Biden's Speech to the Nation

 Joe Biden's 20-minute address to the nation in front of a gaggle of reporters at the White House was vintage Biden. He was defiant, and he blamed everybody but himself for the fiasco in Afghanistan. He blamed Trump, and he excoriated the Afghans. At the same time, he stood firm that America had to get out of Afghanistan.

I do not condemn Biden for ordering an end to American involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He is right that Americans should not have to fight and die if the Afghans were not willing to fight. (To be fair, tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers have, in fact, died.) 

It was the manner in which Biden brought everything to a halt that has led to the tragic chaos we saw unfolding at the Kabul airport, not to mention the sudden fall of one provincial capital after another and ultimately, Kabul itself. In addition, it has left our European partners scrambling to get their own civilians and Afghan collaborators out of the country. Whether we will get all of our Afghan partners out is still a question. How this final act will play out at the airport is anybody's guess.

But there was Old Joe refusing to take any blame (or questions from the press, who had plenty), but still ending his speech by stating that "the buck stops here".

What??!!

I watched the speech on ABC, and afterward, there were few words of praise for the way in which the administration has handled this. (That's a stunner in itself. It's virtually the first time I have heard Biden as president being criticized by the mainstream media.) Over at MSNBC, however, Lyin' Brian Williams gave Biden rave reviews for "owning it". Meanwhile, the European press is crucifying Biden.

For one thing, this represents a colossal failure of our intelligence services. They had assured Biden that the Afghans would fight on even after we left. It is painfully clear that this withdrawal, justified or not, was poorly planned.  This is not just on Biden; it is also on the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As with everyone else Biden has appointed, they have proved to be incompetents. This is not to criticize the troops who bravely fought and died in Afghanistan over 20 years. As always, they performed admirably. They were not defeated on the battlefield. As is usually the case, they have been betrayed by their political leaders in Washington.

In almost 50 years in Washington, Joe Biden has never been on the right side of anything. Nonetheless, he has never admitted being wrong about anything. He has always been a loudmouth, empty suit who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. He never was, and now to compound things, he is going senile. His presidency thus far, has been a complete disaster. I don't know how any presidential biographers are going to be able to clean this up. Maybe Brian Williams can write his bio after it's all over.