Stop Blaming Biden for Afghanistan. He's Cleaning Up Trump's Mess

[CousinIT]

https://www.newsweek.com/stop-blaming-biden-afghanistan-hes-cleaning-trumps-mess-opinion-1622049

The images coming out of Afghanistan have been disturbing. But let's be clear: The Trump Administration led us straight into this mess. And President Biden is doing everything he can to get us out of it.

In Afghanistan, President Biden got dealt yet another losing hand from the Trump Administration. Their Doha Agreement with the Taliban violated the most basic principles of self-government for the Afghan people. There was no way to enforce it or make sure the Taliban kept its word. There was no denunciation of al-Qaeda terrorists. Worst of all, the deal didn't mandate the Taliban stop attacks against Afghan security forces.

All of this set the stage for the chaotic scenes we're seeing on TV today.

Trump's deal with the Taliban was flawed from the start, which is why Trump's own officials are now scrambling to distance themselves from it. "To have our Generals say that they are depending on diplomacy with the Taliban is an unbelievable scenario. Negotiating with the Taliban is like dealing with the devil," tweeted Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who certainly voiced no such objections while working for Trump. She was not alone. "Our secretary of state signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban," Trump's former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told journalist Bari Weiss. "This collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. The Taliban didn't defeat us. We defeated ourselves."

Even Mike Pompeo, Trump's Secretary of State and the man who negotiated the deal with the Taliban in the first place, is now denouncing it. He had the audacity to tell Fox News that the "debacle" in Afghanistan "will certainly harm America's credibility with its friends and allies." He certainly didn't seem to think so while he was laying the groundwork for the debacle in the first place.

[PortTack]

1. Good to see this coming from newsweek...being owned and pushed by the right

[Polybius]

2. I disagree

It's George Bush's mess. Every President after him inherited this problem.

[DanieRains]

4. Bush Didn't Surrender

Pompeo did.

[Polybius]

6. We needed to pull out of Bush's mess, and Biden agreed with Trump's decision

He could have scrapped it, but instead he only altered the May 1st date.

Bush rejected a deal that would have brought Osama to the a neural country for trial in 2001.

[former9thward]

3. I don't blame Biden and I don't blame anyone else either.

Withdrawal from Afghanistan was going to be ugly no matter who did it. But it is false to blame the agreement. If Biden did not like the agreement he did not have to follow it. It was not a law or treaty. Biden reversed Trump executive orders when he did not like them. He had the same power as CIC to do the same with the Afghan agreement.

[DanieRains]

5. The Taliban Had Already Taken Over

There was no turning back without 100,000 troops. Even with 100,000 troop surge it barely helped.

[former9thward]

7. The last time we had 100,000 troops there was 2011.

When Trump took over there were only about 8,000.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2016/07/06/a-timeline-of-u-s-troop-levels-in-afghanistan-since-2001/

[doc03]

8. If Trump was still president there is no way he would

be evacuating Afghans and bringing them here. I have heard them complain about Biden bringing them here. He would have abandoned them just like the Kurds.

[samsingh]

9. he and others need to be clear what's happening because i guarantee the average voter if blaming

President Biden.

[Beartracks]

19. This.

[GoodRaisin]

20. Yes. The average,

ignorant voter.

Unfortunately the damage is already done. Few are giving him credit for the competent job he is doing with the evacuation after the knee jerk, smear blitz against him by the M$M.

[Treefrog]

10. This isn't Biden's fault.

This sits on the shoulders of several presidents.

He is doing the right thing to get out, though I wish it was handled better.

At any rate, he’s going to be fine.

[belpejic]

17. Almost 70,000 people out since August 14 with no loss of American life

Seems like it's handling the situation pretty well, at least to me.

In fact, it seems like a pretty impressive piece of logistics.

[spooky3]

18. +1 and many private US citizens have stepped up to provide housing, food, clothing, toiletries

and other necessities to the Afghans who arrived with essentially nothing but the shirts on their backs.

[In_The_Wind]

11. Biden walked into a mess. He will do the best he can to end our part.

[CrackityJones75]

12. Right!

This is the message that needs to keep being repeated. Instead of “wel, geez yeah we should have done better…”

What the hell? We are cleaning up a screwed up deal made by a fucked up person in a situation that we were lied into by potentially war criminals.

[Cha]

13. Pompeo is stupid like all of the Idiot's

enablers.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. The forked tongue of the media infuriates me.

Seems they’re always happy to slag Democrats, and excuse repukes.

[Doc_Technical]

15. President Herbert Hoover was blamed for the Great Depression.

after he had been in office for only a few months.

[futem]

16. Speaking the truth!!