American citizens’ appetite for endless wars of nation-building has been waning over the past several years. Besides the military-industrial complex that benefits from such conflicts, hardly anyone wants American troops on foreign land. So when the US President Joe Biden and his administration announced their Afghanistan troop withdrawal plans, there was a general sense of relief among most Americans. However, as the withdrawal unfolded, there was much shock, disbelief, and dissatisfaction.
Horrors of Vietnam
The withdrawal scenes in Afghanistan reminded many Americans of the horrors of the fall of Saigon in 1975. In the days leading up to the fall of the Vietnamese city, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, on April 30, the US forces had evacuated thousands of Americans and South Vietnamese. “Using the same deceitful tactics they pioneered in Vietnam,” writes analyst Glenn Greenwald, “US political and military officials repeatedly misled the country about the prospects for success in Afghanistan.”
In an effort that appeared guided more by public relations considerations than strategic thinking, President Biden seemed determined for a complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the end of August 2021. Many believe Biden had hoped for a grand photo-op, à la George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” aboard USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003.
Abandoning Citizens and Allies
August changed everything and, in the process, put buckets of cold water on Biden’s plan. It was supposed to be billed as the most significant achievement of the eight-month old Biden administration. But when a leader abandons their citizens and allies, strategic airbases, and military equipment, the anger and disgust the leader gets are understandable.
Criticism for Woke Agenda
Biden’s military advisors have come under severe criticism for spending more time implementing a woke agenda in the military than preparing for war or an exit strategy in this case. Under Biden’s leadership, the military top brass is accused of trying hard to impose the highly political Critical Race Theory (CRT) on the military. “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military… of being, quote, ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said.
The Biden presidency is a media creation to a great extent. The press hounded Biden’s predecessor with its myriad fake narratives such as the ‘Russian influence’
The 20-year Afghanistan war was premised on lies and deception from the very beginning. The war was never supposed to be such a long engagement. “The days of the Taliban are over,” then-President Bush had announced in August 2006, 5 years after the American troops had invaded Afghanistan. But as the war lingered on with no end in sight, America’s patience ran out.
Attempt to Relate to Kabul Suicide
The suicide bombing that killed 11 marines in Kabul shook Americans to their core. In a stinging op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, commentator William McGurn tore apart Biden’s carefully crafted image of a soft-natured, caring, and emotional man. Biden often brings up his own experience as an Army dad and the tragic death of his son Beau, a Delaware National Guard lawyer. However, Beau’s death had “nothing to do with Afghanistan, much less the 11 Marines, Navy corpsman, and Army soldiers killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing,” wrote McGurn. “Mr. Biden is not Gold Star father and should stop playing one on T.V.”
After spending 20 years in Afghanistan fighting a nation-building war, the American establishment has nothing to show for its engagement. The loss of life, the chaos, the humiliation compounded the growing frustration and anger among Americans. “The Americans have a right to be angry,” wrote the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. “The obligation of the President is to provide adequate force to execute a mission to protect the troops carrying it out.”
Shana Chappell is the distraught mother of Marine Corps Lance Cpl Kareem M Nikoui, who died in the Kabul bombing. She wrote in her Facebook post addressed to President Biden: “You turned to walk away, and I let you know my son’s blood was on your hands, and… as you walked away from me like you were saying ‘ok, whatever!”
Surveys and commentaries alike show that most Americans supported the end of the 20-year old Afghanistan war. According to a recent Pew Research Center Poll, 54 per cent of Americans say that ending the Afghanistan war and pulling the U.S. troops was the right decision. However, only 27 per cent considered President Biden’s handling of the troops’ pullout and evacuation as “excellent” or “good.” President Biden’s approval rating also took a big tumble in the aftermath of Afghanistan withdrawal. According to the recently published NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, Biden’s approval rating has sunk to an all-time low of just 43 per cent.
Biden and his allies tried to blame his Afghanistan fiasco squarely on former President Donald Trump. They claimed that they had to honor the treaty Trump had signed with the Taliban. However, Biden had no issue extending the controversial eviction moratorium knowing that it would not stand the constitutional test. “Constitutionally, the bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster,” Biden admitted during a press conference. He continued, “At a minimum, by the time it is litigated, we’ll probably give some additional time.”
The Biden presidency is a media creation to a great extent. The press hounded Biden’s predecessor with its myriad fake narratives such as the ‘Russian influence.’ On the other hand, most negative Biden stories, such as the ‘Hunter Biden laptop story,’ were censored by mainstream media and the Silicon Valley corporations. Biden was hoping for another bailout from his friends in the media and Big Tech. However, the Afghanistan fiasco has proved too much for a frail and unfortunately cognitively deteriorating Commander-in-Chief.
The Kabul airport bombing would eventually end up killing 13 American soldiers and wounding 15. It also killed about 90 Afghans and injured several dozen more. “When someone is the President of the United States, the responsibility is total,” the candidate Biden had tweeted last year. Now that he is the commander-in-chief, it is his time to own up to his failures.
