In what alternate reality does this make any sense?
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has argued that the Taliban killing of the Islamic State group leader believed responsible for the August 2021 attack on Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members helps to vindicate President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops from the country.
“Having him gone is a good thing and it does part and parcel reflect the president’s decision to leave Afghanistan,” Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. “It does, in fact, prove, that you don’t need boots on the ground, you don’t need to remain in a particular field of battle, to be able to go after terrorists.”
Kirby stressed that the United States has “Over-the-Horizon capabilities” to monitor and strike terrorist groups in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Moreover, those capabilities have improved since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, noting that a July 2022 U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed al-Qaida’s top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. [emphasis added]
The Taliban killed a jihadi we want dead and that proves over-the-horizon counter-terrorism works?
Really? The Taliban weren't over the horizon! Not by any twisting of reality known to modern science and administration spokescritters.
Further, he said the killing proves that you don't need boots on the ground to conduct counter-terrorism?
Is Kirby serious? Doesn't this look like obvious BS? Am I taking crazy pills? The Taliban killed the ISIL jihadi. The Taliban had boots on the ground! In Afghanistan! Where they killed the jihadi who they disliked--not because we wanted him dead.
Isn't the correct lesson that having Afghan allies--who we needlessly allowed to be defeated--provided better boots on the ground to kill jihadis?
Oh, and a final defense of the Skedaddle Debacle clusterfuck is that America's "over-the-horizon" capabilities--improved since August 2021 (but on-the-ground capabilities that are obviously much lower are excluded)--have carried out three drone strikes in over a year and a half since leaving! With the most notable being one from ten months ago.
Bravo.
But pace yourself, boys! We wouldn't want to deplete our resources or be hasty about giving kill orders.
Why is Kirby insulting our intelligence and synaptic connections between our eyes and brain? How can Kirby even look at himself in the mirror without feeling intense professional shame?
It was always obvious that over-the-horizon counter-terrorism only presents a huge threat to empty tents.
Kirby at least admits rather than ignores that jihadis--who still hate us and dream of killing more of us--need killing. So that's something.
We lost the war in Afghanistan. However inconvenient that is for Kirby to admit, that is the truth.
UPDATE: Some admit the truth:
The Biden administration's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan decimated the U.S. military's capability to gather key intelligence and information on terrorist activities, a U.S. intelligence official confirmed to Congress on Thursday.
Under oath.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
