Dierenbach: Colorado Congressman Crow and the Afghanistan withdrawal 

To protect the Democratic party, Crow lies, obfuscates and abandons principles 

By Karl Dierenbach | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Dutifully following the orders of superiors is a fundamental aspect of being a good soldier.  Dutifully following the orders of party bosses is not an admirable trait in a U.S. representative. 

We need our representatives to stand up for their constituents and for what is right.  When their party is wrong, our representatives should call them out, not silently stand by or, worse, actively support the injustice.

This brings us to Colorado Congressman Jason Crow.  As a soldier in Afghanistan, Crow served his country, following orders and carrying out assigned missions. He should be thanked for his service.  But being a good soldier doesn’t make one a good U.S. representative.  While such willingness to follow orders is an asset in the military, it can be counterproductive as a member of Congress, particularly if one chooses to follow orders from one’s party instead of doing what is best for constituents and country. 

Congressman Crow consistently voted along with his Democratic party.  During the 117^th Congress, Crow voted along with Biden and the Democrats 100% of the time.  Crow has supported the Biden/Harris immigration debacle despite Crow’s 6th Congressional District being in the national spotlight for Venezuelan gangs terrorizing apartment buildings just miles from Crow’s Colorado office.

Nowhere is Mr. Crow’s loyalty to party more evident than in how he has acted regarding the Biden/Harris administration’s disastrous withdraw from Afghanistan in August 2021 that resulted in 13 U.S. servicemen dead, billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. equipment in Taliban hands, likely thousands of pro-U.S. Afghans killed, and the enslavement of more than 20 million Afghan women.

The Women and Children of Afghanistan

Regarding the women and children of Afghanistan, as a veteran of Afghanistan, Mr. Crow knew what would happen if the U.S. simply withdrew from Afghanistan and turned it over to an unchecked Taliban.  In July 2020, after Trump negotiated the Doha Agreement where the U.S. agreed to withdraw all troops and which required the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government, Mr. Crow spoke on the House floor.  He called the dates contained in the Doha agreement, “artificial deadlines” and added, “We must protect our troops during very high-risk withdrawal operations….”

“And, importantly, we must establish some safeguards for the women and children of Afghanistan.”

On April 13, 2021, well after Biden had assumed the presidency, but one day before Biden announced a final unconditional withdrawal, Mr. Crow again expressed concern of how we were going to leave Afghanistan, saying in a press release, “we must do so in a way that keeps our promises to our allies, protects the women and children of Afghanistan, and ensures a safer and more secure world.”

Rep. Crow knew the horror that would befall the women and children of Afghanistan if the Taliban were allowed to completely take over Afghanistan.

The next day, April 14, 2021, Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. The withdrawal would not be conditional, the U.S. was leaving independent of conditions in Afghanistan, and without regard to whether or not the Taliban met the conditions in Trump’s Doha Agreement.

And just like that, Congressman Crow stopped talking about the need to protect the women and children of Afghanistan.

In a press release one week after Biden’s unconditional withdrawal announcement, Mr. Crow dropped his public advocacy for the women and children of Afghanistan. No press release or statements from the house floor by Mr. Crow ever mentioned the women and children of Afghanistan until July  2023, when Mr. Crow was quoted in a press release saying, “The Taliban has committed atrocious human rights abuses, especially against women and girls, and must be held to account.”  The quote was in relation to a resolution to support the people of Afghanistan.

On May 13, 2021, Mr. Crow did a four-minute interview with MSNBC about the impending withdrawal from Afghanistan where he did not mention the plight of the Afghan women and children.  He did discuss expediting the SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) process.  Notably, the SIV process has been criticized recently for allowing Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi to come to the U.S.  Tawhedi reportedly aimed at carrying out an Election Day terrorist attack in the U.S.

As a soldier in Afghanistan, Mr. Crow knew what it would mean to the women and children if we unilaterally left Afghanistan.  He mentioned our moral duty not to simply abandon them to the predations of the Taliban multiple times prior to Joe Biden’s announcement of the unconditional withdrawal.

Then Mr. Crow went silent. He knew what was going to happen to the women and children of Afghanistan, but to bring it up could be politically damaging to his boss, Biden, so he stopped.  Party loyalty was more important than shining light on what the unconditional withdrawal meant to the women and children of Afghanistan. Politics trumped principles.

The Crow Playbook: Blame Trump for Biden’s Disaster

After the disastrous pullout ordered by the Biden/Harris administration, where 13 U.S. servicemen were killed at Abbey Gate, billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment was gifted to the Taliban, and Afghans who had helped us were so desperate to escape the Taliban that they tried clinging onto the landing gear of departing planes, Crow tried to blame Trump and every U.S. politician but Biden and Harris.

When Crow is asked about the debacle, he waves his hands and talks of 20 years of mistakes to try to excuse his masters in the Biden/Harris administration.  For example, on Nov. 14, 2023, Crow presented timelines regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan, complete with graphics, about how Trump tied Biden’s hands regarding Afghanistan. Those timelines simply stop when Biden took office, as if Biden had no responsibility for what happened.

What Crow has never said in a press release or in Congress is that the Biden administration screwed up.  Because Crow will never condemn his overlords in the Democratic party.

Crow has tried to put the blame on Trump, with his favorite go-to line being Trump put Biden in a position where Biden’s choice was leave “or go back to war with the Taliban.”

However, Crow’s arguments that Biden had no choice because of Trump can be easily disproved by Crow’s own words.

First, the United States was at no time under an obligation under the Doha agreement to leave Afghanistan. This is because the agreement spelled out specific actions that the Taliban must take to trigger the U.S. obligation to withdraw.  Defense Secretary Mark Esper in March 2020 said if the Taliban didn’t show progress, the US could suspend its troop drawdown.  The terms were never met by the Taliban.

Crow knew deadlines could be extended.  He called them artificial in 2020.  He saw the May 2021 date from the Doha agreement come and go with U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan. Crow knew the Doha deadlines were not set in stone.

Even when the withdrawal was in full swing and disaster looming, Crow called for the deadline to be extended.  On  Aug. 23, 2021, crow explicitly declared, “This deadline has got to extend.”  The next day, on Aug. 24, 2021, Crow said, “The deadline is when the mission is accomplished and we bring our people home.”

In a House Democratic Caucus press conference that same day, Crow declared the Aug. 31 deadline needed to be “extended” to get American and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.  Gone were his concerns about the women and children of Afghanistan.  It was a rare moment when Crow publicly disagreed with Biden, but when Biden completed the withdrawal a few days later, Crow fell back in line with the Democrat party.  Despite declaring right up until the last U.S. soldier left Afghanistan that the date could be extended, Crow now takes the position Biden had no options, that the U.S. had to leave that day or it was all out war with the Taliban.

In April 2023, Crow said, “Donald Trump was the one who negotiated this deal in the dark without even consulting with the military or the State Department and our allies, and committed the U.S. to a withdrawal timeline that was untenable.”  This was a lie as the conditions to trigger the withdrawal were never met by the Taliban.  Crow knew this in 2021 and repeatedly advocated for unilaterally extending the deadline.  But in 2023, declaring Biden/Harris had no choice because of Trump serves his party overlords so that is Crow’s current position.  

Crow now lives in a fantasy world where the U.S. should have feared direct attacks from the Taliban, who were guerilla fighters and had never launched large scale direct offensives against U.S. forces.  Crow stated, “And then President Biden inherited all that and was really left with two choices. Either comply with that agreement or not comply with that agreement, in which case the Taliban would conduct a full out assault on U.S. troops.”

If that was true, was Crow advocating for all out war with the Taliban since in 2021 Crow was asking for the deadline he claimed inviolate to be extended? Or is this something Crow says now to deflect blame from his party boss and onto Trump? Of course it’s the latter.  Crow is a political animal who places party before truth.  Days before the final withdrawal with respect to the possibility of extending the deadline for withdrawal, Crow stated, “If there’s anybody that tells you that they know certainly what the Taliban is going to do one way or the other.  They’re either are [sic] lying to themselves or lying to others.”  Now Crow says staying would have resulted in a full out assault on U.S. troops.  So according to 2021 Crow, current day Crow is either lying to himself or lying to us.  It is apparent Crow is lying to us to protect his party bosses.

Crow always knew leaving too quickly would be a disaster. In December of 2019, Crow said, “I don’t agree that a complete withdrawal is in our national interest. I mean, there are very real terrorism and national security concerns.”  Of course, that was when Trump was in office, so obviously the anti-Trump position was assumed.  But once Biden was the one on the hot seat, Crow changed his tune and a total and unilateral withdrawal became the only choice.

The bottom line is Trump was attempting to negotiate with the Taliban but when Biden assumed the presidency everything changed.  Where Trump was demanding Taliban action and concessions before withdrawal, Biden unilaterally announced complete withdraw in April 2021.  And that is when Crow pivoted from “we have to protect our allies” to “Trump put Biden in a position where Biden had no choice but to leave, allow servicemen to die, leave behind billions in equipment, and leave the 20 million women of Afghanistan to be slaves.”

When Biden announced the withdraw, he cut off support for Afghan forces and the country went to hell.  Prior to that, U.S. forces had been suffering minimal casualties.  The disaster of the Afghanistan withdrawal is completely Biden’s fault, but Crow does whatever he can to deflect and obfuscate.  The idea that the previous 20 years of action in Afghanistan left Biden with no agency is ridiculous.

Now Crow likes to say the war was unwinnable, yet when Trump was president, Crow said a complete withdrawal wasn’t in our national interest.  Crow even sponsored legislation to keep Trump from withdrawing U.S. troops.  Crow seems to want us to believe the war was unwinnable to justify the loss of life, reputation and equipment as a result of the Biden/Harris withdrawal.  We didn’t win the war in South Korea, but one look at South Korea vs North Korea confirms we were right to stay and ensure the bad guys didn’t win.  Not winning doesn’t mean you hand over a country to barbarians.

Crow served in Afghanistan, and he knew what would happen if we let the Taliban rule Afghanistan unconditionally.  On several occasions. Crow spoke up and warned what would happen, but when his complaining could hurt his party, he shut up.

What kind of person recognizes the horror that 20 million women are about to be subjected to, calls out for it not to happen, then simply drops the concern when it could harm his political masters?  Maybe a good soldier, but not a good representative.  Jason Crow is not a leader.  Jason Crow chose party loyalty over his own humanity, he chose D.C. Democrats over truth.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.

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