August 19, 2021
Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary for the Obama/Biden administration, in his 2014 memoir referring to Joe Biden said, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Some things never change. Biden’s record of ineptitude remains intact.
After a 20-year combat mission, which cost the lives of 2448 American service members and $2.2 trillion in American taxpayer money, the Taliban is now in full control of Afghanistan.
Just a few weeks ago, when asked about the possible consequences of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden replied,
“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Disgracefully, while Americans and Afghanis who aided the US military, are fleeing for their lives, our commander in chief has been missing in action, taking a respite at Camp David. It took four days after the beginning of the fall of Afghanistan for Biden to make a brief appearance, reading a speech from a teleprompter, blaming the epic humanitarian and national security debacle in Afghanistan on the Trump administration and the Afghan forces. He admitted no wrongdoing but then bizarrely added that the “buck stops” with him.
It is true- the Trump administration negotiated a deal to withdraw combat troops by May 1, 2021. However, the agreement with the Taliban had numerous conditions. There is a reason why the Taliban never advanced on provincial capitals in Afghanistan during Trump’s tenure, despite the significant reduction in US forces from 15,000 to 2,500.
Former Secretary of State under Trump, Mike Pompeo explained that the Trump administration held the Taliban to account:
“We weren’t going to let them take the provincial capitals. They understood that American power was going to come to their village, community, friends, and families. ..We didn’t take the word of the Taliban…When they did the right thing that was all good, when they didn’t, we crushed them.”
Indeed, when the Taliban violated the agreement, the US hit the Taliban with multiple airstrikes throughout 2020 to deter them. Even with only 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, the Trump administration kept the Taliban in check.
Kash Patel, former Pentagon Chief of staff under Trump, explained that the Trump administration’s plan was a “conditions controlled withdrawal from Afghanistan”, with numerous requirements: The Taliban had to surrender any affiliation with Al Qaeda, they had to negotiate with the Afghan government on an “interim peace government that would last”, and according to Patel, if any American, or American interest was harmed “President Trump informed us to bring the full wrath of the military to protect our citizens abroad.”
Patel added that the plan also included leaving “a special operations force in country for counterterrorism purpose”, and plans to remove US weaponry and equipment.
The Biden administration never course-corrected when the Taliban deviated from the Trump plan and began conquering one provincial capital after another. When Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby was asked at a press briefing yesterday, “Why didn’t the US conduct more airstrikes against the Taliban in these final days?” He pathetically replied, “Monday morning quarterbacking here now is not a helpful exercise, but…we were ordered to drawdown…”
Incredibly, Biden and those in his administration have asserted that they prepared for every contingency. In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Biden adamantly denied that the withdrawal from Afghanistan could have been handled “better in any way”.
The Taliban is now in possession of US: artillery, armored vehicles, ammunition, and Black Hawk helicopters. Was it part of the Biden plan to arm and empower the Taliban with tens of billions of dollars of high-tech US weaponry?
The approximately 15,000 Americans still in Afghanistan recently received word from the US government that they are on their own to find their way to the Kabul airport. They were also warned in all caps, “THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CAN NOT ENSURE SAFE PASSAGE TO HAMID INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.”
Unfortunately, for the tens of thousands of Afghanis, whose lives are in peril because they worked with Americans, and the thousands of Americans still in Afghanistan, the Taliban has surrounded the perimeter of the only functioning airport, blocking off the entryways.
Disgracefully, according to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the US does not “have the capability” to escort stranded Americans to Kabul Airport. Yet, somehow the British are able to send paratroopers into Kabul to rescue and evacuate British citizens, but the most powerful military in the world under the direction of Biden can not.
According to the State Department, only 330 US citizens and permanent residents were flown out of Afghanistan in the last 24 hours. So, according to Biden, trapping thousands of Americans behind enemy lines was also part of the plan.
There is a reason why the Kabul airport is the only way out of Afghanistan. More than a month ago, in the dead of night, without notifying Afghan military leaders, the Biden administration ordered the closing of the largest and only remaining American military-controlled airbase in Afghanistan – the Bagram airbase.
Consequently, the evacuation of tens of thousands is now dependent on a primitive civilian airport with only one runway, surrounded by a terrorist organization. In other words, Americans are at the mercy of the Taliban- they are calling the shots.
Further, closing Bagram airbase left Afghan forces with no air support, which they had depended upon. No doubt Bagram’s abrupt closing helped lead to the downfall of the Afghan army.
Bagram airbase also housed 5,000 to 7,000 prisoners. After the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban overtook the airbase and released all of the prisoners, including many senior al Queda and Taliban operatives. According to Axios, “The prisoners were some of the Taliban’s most hardened fighters and could pose a threat not only to Afghan citizens but to American security interests.”
The Former National Security Advisor under Trump, John Bolton, said Monday on Twitter:
“ It seems inevitable that the Taliban will allow al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups we haven’t even heard of yet to find sanctuary in Afghanistan.”
After 20 years of keeping the Taliban and other terrorist organizations constrained, within mere months, because of the blundering ineptness of the President of the United States, the Taliban is more powerful than they were before 9/11, while the damage to the image of the US is immeasurable. In the eyes of the world, the Taliban has defeated America.
Remember candidate Joe Biden was hailed as the one who would improve the US’s standing in the world? Afghanistan was an operation of the North America Treaty Organization. Biden never consulted our NATO allies before withdrawing. For 36 hours Biden ignored UK Prime Ministers Boris Johnson’s attempts to speak on the phone.
Former Brexit leader Nigel Farage warned that this is a “watershed” moment for America’s allies overseas and they are questioning “how could we ever trust America again”? Farage added that
“we’re asking the question over here: ‘is this the end of America as the global superpower?'”
Unfortunately, Biden’s ineptness has much greater consequences than it did when he held less power. Not only is every American less safe today because of his incompetence, but the world is as well.
May this be a wakeup call to everyone who believed that the man who campaigned from his basement would #BuildBackBetter.
