Secretary of State Antony Blinken was reportedly vacationing at his family’s luxurious home in exclusive East Hampton, Long Island, as the Taliban was overthrowing the Afghan government. Blinken had so misjudged the rapid takeover of Afghanistan that he should resign immediately. Incredibly, the Western-installed president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, was a former Berkeley anthropology professor entirely unsuited for the challenge of his job, just as Biden is. As reported by the Washington Post, Ghani was more interested in early August in digitizing the Afghan economy than in defending against the invasion of his own capital.
One Taliban commander marveled, “We never thought we would take Kabul so quickly.” That commander was certainly not the only one surprised. With Biden officials departed for an early weekend and the Afghan president having abruptly fled the country, there was no leadership for any earnest defense.
Military equipment can be replaced, but our trapped Americans cannot. Our equipment can now be used by terrorists against our own citizens there and elsewhere. On August 18, Biden declared “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.” But Biden then broke his promise by pulling out of Afghanistan before evacuating all of our citizens who want to leave.
“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., admitted Monday evening as the final American troops were withdrawn from the country, even earlier than the deadline demanded by the Taliban. The remaining Americans are targets for terrorists as bargaining chips, or worse.
Under President Trump’s leadership, only 3 American soldiers died in the second half of last year in Afghanistan. Biden’s failure to secure Kabul airport and Bagram Air Base for the evacuation resulted in the horrible massacre of 13 American troops, nearly all in their early 20s. While American citizens were left behind to face the Taliban alone, tens of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children were airlifted and resettled inside our country, and there is no way to adequately vet them. Far from eradicating terrorism in Afghanistan, Biden has equipped and facilitated it.
