout from US Afghanistan withdrawal: a Marine's perspective
Calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a crisis of Biden’s own making
Joe Biden has been looking for a way out of Afghanistan for decades, and regardless of how ugly things get, he's not turning back. After Trump reached a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to end the war, Biden decided to stick with the arrangement, overruling his own generals. Ian Bremmer explains that while he agrees with Biden's decision to get out, he did not foresee the incompetence of the execution. In that sense, the last few weeks have constituted the greatest foreign policy crisis for President Biden to date, and one that was largely self-imposed. Ian looks at four key failures led to this disaster on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: Afghanistan, 2021: Afghan & US military perspectives as the last soldier leaves
Story of an escape from Afghanistan; "I wasn't supposed to be on that plane” - Ahmady
When Ajmal Ahmady saw the Taliban were about to take over Afghanistan, he knew it was time to get out — fast. The former central bank chief was lucky enough to board a flight, unlike so many of his fellow Afghans desperate to flee. "I was not supposed to be on that plane," Ahmady tells Ian Bremmer about his harrowing escape on this episode of GZERO World.
Watch the episode: Afghanistan, 2021: Three perspectives on the brutal close of a 20-year war
Afghanistan, 2021: Afghan & US military perspectives as the last soldier leaves
Two decades of war in Afghanistan came to a tragic close on August 31 as President Joe Biden announced from the White House that the last US troops had left the country. "I was not going to extend this forever war," Biden said, "and I was not extending a forever exit." On GZERO World, we hear from three people whose lives have been forever changed by the conflict. First, a women's education activist hiding from the Taliban inside Afghanistan, moving every night for her own safety. Then, the former Afghan Central Bank governor, now in exile who barely made it out (and lost a shoe in the process). And finally, a former US Army Captain and CIA intelligence officer whose life was saved by his Afghan interpreter and who is now in a desperate race to help Afghans and their families get out of the country.