This article first appeared in New English Review.
Every time Joe Biden steps in front of a camera, it just gets more pathetic. This week's episode, where he announced the final withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, was classic Joe Biden. In the face of this unmitigated disaster, Biden actually bragged about the withdrawal, calling it an "extraordinary success"! He rattled off the numbers of people evacuated. He defended his actions and pointed the finger of blame at Trump. This was classic Biden. It's what he has done for 50 years in Washington. This man has never admitted he was wrong about anything. No, Joe Biden is always the smartest guy in the room. In reality, he has spent five decades being wrong about everything. In truth, he is an empty-suit blowhard.
If you want to characterize the performance of our troops at Kabul airport along with the State Department people on the ground in getting 120,000 people onto planes and out of Afghanistan as extraordinary, that part I will agree with. They did a phenomenal job, especially given the circumstances they were given to work with by their leaders in Washington- at the White House and the Pentagon.
What was not an extraordinary success was how our leaders brought this evacuation about. The scenes of tens of thousands of desperate people outside the gates of the airport trying to pass through Taliban roadblocks was not an extraordinary success. Having 13 US troops and almost 200 Afghan civilians killed by a suicide bomber is not an extraordinary success. People falling to their deaths from the wheel wells of departing planes was not an extraordinary success. Leaving our allies in the lurch and unprepared to evacuate their own personnel and Afghan allies was not an extraordinary success. Leaving American citizens behind in order to adhere to the August 31 deadline was not an extraordinary success. Leaving behind some 80 billion dollars in military vehicles, weapons and other equipment is not an extraordinary success.
I do not blame the troops on the ground and the diplomats who stayed to the last for the above. All this would have been avoided had our leaders properly planned and organized this withdrawal. They put those on the ground at Kabul in an impossible situation, and the latter performed heroically under the circumstances.
But there was Biden defending his actions while avoiding the main point. Very few Americans are outraged because he decided (as did Trump) that it was time to end our fighting in Afghanistan and let the Afghans defend their own country. Yes, once we took care of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and once Usama bin Laden was dead, we should have gotten out. Establishing a Jeffersonian democracy in Afghanistan should never have been a consideration. Yes, it would be great if Afghan women and girls had equal rights and go to school, etc (let alone not be executed in soccer stadiums), but it is not for American soldiers to die to bring that about. Sorry, it just isn't.
No, Mr Biden; it's not that you ended our military involvement in Afghanistan. It is the bungling, incompetent manner that you and your top advisors and military leaders (Secretary of Defense Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley) organized the withdrawal.
In the coming days and weeks, we will hear about one Taliban atrocity after another, likely some committed against American citizens left behind. That will not help Biden's standing. In addition-and I want to say this carefully- we don't know as yet just who these 100,000+ Afghans who were evacuated are. We are told they are interpreters, embassy workers, those who worked with our forces, and Afghans with dual citizenship. If so, I have no issue with that. We have a moral duty to save all of those people.
But how many will turn out to be people who don't fall into those categories? There are already reports coming out that the US and European countries are discovering people who got out who are Taliban members (France) or those on terror watch lists. Countries like Sweden, Germany, and Austria are dealing with a massive crime problem with young Afghan men who have arrived unaccompanied in the past few years. Aside from the Afghans in the categories I mentioned, we need to be very cautious before we open the floodgates to massive Afghan immigration. There is no valid reason why neighboring countries or other Muslim countries should not accept these people. Let them all live happily under Sharia law.
As for Biden, in just 8 months, he has surpassed any and all previous presidents who history has regarded as failed presidents. That is an extraordinary achievement. But it is not an extraordinary success.
I'm sorry, but to say that he has surpassed "all" presidents in history as a failed president is patently ridiculous. I'll accept criticisms and maybe even "bad president", but it's amazing how you ignore the previous four years under Trump and his absolute bungling of the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, yeah, he made a couple of good decisions regarding the vaccines - which his devoted followers refuse to take. Good job.
Biden has surpassed Jimmy Carter and all the rest in his first 8 months. He has screwed everything up. Look at the border. I will stand by my statement. Even you seem to accept he is a bad president. That is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteAs for Trump, I have said many times, his style was atrocious, but he accomplished a lot of good things. The economy was at record levels until covid hit, unemployment at record lows. Jobs were being brought back from overseas. He followed through on his campaign promises and only failed to do so when blocked by the Dems or the courts. He destroyed the ISIS Caliphate-not ISIS itself, but their caliphate in Iraq and Syria. And you can thank Trump for the fact that vaccines were found and made available in record time. (Yes, I have taken mine)
But he was a jerk, like BIden and 9-10ths of Washington, so he was a terrible president, right?
You need to stop harkening back to TRump every time Biden and his gang screw up. Whatever situation he inherited from Trump in Afghanistan, Biden alone has to bear the blame for that situation at Kabul airport.
PS: The next bad fact we are going to find out is that a lot of those rescued Afghans did not fit into any of the proscribed categories. I heard today that the background processed for an SIV visa applicant is 15 months. They are trying to do it now in hours. Look out!
The economy was on the upswing under Obama. The best you can say about Trump is that he didn't ruin it. It's not like it was going down and Trump changed the direction of it.
ReplyDeleteHe kept all of his promises, huh? Geez, man. Oh, but I see that you can blame the Dems for everything he didn't do. (Mexico never paid for that wall, eh?)
What is the distinction between destroying ISIS and the ISIS caliphate? Seems like there's not much of a difference there.
As for the vaccines, let's not overstate it. I got the Pfizer. They didn't take any of the "Operation Warp Speed" money.
Why do you suppose that conservative men are the one group that is the least vaccinated? Good on you for getting it, but maybe you can give some insight as to why your tribe is acting like Granola-Crunching Hippies did about ten years ago (when it comes to vaccines).
Don't play coy, Fouse. You're a self-identified "conservative". You have a "Blue Lives Matter" emblem on your page. Your blog-list is a compendium of conservative and right-wing blogs.
ReplyDeleteThis is about as "wild" of a "generalization" as calling The Pope Catholic.
Regarding ISIS versus the Caliphate, what is the practical difference? Seems like they're a problem either way.
Oh...and what about Trump's plan to "repeal and replace" Obamacare? He had the House and Senate to do that. Somehow, he never even gave a proposed new health care plan. (A few weeks before the election, he told Mike Wallace that he'd have it ready in a week. Maybe he's saving it for his 2024 run?)
Darn Democrats - clearly their fault.
My Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I don't try to hide the fact that I am conservative. I have the Blue LIves Matter icon displayed with pride. Yes, my blog list is exclusively conservative except for the section labeled "Fiction Section".
Political blogs are almost all opinion-based. Nobody is trying to pretend that we are neutral, unlike the mainstream media, who pretend to be neutral when they are anything but.
What you generalized "my tribe" about had to do with "us" not getting vaccinated (which I have). It was a silly comment about Granola crunching hippies. I was never a hippie but I remember them well from my generation. I don't know where they are now, but hopefully, they grew out of it.
The difference between ISIS and the Caliphate is that there is still ISIS, but they no longer have a Caliphate, which they established in large parts of Iraq and Syria under Obama and lost thanks to Trump (and of course, our military).
As for what you say Trump told Mike Wallace a few weeks before the election, Mike Wallace died a few years before the election (2012). Perhaps, you were referring to Chris Wallace, Mike's son. As for "Trump's health plan", I don't recall ever having written or taken a position on it one way or another.
You're right. I meant Chris Wallace.
ReplyDeleteOf course you don't have a position on Trump's health care plan because he didn't have one! You're the one who claimed that he came through on his campaign promises, which is simply flat-out incorrect.
My point about the anti-vaccine crowd is that the surveys show that they're mostly (not exclusively) white, conservative men. This is just a fact. I'm curious as to whether you have any insight as to why that is.
I lean liberal, and many of the people in my "tribe" were the primary anti-vaccine crowd about a decade ago. I think that's because that they took their anti corporate/Big Pharma position too far and uncritically.
See? I can give some insight as to why people who are generally on my side went so wrong. I'm not trying to set you up. I think that a vaccinated conservative such as yourself might reach some people who are otherwise hesitant. That's what my intent is. And by asking for your insight, maybe you can tell me how to convince my conservative family members and friends.
What I have said is that Trump fulfilled his campaign promises except for those in which he was thwarted by the DEmocrats in Congress or the courts.
ReplyDeleteIt is not for you or me to convince anybody they should take the vaccine. It is between each person and their doctor. I asked my doctor, and he advised me to take it. I am not one of those anti-vaccine people. You will notice that I have posted very little about the covid issue. I have translated a couple of videos from Europe and Latin America on the issue per the request of Vlad Tepes blog. That's about it.
Come on, Fouse. How can you say with a straight face (maybe you're actually giggling as you type?) that he fulfilled his campaign promises? He said that he'd repeal and replace Obamacare. The Republicans controlled both the House and Senate and they couldn't get it done. He promised to come up with a new health care plan. He never did.
ReplyDeleteHow the heck is either of those things the fault of the Democrats?
I think that it actually IS important to convince others to get vaccinated. Whether you get vaccinated or not affects others. The low rate of people getting the jab is the reason why we're still dealing with this mess and seeing the variants. It's not just about you and your personal choices.
Trump promised to improve the economy, which it did dramatically until Covid. He told black voters he would improve their situation, and black unemployment was at an all-time low. He promised to bring back jobs to America by incentivizing US companies to do so, and he did. He promised to secure the border. Nobody has actually done that, but things were better. He did all he could to stop the caravans coming through Mexico. The border situation is now dramatically worse. Yes, I know he said Mexico would pay for it, but I always assumed that would be through reduced aid. It's ironic that Covid was a factor in his defeat even though he pushed aside the red tape and the result was a vaccine in less than a year. He gets no credit for that though. (It's also ironic that many of his supporters refuse to get vaccinated. Go figure.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to make a case for putting Trump on Mt Rushmore, but he does deserve credit for a lot of positive things he did. As for health care, I'll give you that simply because I never paid attention to it. (I am on Medicare with my secondary, so I am in good shape.)
If you want to bang on the former president go ahead. You have talking points, but if you want to try and make a case for Biden, be my guest. But it's Biden who is president now.
It's too early for me to make a case for or against Biden. I think that there are definitely some things that he's doing better, like actually coming up with a plan for distributing the vaccine instead of just leaving it up to the states. His messaging on vaccines and masks is also more consistent and productive - which I think is important.
ReplyDeleteAs for Trump's accomplishments, there's a lot to unpack there. If you're willing to look at the facts, you can see that the economy was already on the upswing under Obama. When Trump took power, it continued that upward trend. Does he deserve credit for that? Perhaps. But let's not pretend like the economy was going downward and then he turned it around.
Bringing back jobs? That's a great talking point, but the reality is much more complex. (Not wrong - but definitely overstated and lacking context.)
And again, we can give credit to Trump regarding the vaccine but let's not overstate it. The Pfizer vaccine was not a result of Warp Speed money. Other vaccines in other countries have nothing to do with his policy. But again, this is like crediting Stalin for the great victory against the Nazis when it was his policies that allowed them to get as far as they did in the first place. This country had one of the worst responses to the virus, and much of it is due to his blundering messaging about sunlight, bleach and hydroxychloroquine. I mean, it's a fact that he downplayed the virus. He admitted as much.
One correct decision puts him in the same category as a broken clock. And the fact that we still have to mask and the hospitals are having to turn away people (death panels, anyone?) is a direct result of his anti-science stance on the issue.
And yes, Biden needs to do a better job with this too. We are going to need vaccine mandates or we're never going to get out of this. It won't be popular politically, but that needs to be the message. He needs to care less about being a politician and more about doing what's right. (So weird that this is controversial - we already have loads of mandated vaccines. Why is one more such a big deal?)
As for the Mexican border, I know enough to know that the rhetoric about "caravans" to know that much of it was more of a xenophobic talking point than an actual reality. I question how much "worse" the border is now. I know that people keep saying it, but I'd like to see the actual data that brings us to this conclusion.
Lastly - you note that Covid hurt him. I think that we should ask ourselves why that is. Usually when there's a crisis, the public likes to stick with the leader that they have (FDR, anyone?) Perhaps it was his *overall* response to Covid, and not Covid itself, that cost him the election.
"As for the Mexican border, I know enough to know that the rhetoric about "caravans" to know that much of it was more of a xenophobic talking point than an actual reality. I question how much "worse" the border is now. I know that people keep saying it, but I'd like to see the actual data that brings us to this conclusion."
ReplyDeleteAsk the Border Patrol. They are overwhelmed.
"Lastly - you note that Covid hurt him. I think that we should ask ourselves why that is. Usually when there's a crisis, the public likes to stick with the leader that they have (FDR, anyone?) Perhaps it was his *overall* response to Covid, and not Covid itself, that cost him the election."
Covid hurt him because it wiped out the economic-unemployment improvements.