Commentary
One by one, as President Biden and each member of his administration brain trust have appeared in daily press briefings – Blinken, Sullivan, Generals Milley and McKenzie, Maj. Gen Taylor, Kirby and Psaki – attempting to deflect the finger-pointing of blame for miscues by saying there will be time for that later, when this mission is over.
“Later” never comes. Accountability for the loss of lives in Benghazi. And, we’re still waiting for the Durham report. The Afghan fiasco cannot be allowed to die.
Where do we begin? President Biden chose to reverse President Trump’s conditional withdrawal order by May 1, 2021, because … well, it was Trump’s plan.
And who thought it was good idea to pull our troops out in the dead of night, leaving billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, vehicles and helicopters behind, without telling our Afghan allies, and before our civilians were safely evacuated?
If you believe the generals, they were following the orders of the president. It was Milley, who caved on keeping Bagram Airbase in play in favor of using Kabul airport for withdrawals. Milley obviously didn’t see the Taliban threat of taking over Afghanistan or he would not have closed Bagram.
No doubt. The decision to use the Kabul airport over Bagram for evacuation cost 13 of our servicemen and 90 Afghans their lives and injuries to many others. The mass of humanity gathered at the gate, standing in raw sewage, was inexcusable. And trusting the Taliban to prevent a bomber from passing through their check point was one of many mistakes.
Last Wednesday, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough publicly expressed his hope that the Afghanistan disaster would “fade from the headlines” with adequate time for Joe Biden and the Democrat Party to make a political comeback before the 2022 midterms.
There are calls for Biden to resign. There are rumors that Kamala Harris is quietly canvassing cabinet members about invoking the 25th Amendment. Under certain circumstances that would be a good idea, but with the hapless Harris standing in the wings, not a good choice. There’s a ridiculous suggestion circulating on the Internet that if Biden resigns or is removed from office, that Colin Powell be asked to be Harris’ vice president. How insane.
But we simply cannot be saddled with an incompetent placeholder as our president for three more years. Those who voted for him merely because he wasn’t Trump must now see their mistake, and people around the world who looked up to the United States must now wonder about our lack of leadership.
Impeachment has been discussed. That process, though costly, would eat up a good bit of the calendar, and severely limit his ability to do much damage. With the midterms nearing, impeachment proceedings for the Democrat leader seems unlikely.
Ditto for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s call for hearings on the Biden-administration decision-making around the disastrous Afghan withdrawal.
But what about those who advised the president, civilian and military? Day after day we watched on TV how the Taliban was taking over district after district on a map of Afghanistan.
Biden’s advisors consistently believed they had the luxury of time, according to the New York Times.
There are several hundred Army and Marine generals out there. Surely, there’s one or two willing to give solid advice to their president, prepared to not only say ‘no,’ but ‘hell no.’ And should it be denied by the president, resign their commission. That’s true leadership.
In the words of Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who recently put his position on the line while criticizing military leaders on social media:
“Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone?’ Did any of you do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up?’
“Potentially all those people did die in vain if senior military leaders are not held to account. Without that, the higher military ranks are not holding up their end of the bargain.
“I’ve been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, ‘I demand accountability.’”
These headlines further tell the story:
“Debating Exit from Afghanistan, Biden Rejected Generals’ views” – New York Times, April 17, 2021
“Miscue After Miscue, U.S. Exit Plan Unravels” – New York Times, August 21, 2021
“Department of the Indefensible: Who Decided to Close Bagram Air Base and Why” – PJ Media, August 27, 2021
“Joe Biden Begins the Bid to Rewrite the History of His Bloody Botched Afghan Exit” – Red State, August 27, 2021
“Joe Biden Has Been Derelict In His Duty. He is Unfit to Lead. He Should Be Impeached” – The Federalist, August 27, 2021
We need to demand answers from those who took our nation down this disastrous path in Afghanistan, after we retake Bagram and put a contingent of troops in country to assure that everyone gets out safely.
Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.
