BIDEN’S WEIRD AFGHANISTAN MOMENT. On Aug. 31, 2021, President Joe Biden gathered reporters to the White House to declare the disastrously conducted U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan an “extraordinary success.” Saying it did not make it so, of course, but Biden’s position was clear: No matter what the critics say, my exit from Afghanistan was a success.
Fast forward six months. Biden goes to Capitol Hill on March 1 to deliver his first State of the Union address. Usually, a State of the Union is an opportunity for a president to brag about the successes of his time in office. And indeed, Biden spent a lot of time bragging. He touted the giant $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, which he calls the American Rescue Plan, which he signed into law in March 2021. “Few pieces of legislation have done more at a critical moment in our history to lift us out of a crisis,” Biden said.
Biden also praised the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, which he signed into law last November. “It’s going to transform America to put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century,” Biden said. “We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks. We’re now talking about an infrastructure decade.”
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Biden went on and on. The infrastructure law will “build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.” It will replace lead water pipes. It will bring high-speed internet to rural areas. It will fix 65,000 miles of highways and 1,500 bridges in need of repair. It was one success after another.
So it was odd that Biden did not mention the “extraordinary success” of the Afghanistan operation. Did not say a single word about it. In 6,500 words of discussing his presidency, not a single word about the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The president did, however, say the word “Afghanistan” three times. All were in connection with what Biden called his “Unity Agenda” — proposals that could have bipartisan support in a time of deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats. One of those proposals involved healthcare for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“My administration is providing assistance and job training and housing, and now helping lower-income veterans get VA care debt free,” Biden said. “And our troops in Iraq have faced — and Afghanistan — have faced many dangers. One being stationed at bases, breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits. Many of you have been there. I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times. These burn pits that incinerate waste — the wastes of war, medical and hazardous material, jet fuel, and so much more.” Then Biden said he is “calling on Congress to pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and the comprehensive healthcare they deserve.” The proposal got strong applause.
So, those were the three times Biden mentioned Afghanistan. None had anything to do with the catastrophically executed withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. The exclusion of the subject seemed particularly odd since 13 American soldiers had died in the effort when they were struck by a suicide bomber. One of the things presidents do is to recognize the sacrifice of American military men and women. It is a solemn responsibility of the commander in chief. But the 13 were not mentioned in Biden’s speech.
Actually, they were, in an odd way, when a heckler, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, shouted out during Biden’s address. Discussing U.S. soldiers exposed to toxic materials, Biden said, “Many of the world’s fittest and best trained warriors in the world [are] never the same: headaches, numbness, dizziness, a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.” At that point, a voice — Boebert’s — rang out: “You put them in. Thirteen of them!” There were some boos in the room, but Biden did not acknowledge her and continued with his speech to say that one of those soldiers who died was his son, Maj. Beau Biden. The president believes his son’s brain cancer was the result of exposure to toxic materials, either in Iraq or in Kosovo.
But no mention, beyond Boebert’s, of those 13 Americans who gave their lives helping to shepherd U.S. forces and Afghan refugees out of Afghanistan.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a historic moment for the United States. Biden was proud of it when it happened. “No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history,” he said in that Aug. 31, 2021, speech. “Only the United States had the capacity and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today.”
Heckling is not usually part of the picture when the president of the United States appears before Congress. This is not the British Parliament. Harassing the president has no place in Congress. But the disastrous end of the war in Afghanistan, and the loss of 13 American soldiers, needed to be mentioned in the State of the Union address — even if it took a heckler to do it.
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