When he first took office, President Joe Biden reportedly told his advisers he wants to be the next Franklin D. Roosevelt. But less than a year into his presidency, with an economic crisis mounting and a foreign policy humiliation stinging, it is clear Biden is just like Jimmy Carter, but worse.
The steady creep of inflation during Biden’s first several months in office has already reminded many of the Carter years. But the disaster in Afghanistan, the rushed, chaotic withdrawal and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover, has solidified the similarity between the two administrations.
During Carter’s administration, tensions in Iran were beginning to boil over. For a while, Carter remained committed to the U.S.’s longtime ally, the shah of Iran, but eventually tossed him aside and denied him asylum after it became clear Islamic revolutionaries were fueling anti-American sentiment in the region. Carter later relented under political pressure and allowed the shah to come to the U.S. to receive medical treatment, but he failed to make sure American officials in Iran were protected in case there was retaliation. As a result, the Islamists were able to hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. And to this day, we still face the threat of a radicalized Iran.
Like Carter, Biden failed to think through his strategy. In fact, it doesn’t seem like he had much of a strategy at all. He did not secure our assets and allies in Afghanistan before he pulled our troops out of the region, so the Afghans who worked with our military have been hunted down and executed in the streets. Taliban terrorists have captured American weaponry that was essentially abandoned during the withdrawal. U.S. officials in our embassy in Kabul were forced to flee at the very last minute.
And like Carter’s Iranian disaster, Biden’s Afghanistan travesty will have long-lasting consequences. The Taliban is already working to set up their own government. It will no doubt receive help from some of the other terror threats in the region, including Iran. Even if you believe, as I do, that withdrawal was necessary and long overdue, we should have been able to exit strategically without handing the reins over to a terrorist organization.
Biden’s failure is inexcusable. He has been in politics for far too long not to have learned from his predecessors’ mistakes. At least Carter could claim the guise of inexperience.
