Joe Biden Deflects as Afghanistan Descends into Chaos

Joe Biden’s rushed and disorganized withdrawal from Afghanistan plunged the country into chaos as the Taliban secured the capital city of Kabul. American soldiers and diplomats were forced to evacuate the U.S. embassy and thousands of additional American troops were sent to secure the international airport in Kabul, the last chance for Americans as well as Western and Afghan allies to escape the Taliban’s brutal regime.

The world was shocked at the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to accurately assess the situation. Axios wrote that “Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan.” When Biden addressed the situation just last month, he said that the Taliban takeover wasn’t “inevitable.”

Biden in July: No, a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is not inevitable. pic.twitter.com/veJNSrIUCM

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 11, 2021

The shocking images and videos of U.S. forces scrambling to evacuate our embassy as the Taliban took over the city immediately drew comparisons to the fall of Saigon in 1975. 

The Washington Post: Helicopters began landing at the U.S. Embassy early Sunday, and smoke rose from the embassy’s roof as diplomats destroyed documents to keep them from falling into the Taliban’s hands.

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” declared Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But the scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport Monday made those comparisons inevitable.

Heart-breaking images of America’s desperate Afghan allies attempting to flee the Taliban, who “combed Kabul for those who had collaborated with the West,” circulated on social media, depicting the sad reality of Biden’s complete failure to manage the situation.

This, even more than yesterday’s images of choppers over the embassy, may be the defining image of the West’s failure in Afghanistan.

People so terrified, so desperate to leave, they are chasing a plane down the runway, clinging to its undercarriage. https://t.co/mAnBLL4EBP

— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) August 16, 2021

Now, thanks to Biden’s failure, U.S. security experts are warning new terrorist threats could emerge in Afghanistan sooner than expected.

Axios: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told senators Sunday that a previous assessment of how soon terrorist groups will likely reconstitute in Afghanistan will speed up because of what’s happening there now, according to three sources on the phone call. . . Milley responded “yes” — that he would have to assume that timeline would get moved up and that he would be happy to brief senators in a classified setting.

Bottom Line: As Afghanistan collapses and Americans and our allies remain in danger, Joe Biden and top aides deflect responsibility for their disastrous withdrawal. This strategic and moral disaster will be the defining moment of his presidency, and it means America is less safe.