The signature foreign policy “achievement” of the Biden/Harris administration must be our Afghanistan exit, pursued by a Taliban bear. Yesterday the Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their victory with a party and parade at the Bagram Air Base featuring the materiel we left behind (video below). The AP reported on the festivities in a story datelined Kabul:
Under blue skies and blazing sunshine at the Bagram base — once the center of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks — members of the Taliban Cabinet lauded achievements such as strengthening Islamic law and establishing a military system that provides “peace and security.”
The AP notes: “Women were barred from the event, including female journalists from The Associated Press, Agence French-Presse and Reuters. The Taliban did not give a reason for barring them.” Surely someone at the AP can crack the mystery.
It was a big Taliban party: “The audience of some 10,000 men included senior Taliban officials such as Acting Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob and Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was not at the parade.”
The AP doesn’t authenticate the military parade depicted in the video, but it describes it. The story observes that the Taliban’s Bagram party “was also an opportunity to showcase some of the military hardware abandoned by U.S. and NATO-led forces after decades of war, including helicopters, Humvees and tanks.”
Let us recall that Vice President Kamala Harris was “the last person in the room” with President Biden when the decision to exit was made. Yet, according to unnamed Harris aide, her own position remains obscure:
Harris declined to comment. A Harris aide said in an emailed statement that the vice president was fully involved in briefings in which she asked “probing questions.” The aide said Harris “strongly supported President Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war,” adding, “We’re not going to get into the Vice President’s private counsel to the President.”
The Washington Post reporters in the linked story want to leave us in a state of uncertainty, but at least they acknowledge that Harris is a part of the administration from which she seems so detached at the moment:
Harris’s role behind the scenes in one of the most consequential and controversial episodes of Biden’s presidency shows how she has sought to position herself as a vice president deeply involved in key moments — even agreeing with an interviewer that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden as he cemented his plans to pull out the troops and evacuate allies.
But it also suggests the limits of her ability — or willingness — to meaningfully alter Biden’s course on historic choices. She raised important questions about the Afghanistan withdrawal before the calamitous, 17-day evacuation from Kabul but did not push for any alternative policy, according to officials who attended meetings that included her and who provided new details about the matter to The Washington Post.
What a humiliating disgrace.
Remarkable to see all of this American military equipment being paraded by the Taliban. pic.twitter.com/0a8sFNC0SK
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 14, 2024
We remember.
The most embarrassing day of the Biden/Harris administration.
Never forget the thirteen lives lost. pic.twitter.com/yW9bIdot3R
— Joshua Walker (@RedsRepair95) August 14, 2024
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