Speaking today on national TV about the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, 78-year-old President Joe Biden silenced his critics, at least while he spoke, over the bang-up job his administration did ending the nearly 20-year Afghan War. “As we close 20 years of war and strife and pain and sacrifice, it’s time to look at the future, not the past,” Biden says, especially when it comes to his chaotic exit plan that left 13 U.S. soldiers dead from an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS-K] suicide bombing. “I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America,” Biden said, echoing the exact same views as his predecessor, 75-year-old President Donald Trump. Biden said, while executing his exit plan, that Trump tied his hand when he signed a exit agreement Feb. 29, 2020 with the Taliban, assuring U.S. troops would withdraw from Afghanistan May 1 in exchange for security for U.S. troops.
Biden isn’t sure how to handle the political ramifications of essentially rubber-stamping the Trump policy. On the one hand, Biden blames Trump. On the other hand, he said this is “the best decision for America.” Biden’s caught in Democrats and media’s hatred toward Trump, while, at the same time, knowing Trump got the Afghan policy right, finding a way out after nearly 20 years for the Pentagon. Whether admitted to or not by the Pentagon or past U.S. administrations since former President George W. Bush, the Afghan, War, was not a war at all after the U.S. military toppled the Taliban Nov. 14, 2001. Both Osama bin Laden and Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar went into hiding after the Taliban government fell. When Biden talks of the longest U.S. war, he’s not really telling the truth because nothing’s been happening for combat operation for years in Afghanistan.
Instead of getting out of Afghanistan after Bin Laden and Omar fled, the Bush administration decide to stay and national build, executing a long-range plan to democratize the Middle East. Bush, former President Barack Obama and Donald Trump, new there was no democracy in Afghanistan, only one corrupt ruler after another. “For those remaining Americans, there is no deadline,” Biden said. “We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out,” repeating the same talking point since the Aug. 16 panicked evacuation the resulted in thousands of Afghans, U.S. citizens and foreign national stampeding to the Hamid Karzai Airport to get out. Massive crowds outside the Kabul Airport opened the door to the Aug. 26 terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. soldiers. Had Biden spent four months evacuation U.S. and Afghan citizens, massive crowds would not have formed.
Biden clearly made the right decision to end the war in Afghanistan. Where he went wrong was procrastinating until Ghani fled the country. Biden said he didn’t know the Ghani government was near collapse. Yet press reports for months clearly showed that the Taliban had taken over the country. When Ghani fled Aug. 16, the chaos-and-panic began with everyone heading for the exits at the same time. “I was not going to exit this forever war,” Biden said. “And I was not extending a forever exit,” Biden said, patting himself on the back. Biden knows he procrastinated for four months after announcing April 17 that the military would leave Afghanistan by Aug. 31. Biden needs to tell the nation why he waited until Ghan fled the country before starting his helter-skelter evacuation, resulting in the run on the Karzai Airport that created massive crowds to set up the ISIS-K suicide bombing.
Biden’s approval ratings have plummeted even with Democrats and their media friends backing his tumultuous exit strategy. Biden can’t change the conversation to now rubber-stamping a Trump policy and deal to end the Afghan War. War hawks in Congress, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.) slammed Trump and Biden for getting out of Afghanistan. Graham and Romney see more terrorism on the horizon, speculating that without U.S. troops the Taliban will allow radical groups like ISIS-K and al-Qaeda to run wild in Aghanistan. Taliban officials said there will be no tolerance under their rule for terror groups, despite the past history of giving aid-and-comfort to Osama bin Laden. Biden said it right that the time to end the Afghan conflict was long overdue. Where he failed was a disorderly, chaotic, panic-stricken exit strategy.
Biden and Blinken are now at the mercy of the Taliban to bring remaining American home, without paying a king’s ransom. Taliban officials want the U.S. to reopen its embassy, without knowing how the new regime will handle human and civil rights, especially for women. Many women working in the Ghani regime fear that they’ll lose their jobs, or, worse yet, deprive girls from a secular education. Taliban’s incoming Supreme Leader Abdul Ghani Baradar had made clear that Taliban-2 will follow Sharia law, just like Mullah Mohammed Omar. Expecting the U.S. to reopen its embassy and embrace the ambushing-and-suicide-bombing Taliban into the family of civilized nations is premature for the U.S. and EU. Embracing brutal regimes is second nature for China and the Russian Federation. Biden has enough problems selling the public on his failures.
