Republicans are aggressively attacking Blinken and Biden over the Afghan evacuation.

[kentuck]

They are in campaign attack mode.

Democrats would do well to go on the offensive. Otherwise, they will be blamed for a debacle that would have happened if Trump had still been the president.

It wasn't Joe Biden that made a deal with the Taliban, with the exclusion of the Afghan government, that permitted them to take over the Afghan government. It was Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. It was they who agreed that they would have all the US troops out by May 1st if the Taliban did not attack US troops. No US troops were lost to Taliban attacks from that moment until Trump was out of office.

Trump withdrew all US troops except for 2500, while the Taliban was able to take control of every province in that country. Furthermore, they had no intention of evacuating any Afghan citizens, not even those that helped America during the war. They were just going to leave. There was not enough American troops to resist when the Taliban made their march into Kabul. It took them 11 days to take complete control, as the troops surrendered their arms and uniforms and their President fled the country.

Yes, that happened under Joe Biden's watch but it was Donald Trump that laid out the strategy for that to happen. He and Pompeo surrendered to the Taliban in 2018 and Joe Biden was left with the remains of the day.

[elleng]

1. Yes, they are in campaign attack mode.

NEVER to end.

[Amishman]

2. Honestly Blinken should take some heat over this, the execution was botched

As should those who were at the top of the chain of command in Afghanistan.

Joe had the right idea, and once the wheels came off, did a decent job of the mess on the ground - but overall it was a fiasco.

[msongs]

6. how was it botched. there was one failure but otherwise it went ok nt

[kentuck]

8. What would have been the perfect evacuation?

No Americans and no Afghans would have been killed? The Taliban would have waited until all Americans and their Afghan helpers were out of the country before they took Kabul? Joe Biden and Blinken should have seen that they would take over Kabul in 11 days, even as the experts were saying from 30 days to several months for the Afghan government to fall.

A lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking and the Republicans do not wish to take any blame for the debacle that could have been.

[Amishman]

10. The evac went well, the botch was the assumption that the afghan army was viable

The plan clearly wasn't for the Taliban to take the country, and from what I'm reading there were plenty of warning signs that the Afghan army was unprepared to stand on their own.

The smooth operation of the evac was Joe and company making the best out of the mess created by the State Dept and our senior leaders on the ground.

[kentuck]

11. I think it is fair to say "they made the best out of the mess".

I thought it was going to be a massacre.

[KentuckyWoman]

3. I've shut up more than one.

The deal was signed in Feb 2020. Trump left office 11 months later. Trump should have moved heaven and earth to get everyone out before he left office.

He didn't do that. Why? Why would the smartest, strongest most Jesus loving president America has ever seen leave the most difficult part of the job for someone else that he considers incompetent?

Crickets.

[kentuck]

5. Because he didn't want it to be a campaign issue?

So he had to leave a few Americans behind.

If he had won the election, would he have gotten everyone out by May 1st? And how many Afghans would he have evacuated? How many would he have left to the Taliban?

Biden and Blinken were left with a sh*t sandwich and they handled it as well, or better, than anyone imagined as it happened. Maybe they deserve the blame for not handling it better, but they did not set the table.

I think most Americans understand that Biden and Blinken do not deserve all the blame, which is what the Republicans want the people to believe.

[underpants]

7. Trump's history is that he glorifies deals and never follows up on them.

Look at me. Look at me. I bought this golf course....and then it’s on to the next big deal. There’s no follow up. It’s turned over to his staff and they continue to screw up. All of his bankruptcies and properties banks took over were all the same.

[Doodley]

4. How many inquiries were there into Benghazi? Ten, and it damaged Hilary Clinton's chances.

Republicans will be screaming that it was all Joe Biden's fault until election day. If Democrats don't fight back, Trump could be the next president, for life.

[kentuck]

9. In my opinion, it wasn't a "debacle", but it could have been...

I don't think any of the Taliban outside of the airport were there to help the Americans, although that was the propaganda that was put out to the people. I think the Taliban worked with the suicide bomber to kill all those people at the gate, including the Americans.

I think the American troops were heroic in holding off the Taliban Army, which had them surrounded at the airport. In my opinion, it was close to a miracle that they all got out when they did. It could have been much, much worse, in my opinion.

[JoanofArgh]

12. Not just Republicans. Menendez was going off on him, too this morning. "The withdrawal

was a complete failure". Not quite as bad but still.