Total US withdrawal from Afghanistan a mistake, says John Howard

Joe Biden should have committed to leaving a small US military force in ­Afghanistan to ‘stiffen the ­resolve’ of the Afghan army, John Howard says.

Former prime minister John Howard. Picture: Jane Dempster

Joe Biden should have committed to leaving a small US military force in ­Afghanistan to “stiffen the ­resolve” of the Afghan army and avoid the shambolic fall of Kabul, John Howard says.

The former prime minister, who committed Australian troops to Afghanistan after the ­terror attacks of September 11, 2001, said: “I can understand the war weariness of America but it is possible to wind down a military operation without withdrawing every last soldier.

“I don’t expect America to carry the world’s burden but it would have been possible to have phased down the American military involvement to a small number and their presence would have stiffened the resolve of the Afghan National Army.

“I’m not asserting that it would have prevented it (the fall of Kabul). (It) certainly would have stiffened the resolve and meant a less chaotic end.”

Mr Howard said the US had kept more than 20,000 troops in South Korea, where the war ­between North and South Korea is technically not over, and that the presence of American troops helped keep the peace and stabilise the Korean Peninsula.

“I can’t for the life of me understand how it wouldn’t have been possible to wind down to a minimal force,” he said.

“It is possible to maintain a small force. The Americans still have thousands of troops in South Korea.”

When Mr Howard visited Kabul in 2005 to meet a contingent of new Australian troops sent to Afghanistan and met then president Hamid Karzai, the ­Afghan leader said the troop deployment demonstrated that the “West cared about ­Afghanistan”.

Mr Howard said he was unrepentant about the decisions he took in relation to Afghanistan and believed the Australian ­objective of limiting al-Qa’ida terrorism was achieved.

He also said that once a military intervention was launched the divisions between overt military action and helping communities build confidence and governance became blurred.

Mr Howard said while he was critical of the US President’s shambolic withdrawal he was equally critical of Donald Trump for announcing a withdrawal before getting any understanding from the Taliban.

“The two great errors by America, one under Trump, ­effectively declaring a pull out ­before extracting any sort of understanding and the second, under Biden, the shambolic way it happened in the end,” he said.

Despite his criticism of the ­decisions of the two US presidents, Mr Howard said he did not think the fall of Afghanistan had “any serious negative consequences for Australia and the ANZUS alliance”.

He said he did not think Australia could have done much about the withdrawal because America was “calling the shots” as it was making the greatest ­contribution.

On the question of Afghan ­refugees, Mr Howard said there was “no way anyone is going to be sent back” and Australia had ­already settled more than 400 ­Afghans who had worked with Australians.