By Wiseman @Adobe Stock
The Last Person in the Room
Timeline: August 2021: President Joe Biden refuses to maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. is forced to abandon Bagram Air Base with its secure runway. The resulting evacuation, conducted in a panic from Kabul’s civilian airport, requires security assistance from the Taliban, reports editors at the WSJ.
That nightmare resulted in 13 dead American service members from a suicide bomber.
Shame at Abbey Gate
According to a recent 350-page report from the House: “at least four Afghan civilians, including children,” fell to their deaths clinging to departing U.S. planes.
(Joe Biden’s) White House hailed the evacuation as if it were a Dunkirk-style triumph, when it was really a chaotic humiliation.
Warnings Were Plentiful
The press, dismissing the report as partisan, is ignoring the consequences of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Journal editors report that military advisers warned that the Afghan government would collapse if the U.S. removed its 2,500 troops.
Because President Joe Biden refused to maintain troops, the U.S. was forced to abandon Bagram Air Base with its secure runway. The evacuation had to be conducted in a panic from Kabul’s civilian airport, with security assistance from the Taliban. The result: 13 dead American service members from a suicide bomber.
Abject Failure of Leadership
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, who ran U.S. Central Command at the time, told the committee in sworn testimony, “(McKenzie) was unequivocal in his advice to the president. … If there is culpability in this attack. It lies in policy decisions that created the environment of August 2021 in Kabul.”
Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, conducted a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan—and allowed Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to attend merely “a single NSC deputies meeting,” the report says. Mr. Sullivan comes in for particular criticism.
Also disturbing is the claim that “a significant amount of classified information was left to the Taliban” in the eventual rush to leave. U.S. personnel recalled a scramble to destroy documents and a bonfire in the Embassy courtyard.
(Joe) Biden wanted out by the 20th anniversary of 9/11 for the political symbolism, and he imposed his own catastrophic political timetable. (Biden) owns that choice.
Dangerous: Old News Is No News
Although the press considers all this as “old news,” the U.S. still lives with the damaging consequences. According to the report, “the Taliban, even now, is holding seven American citizens, and the fate of Afghan women is horrific.”
Meanwhile, Afghanistan is again becoming a haven for the jihadists of ISIS-K and al Qaeda. The Islamic State attacks on Moscow and Iran could be preludes to an attack on U.S. targets. The Biden Administration “has not conducted a single strike against ISIS-K since 2021,” the report says.
Kamala: The Last Person in the Room
The consequences continue to harm U.S. security and bear on the stakes in November’s election.
The Afghan withdrawal marked the end of credible American deterrence during the Biden (p)residency. You can draw a straight line from the withdrawal to Vladimir Putin’s decision to roll into Ukraine or why the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen aren’t afraid to fire missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Vice President Kamala Harris has trumpeted that she was the last person in the room when Mr. Biden decided to withdraw. What did she tell him?
The WSJ editors implore Mr. Trump or the moderators at Tuesday’s debate to ask Ms. Harris whether she still stands by Mr. Biden’s decision.
Preventing a Larger War
Among the next president’s first duties will be restoring U.S. deterrence to prevent a larger war.
If Ms. Harris defends Biden’s withdrawal, then we’ll know she doesn’t understand the dangerous world we live in.
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