The war in Afghanistan may have been unwinnable, which begs the question for those wanting to stay indefinitely, what would you consider “winning”?

There is no doubt the withdrawal was hastily planned and poorly executed. Blame can be shared among presidents, world leaders and international communities. That doesn’t mean our hearts shouldn’t break for Afghan women and girls, the 13 service members, the thousands of who lost their lives before them and the thousands of Afghan people whose communities were upended by the war.

That’s not to say there was no significant progress made on America’s behalf. In 2011, with the killing of Osama Bin Laden, America did what we it out to d

While all these rights are likely to be lost, we owe our greatest thanks to each American soldier that has served and sacrificed. 9/11 was one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in human history and changed our country forever. I offer my thanks to the service members who deployed to Afghanistan, lost their lives, lost a limb or came back permanently scarred. No such atrocity has ever occurred. 

America’s longest war has taken the lives of 2,448 American servicemembers, 3,846 US contractors, 66,000 Afghan police officers and 47,245 Afghan civilians. With interest, we will have spent 6.5 trillion dollars on the war by 2050. An additional two trillion will need to be spent to pay for disability, health care and burial services for the 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans.

The North Afghan people and American soldiers who died were sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, friends, colleagues and neighbors. We need to say their names. After 20 years, it was clear there was no winning the war. The Afghan government proved they could not hold their own against the Taliban, and America should have protected the lives of service members and hindered the cost of war.

However, when we have desperate civilians – many of whom helped our cause – clinging to the top of planes desperate to escape, we should be ashamed. Former president Trump, who negotiated our insulting deal with the Taliban, and President Biden, who, despite evacuating a hundred thousand Americans and Afghan allies, failed to secure key Air Force bases and displayed a great amount of callousness toward Afghan women. His hasty withdrawal contributed to the death of 13 service members, should have to recite their names in shame. 

Future presidents and policymakers should learn from this. America should provide aid and speak out against human rights abusers, but war is not the answer, has never been the answer and will never be the answer.