The United States’ withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was the greatest move by an American president in my lifetime. Joe Biden, who voted for the war in Iraq and who has been a consistent supporter of broadening resources or immunity for the military-industrial complex, shocked the world when he followed through with the extraction of U.S. troops in August.

After Biden’s initial declaration that troops would be removed by mid-September of this year, I, along with most of the left, was highly skeptical. The declaration of withdrawal was bashed by most of the political establishment, punditry and military generals who claimed we just needed more time to strengthen former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s government, as if 20 years wasn’t enough time. Apparently, the $2.26 trillion spent on the war was only enough to delay the Taliban a few hours in taking over the country. The artificial infusion of American interests clearly did not inspire the Afghan people to resist the Taliban, probably because the United States left behind a legacy of torture, extrajudicial killings and indiscriminate drone strikes.

The country had, until recently, hardly paid attention to Afghanistan, even as war profiteers such as Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin quietly went about their business. With the American public seldom being able to focus on issues rather than personalities, Afghanistan was mostly outside of their view. The evacuation was immediately condensed to the character of Biden himself, ignoring any broader understanding of American hegemony. Once the withdrawal had begun materializing, the military community feared the loss of future money streams. Of course, by then, the media had long gone into full manufacturing consent mode, characterized by misinformation and selectivity. Cable news analyst Andrew Tyndall found that between CBS, NBC and ABC, five minutes were spent on discussing the proposed end to the war in Afghanistan in 2020. Five minutes. The pitiful lack of airtime may be due to the want for the American public to simply forget about the astronomical amount of money and resources going to a war they’ve long concluded does not benefit them.

The horrors being witnessed on the ground in Afghanistan are nothing new, but now that the defense industry is threatened there is nonstop coverage of how horribly the Taliban rules. Where are the programs dedicated to the United States’ mistreatment of Afghans? No visuals of cowards sitting behind a desk at the Pentagon, playing out their fantasies of drone strikes on families while sipping on a Diet Coke in an air-conditioned room. No interviews with any of the 6 million Afghan civilians “forcibly displaced from their homes” due to the conflict, as per unrefugees.org. The double standard is not surprising but still infuriating. Remember this the next time Jake Tapper or Chuck Todd devote half their broadcast to depictions of Taliban tyranny.

The end to a losing war will never look good. The talking heads from Fox News to MSNBC have all bashed the execution of the plan as if we were supposed to just pick up our ball, head home and tell ourselves we’ll get ‘em next time. Actions have consequences, and the consequence of losing an unpopular war in a region across the world is going to always be a number of dead soldiers, along with lost resources. The loss of these resources and troops was not a problem for the 20 years in which we were spending trillions of dollars and losing thousands of U.S. forces and contractors. If these risks were too great of value, then we should not have entered Afghanistan in the first place.

The respect I gained for Biden’s strength and resiliency in following through with the evacuation was quickly rescinded when the Pentagon fired a drone strike in Kabul on Aug. 29, killing 10 civilians, seven of them children. What one thinks of Biden, though, should not matter. Attempts to make the withdrawal about the character or competency of one man distracts from the larger picture, which is that the war, with bipartisan support, completely and utterly failed. Limiting our Afghanistan analysis to just Biden’s evacuation plan is tunnel vision which conveniently shields the political and social elite from the accountability they deserve. The power elite recognizes the general public’s decreasing patience with the U.S. war machine. The fact that an American president, who has a history of interventionist positions, felt the need to end a 20-year war shows the tide is shifting in U.S. imperial power. But the rest of the world cannot take a sigh of relief quite yet.

Despite the withdrawal being complete, the work to help Afghan refugees is far from over. The Afghan people are in dire need of assistance, and as the world’s wealthiest nation, we must welcome as many refugees as possible. Not out of generosity, but out of duty for our dominant role in the destruction of their nation.

If you have the means, please consider donating to the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) or volunteering at a local refugee resettlement agency, such as the American Civic Association, located at 131 Front St. in Binghamton, New York.

Nathan Sommer is a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics and law.