A Resolute Support Mission airstrike in Afghanistan destroys an entire IS-KP stronghold in the mountains. This airstrike was important because it was one of the first entirely Afghan coordinated airstrikes.

While this video is cool for a lot of reasons, chief among them being that it showcases the destruction of a lot of IS-KP bad guys, I think it's coolest because it was one of the first fully coordinated airstrikes by the Afghan Commandos. Until this point, the Afghan Commandos had their almost fully controlled by Special Operations teams on the ground who were working with them. It didn't matter who was conducting the airstrike either, Special Operations troops from the United States almost entirely controlled the fires for the commandos until this point.

This point however marked the Afghan Commandos taking that critical role on for themselves, and it also indicated a major shift in the combat on the ground across Afghanistan. For the most part, after the Islamic State in Afghanistan had been rooted out, the war with Taliban was at an Afghan leaning stalemate. This stalemate was mostly caused by limited support from American air power, but Afghan Commandos had been able to get a lot of work done just with their own Airforce supported by U.S. contractors.

Where this fact become relevant today? Had we not pulled support from the Afghan Airforce through the 2,500 U.S. troops and contractors on the ground in Kabul, the Taliban never would have had the ability to regain control of Afghanistan. While some say it was past time we left Afghanistan, I would like to remind everyone that we currently have 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Germany, and another 30,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. I would also like to remind everyone that South Korea and North Korea have only called ever officially called a ceasefire. Technically speaking, those two countries are at war. No one refers to the Korean War as a forever war.

Paramount to U.S. hegemony is the ability of the United States to reach out and conduct operations at long range. The U.S. Airbase in Kabul enabled the United State to project power at a much longer range than we are currently able to without that airbase. While it may seem like the troops in Afghanistan were only serving to continue the conflict between the Taliban and the past Afghan government, the reality on the ground was actually quite different. Without the airbase in Kabul, American hegemony is seriously weakened.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.