Americans watched disturbing video: desperate people eager to get out of Afghanistan.
“Is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially unvetted refugees from Afghanistan? All day, we’ve heard phrases like, ‘We’ve promised them.’ Well, who did? Did you?"
Laura Ingraham, Fox News host.
"If history is any guide, and it’s always a guide, we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country, and over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions. So first we invade, and then we are invaded."
Tucker Carlson, Fox News host
"If history is any guide, and it’s always a guide, we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country, and over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions. So first we invade, and then we are invaded."
We can be certain that footage of desperate people in Kabul will be shown prominently in upcoming GOP ads.
Biden will suffer from the reality and the images. The exit from Afghanistan is a mess. I have seen no images of orderly people in lines getting processed rapidly and exiting to somewhere safe. This is a chaos story. Frantic people trying to escape is memorable, whether it is children running from napalm in Vietnam, passengers on the Titanic in movies, or people clinging to planes leaving Kabul.
The smart thing for Democratic officeholders in tough races in 2022 would be to distance themselves from Biden. That defection will make things worse for Biden. It is one thing to have Monday-morning-quarterbacking from Trump, the GOP, and Fox, but not from fellow Democrats. Ideal for Biden would be if Democrats circled the wagons politically and defended him. Put the blame on those corrupt, ungrateful Afghan men, who shamefully abandon their own women.
But I expect many Democrats to join the criticism of Biden. Democrats include the Squad on the left, Blue Dogs on the right, Women, Blacks, college-town-liberals, Bernie-or-bust people, climate activists, union people, new immigrants. It is a team of teams, not a team. Biden does not have a commanding presence, nor can he scare Democrats into line. Biden communicates empathy, not strength. And now he communicates incompetence.
The defection of Democrats is likely because it is the central brand quality of Democrats to sympathize with victims of oppression, and it looks like Biden failed in that. The story from Afghanistan is that women left behind will be badly oppressed. A second core quality of Democrats is liberal guilt. News articles read by Democrats in The Atlantic and The New Yorker describe the plight of translators who served American troops and who will face trouble--possibly summary execution--by the Taliban. We have an obligation to save these refugees from violence.
Biden has an opportunity to surprise here. Republicans are uneasy about Afghan refugees, which makes unlikely meaningful Congressional action. The lesson of the 21st century, and especially the past four years, is that Congress is ineffective at stopping a president or passing controversial legislation. Only the president can act, and this is done with executive orders and within administrative departments. Biden can declare that all Afghans go to Guam or Guantanamo or Fort Hood or anywhere in the world for processing. Set up emergency housing. Some members of Congress will protest that immigration is a matter of law and what Biden would do is unlawful. Biden will cite emergency powers. Congress will submit.
It is an opportunity to set up a Berlin airlift sort of operation. The U.S. immigration services cannot process paperwork and the U.S. military does not understand foreign cultures, but the military does know how to do logistics. FedEx could do this. Amazon does it every day. The logistics of transport are what Americans are good at, including our military.
Biden caught a break. The GOP won't be able to create a consistent narrative of disapproval because they are of two minds. On one hand there is the duty to comrades in arms, which would support Biden. Moreover Republicans will see women as worthy victims because the issue would be a religious one---those nasty Muslims. However, the most popular Fox News hosts are sending up the alarm that the evacuation crisis in Kabul is a clever plot designed to import future Democrats--plus a few terrorists. Biden can expect criticism, but in multiple directions, making a muddle.
Biden can climb out of his political hole by taking clear, masterful action, by acting like a Commander in Chief. Do an airlift. Get translators and women out. That is what Democrats do: rescue the oppressed.
7 comments:
Wow...harsh.
One thing is clear. The administration thought they had time. Is it a surprise the "Afghan Army" surrendered instantly? Not in hindsight, which came stunningly quick.
Most observers were aware of the weakness of the Afghan central government which had little influence outside of Kabul, but the full extent only came to light when US support stopped.
Biden has been in office 8 months and inherited a classic "damned if you do..." situation reminiscent of what did in LBJ, who chose to escalate in an attempt to bring closure in Vietnam. This wasn't a choice here, and it's my guess that Biden chose to pull out now to get the issue off the table. Sure, the right will bleat and try to obfuscate their own responsibility, but Biden is reflecting the will of the majority.
Don't watch so much FOX, it's bad for digestion and may cause a rash.
The media ignored Afghanistan for much of last 20 years, unless you watched CSPAN, so most Americans have no context for the scenes of chaos. It's mainly in Kabul, with Afghans formerly employed by the US understandably wishing to leave. By the way...
There were 15,000 American civilians there...what were they all doing?
I am sitting up here at Linda Vista rehab and watching a lot of MSNBC news. There is a lot of follow up from military and other sources talking quite a bit about how they are evacuating the Americans and some Afghans. Biden now says they will keep the troops there until evacuations are completed. I do not see how the republicans or the left wing can make hay out of this situation. Biden's polls are down from all of this, but as we are committing to getting people out, I doubt if this situation will contribute to that downswing in the polls for long.
It is also possible that the Taliban will behave somewhat differently this time around. They claim to be willing to honor women's rights. We will see, but at least there is the verbal claim.
I do hope that the left extremists will let this blow over. We are in peril over the 2022 elections. Will they hold out on the Infrastructure bill for more, or will they let this be a victory that would help in the elections? Or will the left shoot itself in the foot again?
Biden couldn’t put a competent military with drawl together to begin with. I doubt he’s going to be able to put together a competent civilian evaluation, especially considering that he can only do it with the cooperation of the Taliban.
While you are pondering all of this, here’s a great podcast on the topic from Bari Weiss.
The comment above from “Unknown” was me, trying out something new that didn’t work.
It's not Bidens job to plan and execute a Military withdrawal. As CIC, he gets to order the job, and their are squads of 3 and 4 Star Generals who carry out the orders. My opinion, the Military has had since May to put together a workable plan to get these people out, and they, along with the Nabobs at the State Department booted the ball into the Talibans goal.
At the peak of his middling capacities when he ran for president in 1988, Joe Biden was a blustering serial liar, alternately bellicose and petulant when caught out stealing Neal Kinnock's biography.
After his revolting interview with partisan stooge George Stephanopoulos yesterday, Biden hit a new low for modern presidents (okay, aside from Trump, for our compulsives on the left).
When asked about the worst Afghan death images, Biden indignantly splutters, "That was four days ago!" (it was two), as if that's material. He lies about military and intelligence warnings.
The circle of life has brought back Biden's childhood stutter to complement his declining, always-mediocre mental acuity. Sadly, the very worst facets of his greasy character remain in spades.
Welcome the Afghans. Like we welcomed the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Cambodians , the Japanese, the AzerbaijanIan’s under Reagan.
And on and on , when ever we have a war with a country the middle class refugees pop up in Los Angeles. The Afghans will really be welcomed in Southern Oregon.Muslims in the heart of the White Christian Facist counties , a real statement of brotherhood and acceptance of women’s freedom from male domination. Can’t blame Biden for that venture. Go after Kate Brown for suggesting Afghans are welcome in Oregon. Keep’em in Portland, we don’t want’em down here,
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