While many of the political pundits in Washington, D.C., and New York City have deemed this week's suicide bombing against U.S. troops in Afghanistan "the worst day of Biden's presidency," we should be focused on how dangerous the situation is for the future of our country. It wasn't just a bad day for Joe Biden and his political standing. It was the worst day for American forces since August 5, 2011, when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying 31 U.S. service members, the majority of whom were Navy SEALs. At the time, Biden was vice president.
In early July, Biden stood in front of the country and the world to proclaim it was "unlikely" the Taliban would take over Afghanistan once the United States military left the country. Three weeks before his self-imposed August 31, 2021, exit date, the Taliban owned the country, took over the capital city and was doing "security" for U.S. Marines at the airport. As a result, a suicide bomber was sent to the front of the line, detonated a vest and killed 10 of them, in addition to two Army soldiers and a Navy corpsman.
Thanks to Biden's weakness, the Taliban took advantage and showed no fear in taking over the country even before the U.S. withdrawal. The results have been catastrophic, stranding countless Americans and Afghan allies behind enemy lines. Top U.S. officials have been forced to admit privately and state publicly that the Taliban is in control and that the only thing stopping them from slaughtering more Americans, for now, is that they want us out of the country.
But if a group of medieval terrorists, now armed with more weaponry than most countries in the world with U.S. equipment Biden left behind, can embarrass an American president this way and put the national security of the homeland at risk, how will Iran, China and Russia — countries with ballistic missiles — move to exploit the situation.
The same State Department team in charge of the Afghanistan withdrawal is in charge of reentering the disastrous Iran nuclear agreement. It's no coincidence Hamas, an Iranian-backed and funded terrorist/proxy organization in the Gaza Strip, launched a vicious rocket attack on Israel, our closest and Western Middle East ally, in May. It was a test of consequences. There were none, and nuclear negotiations continued unabetted.
When Russian hackers took down a major oil pipeline earlier this year with a cyber attack, Biden rewarded President Vladimir Putin with the completion of Nord Stream 2 and control of Europe's energy. China, which is also ramping up its nuclear arsenal, has yet to be punished for unleashing the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic on the world. Biden continues to rely on so-called "inconclusive" assessments about whether the disease was engineered in a lab. The evidence, combined with the outrageous yet typical behavior from the Chinese Communist Party, shows it most certainly was.
The number one responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief is to protect Americans from foreign threats. After the Afghanistan catastrophe, Biden faces the challenge of protecting the homeland from Islamic terrorism. He has to do the same against powerful regimes intent on removing America as the world's dominant power. Weakness is prey, and the wolves are on the prowl. Based on his performance just seven months in, the president isn't up to the task.