To our men and women in Uniform; don't ever let anyone tell you that it was all for nothing. It was not for nothing. 

While in the country, you showed the world the best that America has to offer. You built roads and brought clean water. You provided hospitals and most of all safety.

The Taliban hid behind civilians when they fought you. You hid the civilians behind you to fight the Taliban. Little girls were able to go to school while you were there.

You trained the Afghan military and stood guard as they worked out their problems so they could build a government.

In every way, you showed the world the best that America has to offer. You showed the world why we are so proud of you.

Get our free mobile app

After just over 20 years it seemed that it was time to let this nation stand on its own. They might make it. They might fail. Like a young man who was sent out of the house by his parents because it was time for him to become a man, Afghanistan needed to find out if they could stand up.

Never let anyone tell you what you did there was for nothing. You, the American hero, can rest easy at night knowing that everything that could be done for that nation was done, by you. It was up to the people of that nation to stand up. It is not your fault if they chose to just put down their arms and surrender.

We are proud of you.

The first female ambassador from Afghanistan took a moment to thank the American service people for all they have done.

There were those who said we should have never gone into Afghanistan in the first place. Some say we should have had a clearly defined mission, achieved it, then left. But we stayed for just over 20 years.

President Trump ran his first campaign for president, in part, on the promise of bringing our troops home. Before the end of his time in office, he began working on the withdraw of all forces from Afghanistan. Joe Biden never wanted our troops in Afghanistan for such a long time. When he became president he picked up where President Trump left off.

With three hundred thousand well-equipped and well-trained soldiers, who had all they needed at their disposal to defend their country, including armored vehicles, helicopters, and some ground attack turboprop airplanes, we should have expected that they could have held off just over seventy thousand Taliban.

But the Afghan military that you trained so well never actually put up a fight. At this time no one seems to know why.

As usual, the so-called "EXPERTS" were wrong. 

President Biden in July: “The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstances where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of a US Embassy in Afghanistan.”

Never trust the "EXPERTS" to get anything right.

Hulett's Rogues Gallery Astounding Western History Collection

A gallery of fine art and found Western history

Must Read Books From Wyoming Authors

More From Montana Talks