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Thursday, May 6, 2021

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Biden may not be pulling out of Afghanistan — but he should

Whose questions are we 
answering?
Vaccinated? Great, keep your mask on.

OPINION

BRANDON COWIT | OPINION COLUMNIST

LILY CESARIO | OPINION COLUMNIST
ANYA SINGH | OPINION CARTOONIST

P

resident 
Joe 
Biden 

recently 
reached 
the 

end of his first 100 days 

in office, the arbitrary measure 
American political media has 
decided is the opening period 
of a president’s term. Discus-
sion of these first 100 days has 
largely been related to Biden’s 
efforts in ending the COVID-19 
pandemic and re-energizing the 
country’s economy after over a 
year of lockdowns. This is par-
tially because, on most of the 
foreign policy issues the Ameri-
can media tends to care about, 
Biden has taken little action.

He has shown little inter-

est in finding a solution to the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His 
policy on Iran up until now has 
mostly been fruitless negotia-
tions to revive the former nucle-
ar weapons deal. And while his 
ostensible end of support for 
the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen 

was initially met with some 
fanfare, it has largely been 
swept under the rug, especially 
after it was shown to be untrue. 
Seemingly the only exception 
to this has been Biden’s recent 
announcement that he plans 
to remove U.S. soldiers from 
Afghanistan after 20 years of 
war later this year. While I have 
frequently been critical of Biden 
in the past, I believe withdraw-
al from Afghanistan would be 
an unequivocally positive move 
from the president, and one he 
should absolutely proceed with.

However, it is important to 

consider that this alleged pull-
out of forces may not actually 
happen. 
Former 
Presidents 

Barack 
Obama 
and 
Donald 

Trump both announced troop 
withdrawals of their own, nei-
ther 
of 
which 
materialized. 

Additionally, as shown by his 
reversal on the end of U.S sup-

port for the Saudi invasion 
of Yemen, Biden is willing to 
announce the end of a U.S mili-
tary operation and then take it 
back. Most concerningly, the 
Biden administration has been 
uncomfortably 
vague 
about 

the more than 18,000 private 
military 
contractors 
currently 

stationed in Afghanistan, cur-
rently 
outnumbering 
official 

U.S military personnel by about 
seven to one. A pull-out that 
does not include PMCs would 
be effectively meaningless. 

Nevertheless, 
even 
the 

prospect of ending the war 
in 
Afghanistan 
has 
terrified 

many in the media and a num-
ber of Biden’s fellow politicians. 
These objections have primar-
ily fallen under two categories: 
that withdrawal will be a boon 
for terrorist activity, and that it 
will cause an erosion of human 
rights — women’s rights in par-

ticular. The first category is 
best exemplified by Sen. Lind-
sey Graham, R-S.C., who stated 
shortly after Biden’s announce-
ment that withdrawal means 
canceling “an insurance policy 
against another 9/11.” Among 
voices for the second position is 
Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politi-
cian and peace negotiator, who 
claims “withdrawal of U.S. forc-
es from Afghanistan will under-
mine the Afghan government’s 
ongoing negotiations with the 
Taliban” and “risks sidelining 
Afghan women and all of the 
gains we have made over the 
years.”

However, neither of these 

arguments holds water when 
examined closer. As for the idea 
that U.S troop presence is pre-
venting another terrorist attack 
on American soil: While with-
drawal might strengthen the 
presence of terrorist groups like 

al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, this 
would not make it more likely 
for them to launch a 9/11-style 
attack on America again. Al-
Qaeda still maintains a presence 
in countries such as Syria and 
Yemen that they could use to 
plan terrorist activity. Even if we 
were able to wipe out all of their 
bases of operation, attacks like 
9/11 require mostly manpower 
and small arms, neither of which 
require having a large presence 
in any country. Keeping troops 
in Afghanistan does nothing to 
stop another large-scale terror-
ist attack — especially consider-
ing the Taliban, who would be 
the most likely to aid al-Qaeda in 

A

cademia can teach us a lot. 
But does it always teach 
the most important things? 

Through complex systems like math 
and languages, we are taught, albeit 
in a structured and linear way, how 
to solve problems and communicate 
in the world. And yet, with all of the 
questions we answer in academia, 
there is one that is rarely, if ever, 
posed: Whose problems are we solv-
ing? 

When we are young, we are often 

reminded of how powerful it is to 
have dreams for the future. But little 
by little, from K-12 to university, that 
sense of imagination often becomes 
lost. If we aren’t careful we eventu-
ally become little more than pawns in 
someone else’s game.

Not that leadership roles aren’t 

valuable, but at what point does being 
a founder of a company justify mak-
ing two thousandfold more than your 
employees? If we crunched the num-
bers, I think it’s doubtful that the 50k 
salary of an entry-level tech employ-
ee would scale against a CEO’s $108.9 
million-dollar per year income. No 
matter how much risk is involved in 
being a founder, in a single lifetime, 
no human being’s time and energy 

are worth two thousand times more 
than another’s.

CEOs who pay themselves dis-

proportionately 
more 
than 
their 

employees do not provide exponen-
tially more value to their companies. 
Rather, the power they’ve garnered is 
assumed to be insurmountably more. 
And while, without a doubt, econom-
ic inequality goes much deeper than 
the salaries of entry-level employees 
and CEOs in a given industry, the 
pattern of exploitation is always the 
same: the rich and powerful exploit 
others to fill their pockets, capitaliz-
ing on the fact that the lower classes 
rely on them to survive. 

To end exploitation in large indus-

tries, CEOs need to own up to the fact 
that their pay system needs major 
restructuring. But at its core, creating 
that change within our society comes 
down to reframing the way we value 
each other as human beings. 

 Read more at michigandaily.com

Brandon Cowit is an Opinion Columnist 

and can be reached at cowitb@umich.edu.

Lily Cesario is an Opinion Columnist and 

can be reached at lcesario@umich.edu.

Anya Singh is an Opinion Cartoonist and can be reached at anyas@umich.edu.

 Read more at michigandaily.com