JOE KLEIN: Hidin’ Biden.
For those of us who spent time in Afghanistan, the endgame came as no surprise. I made several visits to a once-crucial town called Sanjaray in Zhari District where a series of American Army Captains learned these truths: that the local leaders were thoroughly compromised by the Taliban, that the local people couldn’t distinguish us from the last invaders, the Russians; that the Afghan civilians were happy—grateful, really—for any help we could give them; and everyone, especially the Talibs, knew we would eventually leave. A mixed message to be sure. But no surprise when the Afghan “army,” which we’d spent billions funding, evaporated in the face of the Taliban offensive. It turned out that almost everybody in the Afghan establishment had made the same calculation as the local warlord in Sanjaray—his name was Hajji Lala: they all had secret deals with the Taliban.
How could Biden not know this? How could he not plan for it? Why did he abandon Bagram, the massive American airbase that might have been a less chaotic staging area for our evacuation than the commercial airport in Kabul?
Flashback: “F— that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it,” Biden said in 2010.
That’s not what happened in Vietnam but it hardly matters because Biden is a callous SOB who doesn’t give a damn for anyone other than Joe Biden, except to the extent that they can deliver to the Big Guy.