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Biden’s Blame-Trump Game

Our recent, precipitous, and reckless withdrawal from Afghanistan, ordered by (God help us!) Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden, has plunged that South Asian country and its miserable inhabitants into utter chaos, left thousands of Americans and Westerners stranded, and confronted Afghan veterans, their loved ones, and the families of the fallen with a harsh reality: all their sacrifices over 20 years of war were futile, given the carelessness with which the Biden Administration has surrendered Afghanistan to our enemies.

The wrongheadedness and the shame of our cut-and-run policy are one thing, but the desperate scramble by Biden and friends to deflect responsibility for the debacle, and to try to point the finger at President Trump instead, is another. In its way it is an even more egregious affront, if not to decency, then at least to common sense. 

Biden claims that Trump locked us into a retreat from Afghanistan, and he, newly elected, had no choice but to go along with a flawed plan. 

Well! The most obvious retort to this self-serving “logic” is that Biden eagerly abandoned almost all of Trump’s other policies and plans—especially the ones that were working—including the Wall, the remain-in-Mexico policy for would-be asylum seekers, and the adherence to a degree of fiscal restraint in order to avoid inflation. 

“Screw that!” said Sleepy Joe, the instant he took office. He pointed us firmly in the direction of unchecked (and frankly assisted) illegal immigration and madcap spending with skyrocketing inflation without a second thought. We’re supposed to believe, though, that Trump’s plan to “blow up” Afghanistan was somehow written in stone, so poor old Biden couldn’t do a thing? Yeah, right!

The truth, as was admirably explained in the New York Post by President Trump’s Department of Defense Chief of Staff Kash Patel, is that the Trump plan envisioned only a partial withdrawal of U.S. forces and capabilities from Afghanistan, and only in return for the Taliban’s adherence to a number of strict conditions. 

In short, Biden did not cleave to the Trump policy at all. He altered it: to a fixed-date, no-strings-attached total forfeiture of American leadership—not to mention honor. 

Biden expected, as we all know, that the collapse of the Afghan government, and the victory of the Taliban, would unfold slowly enough that he, the so-called leader of the free world, could enjoy plausible deniability in the catastrophe. He could shrug and say, “Not my rodeo.” 

Instead, the speed of events forced Biden to deal aggressively with the fallout—and to redouble his efforts to find someone else to blame. And who better than “Orange Man Bad,” the Democrats’ go-to bogeyman?

Pathetic. In fact, there may be few things more pathetic than a flailing, inarticulate near-octogenarian politician trying to blame his erstwhile enemies for his own failures and missteps. No wonder Americans are increasingly viewing Biden with a mixture of pity and contempt. No wonder Biden’s approval ratings are tumbling to record lows.

If things keep up like this, we might have to re-invade Afghanistan, just to salvage our Fearless Leader’s dignity, because we certainly would never do it to protect the Afghan people and ourselves from the onslaught of medieval savagery. Perish the thought!

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About Nicholas L. Waddy

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images