{"id":295331,"date":"2021-09-01T18:27:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=7f97bc6ea9918befb992b921dd39bc1d"},"modified":"2021-09-01T18:27:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:27:20","slug":"bidens-defense-of-afghanistan-withdrawal-had-a-side-serving-of-pro-war-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/01\/bidens-defense-of-afghanistan-withdrawal-had-a-side-serving-of-pro-war-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Defense of Afghanistan Withdrawal Had a Side-Serving of Pro-War Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Joe<\/a>

On Tuesday, an American president said the words<\/a>: \u201cThe war in Afghanistan is now over.\u201d One president started it, three presidents shared it and sustained it, and now a fourth president has dropped the curtain at enormous political cost.<\/p>\n

Twenty years of sacrifice beyond comprehension, tens of thousands of civilian and military lives lost, including the scores laid low by the Kabul airport bombing. \u201c$300 million a day for two decades,\u201d President Biden explained on Tuesday, a fortune squandered that could have funded health care, child care, housing, education, clean energy exploration. A fortune squandered that could have provided reasons for our youngest generations to look forward to the future instead of down in despair. <\/p>\n

After days of merciless pummeling from wildly hypocritical Republicans<\/a>, a number of purple-district Democrats<\/a> and a \u201cnews\u201d media that was instrumental in foisting this fiasco on us<\/a> in the first place, Biden rose forcefully to his own defense. \u201cBy the time I came to office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001,\u201d he explained<\/a>, \u201ccontrolling or contesting nearly half of the country. The previous administration\u2019s agreement said that if we stuck to the May 1 deadline that they had signed on to leave by, the Taliban wouldn\u2019t attack any American forces. But if we stayed, all bets were off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we were left with a simple decision,\u201d Biden continued<\/a>. \u201cEither follow through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave Afghanistan, or say we weren\u2019t leaving and commit another tens of thousands more troops. Going back to war. That was the choice, the real choice. Between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not extending a forever exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the chaotic final days of the war, the president stated<\/a> flatly, “I take responsibility for the decision.” Following this declaration was Biden’s apologia — not apology — for the mayhem of the withdrawal. He painted a picture of a security situation that would have fallen into chaos no matter what plans were executed. While there is a good degree of truth to this, the fact remains that the Biden administration pulled the string on withdrawal while this country’s immigration\/refugee assistance programs were in a deplorable state of disrepair. Thanks in large part to the vandalism of prior administration officials including national security adviser and vivid fascist Stephen Miller<\/a>, our government was ill-prepared for an influx of help\/rescue requests from fleeing Afghan civilians. Our allies were similarly unprepared.<\/p>\n

Not every voice has been raised against Biden\u2019s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. \u201cUnlike his three immediate predecessors in the Oval Office, all of whom also came to see the futility of the Afghan operation, Biden alone had the political courage to fully end America\u2019s involvement,\u201d writes<\/a> David Rothkopf for The Atlantic<\/em>. \u201cAlthough Donald Trump made a plan to end the war, he set a departure date that fell after the end of his first term and created conditions that made the situation Biden inherited more precarious. And despite significant pressure and obstacles, Biden has overseen a military and government that have managed, since the announcement of America\u2019s withdrawal, one of the most extraordinary logistical feats in their recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n