There’s a certain very bitter humor in contemplating what the Democrats impeached Trump for compared to their failure to do so for Biden’s enormously greater “high crimes and misdemeanors” – such as, for example, this recent sequence of events in Washington DC and Afghanistan (the article appears to not be behind the usual WaPo paywall, so I conclude that the editors seem to want to encourage more people than usual to read it) [emphasis mine]:
…Within hours [of their arrival in Kabul], long-haired Taliban fighters had seized those checkpoints. The president had fled, not bothering to tell U.S. officials or even many of his own top lieutenants on his way out the palace door.
That outcome stunned top U.S. officials, several of whom had been on vacation when the weekend began, having expected the pro-Western government to hang on for weeks, if not months or even years longer. Afghans were no less astonished by the speed with which their government crumbled. Even the Taliban was surprised.
The article goes on to talk about how oblivious Ghani was when the Taliban came to the city, but adds that the US officials were no better:
American officials may have been urging Ghani to show greater urgency. But their own actions suggested no immediate cause for alarm, with officials surrendering to the customary rhythms of Washington in August.
On the Friday afternoon before Kabul fell, the White House was starting to empty out, as many of the senior staff prepared to take their first vacations of Biden’s young presidency. Earlier in the day, Biden had arrived at Camp David, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken was already in the Hamptons.
I imagine if Trump had been doing this, the WaPo‘s relatively calm tone would have been remarkably different. But at least they’re reporting this.
There’s no way to tell what’s true and what’s false in this next part. Certainly the Taliban’s version isn’t one I would trust. But here’s a story of why and how Ghani left:
Around midday, much of the staff had been dismissed for lunch. While they were gone, according to officials, a top adviser informed the president that militants had entered the palace and were going room to room looking for him.
That does not appear to have been true. The Taliban had announced that while its fighters were at the edges of Kabul, having entered through the city’s main checkpoints after security forces withdrew, it did not intend to take over violently. There was an agreement in place for a peaceful transition, and the group intended to honor it.
Yet that wasn’t the message that was being delivered to Ghani. The president was told by his closest aides that he needed to get out — fast…
Mindful of the last time the Taliban had conquered Kabul — in 1996, when victorious fighters sought out the former Soviet-backed president, disemboweled him and hung his body from a traffic light — Ghani agreed to go.
It was the Taliban who had done that twenty-five years ago as they took over the first time, and even if they said they were intending to honor the “peaceful transition” this time, I cannot imagine why anyone would trust them. I especially cannot imagine why anyone would think such an agreement for non-violence would continue to be honored once we and the Afghan government were gone.
The article goes on to add that the president left (with his wife and some aides) without even taking time to go home to get any belongings and without informing anyone, including the US officials. Many of his closest aides felt betrayed and wholly demoralized.
And then this happened:
In a hastily arranged in-person meeting, senior U.S. military leaders in Doha — including McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command — spoke with Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political wing.
“We have a problem,” Baradar said, according to the U.S. official. “We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul or you have to allow us to do it.”
Let’s pause here for a moment to emphasize what comes next – the US turned Kabul over to the Taliban even though a great many US citizens remained there – because Biden refused to do anything to stop them [emphasis mine]:
Throughout the day, Biden had remained resolute in his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan. The collapse of the Afghan government hadn’t changed his mind.
McKenzie, aware of those orders, told Baradar that the U.S. mission was only to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and others at risk. The United States, he told Baradar, needed the airport to do that.
On the spot, an understanding was reached, according to two other U.S. officials: The United States could have the airport until Aug. 31. But the Taliban would control the city.
Thus we became dependent on the Taliban for security while we tried to get our people out. And the commitment to the August 31 withdrawal date became even more rigid (if such a thing was possible), because after that the Taliban would not be holding back.
Complete capitulation and abject weakness on our part.
And this was a typical response from the Afghans interviewed for the article:
“I just sat there thinking, ‘I lost my country today,’” said Nadery, 40, who had been head of the country’s national civil service agency. “I saw everything I had fought for, for so many years, crumbling before my eyes.”
The article’s concluding paragraphs:
But some had already given up hope that they would ever get out. That night, instead of going home, the senior Kabul security official went to a friend’s house. He has been hiding there ever since but is resigned to the fact that, sooner or later, the Taliban will probably find him.
His fate was sealed, he said, when Afghanistan’s president decided to save himself.
“From that moment, everything was smashed,” he said. “I’ve killed hundreds of Taliban. So for sure they will kill me.”
No, sir; that’s not when your fate was sealed. Your fate was sealed – as was ours – when President Biden decided to retreat by a certain date no matter what, and he announced it to the world. No more conditions needing to be met, no more time, no change of that plan whatever might happen – not even to facilitate the evacuation of our people and those who had helped us.
And yes, I believe that Biden was the major decision-maker in this horrific set of circumstances, although he wasn’t alone. As I said early on, it bears his fingerprints. Incredibly arrogant, stubborn, ignorant, stupid, corrupt, ambitious, mendacious, and short-sighted, he is now also suffering from some degree of dementia which seems to have heightened all of his most terrible characteristics. And although some people apparently did disagree with him and saw disaster coming, no one could or would stop him, and no one resigned.
NOTE: This is going to be a two-parter. Part II will deal with some people in the Biden administration who perceived well in advance that a huge problem was looming with this pullout if it was approached the way Biden wanted it handled. I plan to discuss what they were saying about it even prior to the Taliban’s advance, and speculate on why they nevertheless may have been unable or unwilling to prevent the debacle.
