The Shame of Joe Biden [with comment by Paul]

Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw all military forces from Afghanistan, while explicitly deriding the idea that the Taliban would quickly take over the country. He was wrong. Now he has been reduced to pleading with the Taliban to be nice, lest they forfeit their entitlement to foreign aid. We have to go back at least to the Carter administration to find such pathetic behavior by a president.

Having grossly miscalculated the situation in Afghanistan, Biden is now scrambling to return forces to that country, equivalent to those he just withdrew. His only goal at this point is to get American citizens out before we see pictures of helicopters taking off from the roof of the embassy in Kabul as friendly Afghans cling to their runners.

Biden’s humiliation is close to complete:

With the Afghan government collapsing to a surging Taliban, President Biden sought to project an image of resolve on Saturday, speeding the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan as he announced a series of steps that he said would protect American interests.

The announcement came hours after the Taliban seized the last major city in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-i-Sharif, marking the complete loss of the country’s north as they appeared on the verge of a full military takeover. A day earlier, two key cities in southern and western Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.

The insurgents now effectively control the southern, western and northern regions of the country — just about encircling the country’s capital, Kabul, as they press on in their rapid military offensive.
***
…The president defended his decision to leave the country after two decades of war, a departure that has led to the near-disintegration of the Afghan military.

Could Joe Biden’s humiliation get worse? Yes, it could. If American bombers have to destroy American aircraft on the ground to prevent their being used by the Taliban. I am not sure whether that is happening; take this report for what it is worth:

American B-52H bombers are understood to be conducting an attack on the largest Afghan air force base in order to destroy the aircraft based there.


Via InstaPundit.

We will know soon enough. In any event, the Biden administration’s misjudgment of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan will bedevil the administration until it draws to a close in 2024.

PAUL ADDS: There’s also a report that U.S. embassy diplomats in Kabul have been instructed to destroy U.S. logos, flags, and other items that “could be misused in propaganda efforts.”

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