‘Badly planned’ Afghanistan exit embarrasses US veterans and expatriates living in Australia

US veterans living in Queensland have shared their dismay with the way the US government handled the final stage of the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying it smacked of poor planning and had left some ashamed to be American.

US veterans with Queensland connections have shared their dismay over the way the US government has handled the final stage of the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying it smacked of poor planning and even left some ashamed to be American.

Originally from Dimbulah in Far North Queensland, Natasha Oberman said the time her American husband, Thomas, spent apart from her and their three daughters during his four tours of Afghanistan with the US Army now seemed like a waste.

“The sacrifice that so many had done for the past 20 years are for what? Lives were lost, families separated during deployments - so much time gone that cannot be given back,” she said.

The Oberman family: Alyssa, now 20, Thomas, and Natasha. (Natasha and Alyssa are from Mareeba, QLD). Front: Montana, who is now 12 and Angelika, who is now 10. Picture: Supplied

“Some lost their lives. Some took their lives. Some never recovered mentally from what they we required to do or what they were made to endure.

“Losing years and years and years of time together as a family feels somewhat justified when you believe you’re truly making a difference.

“But this week made it feel like half my daughter’s childhood without her deployed father, was for nothing. I can’t even imagine the way my husband and every other soldier that sacrificed and served for Afghanistan feels right now.”

Now in Virginia in the US, Mrs Oberman, 44, said Thomas returned from Afghanistan in May as part of the initial phase of troop withdrawal.

She said her heart also ached for the Afghan people.

The Oberman family: Natasha (from Mareeba, QLD), Thomas and Natasha's oldest daughter, Alyssa, 20. Front: Angelika, 10, and Montana, 12. Picture: Supplied

“I was saddened to see a country that had seen improvements all taken away from them, gone. The woman and children who had lived with the new beginnings now live in fear of the unknown,” she said.

The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group labelled as a terrorist group by the United Nations, ruled Afghanistan for five years before the US-led military forces ousted them in 2001 following the September 11 attacks.

It took the group less than two weeks to take control of Afghanistan as the US, Australia and other allied forces ended their 20-year presence in the nation.

Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, fell on Sunday night after Taliban fighters entered the presidential palace and declared victory.

Mary Gerber's son, Paul, in Afghanistan with the US Air Force in the early 2000s. Picture: Mary Gerber

Since then, many civilians and Afghanistan military personnel who supported the western forces have fled or are in hiding and trying to escape the country.

Surfers Paradise resident and US Navy veteran, Mary Gerber, 61, said she was ashamed of her birth country following what appeared to be a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this week.

“The president’s sole job as chief executive officer of the US military is to lead,” she said.

“The withdrawal isn’t being led – no planning took place and that is evident in what we are seeing.

“For the first time in my life I am embarrassed to be seen as an American.”

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mrs Gerber, whose son Paul served in Afghanistan with the US Air Force, said the events of this week were depressing.

US Navy veteran, Mary Gerber, now lives on the Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied

“Knowing that anyone who may have helped us during the last 20 years of conflict will now be in danger makes me utterly ashamed of my birth country,” she said.

Mrs Gerber, who married her Australian husband Mick in 1999, said it now felt like efforts over the past two decades had been in vain.

“Politicians must not be allowed to risk our children’s lives if they don’t have the courage to see the plan fully through,” she said.

“The lack of getting our allies and civilian workers out before they withdrew. … The withdrawal should have been done in stages and the locals needed to be supported in a way that would have prevented the Taliban taking control.

“It’s not the pulling out of the troops that has us feeling so empty, it’s the suddenness of it, with no real plan evident. This feeling of the lack of planning comes because of (US military) technology equipment left behind that will make the Taliban an even stronger enemy in the future.

A photo taken during US Army Afghanistan veteran Simon Jacobson's deployment to Afghanistan during 2007-2008. The Colorado native now lives in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

Videos circulating on social media have shown members of the Taliban at an airport looking at abandoned US Blackhawk helicopters, often flown by the US-trained Afghan air force.

“To the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and children living without their loved one, I am so very sorry for your loss and for this slap in your face. My heart breaks for each person affected by this,” Mrs Gerber said.

Though other US expatriate veterans around Australia echoed similar sentiments, earlier this week US President Joe Biden said he did not regret his decision to withdraw the military, especially when Afghan leaders fled the country.

“Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,” he said.

US Army Afghanistan veteran Simon Jacobson, 37, originally from Colorado but now of Sydney, said no one he worked with was surprised by the situation that had unfolded in Afghanistan. “In Afghanistan’s current state, this is the outcome of an exit now or another 20 years later," he said. “We could have kept consistent air support, but there were serious problems with tribes trying to target tribes in the past, so maybe there was a good reason not to. They definitely should have been ready to secure the airport whilst having the facilities, plane and process to handle a mass refugee evacuation.” Picture: Supplied

California native and US Army veteran Adam Hillgoss, 42, of Melbourne, said he felt for the families.

“Families of soldiers killed during the conflict clung on to the hope their dead soldiers sacrifice meant something, a free Afghanistan. Where, with their sadness, they can have a bit of pride that their son or daughter gave the ultimate sacrifice so those people could be free,” he said.

“Everyone wanted to see that the sacrifice was worth it, like a mother hearing her dead son’s heartbeat in someone else’s chest. They now have to watch that heart die in someone else’s body.”

Australian Ashleigh Norris-Kelly, 33, served in the US Navy after moving to Texas when her mother married an American.

Now of Raymond Terrace, NSW, Ms Norris-Kelly also said the withdrawal seemed “badly planned.”

Australian Ashleigh Norris Kelly joined the US Navy at 19 after moving to Texas when her mother married an American when she was 18. Ashleigh now lives in NSW and is one of many US veterans saying the withdrawal from Afghanistan seemed “badly planned.”“I think the withdrawal is understandable but the way (President Joe Biden handled) it was wrong,” she said. “I feel for the people who helped us now if they don’t get out they will be killed.”

“I think the withdrawal is understandable but the way (President Joe Biden handled) it was wrong,” she said.

“These things take time. … Now he has all these people stuck there, so again we are going to have to send people to rescue these people under hostile conditions, possibly putting more lives at risk for no reason.

“I feel for the people who helped us. Now, if they don’t get out they will be killed.”

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, yesterday admitted the Taliban’s rapid conquest of Afghanistan took the US by surprise.

“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” he said.