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Neither Biden Nor His Speechwriters Can Do Simple Math on the Afghan Pullout
Townhall.com ^ | September 1, 2021 | John Lott Jr

Posted on 09/01/2021 5:02:53 AM PDT by Kaslin

You have to wonder whether Biden’s speechwriters can do simple math. Possibly they don’t even care about getting numbers right because they know that no one in the press will check.

But by virtually any measure, Biden’s speech on Tuesday claiming that our surrender in Afghanistan was a rip-roaring success didn’t go well. Biden claimed, “I take responsibility for the decision.” But he blamed the United States military, who he says unanimously advised him on what to do. He blamed the Americans who refused to leave despite supposedly being warned multiple times, ignoring Biden himself telling people that everything was going to be fine when Americans left. He blamed the “previous administration’s agreement” to leave by May 1st (of course, Biden ignored that date and all the other parts of the strategy and changed his own date from September 11th to August 31st). He blamed the Afghan national security forces and others. But others can dissect all of those many false statements.

My point is simple. Take three numbers provided by Biden that can’t all be true.

“Our Operation Allied Rescue ended up getting more than 5,500 Americans out.”

“The bottom line: 90 percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave, were able to leave.”

“Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.”

If more than 5,500 Americans represent 90 percent of the Americans who wanted to leave, that means that there were at least 611 who wanted out but still stuck in Afghanistan. But what is an extra 400 or 500 hundred American citizens stuck in a brutal country where Taliban soldiers are raping women and going door to door hunting for their enemies to kill? If there were only 100 to 200 Americans were still stuck in the country, you would think that Biden would brag that he had gotten out 97 or 98 percent of the Americans there. Saying that 10 percent of those Americans were left just doesn’t come across well.

Note that “90 percent of Americans” who wanted to leave assumes that everyone who wanted to leave could register with the U.S. embassy. Still, there is evidence significant numbers haven’t registered.

The Biden administration put out different numbers every other day on the number of Americans in Afghanistan (ranging up to 15,000). Even on Tuesday, different numbers were coming out of the State Department on the number of Americans who wanted to get out, saying that it was “fewer than 250.” But these are Biden’s numbers in one speech, so it isn’t like changing information accounts for this inconsistency. Moreover, Biden made the unusual decision to wait a day to give his speech on the withdrawal, and a lot of efforts must have gone into preparing something this important.

Over 600 Americans still stuck in Afghanistan is about ten times the number of hostages taken by Iran back in 1979 during Jimmy Carter’s watch.

Biden promised on August 18th that “if there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out.” Possibly the continued sleight of hand with the numbers is an attempt to minimize that broken promise.

Of course, we also left tens of thousands of Afghans who helped the United States in our war with the Taliban to fend for themselves. Even the Washington Post noted: “Thousands of Afghans who put their lives at risk to work with the United States’ NATO allies have been left behind.” A headline in the Wall Street Journal pointed out: “Afghan Interpreter Who Helped Rescue Biden in 2008 Left Behind After U.S. Exit.”

Biden’s credibility is already under assault. Being unable to put together numbers that make any sense makes the whole process look even more ludicrous. But don’t expect the fact-checkers at the Washington Post or other outlets to point out even these obvious inconsistencies.

With no American reporters left in Afghanistan, you won’t get many stories of the Americans left behind being tortured and murdered. Biden’s hope is undoubtedly that this will fade from people’s memory.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bidenadmin; taliban

1 posted on 09/01/2021 5:02:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

As far as the numbers involved, most of them were plucked out of a hat. This was more chaotic than the fall of Berlin was for the Third Reich in 1945, when the Russians were swarming in and the records were not especially neat or orderly in any fashion. And there were no flights out of the Berlin airfields, as they had been bombed into oblivion by repeated air strikes by the Allies.


2 posted on 09/01/2021 5:09:07 AM PDT by alloysteel ( Poor people give rich people all their money anyway. Just as they have always done.)
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To: Kaslin
That's hard to believe.........heck, his wife is doctor.

"Dr" Jill-Biden- at Dem-Convention

3 posted on 09/01/2021 5:09:50 AM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin

Look… that whole speech was actually good. Not many gaffs and something they can run over and over on cnn and msnbc and morning and nightly news. In a speech we were hoping he would majorly flop in he gave his best speech. Yes the math was wrong and was full of lies but the msm and people that watch these channels won’t fact check any of it. He blamed Trump for coming up with a great plan to end the war and use more than 1 airport and gave plenty of time to do this. Instead biden drags his feet and changed the date. He backed out of the plan for a photo op and glory for himself, that cost American military lives and more to come. He lies about the numbers left but made it sound convincing and with no one calling it out but us. I would say 100 million or more know the truth and the number will grow daily. They had him in his best behavior. The truth will come out to all.


4 posted on 09/01/2021 5:13:20 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: Kaslin

Just when I think I cannot despise this bunch more than I did yesterday my anger grows.


5 posted on 09/01/2021 5:14:54 AM PDT by certrtwngnut (4- Do something,,,,even if it's wrong.)
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To: Kaslin

Yes, that math miscalculation of their’s caught my attention too.

“Possibly the continued sleight of hand with the numbers is an attempt to minimize that broken promise.”

There’s no “possibly” about it. Every day the State Dept figures were different from Pentagon’s. And the sudden drop from 10,000 to 15,000 down to 6,000 was explained away as Americans had left without telling anyone. Riiight.


6 posted on 09/01/2021 5:17:10 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Warning: Accused of being a radical militarist. Approach with caution.)
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To: Kaslin
Biden’s hope is undoubtedly that this will fade from people’s memory.

This pretty much sums up the view all democrats have with people their policies affect. It is the locus of their evil.

7 posted on 09/01/2021 5:19:11 AM PDT by ALPAPilot
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To: Kaslin
He blamed the United States military, he blamed the Americans who refused to leave despite supposedly being warned, and, if I heard him right, he blamed Trump for signing an agreement with the Taliban two months after he (Biden) was inaugurated... (?)

It's pretty tough to make any sense out of his speaches.. Someone said he should just turn the teleprompter around and let us read it...

8 posted on 09/01/2021 5:21:24 AM PDT by unread (Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities - Voltaire)
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To: glimmerman70
Yes the math was wrong and was full of lies but the msm and people that watch these channels won’t fact check any of it.

This is the key to everything the Democrats do. They lie in any way they want, then the propaganda media quotes them, then every social media etc. repeats the quotes as if they were actually facts. It is very discouraging.

9 posted on 09/01/2021 5:22:57 AM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: glimmerman70

Good speech? He repeatedly lied about practically everything. The speech was full of contradictions. Have you read the Trump agreement with the Taliban? If you think that speech was good, you would love Hitler’s and Stalin’s speeches, which were better delivered and constructed.

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf


10 posted on 09/01/2021 5:24:06 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Freee-dame

Yep. Keep telling the same lie and people eventually believe it.


11 posted on 09/01/2021 5:24:38 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: Liz

12 posted on 09/01/2021 5:25:11 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Kaslin

Silly me. I thought the 5,500 referred to the number of American military that bugged out. /sarc

Gwjack


13 posted on 09/01/2021 5:25:31 AM PDT by gwjack (May God give America His richest blessings.)
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To: Kaslin

“Our Operation Allied Rescue ended up getting more than 5,500 Americans out.”


So where are the videos of the planes arriving and the americans being interviewed as they land on US soil.

The MSM won’t dare bring this up


14 posted on 09/01/2021 5:26:05 AM PDT by patriotspride (Third generation Vet. Never forget the true cost of freedom)
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To: kabar

Good speech?


Reading from a Teleprompter is not speaking. Its reading. We had a master reader in Barry O.

For once give me no Teleprompter, no note cards, no ear pieces. Just Joey and what’s left of his brain and we will see how incompetent this fool is.

Like Barry O, the “ Wizard of Oz” would get revealed very quickly, but unlike the Wizard pulling the levers we would see he’s tethered to his handlers who control his every move.


15 posted on 09/01/2021 5:29:00 AM PDT by patriotspride (Third generation Vet. Never forget the true cost of freedom)
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To: Kaslin
If there were only 100 to 200 Americans were still stuck in the country, you would think that Biden would brag that he had gotten out 97 or 98 percent of the Americans there.

Reminds me of the movie "Mars Attacks," where the lame-brain President, who cares only about his popularity ratings, says, following the massacre of Congress by the aliens, "We still have two out of three branches of government ... and that ain't bad!"

16 posted on 09/01/2021 5:52:41 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: patriotspride

Right on. And no questions taken afterwards.


17 posted on 09/01/2021 7:18:21 AM PDT by kabar
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To: kabar

No no. All I meant was it was the only speech I saw that he didn’t fall asleep or have the gaffs and other stuff. It’s full of lies and pushing blame on Trump. But one they can play on cnn and show on evening news. They won’t fact check it. I was wanting him to blow it. He took no questions and forgot his mask.


18 posted on 09/01/2021 7:55:44 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: Kaslin

Biden’s screenwriters more like it everything is fake.


19 posted on 09/01/2021 8:20:11 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: Kaslin

Their goal is to create confusion. Then they will call it “complicated”, which takes them off the hook.


20 posted on 09/01/2021 8:57:22 AM PDT by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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