Afghanistan has fallen…again. The Taliban are now in control. They rolled into Kabul early Sunday morning. The president fled. The national government collapsed. After two decades of war, we're right back to where we started in 2001. Oh, with the exception that we spent over a trillion dollars and lost over 2,000 troops in the process.
The neoconservative argument has been shredded once again. Granted, it was already a dead concept. The American people have long declared they were not interested in nation-building, exporting American democracy, or any more long-term engagements. We're done with war. It's time to come home. If these people want a representative democracy, it will happen on their timeline. American troops don't accelerate that process. We've learned that now. But that doesn't mean you cannot withdraw without having it be a total s***show. The fiasco occurring in Kabul and Joe Biden's utter indifference toward it has killed one of the main selling points of his presidency.
Remember that the Trump White House was a disaster, right? Too half-cocked and unpredictable. It was the kids' table, for lack of a better term. With Biden, the adults were in charge. America was back. American leadership has been restored because…I'm Joe Biden, an astonishingly unaccomplished swamp creature who has been wrong about every major foreign policy initiative for the past 30 years. The man literally has done nothing. Dare I say he's a male version of Hillary Clinton? He's just revered for being around a long time because that's how things go in DC.
So, when Afghanistan collapsed, what did Joe do? Nothing. He remained in Camp David. What's more, is that his staff also checked out. This White House felt it was fine to literally go AWOL as a major American venture abroad went awry. It's puerile—and these people were the adults? Eight weeks ago, these clowns were confident that Afghanistan would not fall to the Taliban. The US Embassy would remain open. That talking point has been shot up by the shooters on the Grassy Knoll. The embassy is being evacuated, people are fleeing for their lives, and thousands of troops have been redeployed to ensure a safe exit. We're leaving, but it's not an evacuation. Kabul is not in imminent danger. We're leaving by…redeploying troops. All of these were talking points peddled by this White House. All were stunningly incorrect. This was a botched withdrawal.
Also, you'd think that certain action items would be included in this plan to get out. The destruction of certain weapons and technology as we left. The evacuation of Afghan interpreters and other key operatives and allies. Ensuring that the Americans in the country were all located and informed of their pick-up and departure. None of that happened. And then, as the nation is being engulfed by chaos and the Taliban, pretty much tell the civilian population that the only way out is through Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul—no wonder why it's pandemonium there.
Scores of Afghan civilians have swarmed the airport. They're clinging onto US Air Force planes as they take off, and yes—there are harrowing images of these people falling from them to their deaths. It's Saigon reloaded. It's the "Fall of Saigon" with the Ghosts of Rwanda in attendance. We're only there to get our people out—and everyone knows it. The Taliban, meanwhile, wait until we all leave to truly start their summary executions. There are sporadic reports of them cleaning house. It will increase immensely once we leave.
On Monday, the Biden White House was pretty much browbeaten into breaking its radio silence in a series of hasty press conferences. Joe Biden addressed the nation where he blamed everyone but himself for the chaos in Kabul. The debate is not about staying and going. It's about leaving but not having it look like some drooling vegetable was quarterbacking the effort. No one is going to buy that this administration's hands were tied on the exit date. Biden is president. He can renegotiate. And after him huffing and puffing about how awesome he truly is on this issue…he goes back to Camp David.
Biden did something quite rare. He one-upped Obama in f***ing up. Obama played golf after delivering remarks about journalist James Foley being beheaded by ISIS. Bident let Afghanistan go to the dogs and decided to go back on vacation mode. It's not like there's any work to do in Afghanistan or anything, right? Again, I thought the adults were in charge.
Biden is on an island by himself, as the liberal media cannot stand by on this one. It's indefensible. It's unbelievable. It's a textbook case of American failure. Biden failed in leading, and his inability to redeploy and reset as president during the crisis shows he cannot do the job. It's as if he's given up a full quarter before halftime. We've known that for a while on a host of issues, but this is the one where even the liberal media cannot offer protection which is why this catastrophe has been magnified. If Biden cannot manage an orderly exit from a country and doesn't want to deal with the fallout of when things go wrong in that effort, what good is he?
The "screw it" mentality here is appalling. And if his people are hoping that people would forget, I would bet heavily against making that wager in the first place. The Biden White House is about to get pummeled. It's what happens when you have hordes of folks with a moral superiority complex eat s*** in a single weekend. The fall is swift, violent, and messy. Another sub-layer to this fail cake is how the intelligence community and the Pentagon appear to have been exposed as total liars here. The Afghan army was not what it was made out to be. They melted quicker than ice, plus the Taliban were reportedly paying them off to surrender and hand over arms. We didn't know this. We didn't see this coming. We didn't even think this could happen. And we did nothing either. Everyone who has served there and worked with the main parties in this conflict knew this could fall within the realm of possibility. Biden said, "screw it."
We have a president who cannot do the job. He's presiding over a massive spike in inflation, job reports that are lagging, shaky at best, and now a total and complete fiasco in Afghanistan that he could have managed by not having the withdrawal seem like the scene when zombies overrun Jerusalem in "World War Z." The adults are back in the White House.
I think we're dealing with the kids who ride the short bus.
I'll leave you with these words from Barack Obama, who said, "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up."
I give you Afghanistan, Barry.
