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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: CornPop

See 60. LOL.


61 posted on 08/17/2021 4:53:26 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: Ron H.

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

Not one word from either Pelosi or Schumer? That’s all we need to know.


62 posted on 08/17/2021 4:55:12 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (I got the shot. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to, in violation of my civil rights.)
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To: Olog-hai

Biden the Betrayer did exactly as he was told to by his owners and masters.

Not a miscalculation.


63 posted on 08/17/2021 4:57:59 PM PDT by Boomer (Leftists/Leftism ruins everything it touches. Leftism is a toxic moral pestilence.)
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To: CornPop

Welcome to FR. Nice handle . . .


64 posted on 08/17/2021 4:57:59 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 is back and respected in the world again’. Bideban and his merry band of DemoRats aren’t singing that lie at the moment.


65 posted on 08/17/2021 4:58:54 PM PDT by tflabo (Truth or tyranny )
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To: Olog-hai
The Big Guy,Mr Fifty Percent,had childhood asthma so couldn't serve in the Armed Forces...but he somehow managed to play college football.

An early indication of his contempt for,and disinterest in,members of our Armed Forces.

66 posted on 08/17/2021 5:00:24 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Covid Is All About Mail In Balloting)
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To: Olog-hai

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.
-=.=-

So, this thing called magical thinking is real. Huh.


67 posted on 08/17/2021 5:02:00 PM PDT by pa_dweller ( Censure Toomey! )
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To: Olog-hai

If only Corn Pop took care or Xiden 60 years ago, we may have avoided this mess. The Rats probably found someone just as horrible. Xiden makes me miss the Kenyan years.


68 posted on 08/17/2021 5:03:17 PM PDT by CornPop
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To: JennysCool

Exactly what you describe is the conditioned withdrawal that Trump had arranged with the Taliban. Instead, Biden and his handlers waited for summer, the Taliban’s fighting season, abandoned Bagram Air Base and now has a calamity on his hands. It’s not a withdrawal; it is a rout.


69 posted on 08/17/2021 5:05:48 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: Olog-hai

Biden is not even close to a foreign policy expert. He once said we and the French had kicked Hezbollah out of Syria. He is either a liar or delusional, but he is not a foreign policy expert. 🙄


70 posted on 08/17/2021 5:06:18 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: Olog-hai

Well, Europe stop listening to your left wing news outlets and absolutely do not listen to the US’ Lying MSM.


71 posted on 08/17/2021 5:07:48 PM PDT by Chgogal (#GulagNancy is going all Cuba on Trump Supporters.)
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To: alternatives?

I forgot to add that he was always been incompetent, stupid and idiotic. His current behavior is the same as it always has been in spite of his dementia. Sadly and to be honest, his dementia may reduce the potential desteuction of his so called presidency.


72 posted on 08/17/2021 5:09:45 PM PDT by CornPop
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To: Republican Wildcat

Give Biden this:

He got us out, three months later than Trump would have, but still out.

And Biden was lucky. Yes, the retreat was a total 3 Stooges SNAFU. But so far very few deaths. And probably we will get back most Americans and many of our local supporters.

Our “NATO Allies” wanted us there for another hundred years. Take Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign relations committee. “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 “This does fundamental damage to the political and moral credibility of the West.” […]

Early Withdrawal? 20 years into a war we had no way of winning is an “early withdrawal”?

And it gets worse. Some European leaders are living in Fantasy Land. Take French President Emmanuel Macron, who has “been pushing for the bloc to pursue a security policy less dependent on America” President Macron holds that “ Afghanistan is bound to be used as evidence for why ‘strategic autonomy’ is necessary.

What “strategic autonomy” means, bottom-line wise, is that our European Allies will fork up the money and the guys, instead of us supplying them. Fat chance of that.


73 posted on 08/17/2021 5:10:24 PM PDT by OVERTIME (Tammie Lee Haynes)
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To: Olog-hai
Until Sunday, Europe thought Joe Biden was an expert on foreign policy.

If that's what Europe thought they had better not call Joetato stupid.

74 posted on 08/17/2021 5:10:36 PM PDT by TigersEye (Who shot Ashli Babbitt?)
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To: Ron H.

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

Nobody impeaches a president of their own party, and I reckon Obama is perfectly happy to have senile Biden as his puppet, rather than someone like Harris who might have ambitions of her own.


75 posted on 08/17/2021 5:15:55 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: CornPop

Biden is all those things you list, but the real goal is the importation of as many “fake refugees” as possible. They will bring in millions of their MEN. You really don’t think that has been the goal since Bush. There is an inherent belief in Islam’s superiority of western civilization going back for decades in this country, especially the state department. What I don’t understand is why don’t all these Muslims go to an Islamic country?


76 posted on 08/17/2021 5:18:45 PM PDT by richardthelionheart
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To: Olog-hai

The time when Europe might have been able to challenge the US is gone. Look at their birthrates for the last few decades. Who would they recruit if they wanted to mobilize an army? Illiterate muslim rapefugees?


77 posted on 08/17/2021 5:19:58 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: richardthelionheart

Why would they go to some broke ass Islamic country when even poor people here live better?


78 posted on 08/17/2021 5:20:39 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Olog-hai
To be expected from Politico I guess but:

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.

What utter bullshit! Trump merely wanted the European countries of NATO to pay what they agreed to pay.

79 posted on 08/17/2021 5:21:03 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem by far is that most of the news media is hate & agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: richardthelionheart

That plane full of Afghani “refugees” is literally a Trogan Horse.


80 posted on 08/17/2021 5:21:34 PM PDT by CornPop
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