August 30th marked the two-year anniversary of the departure of the last American combat troops from Afghanistan in a shameful retreat ordered by Joe Biden, leaving the country in the hands of the Taliban terrorists. Biden’s compressed timeline was predicated on his desire to take a victory lap while claiming he ended the war before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation. The only victory lap was the one taken by the Taliban celebrating 9/11 in our abandoned Kabul embassy.
In the inimitable words of Afghanistan combat veteran, former Navy SEAL, and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), “In what f***ing world was it a good idea to just hand over a country to these people?”
Despite all the love/hate and political division associated with Donald Trump, I can say with certainty that his domestic and foreign policy achievements, despite his “unorthodox” methods (to put it kindly), were outstanding. I am also quite certain that the context for conversations regarding two national security threats that reemerged under the inept and vacuous “leadership” of Biden and his cowering Democrat Party would be entirely different if Trump were still in office.
First, Vladimir Putin would NEVER have dared to invade Ukraine in February 2022 if Trump were commander-in-chief. There is no question Putin’s 2014 Ukraine incursion was with the full confidence that Barack Obama would do nothing. It is also clear that Putin did not advance an inch while Trump was in office because he knew Trump would not tolerate it. The blood of tens of thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children is, inarguably, on the hands of every impenitent Biden/Harris voter.
Second, the end of Operation Enduring Freedom and withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2022 would have looked nothing like Biden’s deadly and disgraceful surrender and retreat. Had the Taliban dared to cross Trump, he would have smoked ALL of them, just like he did ISIS. (Remember them?) As I noted regarding the blood of Ukraine victims, the blood of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children is also on the hands of every impenitent Biden/Harris voter.
So, on this second anniversary of Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan exfiltration, let’s be clear about his efforts to blame Trump’s withdrawal terms with the Taliban, and let’s be equally clear about the five capstone events in the wake of Biden’s retreat: the murderous bombing of Kabul airport; the disastrous counterattack on the “terrorist mastermind” of the Kabul bombing; the turning over of billions of dollars in American military assets to terrorist Taliban warlords; the abandonment of thousands of our Afghan allies (many to certain death); and the abandonment of millions of Afghan women and children to the tyranny of Islamic law.
The faux line Biden is still pushing regarding Trump’s negotiations goes like this: Biden ended the longest war. The exit was difficult, but that was Trump’s fault because he negotiated with the Taliban, thus he bears the blame. But thanks to Biden, we are out and all is good.
That is a colossal dumper of bull manure. Trump’s exit plan was with the Afghan government but included terms that the Taliban had to meet. The drawdown was contingent on the Taliban meeting specified conditions, and Trump’s plan included leaving at least 2,500 troops on the ground. Trump’s drawdown had two primary and finite conditions: First, that the Taliban had demonstrably cut their ties with al-Qa’ida, ISK, and other terror groups; and second, that they successfully negotiate and maintain peace with the Afghan government. Neither of those conditions were met when Biden folded.
Biden and his cadre treated the Taliban as if they were some trustworthy and legitimate government entity rather than the amalgam of violent Sunni Islamist terrorists who invaded Afghanistan from Pakistan after the Soviet retreat — and have now rapidly reconstituted. There is virtually NO degree of ideological separation between the so-called “Taliban government” thugs and their surrogate terrorist groups. And there is now no doubt that the more violent Sunni ISK Islamists (also from Pakistan) and Sunni al-Qa’ida Islamists have risen just as rapidly as surrogates under the Sunni Taliban protectorate. To insist that ISK and al-Qa’ida are not under the Taliban umbrella is a distinction without a difference.
With Trump gone, the Taliban summarily discarded those conditions and ousted the AFG government. And why wouldn’t they? Obviously, they had no fear of Biden enforcing those terms. According to former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell: “The Taliban onslaught started coming once Joe Biden got into the White House. The Taliban knew they couldn’t make the move when Trump was in office.” Biden abandoned Afghanistan and its citizens to the Taliban tyrants.
Seasoned political analyst Brit Hume declared, “If you believe the Biden administration’s claim it was bound by the Trump-Taliban deal and thus had to get out fast,” you need to get your facts straight. He added: “In fact, when that deal was struck in February 2020 [our negotiators] made it very clear that this was conditions-based and if the Taliban did not [meet those conditions] we were under no obligation to remove our troops. One of the key provisions of that deal was that the Taliban and the Afghan government would negotiate a [peace agreement]. They never did that.”
And National Review’s Rich Lowry described Biden’s taking credit for ending the war as akin to “the arsonist bragging about how many fires he has put out.”
On 26 August, days before Biden’s evacuation deadline, his empowerment of the Taliban was directly responsible for the terrorist bombing of the Kabul airport.
After 18 months with no American deaths in Afghanistan — zero — a Taliban terror surrogate walked through multiple Taliban checkpoints and murdered 10 Marines, two Army soldiers, and a Navy corpsman, along with more than 170 Afghan men, women, and children. There were 15 Americans injured (some with life-threatening injuries) and countless civilians severely injured.
Recall that Biden was AWOL for eight hours after the attack, but no amount of spin prep relieved him of responsibility for all of the blood spilled. The failure was not Biden’s plan; it was the man. In his rambling teleprompted read, Biden declared we would bomb some tents somewhere in retaliation. Biden put on his most menacing mean face and warned: “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Answering a press question, Biden again attempted to deflect responsibility to Trump: “You know — I wish you’d one day say these things — you know as well as I do that the former president made a deal with the Taliban…”
On 20 August 2021, the last American boarded a C-17 at Kabul, leaving tens of billions in military equipment in Taliban hands. I will never forget the images of those poor souls clinging to the outside of the departing military transports and falling to their deaths during takeoff.
Days later, Biden launched a drone attack against what he insisted was a “high value” terrorist responsible for the Kabul airport bombing. In fact, he did not kill a terrorist, but murdered Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime U.S. aid worker, and nine other civilians, seven of whom were children. Ahmadi, who was among the Afghan people hoping to immigrate to safety, was bringing water to his family and neighbors.
Biden was, again, AWOL when it came time to take responsibility. He departed for a beach trip, passing the buck to Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of United States Central Command: “I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike. We now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or a direct threat to U.S. forces. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed.”
Asked if anyone would be held responsible, McKenzie responded, “We are in the process right now of continuing that line of investigation.” Clearly, Joe Biden was responsible.
And about the Americans and the thousands of our Afghan allies Biden abandoned?
Biden lied when he promised, “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” before pulling our troops out. In fact, he left hundreds of Americans stranded behind enemy lines.
Likewise, Biden insisted we would protect America’s Afghan allies, promising to relocate them before withdrawing. In fact, more than 78,000 of our Afghan allies were abandoned, and the Biden administration even provided the Taliban what essentially amounted to a kill list with names of U.S. citizens and our allies.
Biden’s ineptitude, and that of his feckless administration, is epic, reckless, and deadly.
The Army’s 2,000-page assessment of Biden’s deadly exfil is an unmitigated indictment of this inept commander-in-chief. But as our military analyst, retired Army Gen. B.B. Bell, concluded well ahead of that report, “Biden’s ill-fated and hapless decision to summarily short-notice withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan will forever be known as the day America’s position in the world order cascaded behind that of China, and for that matter Russia and the European Union as well.”
Some Democrats have conceded that there were obvious “red flags” indicating the administration’s plan was going to be a disaster. But the fact is, Joe Biden IS the red flag, and our nation is facing far more perilous national security threats today than the day before Biden took office.
Fact is, Biden has reseeded the al-Qa’ida and ISIL turf, putting the U.S. homeland at risk of another terrorist attack. McKenzie, the CENTCOM commander Biden trotted out to confirm that his retaliatory strike for the Kabul bombing actually killed civilians, has declared: “ISIS has nevertheless reconstituted as an asymmetric threat…Their desire to harm us is as intense as ever.”
And of greater consequence, Biden’s now-obvious failure as commander-in-chief has resulted in dire national security implications far beyond the borders of Afghanistan. Biden’s AFG retreat has emboldened far more powerful tyrants, notably our near-peer adversaries Red China and, as previously noted, Russia. And, of course, Iran and North Korea are on the move.
The most significant threat is China. Understanding that Biden will bow, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is now aggressively threatening Taiwan and even trying to co-opt the Taliban as a terrorist surrogate.
Power does not tolerate a vacuum, nor an inept and vacuous appeaser like Joe Biden.
So, if you are considering casting another vote for Biden, or whomever will replace him as the 2024 Demo candidate, former presidential advisor Michael McKenna suggests, “Next time you vote for a president, vote as if the lives of our soldiers depend on it.”
Reprinted with Permission from The Patriot Post – By Mark Alexander