This is exactly 100% correct. All the “endless war” rhetoric was just flat out wrong. It was wrong when Trump said it and it was wrong when Biden said it. But it was “popular.” However, just because something is popular, doesn’t mean that the people that like it know why they like it. If you had asked the average voter how many troops we had in Afghanistan at the peak and how many we had during the 2016 and 2020 election, they wouldn’t have been able to tell you that we had already cut our force there by over 90% and 95%. And our troops weren’t experiencing casualties.
It’s all about how you frame the question.
Our military has been in Afghanistan for 20 years. Do you want to stop our involvement in endless wars overseas?
American public - resounding bipartiasan YES
We have reduced our fighting force by 95% in Afghanistan and haven’t experienced a military casualty there since the spring of 2020. Without a small peacekeeping force of about 5,000 troops the Taliban will likely retake the country and institute sharia law. Do you support a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan and the international embarrassment that goes along with that (Taliban celebrating inside the US Embassay in Kabul)?
American public - resounding bipartisan NO
The 1st one sounds great as a simple 5 second sound byte campaign promise. The 2nd one is the truth (as evidenced by the last week).
I think President Trump was more concerned with not looking like Biden looks right now. If his advisers (in the pentagon) were smart (and I think they were), they probably told him that if you pull out now, the Taliban will be shooting off AKs from inside our abandoned bases and you will make us look weak on the international stage, and that will make you look weak. That’s all it would have taken to get Trump to back down on withdrawal.
I think Biden is barely a sentient houseplant and was told by his democrat political handlers (against the wishes of his advisors in the pentagon) that he NEEDED to authorize this withdrawal and everything would be fine. And he just went along with it because he has no real understanding of anything of this magnitude at his current mental capacity. I think they straight up lied to him and he believed them over the Pentagon.
Explorer Christopher Columbus has scored at least a temporary victory over a bunch of woke warrior wackos. His statue remains standing following a court win by our hero:
The high level of government incompetence on display today across multiple fronts has drawn criticism from liberals and conservatives alike. Despondent younger people might think current leadership has brought us to a new low. Let me assure you all we are not there:
I well remember the massive failures of Robert S. McNamara. He was Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam war. He was a catastrophe for America committing multiple unforced errors for which he later accepted responsibility. You think Biden is king of the unforced error? He does not hold a dimly lighted candle to McNamara. Neither does the damage being done by Biden measure up to the harm to America from McNamara.
Bottom line:
Sure, Biden is very bad. But we have survived worse.
The man campaigned from his basement for goodness sake. Enough knew and did not care that together with the low information voters kept the results close enough that the Democrats could work their mail in ballot strategy to steal the election
The LIV pay attention to the left-wing media who, of course, suppressed anything negative about Biden.
Now that it is too late, the left wing news media is discovering their scruples. I have read that the WaPo is running five critical new stories about the Biden administration on the front page.
I dont think it’s that. I think it’s the fact that Trump is no longer a player, so there’s no need to prop up his opposition or bury anything that might benefit Trump.
Did you know 90% of asylum claims are rejected by judges as people try to lie their way into the country without following the normal sometimes even rigorous immigration procedure? All the more reason our Dear Leader has decided that judges shouldn’t be involved (since they usually say no), and those important decisions of letting in anyone who shows up will be left to random DHS bureaucrats who will be promoted based in how many applicants they approve.
Here’s the latest from the DOJ and DHS on how the asylum caseworkers can just approve anyone for legal permanent residency and in a few years, citizenship and a complementary democratic voter card.
President Biden was roundly criticized, by people having a wide range of political viewpoints, for his performance during his interview with George Stephanopoulos as regards the Afghanistan pullout. This even though George is known to be friendly to the Democrat side.
But the Biden bungle was not limited to Afghanistan. In a lesser publicized matter, Biden also made a hash of American policy regarding Taiwan. In the end it was necessary for his team to come out with a “clarification”. Here is the full story as told by the Guardian, a left leaning news source:
But Shin, it’s his attitude and persona that determines if he’s a good President. What he does or says is irrelevant, as long as he’s polite while he does it. You only need to parse his every word if he’s a meaney.
The Iranian hostage crisis has come to mind for me. I hope Biden’s handlers are well aware of it . . . many are so young.
France and Britain are sending out, from the Kabul airport, rescue parties of their soldiers to bring in their stranded citizens too frightened and threatened to risk travel to the airport without armed escort.
Biden has refused so far to follow suit. A great many American citizens are being left stranded wherever they are hiding in Kabul. More are outside Kabul. God have mercy on them.
Meanwhile the Taliban has commandeered billions of dollars of armaments left behind for them by Biden. Our tax dollars at work! The incompetence leaves you wanting to tear your hair out. But with so many precious lives on the line, and with the possibility now of our fellow Americans being held for ransom, you just have to grit your teeth instead and hope for the best.
The Iranian hostage crisis lasted 444 days. It finally ended when we elected a strong leader, President Reagan, to replace a very weak one, President Carter. The Iranian radicals knew Reagan would not mess around with their kind. And they were right about that!
Thing is, it’s different now. We have a LOT longer than 444 days to wait until neither Biden nor Kamala is any longer in office. And the Taliban knows that. Our current weak, indecisive, and confused leadership is an engraved invitation for trouble. And trouble we have.
Maybe Biden will load cash money onto a plane and fly it to Afghanistan, you know, like his hero Obama did with Iran not so long ago. I dunno. He has to do something.
OMG that is real!! It really happened. I thought at first it was from one of those parody websites and that you were joking us.
Word also is that ABC is refusing to release, in its entirety, the tape of Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos. They are allowing only edited versions to be seen by the public. Those edited versions themselves reflect very, very poorly on Biden and on his ability to execute his duties. One can only imagine how bad the unedited version is.
@Scripta long ago, on the other thread, wrote that Biden is too old to be POTUS. Scripta was right. But Biden is POTUS now so what do we do?
