“I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.”
Addressing the nation on Monday with regards to the crisis in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden was angry and morose. And apart from his passing reference to Harry Truman’s old adage, the president was decidedly disinterested in taking responsibility for the catastrophe over which he now presides.
Elements of the president’s speech were earnest. Biden is clearly determined to avoid the loss of any more Americans in Afghanistan. He clearly believes that withdrawing from Afghanistan is both necessary and just. Many people share that viewpoint. Still, this was not the speech of a leader so much as it was that of a pundit.
Biden attacked the Afghan government and security forces for failing to fight harder. This complaint is legitimate, in part, but Biden offered no humility for his pulling out the aviation, intelligence, and headquarters support from those forces. That decision has seen thousands of Afghans die over the past few weeks as they were encircled without support.
The president failed to reemphasize America’s commitment to its treaty allies such as Japan and those of NATO. This was a huge error of judgment, evincing a failure to understand just how concerned many allies now feel in regards to America’s global credibility.
Other elements of this address were singularly ludicrous. Apparently not making a dark joke, Biden insisted that human rights remain a centerpiece of his administration’s foreign policy. This will be news to those Americans watching their televisions. It will also be news to those Afghans now watching their friends and family plummet off of the aircraft now speeding out of Kabul.
The president also insisted that he would ensure Afghanistan doesn’t return to its position as a hotbed of terrorist exports to the West. (I will write on Tuesday why this pledge lacks even a pretense of credibility.)
Most of all, the president seemed angry. Angry at those who believed withdrawal could have been effected more successfully than via the school of bloody shambles. Angry at those who suggested a residual force of 2,500 Americans, not taking active casualties, might be preferable to turning over a nation to medieval Islamists who worship fanaticism and exist in ideological kinship to the authors of 9/11. Angry at those who suggest the president bears any blame for the policy he has enacted.
The buck stops here, the president said. Alas, there is no “here” in this White House.
