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Disbelief and betrayal: Europe reacts to Biden’s Afghanistan ‘miscalculation’
Politico.eu ^ | August 17, 2021 1:23 am | Matthew Karnitschnig

Posted on 08/17/2021 3:53:04 PM PDT by Olog-hai

Until Sunday, Europe thought Joe Biden was an expert on foreign policy.

Now, the American president’s decision to allow Afghanistan to collapse into the arms of the Taliban has European officials worried he has unwittingly accelerated what his predecessor Donald Trump started: the degradation of the Western alliance and everything it is supposed to stand for in the world.

Across Europe, officials have reacted with a mix of disbelief and a sense of betrayal. Even those who cheered Biden’s election and believed he could ease the recent tensions in the transatlantic relationship said they regarded the withdrawal from Afghanistan as nothing short of a mistake of historic magnitude.

“I say this with a heavy heart and with horror over what is happening, but the early withdrawal was a serious and far-reaching miscalculation by the current administration,” said Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign relations committee. “This does fundamental damage to the political and moral credibility of the West.” […]

At a time when some European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have been pushing for the bloc to pursue a security policy less dependent on America, Afghanistan is bound to be used as evidence for why “strategic autonomy” is necessary.

“Naturally this has damaged American credibility, along with that of the intelligence services and of the military,” said Rüdiger Lentz, the former head of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. “One can only hope that the damage to America’s foreign policy leadership can be quickly contained.” …

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; biden; bideneffect; eussr; matthewkarnitschnig; waronterror
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To: FreedomForce

This might be petty, but when Xiden called President Trump a clown during the debates, I hated him with 100,000 suns. One that one line he affirmed everything I thought of him, disrectful, arrogant, stupid, evil, arrogant, lying and incompetent; among other things.


101 posted on 08/17/2021 6:14:05 PM PDT by CornPop
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To: BobL

Mother Russia will freeze them to death by withholding their LNG when there is a break in the global warming process.


102 posted on 08/17/2021 6:17:19 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: Ron H.

Why are not impeachment hearings already in progress or the Cabinet convening to exercise the 25th Amendment?


His cabinet members are just as evil as he is, and Pelosi would never start impeachment proceedings against a democrat president.


103 posted on 08/17/2021 6:21:36 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: 353FMG

. . . fifty years ago.


104 posted on 08/17/2021 6:24:48 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: BobL

They’re currently allied with Russia. Don’t let their rhetoric fool you.


105 posted on 08/17/2021 6:26:28 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Karoo

Exactly right.


106 posted on 08/17/2021 6:27:18 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

America doesn’t need or want a ‘miscalculation’ president!

Demolish the D. We need smart people, not grifters.


107 posted on 08/17/2021 6:31:10 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U
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To: neverevergiveup

Supposedly the 82nd Airborne Division Commander is en route.


108 posted on 08/17/2021 6:31:38 PM PDT by gatorhead
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To: Olog-hai

Biden says he was constrained by what Trump did. Funny how he is not constrained by anything else Trump did.


109 posted on 08/17/2021 6:47:14 PM PDT by odawg
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To: Olog-hai
Until Sunday, Europe thought Joe Biden was an expert on foreign policy.

How could anyone with even a modicum of intelligence ever believe that a third rate politician like Biden could be an expert on anything? He can't even extort bribes without blabbing it to the world. Were the Europeans not listening when Obama famously said "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up."?

110 posted on 08/17/2021 6:51:59 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (In time of peace, prepare for war.)
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To: FreedomForce

The Constitution is senile not to have an amendment to immediately replace a national disaster like we have now.


111 posted on 08/17/2021 7:03:29 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: Mr Fuji

GOP = Gutless Old Party.


112 posted on 08/17/2021 7:10:47 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: CornPop

An Afghan Horse.


113 posted on 08/17/2021 7:19:03 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: Olog-hai

The European high and mighty were scathing in their condemnations of Trump, laughed in his face, and clung to Obama’s smoke, mirrors, and apparently his VP. Now look.

A pox on their houses.


114 posted on 08/17/2021 7:28:51 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late." —Bob Dylan)
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To: 353FMG

Afghan horses***


115 posted on 08/17/2021 7:53:42 PM PDT by CornPop
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To: Pollard

Big bump.


116 posted on 08/17/2021 7:57:59 PM PDT by Obadiah (Truth is treason in an Empire of lies.)
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To: george76

Intentional...


117 posted on 08/17/2021 8:02:15 PM PDT by GOPJ (Our incompetent military brass needs to spend less time reading Marx and more time doing their jobs.)
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To: butlerweave

EU is a zombie, searching for some brains.


118 posted on 08/17/2021 9:04:36 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (resist the narrative. .)
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To: cdcdawg

Europeans have never understood the American political scene. Lost in their wretched pasts, they do not see the present with any clarity. Any competent pol should have read Obama’s statement about Joe F*ing things up. He also should have read Robert Gates’s observation, which he reiterated just this morning, that Biden has been wrong on every important foreign policy issue in the last 40 years..


119 posted on 08/17/2021 9:13:41 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (resist the narrative. .)
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To: JennysCool

Everything feels like it’s falling apart :(


120 posted on 08/17/2021 11:22:37 PM PDT by kelly4c
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