You cannot be President of the United States and not at some point disappoint at least some segment of the country’s citizenry. Trump’s bombastic comments and Clinton’s dalliances come to mind. Joe Biden has disappointed not only our nation and our allies, but his actions regarding Afghanistan have endangered our national security.

I cannot and will not dispute Biden’s, and for that matter Trump’s, decision to exit Afghanistan as a full-fledged military deployment. No one has mastered a conquest of Afghanistan for hundreds of years. The Russians failed in the 80’s and we did no better on a strategic basis. The terrain of the country and its tribal heritage, along with a somewhat oppressive version of Islam did not bode well for Americans trying to implement western democracy and civil rights for all citizens.

A segment of the Afghan society bought into the western ideals, but the majority simply wished to retain their centuries’ old culture. You cannot change a culture with a sword. It takes time, and that may be generations of time, and showing by example that a different culture may have greater benefits for its population. The sword always creates resentment from those under it. When the sword (ie American troops and air power) was removed, the tribal warlords and Taliban took back what they had before. It is not rocket science.

The disappointment with Biden is not in the decision to exit but rather our truly failed exit strategy. Remember Harry Truman’s infamous phrase, “The buck stops here.” This was President Biden and his national security team that planned the exit, and it failed horribly.

• See Mr. Koritz's complete column in the Friday, print edition of the Clinton Journal or now in the Journal E-Edition for subscribers.