No, Biden Can't Blame Trump For The Afghanistan Withdrawal Disaster
By: Margot Cleveland (The Federalist)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Under Biden's direct command, the Taliban reportedly seized hundreds of U.S. Humvees, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and several million-dollar U.S. drones. By Margot Cleveland By Margot ClevelandAugust 16, 2021
While the Biden administration has already attempted to shift blame to Donald Trump for the scenes coming out of Afghanistan, Biden owns both the decision to leave and the catastrophic withdrawal he oversaw as commander-in-chief.
"When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. forces," Biden said in a statement released Saturday.
"Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice — follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies' forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country's civil conflict," President Biden maintained in the written statement.
Bunk. President Biden was no more bound by former President Trump's agreement with the Taliban than Trump was required to abide by former President Barack Obama's Iran deal, known formerly as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Neither agreement bound future presidents because neither deal was presented to the Senate for ratification.
As the current commander-in-chief, Biden holds power to decide every aspect of the withdrawal decision. Biden already extended Trump's May 1, 2021 deadline to September, and if he believed the Taliban too strong, the Afghanistan government too weak, or the withdrawal decision entirely misplaced, the current president could have changed course.
He didn't because he didn't want to.
In contrast, Biden held no bones about executing a sharp course reversal when Trump's policy positions conflicted with his administration's.
On his first day in office, for example, Biden officially rejoined the Paris climate accord, from which former President Trump had withdrawn. The Biden administration later waived sanctions on Iran in an attempt to restart the Iran nuclear deal. President Biden reversed Trump's ban on transgender people in the military and tossed the Mexico City policy to restart funding of international organizations that promote or provide abortions.
The Biden administration also reversed several extremely effective policies Trump adopted to address the border crisis, including Trump's decision to use Title 42 authority to expel aliens to Mexico or their country of origin, given the public health crisis presented by COVID-19. Biden also ditched the former president's "remain in Mexico" policy that prevented illegal aliens from absconding within the United States while awaiting immigration hearings. These reversals quickly led to the now record-setting crisis on the Southern border.
If Biden believed it in America's best interest to remain in Afghanistan for the long-term, for another year, or even for another month, as commander-in-chief he could have made that call.
Further, even if leaving now is in our country's best interests, Biden bears full responsibility for his failed execution of the withdrawal. Under Biden's command, the Taliban reportedly seized hundreds of U.S. Humvees, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and several million-dollar U.S. drones.
No one but Biden is to blame for the administration being "clearly caught off guard by the Taliban's rapid advances in recent days as the militant Islamic group took over a slew of provincial capitals across the country and encircled Kabul," forcing Biden to rush thousands more troops to Afghanistan just to safely evacuate American and embassy personnel two full weeks before the August 31 deadline Biden had announced for withdrawing all U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
There is much to debate about the United States' involvement in a 20-year war in Afghanistan, but it should be clear to all that Biden botched the withdrawal. The only question remaining is exactly how badly.
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Despite a well written speech that was careful with every word, Americans heard those words after watching images of helicopters hovering over the embassy in Kabul, Taliban troops congregating in the Afghan presidential palace, and crowds of desperate Afghan allies who had placed their trust in the US. Biden can't talk his way out of it and yes, the people will remember this along with everything else come election day.
The people will remember what they want to, not what you want them to. A little less hubris please.
Just what was derogatory about it?
oh look, somebody got a jump on establishing diplomatic relations with the new taliban leader of afghanistan quite a few months ago. gee, I wonder what the conversion rate in raw opium is for your own poppy growing terrorist state and all the military equipment to protect it?
All it took was a complete and utter moron like Biden to make it happen. Of course there is no amount of planning that can into account the mighty mental midgets incompetence. I am surprised the Taliban haven't accidentally attacked each other rushing in to fill the power vacuum Biden created.
Biden didn't do this. It was anyone but him. Likely his puppet-masters on this one.
we wouldn't have been there in the first place if the war hadn't been based on a republican lie.
if crazy bunch of fucking terrorists hadn't hijacked planes and killed 2400 Americans!
Who is the guy with the green tie?
What lie would that be? Be specific
Defending Biden for the withdrawal is a litmus test to see if someone’s Brain is truly broken by their devotion to the Democratic Party.
Reminds me of "this is your brain on drugs" commercial from the 80's
It's Biden's fault that helicopters were abandoned? What are you smoking?
Lol .... had this happened on Trumps watch you'd be on it like stink on a dog turd.
So i ask you. Why is this different?
I thought it was quite odd when Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David for negotiations (since they are a terrorist group) , but other than that I havent said a word about Afghanistan and Trump. The idea of blaming one person for what has happened in Afghanistan is absurd.
We will now hear that we lost the war in Afghanistan. That is absurd too. We won the war about 15 years ago but neither left nor made plans to keep permanent forces there ala South Korea. The initial and long lasting effort should have been toward getting the Afghans to agree to partition the country into part theocracy and part secular. That never was pursued and the situation reverted to hopeless. But the US did not "lose" a war in Afghanistan.
I can agree with all of that except the supposition that you wouldn't be hammering on Trump right now if this happened on his watch.
I find that supposition to be completely unbelievable.
Bring them to us. It's not the first time CD was used for peace negotiations.
No one is blaming one person for what has happened in Afghanistan, well at least before the last couple of days. The debacle unfolding in front of the world is all on Biden and his merry band of incompetent idiots (think Blinken)
Hardly. We won the war but lost the peace, well what there was of it.
It was Pierre Halpern that suggested that the other day also. Partition the country as in North/South Korea.
My question to you and her is the same. Exactly who will draw those lines and accomplish that task? You, me, PH, the UN? And if a 'partition' is successful, who will be responsible for conducting the Afghanistan version of the "Trail of Tears"?
Inquisitive minds not only want to hear those answers, I'll make the suggestion that the world would like to hear the wisdom being espoused. Don't forget, Afghanistan has stymied the world for centuries, so the ideas of neophytes in the realm of international relations will be welcomed. "s"
Military losses ordinarily belong to the Commander in Chief and that would seem to appear to likely be Biden. He is the one holding the unused dynamite stick.
I remember sailors pushing helicopters overboard their ships to make room for more friendlies when Saigon fell.
I assume that the troops in Afghanistan disabled any they left behind per SOP.
Let's see how many of those high maintenance whirligigs are still capable of flying in a few months.
Desert environments tend to make them prone to damage, especially wind storms
I believe the Taliban has not been banned from Twitter. Shows how Twitter feels about human rights.
And Biden let our enemies get these but thinks US Citizens should not be allowed to have guns?
Bazinga!
This liberal US citizen owns at least one legal gun for every occasion but one.
Have a clear LOS out to 1500 meters from my back patio so need a .50 BMG.
My 30:06 and 7mm mag work fairly well at a grand and I'd settle for a .338 Lapua or 6.5 Creedmoor to stretch out the range but I do love shooting a .50 cal. way downrange.
and I am glad you enjoy your guns and I don't want anybody ever messing with your or my right to have what we want
"Here, hold my goat while I make this thing fly."
Don't underestimate the enemy.
The Afghanis have been kicking butt for a long, long time.
Not even the full might of the Russians could take them down.
Biden was right to get us the hell out of our longest war.
We'll likely become trade partners before long.
That's what happened with Nam.
Peace is always more profitable than war.
Unless one is a propagandist for the military industrial complex.
Well, one thing we know for certain at this point, Joe Biden isn't going to do a victory dance on Sept. 11 as he had planned. Biden's biggest problem right now is that political spin can't get ahead of events on the ground. And Biden will find out that his supposed political allies will jump off the glory train as fast as an Afghan trained and equipped to resist the Taliban.
As the title song for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says, "so long and thanks for all the fish."
It was a disaster from the very beginning, two decades ago, and blame lies with every POTUS who continued it, but at least Biden had the guts to realize it and to end the bleeding, notwithstanding the political fallout. Some people with a more elevated IQ and common sense than those who only seek political advantage will realize that.
I'm amused that Biden did what Trump promised and did not do and the Trump*suckers are now jumping all over Biden for doing it. Although I eventually learned to despise Trump, I did praise him for doing what so many previous Presidents promised but then did not do, move the Embassy to Jerusalem. However, don't expect the Trump*suckers to praise Biden for doing what Trump promised to do, because their politics are embedded in concrete somewhat like their brains.
All anyone had to do was observe Russia's nine plus years experience in Afghanistan...and not make the same mistake.