Reliance on Local Contractors and Messy Withdrawals: Lessons from Afghanistan

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 highlighted both American unpreparedness for evacuating large numbers of foreign civilians as well over-reliance on local contractors that made the evacuation a task of much greater proportions. As a result, the United States were forced to renege on its promises of protection to many Afghan collaborators who were left behind exposed to Taliban retribution. However, the U.S. could not only have handled the evacuation and resettlement operation of Afghan civilians much more effectively through better contingency planning, interagency communication, and coordination, but it could also have prevented massive reliance on local contractors through better utilization of the human skills already available in the United States. Even though all this could not have turned defeat into victory in Afghanistan, it could have prevented the situation from escalating to a humanitarian crisis. This way, the United States could have been able to evacuate smaller numbers of foreign civilians and uphold promises of protection that are the foundation of U.S. prestige abroad. These lessons need to be learned in case of necessary future involvements overseas that require some degree of reliance on local contractors and hold the potential of emergency evacuations.