Sometimes you have to turn to the foreign press to get the straight story on events in America, or events in which American actors feature. Like Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Yesterday, per the Telegraph, “the Houses of Parliament delivered an unprecedented rebuke to a US president.” Parliament’s assessment of Joe Biden’s performance was, to put it mildly, unsparing:
Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal was condemned as “catastrophic” and “shameful” on Wednesday….
“The West could not continue this US-led mission – a mission conceived and executed in support and defence of America – without American logistics, without US air power and without American might,” the Prime Minister said in a clear swipe at Washington.
MPs from all sides of the Commons were forceful in their criticism. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said: “The US is, of course, an important ally, but to overlook the fighting of the Afghan troops and forces, and the fact that they have been at the forefront of that fighting in recent years, is wrong.”
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “The American decision to withdraw was not just a mistake – it was an avoidable mistake, from President Trump’s flawed deal with the Taliban to President Biden’s decision to proceed, and to proceed in such a disastrous way.”
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Chris Bryant, the Labour MP, called Mr Biden’s remarks about Afghan soldiers “some of the most shameful comments ever from an American president”.
It goes on and on. And this is interesting:
The Telegraph understands Mr Johnson had been attempting to get Mr Biden on the phone to discuss Kabul falling from Monday morning. The pair eventually talked at close to 10pm on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is traveling to Washington next week to meed with Biden. The Jerusalem Post assesses the impact of the Afghan disaster on that meeting:
[N]ow – after the fiasco of the US pullout from Afghanistan – Biden will be coming to the meeting from a much weaker position in the region than if the meeting had taken place last week or before then.
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[T]he Biden administration acted like it had no idea what had happened in our part of the world, or – to make a comparison Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken do not like – in Vietnam.The US intelligence estimate that was made public was that it would take 90 days for the Taliban to take Kabul; it took them less than a week. The US trained the Afghan military to defend its country from terrorists; the soldiers surrendered to the Taliban. Plus, the US said it would give special immigration visas to Afghans who worked with Americans; only a fraction of them have managed to get out so far, and many thousands of Afghans mobbed the airport in Kabul to try to escape.
All of this adds up to a US that has far less credibility to make demands of, and promises to, Israel.
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…[T]he current state of affairs in Afghanistan makes American security assurances weaker and less reliable. Who’s to say that the US won’t get sick of guaranteeing Israel’s security and stop doing it, consequences be damned?The same is true of US security assurances when it comes to Iran.
The Biden administration and its press allies can do their best to put a happy face on the Afghan fiasco, but our allies are not fooled. Neither, unfortunately, are our enemies.
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