President Joe Biden in his Friday press conference on Afghanistan again dodged the single most important question, the one most relevant to why the situation there became such a debacle.
The perspicacious question, the final one asked in the pathetically abbreviated press conference, came from National Public Radio’s Scott Detrow.
“Can you just fully explain,” Detrow asked, “why the plan wasn’t to go ahead with these evacuations of both Americans and allies before the drawdowns began, before Bagram was closed?”
This is the question at the heart of Biden’s abject dereliction of responsibility and lack of good judgment regarding the exit from south-central Asia. Bagram is the superb military airfield from which American forces withdrew on July 5 in the dead of night, without even informing the Afghan commander on scene. It was a base from which protection and support operations could have been conducted all the way up until Biden’s self-imposed deadline of an Aug. 31 final withdrawal.
It defies all logic to withdraw the protectors before withdrawing the protectees, especially when, as Biden himself admitted, there were at least some intelligence and military reports (numerous press accounts indicate the reports were strong and urgent) indicating the Taliban could consolidate power rather quickly after NATO forces exited. Logic aside, it defies a solemn duty for an American president to ensure, as far as humanly possible, the safety of American citizens.
Biden’s answer was a quintessential “change the subject” dodge. He said he didn’t expect the “total demise of the Afghan national force” so quickly. “Let’s assume the Afghan national force had continued to fight and they were surrounding Kabul. It would be a very different story.”
At that answer, jaws should have dropped all over the world. Is the president of the United States really saying that he didn’t feel it necessary to protect Americans because he thought they would be protected by the armed forces of the nation the U.S. was abandoning? Seriously?
Even if Biden had been right, despite his intelligence warnings otherwise, that the Afghan government and armed forces would not collapse so quickly, how in good conscience could he even take the risk that they would fall? And even if they had held power longer, why rely on them to provide cover for Americans and our allies? Did the Afghan army take an oath to protect American nationals?
Remember, before Biden announced the withdrawal timetable, U.S. forces held control of Kabul and most regional capitals, and could have done so almost indefinitely. The Taliban may have controlled plenty of villages and areas of the countryside, but the timing of our exit and the manner of it were entirely Biden’s to choose. As long as U.S. air superiority and intelligence remained ensconced at Bagram, American civilians could have secured safe expatriation from Afghanistan.
Not only did Biden dodge the central question by going off on the tangent of when the Afghan army would fall, but he also abruptly ended the entire press conference as soon as he semifinished his half-witted answer.
This is not accountability, but cowardice. And it’s utterly unacceptable.
