Repeat after me: Orange 👏 Man 👏 Bad 👏
Here's the AP headline:
Biden: "Look, fat, me and my articulate buddy Barack had 8 years of harmony in Afghanistan, then that orange guy mucked it up, so that's why I left billions of dollars in high-tech weapons to terrorists, blew up innocent civilians, and got U.S. troops killed."
No, really, that's the excuse!
"President Biden's choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor," the White House summary states, noting that when Biden entered office, "the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country."
The "conditions" Trump created refer to a deal Trump made to withdraw troops by 2021 in an effort to end America's endless wars – something Biden was under no obligation to honor as a different administration.
But where Trump wasn't the evil culprit, it was the fault of the spooks and the Pentagon:
The report does fault overly optimistic intelligence community assessments about the Afghan army's willingness to fight, and says Biden followed military commanders' recommendations for the pacing of the drawdown of U.S. forces.
It's everyone's fault but Joe's. He likes chocolate chocolate-chip ice cream! He's cool! He likes all those beautiful kids, man!
Hard truth time: The success or failure of an operation lies squarely with the commanding officer.
Joe Biden is the nation's top commanding officer.
To not assume responsibility is a dishonorable disgrace.
Former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was badly wounded in the explosion, told a congressional hearing last month that the withdrawal "was a catastrophe" and "there was an inexcusable lack of accountability."
Here's two articles to remind you of how bad the whole withdrawal was:
In case you're wondering, this kind of stuff is only going to get worse:
The White House asserts the mistakes of Afghanistan informed its handling of Ukraine, where the Biden administration has been credited for supporting Kyiv's defense against Russia's invasion.
We'll do better at evacuation when World War 3 kicks off. Nice!
In a rare instance of actual journalism, the media got angry with the White House for providing this report 10 minutes before a briefing in advance of a long holiday weekend.
What I wouldn't give for some actual integrity anywhere in our institutions.
