America’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan, culminating with the Biden administration’s chaotic handling of the ongoing disastrous withdrawal, looks to become one of the darkest foreign policy disgraces in U.S. history.

The raw statistics for losses in manpower and war materials are staggering. According to Forbes, 2,448 American service members have died in Afghanistan since the war started. About 4,000 U.S. civilian contractors have also died, which brings the total American death toll to nearly 6,500.

Of the approximately $145 billion the U.S. government spent trying to rebuild Afghanistan, about $83 billion went to developing and sustaining its army and police forces. Tragically, those Afghan security forces completely collapsed to the Taliban, in some cases without firing a shot.

It’s unclear exactly how many weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban - the Biden administration has acknowledged it’s a “fair amount.” More than two dozen Republican senators, meanwhile, have demanded a “full accounting” of U.S. military equipment given to Afghan forces over the past 12 months, including the amount seized by the Taliban.

The Biden administration is also having trouble explaining the amount of human suffering caused by this foreign policy collapse. It’s difficult for the State Department to put a positive spin on the social media clips of stampeding crowds trying to board planes or eyewitness reports of people being killed or brutalized trying to get to the airport.

Among those numerous U.S. citizens still trapped inside the Taliban-controlled territory are thousands of aid workers, private security contractors, journalists and hired hands who toiled in the shadows as cleaners, cooks, construction workers, servers and technicians on the large American bases.

One of their biggest mistakes was in believing the Biden administration’s assurances that the Afghan forces were strong enough to handle any threat against U.S. civilians. The gross mishandling of these workers and the more than 16,000 contractors - 6,147 of whom are U.S. citizens - will forever stain the Biden presidency.

Although Taliban officials have stated they will not carry out campaigns of violence, reports surfaced of Taliban fighters occupying people’s homes and forcibly marrying off women and girls.

“The people who are very scared are small kids, girls and women,” one citizen reported. “These are the people who are very scared, very frightened so far.”

Prominent Democratic voices for women’s rights like Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional members of the “Squad” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib have been strangely silent about this ongoing human disaster.

One group working hard to bring the Americans home safely is the Shadow Warriors project, a foundation dedicated to the support of private military security contractors in some of the world’s most dangerous areas. The group has actively supported special operatives that were hired either through the CIA or via private security companies.

Shadow Warriors was created by Mark Geist, who served our country in the Marine Corps for 12 years. As a private security contractor with more than 20 deployments, he has seen the use of private military contractors grow in the U.S. over the years, especially since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Shadow Warriors focuses on healing by helping ease the load of these injured warriors. Geist has firsthand experience on just how vital this missions is. In 2012, he and his colleagues were credited with saving the lives of more than 25 Americans who were airlifted to safety once the fighting ended at the annex in Benghazi.

Still recovering from the injuries he sustained in that Libyan battle, Geist said that private security contractors have been unfairly tarnished because people don’t understand the role they play. He explained that these people are doing jobs that normally would be done by the military. Since 9/11, it’s estimated that more than 5,000 private contractors have been killed overseas, and about 30,000 have been injured.

The private security contractors therefore - many of whom are veterans - utilize the skills, experience and expertise they gained over the years through their military experience to also help protect Americans.

Geist realizes there is no greater reward than to help those overseas who are fighting to protect our freedoms and making sure that America remains free.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.