President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, refused the request of allies to extend an Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. citizens and allies from Afghanistan.
The Taliban have quickly rewarded Biden’s appeasement. Politico’s Lara Seligman and Alex Thompson reported that the Taliban are increasing their obstruction of Americans and Afghans who are attempting to access Kabul’s airport.
This was entirely predictable. As I noted earlier on Tuesday, “Biden’s unmoved deadline will boost the Taliban’s growing confidence that they hold a stranglehold over the strategic initiative. The president has made it more not less likely that the Taliban will escalate their obstruction of the evacuation. … The perception of American weakness is fuel to the jihadi fire. And Biden has just delivered a supertanker’s worth of it.”
There’s another point to note: The Biden administration insists that the president is keeping his options open toward extending his Aug. 31 deadline if required. But this is very thin fiction. The reality, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki hinted at on Tuesday, is that the U.S. would have to extend the deadline now were the extension to have any credibility. After all, Psaki admitted that the evacuation of civilians would have to end before the Aug. 31 deadline in order to evacuate U.S. and other allied forces who are supporting the civilian evacuation safely. Of course, evacuating U.S. forces will also mean a reduction to the defense of the airport and means of future evacuations. For the White House to suggest that it retains flexibility is thus absurd.
Top line: The Taliban sense they can go for the jugular as a timid president immolates his credibility in a mad dash for the exits.
