Biden’s strategy: blame victims, blame Trump | Columns
As the world watches, the U.S. effort to withdraw the military from Afghanistan and evacuate Americans has turned into a political, diplomatic and public relations disaster. It threatens to define the Biden presidency, undermine its legislative agenda and become a dominant issue in the 2022 Congressional midterm elections.
In the runup to the withdrawal, the Biden strategy seemed to be:
Order the military draw down by Aug. 31, fulfilling a campaign promise to leave the country after 20 years of warfare.
If the effort collapses, blame former President Trump for negotiating a lousy deal with the Taliban in the first place.
If the effort succeeds, take a victory lap, soak up the credit for ending a conflict and satisfying a war weary nation.
When television screens filled with horrific images of desperate Afghanis storming the airport, climbing aboard airplanes and clinging to handholds only to fall to their deaths, the administration appeared befuddled and indecisive.
The “blame Trump” narrative was quickly undercut when critics pointed out that in the early weeks of the administration, Biden had repealed dozens of his predecessors’ executive orders and mandates and could easily have exercised the same authority to delay or negate the departure agreement.
The Biden administration next turned to a “we always knew this would happen” rationale, a stunningly callous explanation that calls into question why they failed to anticipate, strategize and react decisively. No one, the administration argued, foresaw a collapse in little more than a week, despite evidence that the capability of the defense forces was highly suspect.
Biden next chose to lay responsibility on the Afghani military forces, accusing it of throwing down their arms and fleeing in the face of Taliban forces, in effect blaming the victim.
Spokespersons for both the Department of Defense and Department of State were embarrassingly inept as they bumbled their way through news conferences while attempting to convince millions of television-watching Americans the situation was under control.
Biden continued to insist the decision to withdraw the military from Afghanistan was his and his alone — never has “the buck stops with me” been invoked by a chief executive more often than it has been in the past two weeks.
The president was also struck with the out of touch brush when he claimed U. S. allies had not criticized his decision when, in fact, European leaders warned of disastrous consequences, including former Great Britain prime minister Tony Blair who publicly called the president’s decision “imbecilic.”
Afghanistan will cling to the Biden presidency, as Richard Nixon was defined by the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford by his pardon of Nixon, Jimmy Carter by the Iran hostage stalemate, Ronald Reagan by the Iran-Contra affair, Bill Clinton by…
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