President Joe Biden is moving on from his summer crises. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the Americans he stranded in Afghanistan.
Biden is “hoping to turn the page” on those Americans, in the words of the Associated Press. It’s no wonder why that’s the case: Biden is a cynical politician who is willing to disregard his responsibilities as a president in order to achieve his domestic agenda. After all, what are a few hundred American hostages to the Taliban when there is infrastructure and new social programs to spend money on?
And those Americans are hostages. Six planes are ready to take 19 U.S. citizens and two permanent residents, among hundreds of others, out of Afghanistan. Two of those planes are at an airport in northern Afghanistan, but the Taliban won’t let them leave. A congressional source told CBS News that “the Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans.”
“The Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans,” a senior congressional source told CBS News. 3/
— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) September 5, 2021
But Biden has moved on. While Secretary of State Antony Blinken bemoans that it is difficult to evacuate Americans without personnel present (who would have thought?), Biden is now preparing to travel to California to campaign for embattled Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Apparently, saving Newsom’s mediocre political career is more important than bringing home Americans who are at the mercy of a group of backward terrorist thugs.
Biden can hardly acknowledge that he abandoned Americans in Afghanistan thanks to his chaotic withdrawal. After all, his administration repeatedly assured us that they planned for every contingency. Hundreds of Americans, along with permanent residents and America’s Afghan allies, being left to the whims of the Taliban? This was all planned for, Biden has told us.
Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal was a disgrace. He can’t be allowed to run from that just because he feels like it’s time to move on. He managed to do everything wrong, culminating in the Taliban conquering the country and claiming a few hundred American hostages in the process. It shouldn’t need to be said that that is more important for the president of the United States than a languishing infrastructure bill or Newsom.
