There always seems to me to be something particularly cowardly about socialist leaders. Think of Jacinda who is still blaming the last government for things that are going wrong today. There is never any question that either she, or anyone in her government, should be held responsible for anything. They are perfect, blameless, so it must be the fault of the other guy.
But in my whole life, I have never seen a cowardly response anything like what we have seen from Joe Biden this last week. Biden has blamed his disastrous, shambolic exit from Afghanistan on the poor unfortunate Afghan army, who he has accused, basically, of running away.
What a shameful day for America and its allies.
Biden, who got draft deferments for Vietnam and has not spent a single day in military service, has no idea what it is like to fight an evil enemy hell-bent on destruction, yet he is the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. That in itself should send warning signals, but this is, of course, one of the roles of the President. That he should then spend time pouring scorn on Afghan fighters to cover up his own incompetence is shocking and demeaning. I suspect it is the worst and most vile statement an American president has ever made.
Leading Conservatives in the UK government made their disapproval clear. Lord Hammond, a former foreign secretary, said: “When I listen to the US president, I cannot help reaching the conclusion that this decision was made out of a sense of political tidy-mindedness – we need to close a file; we need to draw a line; it has gone on for too long.”
Well, yes. Biden was hellbent on making a political statement: of having all US soldiers home by the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers. How marvellous, how triumphant he would have been, standing up to the world, showing his strength on the anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history.
Well, what a statement he has made now.
Twenty years on from that darkest of days, America’s global plan lies in ruins, its stupidity and incompetence on display: the Afghan withdrawal confirming that they don’t understand the rest of the world and aren’t even fit to govern their own country.
In the Middle East, every country or territory touched by America is in chaos. Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban. Iraq is a nightmare, Syria was the scene of genocide while the world looked on. Libya is a basket case. The Israel-Palestine peace plan failed: the Gaza withdrawal merely emboldened Hamas’s terrorists. Biden’s administration is still sucking up to Iran’s two-faced regime. As for the Gulf States, what will happen to them when the demand for oil collapses as a result of the climate change zealots? The Middle East’s woes have only just begun and American foreign policy is squarely to blame.
Biden’s shambolic exit from Afghanistan has resulted in the Taliban inheriting huge amounts of American military equipment which was left behind because Biden’s closing date was fast approaching. No doubt the Taliban is already making good use of its new bounty; maybe that is part of the reason why the Afghan army collapsed. What irony: the Americans were attacked on their own soil by the Taliban and now the American taxpayer has funded the Taliban’s uprising. If it weren’t all so tragic, it would be hilarious.
Biden also used another of Jacinda’s tactics. When things started to go horribly wrong, he hunkered down and refused to talk to anyone. Another act of cowardice and lack of responsibility on the part of the Commander-in-Chief.
Like all world leaders, Biden wanted a legacy. His was to be bringing home the American soldiers, a process started by President Trump, in a somewhat more organised and measured manner.
Biden now has his legacy. His withdrawal from Afghanistan will be seen forever as a catastrophic mistake, and the defining moment of his presidency.
But like all cowards, Biden is defiant. Do you want the truth, Sleepy Joe? You can’t handle the truth.
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