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The Afghanistan Debacle Is Exposing President Biden’s Descent Into Unreality
The Federalist ^ | August 24, 2021 | John Daniel Davidson

Posted on 08/24/2021 11:37:03 AM PDT by Kaslin

As the situation in Kabul deteriorates, the Biden administration seems increasingly untethered to reality, boasting about an evacuation gone haywire and lying about stranded Americans.


Americans are stranded in Afghanistan. That’s a fact. You don’t have to have special military clearance to know it, or access to classified information, or be in contact with Americans in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan. All you have to do is follow the news.

For days now, reports coming out of Afghanistan have chronicled the dire situation of Americans unable to get to the airport in Kabul, unable to get past Taliban checkpoints outside the airport, and unable to get through the airport gates because of the desperate and sometimes deadly mobs gathered there.

Members of Congress are even sharing information on social media about Americans trapped in Kabul, some of them terrified of being discovered by the Taliban, begging to be rescued before it’s too late.

So when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki “called out” Fox News’s Peter Doocy on Monday for asking about these stranded Americans, and said there are no Americans stranded in Afghanistan, she was lying. And everyone knows it.

PSAKI: "I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not."

DOOCY: "'There are no Americans stranded' is the White House's official position on what's happening in Afghanistan right now?" pic.twitter.com/0FEq5VkO6V

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 23, 2021

This kind of blatant dissimulation has become a disturbing pattern. By any measure, President Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal has devolved into an unprecedented and embarrassing disaster that seems to get worse by the day. But instead of acknowledging what news reports and social media clearly show — Americans stranded, deadly chaos at the airport, Afghans rushing the gates — the Biden administration is displaying an inability or unwillingness to answer questions or even talk about the evacuation in a way that’s tethered to reality.

Psaki and other White House officials are of course trying to claim that because planes are still taking off from Kabul, no one is in fact “stranded” — at least not yet. They will likely keep repeating this incredible line until the very last plane leaves, at which point they will claim there are no Americans still trapped in Afghanistan even if every news outlet is showing the opposite.

There’s something otherworldly about all of this, an echo of the Iraqi information minister, “Baghad Bob,” who during the 2003 invasion of Iraq infamously boasted there were no U.S. tanks in Baghdad even as U.S. tanks rolled through the city just blocks away from the news conference where he was speaking.

Beyond the administration’s bald-faced lies there is the strange and inappropriate braggadocio about the evacuation. According to the warped logic of the White House, the evacuation itself has become a source of pride, even success.

In a bizarre and disjointed press conference on Sunday, President Biden boasted about the evacuation effort: “We are proving we can move thousands of people a day out of Kabul,” he said, noting that some 11,000 people had been airlifted out of the Afghanistan capital in the past 36 hours, and 37,000 since Aug. 14.

He went on to brag about how the U.S. government has hastily established processing centers in a number of countries around the world to receive the thousands of people fleeing Afghanistan — as if the need to cobble together a network of processing centers was a great accomplishment, instead of an admission that the administration had failed to plan for this inevitability months ago.

All these talking points were repeated Monday by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport — the mobs at the gates, the warning shots and flashbang grenades to hold back the crowds, the babies being lifted over razor wire to U.S. soldiers — are all evidence not of the U.S. government’s gross incompetence, but of its strength.

But the American people can smell a rat. We all know the administration is lying, and as American lives are placed in ever greater danger with each passing day, at some point the lies will become unconscionable, even obscene.

So far, there have been no reports of American deaths, thank God. But that could change quickly. According to Biden’s timeline, U.S. forces have one week to complete their evacuation, a task that seems well-nigh impossible, given the number of people who are trying to leave and the reported conditions on the ground. On Monday, a Taliban spokesman warned on “consequences” if U.S. forces stay beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.

It remains unclear, too, whether the Taliban can retain adequate control over Kabul over the next seven days to prevent attacks on U.S. troops or civilians from other armed groups, including ISIS, which is reportedly in the area.

If they can’t, and Americans are attacked and killed in Kabul or elsewhere, will Psaki stand before the cameras and claim otherwise? Maybe, but it’s more likely she and every other White House official will emphasize how well the evacuation went off, how many people they flew out in however many hours, and what a smashing success, really, this whole thing has been.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; afghanwithdrawal; baghdadbob; dementedjoe; jakesullivan; jenpsaki; kabul; propaganda; residentjoebiden; taliban
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To: Kaslin

We are falling into a trap by blaming this all on Biden. I believe he is a puppet following instructions. He could not do this all by himself.

If the problems and anger increase, he will be blamed and then removed because of his dementia, but the puppet masters will still be calling the shots.


21 posted on 08/24/2021 12:12:25 PM PDT by xenia ("In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell)
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Comment #22 Removed by Moderator

To: blueunicorn6

“Somebody supported this stupid son of a bitch Biden.”

Yeah, four of my neighbors had their Biden/Harris signs out all last summer and fall (and one only took theirs down last week — or someone took it down for them).


23 posted on 08/24/2021 12:18:43 PM PDT by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule. )
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To: Kaslin

24 posted on 08/24/2021 12:21:44 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus (The trouble with socialism is that you soon run out of other people's zoo animals to eat.)
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To: Lions Gate

That sounds like a solid plan.

Looks like they flunked right at step one.

That kind of failure has to be intentional.


25 posted on 08/24/2021 12:34:12 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: brownsfan

Shut up masses, and wear a mask.


26 posted on 08/24/2021 12:36:00 PM PDT by Fledermaus (I'll wear a mask when Dr. Fraudchi shuts the hell up.)
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To: brownsfan

Liz Cheney was on Fox few minutes ago and was asked about Trump Plan. She said he negotiated with Taliban and the Afghan officials were invited, etec. She did blame Biden as he is the President and he canceled Trumps Orders all along but didn’t choose to cancel this order so it is his chaos.

I looked up what Trumps plan was. Trumps plan had Ghani as the President remaining and working out a government with his people and the Taliban.

Trump had negotiated that no Americans nor our troops would be harmed with the pullout. He also wanted at least 800 troops to remain as well as the base. But Ghani abandoned his country and fled the country. Then Biden shut down the bases and left in the middle of the night without notice to our allies.

Trumps plan was to never cut and run.


27 posted on 08/24/2021 2:07:06 PM PDT by Engedi
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To: Engedi

Trump would never have abandoned Bagram air base.


28 posted on 08/24/2021 2:35:13 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Leep

Maybe on September 1 Baghdad Jan will announce that all the Americans still in Afghanistan chose to stay...so there are no “hostages.” (Then they will pass the word to the mainstream media and Big Tech to suppress any stories about Americans wanting to get out of Afghanistan, or being killed by the Taliban.)


29 posted on 08/24/2021 2:37:55 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Kaslin

The MSM is piling on Biden - but the Afghanistan debacle is a result of the entire progressive world view. They aren’t going to escape blame by shifting it all to Grandpa Joe.


30 posted on 08/24/2021 2:38:01 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Kaslin

I give it 10 days before Twitter and FB start banning people for saying there are hostages left behind.

Ahy takers?


31 posted on 08/24/2021 4:24:31 PM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now! Desantis 2024!!!)
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