Veterans' mental health crisis hotlines rang off the hook the day Kabul fell.
Tanya Bradsher, the head of staff at Veterans Affairs, sent an email to the department's top employees as Taliban militia fighters poured into Kabul. In an email acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with POLITICO on Aug. 15, Bradsher said, “My veteran network is reeling, and I am sure yours is as well.” “Can we make it clear in our communications channels that VA has resources to offer?” I'm thinking about veterinary clinics in particular, but I'm open to any and all resources. This has a huge impact on a lot of people.”
Veterans and active military service members were caught aback not just by the rapidity with which the Taliban stormed across the country, but also by the implications for the dozens of friends remaining in the country, especially interpreters, who were now in danger of being abandoned. Even before 13 military members were killed in a terrorist assault at Kabul airport on Aug. 26, the emotional toll was clear — especially for the more than 700,000 veterans who served in Afghanistan at some point during the 20-year conflict. And there were others in the Biden administration who were raising the alarm.
On Aug. 15, Bradsher wrote, “We should watch suicides and see if we detect an uptick.” “The news has a triggering effect.
The pain, sadness, anger, and frustration that service members past and present are experiencing as a result of the United States' haphazard exit from Afghanistan has thrown the Biden White House's relations with veterans groups into disarray, with many of them publicly blaming the president for the drawdown's mismanagement. This has prompted the government, which has shrugged off Republican and Democratic criticism of the war's conclusion, to go into damage control mode. Officials from the president on down are now scrambling to tamp down a brewing backlash within a military community that was, in some corners, initially drawn to President Joe Biden’s experience as a military father who has himself endured a history of family tragedies. The effort is a sign of how important that relationship is to the White House and to Biden, personally.
Biden's unexpected visit to injured troops at Walter Reed Hospital on Thursday evening was the latest overture. It happened only one day after Jill Biden, the first lady, paid a visit to a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. Last week, White House senior advisor Cedric Richmond had a video conference with dozens of veterans groups, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough has personally phoned the heads of several veterans organisations since the fall of Kabul.
So far, it has done nothing to alleviate veterans' frustration and pain.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVAexecutive )'s vice president of government relations, Tom Porter, said of the administration's handling of the military reduction in Afghanistan, "I haven't talked to anybody who isn't upset or dissatisfied in how this was carried out." With over 425,000 members who fought in the Iraq and/or Afghanistan conflicts, IAVA is the biggest veterans organisation representing the post-9/11 generation. “No one believes there was a strategy.”
A report of the flood of calls to the VA Department's crisis hotline given to McDonough on August 16 reflects this. “Veterans are furious, angry, provoked, and their anxiety, despair, and PTSD are on the rise,” says one theme. The second was their worry about hundreds of translators who had assisted the US and were now facing Taliban retaliation.
“Veteran has been struggling with the collapse of Afghanistan, and his PTSD symptoms have worsened. He feels useless, has fits of fury and hatred, can't sleep, and can't eat,” according to a description of one of the conversations. “Veterans stated that it will be like 9/11 all over again,” said another.
Veterans' fury has been portrayed by White House apologists as resentment about the US military's pullout from Afghanistan. Veterans groups, on the other hand, argue that this isn't correct: the issue isn't that the US left Afghanistan, but rather that the withdrawal was poorly managed.
“Frustration is all over the place. Many veterans who have contacted me have placed the responsibility squarely on the president's shoulders. Others aren't sure if it's the State Department or the Department of Defense — they just don't understand how things have turned out the way they have,” said Rob Couture, who served in the Army for two tours in Afghanistan and is now the director of communications and public affairs for Veterans of Foreign Wars, one of the country's oldest veterans organisations. The VFW was one among the first organisations to demand a legislative probe of the withdrawal's management.
Couture said of individuals in VFW's networks, "They want us to come out of Afghanistan." “They just don't comprehend why we left Americans behind and failed to keep our commitment to our Afghan partners. That goes against everything we've been taught in our religions and basic training.”
They also hold the Trump administration responsible for striking an agreement with the Taliban that set a departure date of May 2021, while neglecting to expedite special immigrant visa applications so that Afghan supporters might exit the country. Although the government claims it is still working to get more individuals out, a State Department official revealed last week that the bulk of SIV applicants were left behind once soldiers left.
Extricating the remaining Americans and Afghan friends is one of the top worries of veterans, according to the White House.
“We have been in regular touch with a broad collection of veteran, military family, caregiver, and survivor support groups and will continue to engage with them,” said Emilie Simons, a White House spokesman. “The President has the highest regard for those who have served, and he understands how committed veterans of our military engagement in Afghanistan are to ensure that Afghan allies who sacrificed their lives to assist our forces be evacuated to safety.”
The Democrat-aligned advocacy group VoteVets, which stands behind Biden, termed the president's negative coverage "off base" and former Trump officials "hypocritical" for backing congressional inquiries into Biden's treatment of troops in Afghanistan.
“Let's look into it. Right, let's speak about Trump's Taliban deal, which was simply a contract between the US and the Taliban, not a deal with the Afghan government,” said Jon Soltz of VoteVets. “If we want to go at Afghanistan, there are 19 years of administrations to look into, and we're just three months into this one. So let's open this thing up and speak about it, shall we?
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