The Biden Legacy in One Photo

 

President Joe Biden just concluded his Thursday press conference on the deadly suicide bombing in Kabul. With 12 Marines and more than 90 Afghans confirmed dead, the mood should have been somber. This was beyond somber; it was funereal.

Biden quietly mumbled his way through the speech at a glacial pace, expressing sadness at the deaths. The words promised vengeance but his tone was complete resignation. The loudest moments were the repeated clearing of his throat. An exhausted 78-year-old incapable of performing his duties and failing miserably when he tries.

To his credit, the President actually took questions from three handpicked journalists then two others. During the last question, he bowed his head on his hands for several seconds in silence. He briefly finished his remarks and wandered off the dais peppered by shouted questions left unanswered.

This is the state of American leadership at all levels in Washington. Complete and utter defeat.

Something has to give. Soon, one way or the other, it will.

Published in Foreign Policy, Islamist Terrorism, Military, Politics
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  1. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf (View Comment):
    Too many people rely on the TV to tell them what to think.

    You drink the Coca Cola
    And you said it tasted good
    And you watch the television
    Because it tells you that you should

    • #61
  2. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    MarciN (View Comment):

    Just my opinion, but I haven’t been happy about Trump’s plans for Afghanistan either. He and Biden both suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS), and neither could see that we had succeeded in Afghanistan. Both of them have been complaining about Afghanistan for fifteen years at least, and this year, they were “finally going to get us out” because they could say “it’s been twenty years.”

    I say that as someone who has admired just about everything else Trump has done. But I think he has had a blind spot when it comes to Afghanistan, and I’ve been frustrated by it. And I imagine this was at the heart of the conflict with John Bolton too. I’ll bet Bolton was a Reluctant Trumper, and then an Enthusiastic Trumper, which is why Bolton joined the Trump administration in the second or third year. But then they must have collided on the subject of Afghanistan, and Bolton became a Never Trumper overnight. I wouldn’t let my profound disagreement with Trump affect my overall opinion of him as president the way Bolton did, but I think I understand it.

    The tragedy here is that after twenty years of the presence of the most advanced military in the world–those billions of day-to-day interactions between the Afghans and our outstanding, generous, kind, intelligent, funny young people–half the country had become very western. Our military “ambassadors” really did win over hearts and minds.

    For centuries Afghanistan was the bar room and overnight inn that sat in the middle of a barren mountainous location that everyone had to go through to get somewhere else. The country was already far more sophisticated than its location would suggest it should or could be. It was a protectorate of Britain as recently as 1919. It was ready to advance technologically and socially, and today it is nowhere near as backward as it was twenty years ago. Our military presence and work did release many thousands of young people from the domination of the Taliban.

    As is true of Iran, the real problem is the conflict between the westernized young people and the fundamentalist Muslim old people. We have seen this phenomenon in Egypt, Iran–in fact, hundreds of other once-backward countries where people and technology from western nations have moved in. We may not have built nations, but we definitely built cultures.

    The people being killed this week in Afghanistan because they were ever friendly to Americans really are our friends. They have iPods and hopes and dreams, Disney+ on their tablets, and contacts all over the world.

    The young people in our military are the best of us. Of course they are angry about what is happening to the Afghans they have come to know over the last twenty years. We need to respect that, be grateful for it, be proud of them, and listen to them.

    Your wrong.

    Outside of Kabul, to the vast majority of the country, the Taliban are liberating them from a corrupt incompetent regime.  Whose soldiers are bandits, led by an out of touch capital, backed by foreign occupiers, who are forcing down literal perversion on there people.

    The presence of your troops was not helping.  The Afghan National Army was losing, your troops were slowing down the loss, but in another 5 years, you would have needed at least 50000 troops to maintain your presence.  The ANA was unable to maintain there current casualty rate.

    The US Army has spent the last 19 years lying to you.  Dont believe me?  Read the Afghanistan Papers.

     

    https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Afghanistan-Papers/Craig-Whitlock/9781982159009

    • #62
  3. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    .

    • #63
  4. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Joe’s performance was alarming, to be sure.  However, I don’t believe it’s going to make much difference.

    Incredibly, during this crisis, his polling among Democrats is still in the high 80s. That tells me, that even if he had soiled himself during the news conference, his voters wouldn’t have cared.  They didn’t care when he hid in his basement during the campaign; they don’t care now.

    It’s all about the social programs.  It’s all about the budget-busting spending.  They couldn’t care less about foreign policy.  How much have we heard from AOC and her posse during the last few days?

    I agree that something has to give.  However, the Dimocrats won’t give a rat’s derriere as long as it doesn’t affect them.  That includes Americans dying in a s***hole country.

    • #64
  5. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    CACrabtree (View Comment):
    even if he had soiled himself during the news conference

    A very likely scenario if he is suffering from the disease it is almost universally assumed he has, as it advances more and more rapidly. With the usual and necessary disclaimer that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a medical practitioner, that is my understanding of how this disease often progresses. Not to make light of a dreadfully serious situation, I have deep sympathy for the person involved and much deeper antipathy for what they are doing to the man and how they are using him, especially his wife, who someone recently advocated be brought up on charges of Elder Abuse. 

    • #65
  6. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Manny (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Also – to Marci comment #53, I think Trump saw the no win in the Middle East. He supported Israel, but met with other leaders in the area to find common ground. Trump’s plan as he has stated was to draw down, based on conditions that the Taliban had to meet, first civilians, then hardware, then military in an organized fashion. We learn that we were paying the Afghans to fight. Lots of money. They were letting us keep the peace, but the current president gave no conditions and a date. The first sign of trouble, the Afghan president flees.

    So in 20 years, the thugs bided their time and were ready to go. Radical Islam is patient. So now what was accomplished. I think Trump saw the writing, but wanted to leave a small keep the peace force and make sure all were out safely. I think he wanted the other Middle Eastern countries to address the radicals among them. It’s going to get uglier – and could be a step to WWIII – God forbid.

    Trump also likes to talk and then shift gears. He’s always angling for a better negotiating position. It might even be likely he would not have pulled out. He set the pull out date after the election so he would not get beat up during the election. He had four years to pull out and didn’t. I lean to the likelihood that Trump would never have pulled out.

    If the conditions were not right, maybe he would not have pulled out. He’s always looking for a better negotiating position? Could we use that right now? He shifted positions based on reality – 

    • #66
  7. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Also – to Marci comment #53, I think Trump saw the no win in the Middle East. He supported Israel, but met with other leaders in the area to find common ground. Trump’s plan as he has stated was to draw down, based on conditions that the Taliban had to meet, first civilians, then hardware, then military in an organized fashion. We learn that we were paying the Afghans to fight. Lots of money. They were letting us keep the peace, but the current president gave no conditions and a date. The first sign of trouble, the Afghan president flees.

    So in 20 years, the thugs bided their time and were ready to go. Radical Islam is patient. So now what was accomplished. I think Trump saw the writing, but wanted to leave a small keep the peace force and make sure all were out safely. I think he wanted the other Middle Eastern countries to address the radicals among them. It’s going to get uglier – and could be a step to WWIII – God forbid.

    Trump also likes to talk and then shift gears. He’s always angling for a better negotiating position. It might even be likely he would not have pulled out. He set the pull out date after the election so he would not get beat up during the election. He had four years to pull out and didn’t. I lean to the likelihood that Trump would never have pulled out.

    If the conditions were not right, maybe he would not have pulled out. He’s always looking for a better negotiating position? Could we use that right now? He shifted positions based on reality –

    Trumps ultimate ability was in reading people. Assessing their confidence, their resolve, their intentions. You don’t learn this in Kennedy School of Government. It really matters, and it’s not something that can be reliably outsourced to advisors. It’s like mob poker. 

    He knew how to bluff, how to call bluffs, and ultimately how to fold.

    How many negotiations has this guy been in? Tens of thousands. You can’t be a bad negotiator if you have had tens of thousands of negotiations and somehow end up having  more than a billion dollars.

    When you have the might of the US military and a reputation for not suffering weaklings and pretenders, it’s not difficult to get a positive outcome.

     

    • #67
  8. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Franco (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Also – to Marci comment #53, I think Trump saw the no win in the Middle East. He supported Israel, but met with other leaders in the area to find common ground. Trump’s plan as he has stated was to draw down, based on conditions that the Taliban had to meet, first civilians, then hardware, then military in an organized fashion. We learn that we were paying the Afghans to fight. Lots of money. They were letting us keep the peace, but the current president gave no conditions and a date. The first sign of trouble, the Afghan president flees.

    So in 20 years, the thugs bided their time and were ready to go. Radical Islam is patient. So now what was accomplished. I think Trump saw the writing, but wanted to leave a small keep the peace force and make sure all were out safely. I think he wanted the other Middle Eastern countries to address the radicals among them. It’s going to get uglier – and could be a step to WWIII – God forbid.

    Trump also likes to talk and then shift gears. He’s always angling for a better negotiating position. It might even be likely he would not have pulled out. He set the pull out date after the election so he would not get beat up during the election. He had four years to pull out and didn’t. I lean to the likelihood that Trump would never have pulled out.

    If the conditions were not right, maybe he would not have pulled out. He’s always looking for a better negotiating position? Could we use that right now? He shifted positions based on reality –

    Trumps ultimate ability was in reading people. Assessing their confidence, their resolve, their intentions. You don’t learn this in Kennedy School of Government. It really matters, and it’s not something that can be reliably outsourced to advisors. It’s like mob poker.

    He knew how to bluff, how to call bluffs, and ultimately how to fold.

    How many negotiations has this guy been in? Tens of thousands. You can’t be a bad negotiator if you have had tens of thousands of negotiations and somehow end up having more than a billion dollars.

    When you have the might of the US military and a reputation for not suffering weaklings and pretenders, it’s not difficult to get a positive outcome.

     

    Yes – and I believe that there are many in the military at this moment who echo your sentiments. Compare that to Biden’s decades as a Washington politician – and look at him. He is struggling.

    • #68
  9. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Manny (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Also – to Marci comment #53, I think Trump saw the no win in the Middle East. He supported Israel, but met with other leaders in the area to find common ground. Trump’s plan as he has stated was to draw down, based on conditions that the Taliban had to meet, first civilians, then hardware, then military in an organized fashion. We learn that we were paying the Afghans to fight. Lots of money. They were letting us keep the peace, but the current president gave no conditions and a date. The first sign of trouble, the Afghan president flees.

    So in 20 years, the thugs bided their time and were ready to go. Radical Islam is patient. So now what was accomplished. I think Trump saw the writing, but wanted to leave a small keep the peace force and make sure all were out safely. I think he wanted the other Middle Eastern countries to address the radicals among them. It’s going to get uglier – and could be a step to WWIII – God forbid.

    Trump also likes to talk and then shift gears. He’s always angling for a better negotiating position. It might even be likely he would not have pulled out. He set the pull out date after the election so he would not get beat up during the election. He had four years to pull out and didn’t. I lean to the likelihood that Trump would never have pulled out.

    It’s very likely – maybe even certain – that the Taliban etc wouldn’t have met the conditions, so he would have had that justification to fall back on if needed.

    • #69
  10. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    https://rushbabe49.com/2021/08/22/there-are-grounds-right-now-to-impeach-president-joe-biden-updated-in-august/

    • #70
  11. Psmith Inactive
    Psmith
    @psmith

    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf (View Comment):

    What we see in that photo is an angry, nasty, prideful, racist, corrupt, entitled old man who got his deepest desire but has lost his mind and failed his country . . . and now Nemesis has come to exact her price.

    I am almost sympathetic.

    Like the dog that chased the car and had no idea what to do when he caught it.

    • #71
  12. Psmith Inactive
    Psmith
    @psmith

    Franco (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed. (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):
    All of these claims legitimized – obliquely- the demonization of all Trump supporters.

    So, I demonized myself. Got it.

     

    Your conclusion of my comment needs expansion for me to understand the reference or the meaning. Sorry, not on the six-word pithy retort wavelength.

    Obvious what Jon meant. He was  Trump supporter, so if you accuse him of demonizing Trump supporters….

    • #72
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