President Joe Biden still won’t apologize for the complete chaos he’s triggered in Afghanistan as tens of thousands of American and allied lives remain at risk. Despite his claims to the contrary, his pullout has been an utter disaster, and America’s standing has suffered.
His televised speech Friday was once again an exercise in delusion, misdirection — and flat-out lying.
In his remarks, for instance, the president declared: “I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world.” He then looked back at his court jesters, a masked Secretary of State Antony Blinken and clueless Vice President Kamala Harris, as if he really believed what he was saying. “Matter of fact, the exact opposite I’ve got.”
Does he think Americans are really that gullible?
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson fretted: “When the United States decides emphatically to withdraw in a way that they have, clearly we’re going to have to manage the consequences.” That’s diplomatic speak for: Biden threw us under the bus.
Nothing in Biden’s speech or his responses to reporters — he stood a mere 28 minutes before abruptly leaving the podium — gave any indication the commander-in-chief is willing to be honest or understands the situation, let alone has adequate plans to solve it.
It’s one of the “most difficult airlifts in history,” and “the only country in the world capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the United States of America.” Yet he admitted, “We paused flights in Kabul a few hours this morning to make sure we could process the arriving evacuees at the transit points.”
He gave numbers on Americans evacuated yet then confessed the administration isn’t really sure how many remain.
He told a reporter, “Let me get back to the fundamental point I made at the outset” but had to rifle through his papers to see what it was.
And he claimed, “We know of no circumstance where American citizens are — carrying an American passport — are trying to get through to the airport” and haven’t been able to. “We’ve made an agreement with the Taliban. Thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through.”
Even the hand-picked reporters in the room were incredulous. “That doesn’t really square with the images we’re seeing around the airport and with the reporting on the ground from our colleagues who are describing chaos and violence,” one said.
Plus the impotency: He claimed we are “in constant contact with the Taliban.” For what? So far there is no evidence that the Taliban are helping Americans and Afghans get to the airport. They are doing the opposite.
And he talked repeatedly of his plans “to bring international pressure on the Taliban with respect to the treatment of the Afghan people overall, but including Afghan, particularly, women and girls.” How naïve can he be? The Taliban terrorists don’t care about “international pressure.” Lectures mean nothing to barbarians.
“There’ll be plenty of time to criticize and second-guess when this operation is over,” Biden declared. No, the time to criticize this calamity is now, and for Biden to admit the truth. After all, if he can’t come clean with the public on this, how can anyone trust him on anything?