Commentary

“I think he (Biden) has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” – former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

That was hardly what candidate Joe Biden wanted to hear from someone as distinguished as Gates going into his campaign.  But as a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including a stint as its chair, and his eight-years as vice president under Barack Obama, his role was seen as insignificant.

Now, in his first real test of foreign policy, we have witnessed the decisive takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, with our embassy staff flown out by helicopter with the flag that once flew over the embassy. 

Just days ago, Biden told us how the 300,000-man Afghan force we trained and equipped would stand up to the estimated 75,000-man Taliban force.  They didn’t, and an enormous amount of that U.S. equipment has since fallen into the hands of the Taliban.

While the Taliban rapidly secured much of Afghanistan, Beltway experts were saying it would take six months to a year for them to seize Kabul.  They took it in six days.  We abandoned seven airports, including the strategic Bagram Air Base, and now we have to secure Bagram so we can fly in an out safely as we rescue civilian workers and refugees who want to leave. 

Biden, and his equally feckless secretary of state, Tony Blinken, are placing the blame on the withdrawal policy they inherited from President Trump.  Biden’s military advisors meekly urged him to renegotiate the contract, but he refused.

How unfortunate, that Defense Secretary Austin was more occupied with convincing the troops that racism existed in the military and radical elements must be identified and removed.

How convenient to blame Trump. Biden had no problem reversing Trump’s immigration policy on the southern border and completing the construction of the wall, creating an open border, sending illegals across our country.  In addition, he had no reservation in reversing Trump’s energy independence policy, which included completion of the Keystone XL pipeline, putting thousands of people out of work.

Internationally, he reversed Trump’s decisions on the Paris Accord, and the Iran nuclear deal, but he showed weakness by not placing demands on the Taliban.

“America is back.  America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy. America cannot afford to be absent any longer on the world stage.”

– President Biden, State Department Speech, February 4, 2021

Diplomacy is all he has left.  On Monday, after talking about the Afghanistan force fleeing, unwilling to fight for their country, he announced that we would continue to play a human rights diplomatic role and that we would be providing foreign aid.

What’s to be gained from that?  

So now, after eight years of the “lead from behind” foreign policy of Obama-Biden, we are now humiliated around the world by this early challenge of the “build back better” foreign policy of Biden-Harris.

And we’ve learned that China is taking full advantage of Biden’s weakness, warning Taiwan and Hong Kong that they shouldn’t rely on the U.S.

If Vice President Harris was smart – she isn’t – she would have avoided commenting on the withdrawal, but vanity stood in her way.  Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” she couldn’t help but boast of her importance, making it known that she is the last person to leave the room when major decisions are made.

Speaking of CNN, I found it interesting that Chris Cillizza, wrote that “Joe Biden is facing a crisis of competence,” recalling how Biden was the “been there, done that” candidate in 2020.  “He didn’t need training to do the job, he had decades of experience.”

“Seven months into his first term, however, Biden is faced with nothing short of a crisis of competence, beset on a number of fronts with developments that it appears all of his experience and know-how didn’t prevent,” Cillizza said. “While the crisis in Afghanistan is front and center in this reexamining of Biden’s competence argument, it’s far from the only data point in that conversation.”

There are some 75 million plus voters who saw this coming.  As we close in on the midterms, they’re going to be needed to remind the opposition.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.