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All Biden Had to Do Was…Nothing
Commentary ^ | 15 Aug 2021 | John Podhoretz

Posted on 08/15/2021 11:13:03 AM PDT by Rummyfan

All Joe Biden had to do was nothing. Had Joe Biden done nothing, Afghanistan would not have fallen to the Taliban today. Had he just let the status quo continue, the status quo would have continued. Afghanistan would have plodded along and we would have kept the Taliban from power with a small force of American military personnel among whose ranks there had not been a single fatality since March 2020—17 months without a death. Keep that in mind as you listen to and watch people try to analyze away the horror that has befallen the Afghan people. The idea being retailed by the increasingly defeatist left and the increasingly isolationist right is that what has happened was inevitable. It was the opposite of inevitable. It wouldn’t have happened if Biden hadn’t acted.

In so acting, Biden has cast the future of American foreign policy into the worst state of disrepair since the last helicopter-carries-people-to-the-airport-to-flee-the-country scene 46 years ago. I am not saying we haven’t been in parlous condition during that time. Obviously the meltdown in Iraq in 2005-2006 was a disastrous period; the revelation that weapons of mass destruction we believed had been made by Iraq in the years between the end of the first war there and the beginning of the second likely didn’t exist was a body blow.

But here we have an American president announcing in April that we were pulling out of a country to end a war in which we haven’t been engaging in conventional old-time combat for years because, apparently, we just had to. Biden wanted to be the one to end the war, and he did so with tough love: The Afghan army was going to have to stand on its own. The time had come for the teenager to leave home...

(Excerpt) Read more at commentary.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan
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1 posted on 08/15/2021 11:13:03 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Taliban to declare ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ soon – report:

The Taliban, who have rampaged across Afghanistan in recent days and earlier today entered the capital, Kabul, are on the verge of declaring that they have taken control of the country and that it is now the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, according to Press Association reports citing a Taliban official.

The declaration is expected to be made from the presidential palace in Kabul following the departure of Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, earlier, who apparently fled, initially to Tajikistan. His current location is unconfirmed.

Senior Taliban commanders announced within the last two hours that they had taken control of the palace, according to news wire reports. More details and further confirmation are awaited.

Taliban are in Kabul

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/aug/15/afghanistan-taliban-close-in-on-kabul-as-last-government-stronghold-in-north-falls?page=with:block-6119452d8f08d30d15502661#:~:text=12%3A54-,Taliban%20to%20declare%20%27Islamic%20Emirate%20of%20Afghanistan%27%20soon%20%E2%80%93%20report,news%20wire%20reports.%20More%20details%20and%20further%20confirmation%20are%20awaited.,-Updated%20at%2012.58pm


2 posted on 08/15/2021 11:13:52 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (If I wanted to live in Australia, China, Cuba, Canada, the UK, or Chicago! I'd move there! )
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To: Rummyfan

all he had to do at the border was- wait for it now- nothing.

But he didn’t- and its being over run worse than kabul.


3 posted on 08/15/2021 11:16:14 AM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: Rummyfan

Ummm all biden needed to do was nada. Leave Trumps policies in place. Finish the wall and open all the states up. Give the states help stopping the antifa that you used during the election for riots. This nation would be flowing great. Instead he did the exact opposite and cares not for any of us. Only the foreign countries that put him in office.


4 posted on 08/15/2021 11:17:22 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: Grampa Dave
It is time for Bidet to put a stop to this--a statement has been prepared for him:

The Taliban must withdraw from Afghanistan now because they did not play by the rules.

They failed to give preferential treatment to people of color and people with non-binary sexual preferences.

They failed to require mandatory vaccines of their troops.

More importantly, they have closed their borders to migrants.

Therefore I call on them to surrender immediately!

5 posted on 08/15/2021 11:19:07 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Rummyfan

I think Biden’s incompetence in Afghanistan will tempt China to invade Taiwan.


6 posted on 08/15/2021 11:20:10 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Rummyfan

American military personnel among whose ranks there had not been a single fatality since March 2020—17 months without a death.

———————————————————————

2,500 dead US soldiers have no comment.


7 posted on 08/15/2021 11:22:17 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (I love my country. It's my government that I hate.)
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To: Rummyfan

I see great humor in Biden does this, Biden cares about that, Biden thinks about anything else. Biden is a senile old man who has been placed into the office of the Presidency as a figurehead puppet. He is senile. When I asked my mother about her childhood she couldn’t tell me a thing. When I asked her to key in a code for the burglar alarm she could not comprehend or comply. He has some residual awareness but he is mostly absent from any consciousness.


8 posted on 08/15/2021 11:35:24 AM PDT by webheart (I thought I was helping by getting vaccinated but they say I didn’t help at all. )
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To: Rummyfan

Podhoretz should just STFU. Americans from all across the political spectrum have had enough of his failed neocon globalist garbage.


9 posted on 08/15/2021 11:37:09 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: Rummyfan
This guys definition of do nothing is to leave troops there forever. No thanks. He should have kept Trumps deal, all sides had agreed and it would have been the best case way out. Instead we got the worst case way out because team Biden are terrible at every single thing they do.

But why should I be surprised? History tells us that Joe Biden has been wrong on every single issue that matters for his entire career as a political parasite, all of them.

10 posted on 08/15/2021 11:42:31 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: Rummyfan
"“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
11 posted on 08/15/2021 11:50:41 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Yeh, that was a bit disingenuous. Seventeen months without a fatality was at least partially due to ongoing negotiations between the two sides and the Taliban had recently threatened a return to open hostilities which would have surely resulted in more American casualties. Personally, I’m glad that we are getting out but Biden sure screwed the pooch by sticking to a timeline.


12 posted on 08/15/2021 11:51:54 AM PDT by Rowdyone
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To: Rummyfan

This neocon scumbag would have US troops in Afghanistan forever.


13 posted on 08/15/2021 11:52:32 AM PDT by Mariner (War criminal #18)
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To: Brilliant

“I think Biden’s incompetence in Afghanistan will tempt China to invade Taiwan.”

I suspect when that happens the US will have a change in leadership and it will NOT be through ‘impeachment’ or an election.


14 posted on 08/15/2021 11:56:19 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: Mariner

Podhoretz used to love Bill Clinton.


15 posted on 08/15/2021 11:57:38 AM PDT by Luke21
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To: Rummyfan

The Biden Crime Family needs some more money.

Hunter’s paintings aren’t selling.


16 posted on 08/15/2021 12:02:34 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: blueunicorn6

Should have never gone in with troops in 2021...the higher ups were warned by the special forces group that chased Bin Ladin out


17 posted on 08/15/2021 12:21:14 PM PDT by Hojczyk
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To: Rummyfan

What is happening in Afghanistan would have happened if Trump had won in November instead of Biden. It would have happened if we had withdrawn five years ago or five years from now. The day we set a date for withdrawal, be it the May 1st date that Trump set or the September 11 date that Biden set, the Afghan army and the Afghan government was on borrowed time. The only surprise is it fell apart as quickly as it did.


18 posted on 08/15/2021 12:27:25 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Rummyfan
How about a little planning.....like blowing up the weapon caches....and any other equipment we were leaving behind.

Of course the problem is...we never know who the enemy is in these damn countries.

To think that Joe is going to import thousands of them....this has to be stopped.

19 posted on 08/15/2021 12:36:07 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: DoodleDawg
I don't believe that....as soon as the Taliban moved on any city, they were in violation of the agreement....and President Trump said....IMOW....You won't know what hit you."

Biden on the other hand said...."Not my problem".

20 posted on 08/15/2021 12:40:06 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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