America’s humiliating scuttle from Afghanistan has exposed President Joe Biden as confused and clueless at best. But it’s also, perhaps, shown him to be more repellent even than that: an arrogant, emotionally manipulative, and deeply cynical man.

I am not thinking primarily of Biden’s astonishing, uninterrupted series of false forecasts and broken promises, though there are many. Recall that a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely,” that “if there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out,” and that Afghans could be reassured because “we will stand with you just as you stood with us.”

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