Mission accomplished! The Biden administration turned up its BS Machine to 11 to defend its Afghanistan skedaddle debacle.
A Biden administration defense of its catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan repeatedly blamed Trump (via Instapundit).
Even if true--and I think that's highly misleading--Biden eagerly reversed other Trump policies. But Biden was determined to honor Trump's wishes on Afghanistan? Really? That's what they're going with now?
Saying Trump "left" Biden only 2,500 troops is brazenly misleading. One, that ignores that the Afghanistan military was in better shape than it had been. And ignores NATO and contractor forces. Two, Biden could have added troops. Really. He could have.
Remember, Obama reversed his "zero option" policy for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. And notwithstanding Trump's desire to leave Afghanistan, prior to his mistake of negotiating directly with the Taliban to get out he initially reversed the downward trend of America's military effort in order to cope with what he was left by Obama.
Why didn't Biden add troops to reverse Trump's policy? Maybe because his administration said Afghanistan could hang on for at least two years after we skedaddled. That time frame went into negative numbers. Oops. Biden didn't get his "decent interval" to avoid responsibility.
The unnamed authors unleash one last torrent of BS to conclude their Bizarro World ode to Biden administration wisdom:
As President Biden said on August 31, 2021, “When I hear that we could’ve, should’ve continued the so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation...There is nothing low-grade or low-risk or low-cost about any war.”
This is BS masquerading as troop-loving statesmanship.
The overwhelming majority of the costs American troops paid took place many years before the 2021 skedaddle debacle. What Biden did was make that sacrifice be for nothing as our jihadi enemies recaptured their once-sanctuary that launched 9/11.
And if killing jihadis isn't valuable for American security, why is the Biden administration even now mowing the jihadi grass in Somalia and in Syria?
It's as if a low-grade, low-risk, low-cost military effort is worth it to defend America.
Face it. For those jihadi scum, 9/11 was a Golden Age. And now we're not killing them over there. Or even admitting they are a threat to us over here.
God help us, but the administration is doubling down on its 2021 delusional claim of a glorious victory. I'm stunned that they think the American people are dumb enough to believe this. Or maybe they just believe enough of their supporters in the media will believe it--or are willing to pretend to believe it.
God, please tell me the administration knows it is flinging BS. Give me some straw to grasp!
And if we're going back in time to cast blame and for glibly asking American troops to fight and die in Afghanistan, let's discuss the role of the Obama administration for escalating the war by asking many more troops to put their lives on the line there, resulting in the vast majority of our casualties without any apparent intent to actually win.
Here's the "dog ate my homework" excuse. The bright side is that this was produced by the White House. The optimist in me says the military refused to put its fingerprints on this firehose of falsehood.
Notwithstanding that, the Pentagon isn't off the hook for this debacle, in my opinion. I guess we'll see if the actual Pentagon review reflects the White House spin.
UPDATE: Related thoughts.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 continues here.
